Questions about hunting in the western states

[trott]

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, I am sure you western big game hunters get tired of the same old questions from people who are naive about what it takes to hunt like you people do. I am from southeast central part of Oklahoma, we have hills but no mountains.
I primarily bow hunt, I do hunt public land often. I am interested in Bow hunting in the western states for both Mule deer and Elk. Could anyone point me in the direction to start, of what state offers the most availability on non resident archer hunting, any help to start my search would be much appreciated. I am at least a year at from this opportunity happening. Thank you very much. Tommy.

 

[Coyotes-R-Us]

Montana river brakes elk.

http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/planahunt/huntingGuides/dea/default.html

 

[SFC B]

Colorado has OTC archery tags in most units....

 

[JohnCushman]

Colorado has either sex archery elk tags for a good portion of the state that are OTC. You can also get an OTC cow archery tag for much less cost and come out to learn a unit for less money, but you still get great meat if you connect. If you want to come to Colorado to do an archery elk, I'd suggest doing a combo hunt for archery antelope if you can get enough time off of work since the archery seasons overlap. Archery antelope tags are also OTC and either sex in September. You're looking at usually a point or two to get into a decent archery mule deer unit.

 

[WildWill]

Hello from a fellow okie. As others have said for elk your best bet is Colorado they have a ton of over the counter units the hard part is choosing one. For mule deer in Colorado you will have to put in for the draw but there are units that can be drawn with 0 points or you could build points for a few years and get into a better unit. Also you should look into New Mexico it's close and has excellent hunting. New Mexico has a random draw odds system and doesn't use a prefrence point or bonus point system so you have the same chance of drawing your hunt as the next guy. Most of the better elk units even for archery hunts can be difficult to draw but archery mule deer tags are fairly easy to draw. If you have any questions feel free to pm me.

 

[SnaggleHornOutdoors]

Colorado definitely has a substantial amount of OTC units however keep your options open for other states. Idaho is a very underrated OTC state. Other states take a little more research than Colorado due to its popularity but the state websites offer a ton of useful information in regards to the draw/OTC process. From my personal experience don't rush the selection process of Game Choice/State/GMU/Location within GMU. Best of luck!

 

[Falcon75]

I am done with CO over counter. Still play points 18 elk and 10 deer and done. Nice that dont have to outlay full price to get points now, but point creep will get worse. I would look at WY. Go general season hunt one species and then the other and then repeat in same unit to learn it. Also I would suggest going for cow first as cost to get education is less. Might want to try antelope as something different. Put in for New Mexico after watching Daddy's YouTube video on applying for each state.

 

[Falcon75]

I would be careful getting into getting into points game. Nothing wrong with having an area that you want to hunt but just realize that it will cost way more and take longer with point creep. I wish I had hunted more in units that only take a few points than getting in position I am with too many points to go on a hunt. I am still holding on that I will get my once in a lifetime unit 61 hunt. I should just move to CO and hunt and then 3-4 pt max units from now on.
Randy's video above. Damn auto correct