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WY Elk Points

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New here so I figured I would start out with a questions.

I currently have 4 points. I have only bought points up until this point I haven't tried to draw a tag.

I still don't know when I will try to draw a tag with 3 young kids. Do you keep your points if you don't buy new ones every year? If you do keep them how many points should I purchase and be good with?

Thanks.
 
I Believe you lose your points when you don't purchase points for 2 consecutive years. If I were you I would put in now. Send the wife on a vacation while you stay home with the kids and then go hunting.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.
 
I Believe you lose your points when you don't purchase points for 2 consecutive years. If I were you I would put in now. Send the wife on a vacation while you stay home with the kids and then go hunting.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the welcome. I will keep buying points for the next few years. My oldest is 10 and I have about 4-5 years before high school football takes up my falls.

I have 6 points for New Hampshire moose which I will do first!
 
Drawing a premium area may get more and more difficult the way it is going. I would buy the points and keep watching draw odds for the units that you are interested in. If you want the best, it will take awhile anyway, so just keeping stacking them up.

If you want a premium hunt, I would say that you need six or seven points at least. I hunt cows in a couple areas that take at least 7 to draw a bull hunt, but you have a chance at a great bull if you get drawn and can dodge the grizzlies!.
 
Just a thought, but keep putting in and take your oldest on a trip before highschool. Thats what I'm doing in a few years with pronhorn. They will have to be 12 by September I think. The preference points are divided between you.

Jealous of the NH moose. Where were you thinking of going. We have camped around Gorham. Would love to do a moose hunt.
 
Just a thought, but keep putting in and take your oldest on a trip before highschool. Thats what I'm doing in a few years with pronhorn. They will have to be 12 by September I think. The preference points are divided between you.

Jealous of the NH moose. Where were you thinking of going. We have camped around Gorham. Would love to do a moose hunt.

That would be a good idea but I have a 8 year old boy that is tore up with hunting as much if not more than his brother.

As far as I can remember he has wanted to kill and elk. I hope I can keep myself in good enough shape to do a trip with both when they are old enough. We are lucky that Iowa has liberal deer season and a great youth hunt. Both boys have killed deer already and we have started to gear up for this fall.

I am not sure where in NH I am going to go yet. You can go online and see the kill rates and such on all the zones, I will probably pick a harder draw area. I may actually put in next year. They are on a bonus point system so I am not guaranteed but from looking at the results you don't see many people over 8 points.
 
WY non-resident points have creep so if you skip even 1 year you might not just add 1 year to when you have points to draw a unit but certainly will add 2 years and maybe even more. If you plan to hunt a unit that only takes a couple of points now then no big deal unless...Wyoming whacks the portion of tags allocated to non-residents. That topic has come up as have flipping the allocation between lower price regular and higher price special tags.

Almost every year, one of the Western states changes up the game on non-resident big game hunters. Maybe you now have to buy a hunting license to apply or they cut allocation to non-residents or you can no longer draw a cow elk tag, etc etc.

If you can afford $1500 or so in fees/licenses then continue to build points not only in WY but in AZ, CO, etc. In a blink of the eye you will be empty nesters and most likely with more money and more vacation days yet less health so at that moment will benefit by already having a pile of points in lots of states in order to draw some nice tags.

I am building points for javelina in AZ. Have not heard a lot of good things about eating them. I usually only hunt what I will eat. That said, I have never hunted one. Some day I might want to, though, and since I apply in AZ for other critters then the cost to build javelina points is not much more. I have been fortunate to harvest several different species of big game so maybe a javelina will become a pressing goal. If not, am out some cash.
 
I would agree to keep building points and also to get some other states in as well. I have just started doing so the last few years. Will this be your first elk hunt whenever you do apply? I have found there is a learning curve, and am glad that I have hunted CO with OTC tags to learn about the animals and this type of hunting. The knowledge will sure come in handy when I finally draw somewhere that I am building points in. Main point is, GO, as soon and as often as you can and still stay HAPPILY married. Include the wife and kids somehow on half of them and you will have many memories to look back on. Also buy the kids points as soon as each state will let you, I wish I had sooner.
 
Buy points for yourself AND THE BOYS. Once they get old enough (not too far away) take them on a cow elk hunt. Check out Randy's article on hunting for less than $1000 - back issues of Bugle on the RMEF website.
 
Thanks for the insight guys.

I think I can buy the boys points once they hit 12. I have OTC elk hunts in CO twice. I missed a cow the first year. We were successful as a group killing at least one both times but we hunted them more like whitetails. I feel we could have done better to pack in father.

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to elk. I would prefer to do a archery hunt during the rut. I don't care about size of bull I just want to kill a bull.
 
Buy a leftover cow tag and take those kids hunting now, even if they are too young to carry a gun. It keeps their interest up to be involved in some aspect of the hunt, and leaves an imprint that lasts a lifetime.
 

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