Anyone headed on any out-of-state hunting trips?

Beladran said:

how much $$$ are you looking at for that trip?

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Below is a good estimate as far as cost.
Deer tag--$326
Antelope tag--$286
Conservation stamp--$10
Trespass fee--$250(this is the amount we pay to hunt 5000 acres of private property creek bottom)
Hotel--$250
Gas--$400-500
Food--$350-400

The above is a close estimate on a per individual cost. As you can imagine items like food and gas can be hard to predict as far as price goes. As far as the cost to hunt, a trespass fee is what a hunter pays the landowner to hunt on his/her property. While we hunt a lot on public land, we also hunt some private land. Most of the whitetail deer are on private property, due to the fact the creeks all run through private property. Some of the landowners might ask for a much higher price and you might find a few that will allow you to hunt for free. When we put in for deer tags at the first of the year, we always put in for the "region" tag for our first choice and put in for a particular area as our second choice. Simply put if you draw the region tag you get to hunt a much larger area, plus you have the option to take a muley or whitetail with the tag. If you fail to draw the region tag and end up drawing your second choice, the area tag, it will be good only for whitetail and the area that you can hunt is smaller. Just for example an area tag will be about the size of most Mississippi counties. The region tag can be the size of a Mississippi US congressional district.

Antelope are fairly inexpensive to hunt. With Wyoming having the largest antelope herd in the West, antelope can be found in most areas of the state. They will primarily be found on what is called high desert terrain. Most of the land that antelope inhabit will be BLM (Bureau of Land Management), this is land that is open to the public. Actually about 50% of WY is public land; Forest Service, BLM and State owned. If a person is fairly good at reading a map, Wyoming has plenty of areas with good antelope. All you need is a tag and let the fun begin. This is a great hunt for anyone that would like to take their kids on a hunt out West. Antelope can be spotted at all times during the day, therefore the chance of spotting a good buck can come at any time of the day.

msredneck said:

Man I've been trying to scare up some folks to go Prairie dog hunting in Ks...and I've always dreamed about going Elk hunting...or maybe a big mule deer.....something different from the common run of mill whitetail

Can't ever seem to get any takers....

Nice pics bro.....very nice...post more...and welcome to the forum

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Here's a few more pics

Antelope taken in WY in the 90's
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2005
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2006
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2007
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2004
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2009
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Another view of deer and terrain in previous pic. The hill in the background is where the shot was taken from 620 Yds. The deer was bedded down it was 2:30 p.m.
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Deer country
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Sunset in Antelope country
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Rbelote,

I had actually gone through the area we now hunt, several years ago when my wife and I were on vacation. She and I both like to go out West, many times have I taken back road excursions and she never fusses. Sometime we would pull over in a good looking place and get the binoculars or a spotting scope to see what we could spot. I also try to keep up with where good animals come from, I knew the region we currently hunt had potential for good muleys and whitetail. After exploring the area personally I knew I wanted to hunt the area if I could draw the tag. When you find a good area, the best person to call is the game warden for that area. The wardens I have contacted with WY G&F have always been more than helpful. If you explain to them what your looking for,(ie. big mule deer)they can give good insight into your chances of finding what your looking for, where to look public vs. private and landowners in that area that allow hunting. I would dare say that wardens from any state that you contact will be just as helpful. I have also received excellent help from G&F personnel in NM. The state biologist for the area can also be of great assistance. You can also attain landowner list from the chamber of commerce that is closest to the area you want to hunt.

As far as the drawing process is concerned, most of the states out West are on the draw. Some states still have some tags that can be purchased over the counter. Also most of the states have some type of point system, therefore when a hunter puts in for a particular tag and fails to draw he/she will earn a point. The more points you have going into the draw the better the odds of drawing. The prime tags are hard to come by for some species and if you ever hope to draw such tags you had better be earning points. I actually put in for several states each year, hoping to one day draw Bighorn sheep, Elk, Mule Deer and Antelope tags in the limited areas. There are states that have areas in which a hunter can draw a tag each year or at least one tag every 3 years. I will admit it takes a LOT of homework as far as researching hunting areas. The only other states that I have hunted so far is NM once for deer and once for elk and AK to hunt dall sheep.

The trespass fee that I mentioned is confusing to us southern hunters. It is simply what the landowner charges the hunter to hunt on his/her land. The particular piece of private land that we hunt cost $250/person and we generally can stay as long as we want. I have seen where a landowner might for instance charge $300 for 3 days of hunting, it can vary from landowner to landowner and in some instances greatly. Most of these landowners are farmers/ranchers just trying to supplement their income. I also go and knock on doors to inquire about a good looking piece of property.

I see that you are still a young man, if you really want to someday hunt certain game animals out West in the prime areas-- start applying. I wish someone had told me the same years ago. I am now 45 and I started putting in for a couple places when I was 35, now I'm building points in AZ, NV, UT, MT and WY. Hopefully someday I will hit the lottery with a good tag for some of the species that I am applying to hunt. Hope this answers your questions.

Jim

Well I finally took time to update. The trip this year was a little disappointing. The temps in WY were well above average and to make matters worse the private land we normally hunt was covered in hunters. So the only option we had left was to hunt some of our favorite honey holes on public land.

There were three of us hunting this year. Myself, my long-time buddy Mo and my bro-in-law. Considering the weather and the fact that some of our best spots were out of the picture, we all realized success might be difficult to come by this year. So when my bro-in-law and I spotted two mature bucks headed to bed down in the drainage that we were watching we knew this might be our best opportunity.

When the bucks finally stopped they were at 892 yards. I could see one was a 9 pt and the other an 8pt. I told my bro-in-law that he could have the larger buck the 9pt. While we were dialing in the necessary MOA's on the scopes the bucks decided to bed down. We then decided to move further down the ridge to see if we could get a clear view of the bucks. Long story short, about 3 hours later the largest of the two decided to get up and I told my bro-in-law to go ahead and drop him and I would try to drop the other when he hit his feet. Little did I realize that he intended to fire a warning shot. haha. Actually he was still in the process of getting the gun level when he accidently bumped the boom switch. There was a 20 ft bank behind the bucks and when the bullet hit it the bucks exploded in our direction. I ended up dropping mine at approximately 450 yards and he connected with his at 300.

Below are pics of the drainage and my buck. The first pic is where we shot from and the last pic is a view from the deer with the ridge that we shot from in the background. Unfortunately I didn't get pics of the other deer since we were in a hurry due the the hot weather to get the deer quartered up and packed out.
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