Wyoming Non-Resident Options - Question

[CiK]

I am exhausted. All I want to do is hunt elk. Being from Indiana, to prepare for it feels like 30 all night study sessions in row preparing for an exam. I love it!

Wyoming has about 12,000 non-resident hunters each year. I plan on being one of them next year. Short of begging a Wyoming resident to take me hunting next year.......I have 2 General Unit locations picked out. 1 is wilderness free and the other is 50% wilderness.

I was just wondering if there is data out there that highlights the % of non-resident hunters who hire a guide in a particular unit? There are plenty of units that are swallowed up in wilderness (60, 70 and 71) and I am sure 100% of the non-resident hunters have a guide. But there are plenty of units that have a mix of wilderness and non-wilderness. I have to believe a % of those non-residents in those units are skirting the wilderness area alone instead of going into the wilderness area with a guide. Is that information available?

To help me get more sleep at night, I believe that piece of data is the last piece I need before the deadline. Thanks to everybody in advance for helping me cure my insomnia.

Tony

 

[nettereo16]

The General Tag is not limited to a specific General Unit. Therefore, apply for the General tag before the deadline and then if you're successful then you can stress about which General Unit(s) to hunt!!

No need to put the cart before the horse on this one...

 

[Dougfirtree]

Are you sure you can draw the general next year?

 

[CiK]

The General Tag is not limited to a specific General Unit. Therefore, apply for the General tag before the deadline and then if you're successful then you can stress about which General Unit(s) to hunt!!

No need to put the cart before the horse on this one...

I did not know that. I thought you had to pick the unit and then go hunt that unit.

Are you sure you can draw the general next year?

Yes I am sure. 3 points.

 

[Deleted member 18333]

Tony,

I am not aware of that information existing on a specific unit basis. About 3200 elk hunters go guided each year, all but a handful are NR's. You are correct that some NR's will hunt the wilderness boundary. Some will also venture into the Wilderness to hunt assuming they will not encounter a warden. However, unless you have specific intel on a wilderness area or you are just dead set on hunting in the wilderness I would not shy away from the non wilderness gen areas in Wyo. The hunting can be fantastic, over-crowding exists in some units but in most you will see few other hunters. I am a resident and I hunt more non wilderness areas than I do wilderness. A great deal of the Gen areas in western wyo will offer the same experience of the wilderness areas without the wilderness restriction. Good luck whichever way you go.

 

[CiK]

unless you have specific intel on a wilderness area or you are just dead set on hunting in the wilderness I would not shy away from the non wilderness gen areas in Wyo.

Appreciate your response and assurance. I am not dead set on hunting wilderness. I do like being away from the crowd though. In Wyoming, there appears to be a few ways to do that:

1) Hunt wilderness
2) Hunt just outside wilderness areas in wilderness units
3) Go further and/or go higher (non-wilderness units)
4) Hunt sparse public land that make you work for access (ie: <30% public land)
5) Hunt on private property

1 & 5 aren't in my budget. I would like to try #4, but there are so many variables to that strategy it is risky at best for an easterner like me. I know Big Fin likes that strategy and I understand why. If I don't have to identify a unit when I apply for a general tag, it will allow more time to research.....and stay up late.

To that point, it would help tremendously if I could find data that suggests where the non-resident hunters are harvesting their elk in those kind of units.....its either they are paying for private property access or working hard to figure out access to the 30% public land and making it happen. There are several units I have found that suggest a lot of elk in the unit but little public land. Is everybody congregating on the little public or are they harvesting them on public and private. Oh man, my head hurts.

 

[805Bowhunter]

I am not aware of that type of data and dont know that it would exist as its a hard number to track from a tag issuance/reporting stance.

As far as hunting wilderness, dont necessarily give up on a "guided" hunt yet. Are you aware of that your hunt can be guided by a Wyoming "resident" guide? My first elk hunt in Wyoming was done this way. It was a friend of a friend of a friend x10 that put me in touch with their uncle who was a Wyoming resident and had gone through the process. Its very easy for a resident to get, they just have to go through the process and they cannot charge you any fee. If you have any friends or family or friends of friends etc, it might be worth looking into. I have had a lot of friends who have utilized Wyoming residents who were stoked to help out on a hunt. Might be something worth looking into. A good bottle of whiskey and an open invitation to return the favor your home state go a long way! Best of luck!

 

[POk3s]

I did not know that. I thought you had to pick the unit and then go hunt that unit.


30 night of research and you hadn't noticed that part yet!? Just giving you a hard time. I will just add this, over crowding still exists on a wilderness area. Everybody is there for the same reason, to escape the crowds, and so it's possible to have a mountain full of guys who thought they would be alone.

In an area I deer hunt, the outfitter has his camp set up about 3 miles on, as the crow flies and probably 3,000 feet of elevation up. Just when you've had enough and think you're there, you crest the rise to see 12 wall tents.

Just food for thought to add to your list of research

 

[805Bowhunter]

I did not know that. I thought you had to pick the unit and then go hunt that unit.


30 night of research and you hadn't noticed that part yet!? Just giving you a hard time. I will just add this, over crowding still exists on a wilderness area. Everybody is there for the same reason, to escape the crowds, and so it's possible to have a mountain full of guys who thought they would be alone.

In an area I deer hunt, the outfitter has his camp set up about 3 miles on, as the crow flies and probably 3,000 feet of elevation up. Just when you've had enough and think you're there, you crest the rise to see 12 wall tents.

Just food for thought to add to your list of research

haha..so true. My first wyoming "wilderness" hunt was exactly that. I thought I had busted my ass to get to the Dalai Lama of hunting areas. Get to exactly where we were planning on going (was close to 5 miles in/no horses) and found four wall tents and tons of hunters. I was devastated. We ended up back tracking and hunting in that 1.5-2.5 mile range from the car and had a successful cow harvest (what my tag was for). I was baffled though by how many had the same idea that I did. Just listened to a podcast by Jay Scott where he talked about the benefit of the health/backcountry craze as its actually filling the "backcountry" up with more hunters and therefore making a lot of the "in-between" country great for hunting opportunity.

 

[CiK]

30 night of research and you hadn't noticed that part yet!? Just giving you a hard time.

No excuse for that oversight. Need more coffee.

haha..so true. My first wyoming "wilderness" hunt was exactly that. I thought I had busted my ass to get to the Dalai Lama of hunting areas. Get to exactly where we were planning on going (was close to 5 miles in/no horses) and found four wall tents and tons of hunters. I was devastated. We ended up back tracking and hunting in that 1.5-2.5 mile range from the car and had a successful cow harvest (what my tag was for). I was baffled though by how many had the same idea that I did. Just listened to a podcast by Jay Scott where he talked about the benefit of the health/backcountry craze as its actually filling the "backcountry" up with more hunters and therefore making a lot of the "in-between" country great for hunting opportunity.

I have been hearing about the same thing. I have only hunted for elk once, and we experienced just that. We were passing up elk to go 5 miles in. Looking back, that isn't happening again. haha!

 

[Dougfirtree]

I think GoHunt, or one of those companies that compiles data for hunters, gives you the ability to see where residents vs. non-residents are applying for tags (though I might be making that up; I think I heard Randy say that). That could be somewhat helpful for your research if you're willing to pay for the info...