Flatland Crusoe
Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2014
- Messages
- 570
So going into the 2017 Wyoming season I have 4 Elk PP's and plan to apply for a Nonresident special tag.
I've gone to Wyoming twice successfully for antelope in 2014 and 2015, have hunted Western Nebraska deer DIY public land in 2015 and 2016 successfully and did a Southern Colorado muzzleloader elk hunt in 2016 unsuccessfully. I'm definitely familiar at this point with the logistics of these types of hunts, but I'd like to put myself in a better situation for elk success than I saw in Colorado.
My 2016 Colorado hunt was good learning experience, I got to 143 yards on a herd of elk which was a bit far for me and a muzzleloader and I was 5 miles in solo into the wilderness at that point so it was probably a good thing I wasn't successful. I was generally frustrated in southern Colorado that I felt I was over extended as a solo backpack hunter to hunt pressured elk 5-7 miles from the trailheads and that the unit I was hunting was heavily timbered with little bugling.
In a 2017 elk hunt I would like
1. Reasonable pressure aka limited entry
2. better visibility and broken terrain where the elk live rather than heavy timber with unbroken sage flats in the valley.
3. A smart use of 4 PP's
4. Mountainous terrain or at least foothills, I'm not really interested in an open sage country type of hunt
5. Rifle hunt
6. Numbers of branch antlered bulls rather than trophy potential
I have 4 PP's in Wyoming and will be applying in AZ with 1 Bonus point and sub 10% draw chance at a late rifle hunt and will apply in NM again with similar odds.
So after looking at Wyoming GoHunt I've narrowed it down to 5 units that I could have had a 50% chance or better at drawing in 2016 with similar points. I don't actually thing these odds will do anything besides get worse, but its the best info we have.
1. 51-2
2. 91-1
3. 38,39,40 I'll treat these as one unit because they seem pretty similar
51-2 seems to be a decent option, but its a small quota (2 NR special) so the points to draw it aren't really predictable. Its has some wilderness, but is mostly accessible to a NR without a guide. I've backpacked in NE Yellowstone, so I have a good idea of what the terrain is similar too and realize there are Grizzly's/wolves in the area. 2016 was the first year for this split unit and there aren't published harvest reports so its somewhat of a wildcard. Days per harvest was 17.4 in 2015 before the unit was split.
91-1 is basically the best unit 4 PP's and a special tag had a good chance at last year and its wilderness free with a road system that means that you are never more than 3 or 4 miles away on a packout which is more or less my self imposed limit on a solo elk packout (I may have help this year.) Its right on the edge of grizzly/wolf terrritory. Days/harvest was 9.1 in 2015 which is very good. This unit has me worried as last year it was only 61% draw with 4 PP's and could have been drawn in 2015 with 2 PP's so the points to draw are sky rocketing, or were at least normalizing with the typical general special offset. According to go there are 17% more cumulative points going into the 2017 draw vs 2016 so mathematically it doesn't look good for this unit unless some correction is in order. I like the full October season dates on this unit.
38/39/40- My understanding is that these units are fairly variable with regard to the effects and accessibility due to weather and later season dates. To date I've avoided burning points on these hunts because they were very much within reach and they never got me excited with limited research. I'm not married to any of those ideas, but I definitely would like input on this unit
I've gone to Wyoming twice successfully for antelope in 2014 and 2015, have hunted Western Nebraska deer DIY public land in 2015 and 2016 successfully and did a Southern Colorado muzzleloader elk hunt in 2016 unsuccessfully. I'm definitely familiar at this point with the logistics of these types of hunts, but I'd like to put myself in a better situation for elk success than I saw in Colorado.
My 2016 Colorado hunt was good learning experience, I got to 143 yards on a herd of elk which was a bit far for me and a muzzleloader and I was 5 miles in solo into the wilderness at that point so it was probably a good thing I wasn't successful. I was generally frustrated in southern Colorado that I felt I was over extended as a solo backpack hunter to hunt pressured elk 5-7 miles from the trailheads and that the unit I was hunting was heavily timbered with little bugling.
In a 2017 elk hunt I would like
1. Reasonable pressure aka limited entry
2. better visibility and broken terrain where the elk live rather than heavy timber with unbroken sage flats in the valley.
3. A smart use of 4 PP's
4. Mountainous terrain or at least foothills, I'm not really interested in an open sage country type of hunt
5. Rifle hunt
6. Numbers of branch antlered bulls rather than trophy potential
I have 4 PP's in Wyoming and will be applying in AZ with 1 Bonus point and sub 10% draw chance at a late rifle hunt and will apply in NM again with similar odds.
So after looking at Wyoming GoHunt I've narrowed it down to 5 units that I could have had a 50% chance or better at drawing in 2016 with similar points. I don't actually thing these odds will do anything besides get worse, but its the best info we have.
1. 51-2
2. 91-1
3. 38,39,40 I'll treat these as one unit because they seem pretty similar
51-2 seems to be a decent option, but its a small quota (2 NR special) so the points to draw it aren't really predictable. Its has some wilderness, but is mostly accessible to a NR without a guide. I've backpacked in NE Yellowstone, so I have a good idea of what the terrain is similar too and realize there are Grizzly's/wolves in the area. 2016 was the first year for this split unit and there aren't published harvest reports so its somewhat of a wildcard. Days per harvest was 17.4 in 2015 before the unit was split.
91-1 is basically the best unit 4 PP's and a special tag had a good chance at last year and its wilderness free with a road system that means that you are never more than 3 or 4 miles away on a packout which is more or less my self imposed limit on a solo elk packout (I may have help this year.) Its right on the edge of grizzly/wolf terrritory. Days/harvest was 9.1 in 2015 which is very good. This unit has me worried as last year it was only 61% draw with 4 PP's and could have been drawn in 2015 with 2 PP's so the points to draw are sky rocketing, or were at least normalizing with the typical general special offset. According to go there are 17% more cumulative points going into the 2017 draw vs 2016 so mathematically it doesn't look good for this unit unless some correction is in order. I like the full October season dates on this unit.
38/39/40- My understanding is that these units are fairly variable with regard to the effects and accessibility due to weather and later season dates. To date I've avoided burning points on these hunts because they were very much within reach and they never got me excited with limited research. I'm not married to any of those ideas, but I definitely would like input on this unit
