Do It Yourself Hunt Ideas?
 

Im a Florida native been huntin all my life. Im a pretty accomplished woodsman and a group of buddies and I wanna plan a do it yourself hunt somewhere for a species weve never hunted before, any ideas, tips or info would be great. We all hunt bow, smokepole or modern rifle so any are options. Any suggestions?

You dont tell us what you have already hunted, and certainly an idea of what interests you would help. How far do you want to travel, etc.

I wanted to leave all suggestions open, and not be longwinded, but yall asked for it.....
Ive spent my whole life in florida hunting hogs in any manner you can imagine and some you probly cant, whitetail with bow smokepole and rifle and turkeys with shotgun and bow. Any big game species that would present a challenge and wouldnt take 20 years to get drawn for would do and im unmarried have no children and make pretty good money so travelin anywhere in the lower 48 is an option. That help yall?

New Mexico Elk ?

I like the idea of New Mexico because im also a predator hunter. How are the drawing odds?

How about a northeast Wyoming antelope hunt? If interested e-mail me at [email protected]., or look at our ad in the outfitters section.( we are not outfitters) we show hunters how to get around the over priced outfitters and DIY.

be careful
 

Hey buddy: NE Wyoming is a fantastic place to hunt. I know I outfit there. However there are very limited areas to do any public land hunts. Also if this guy takes money to help you or you give him money to help you it is illegal. The fact that he is advertizing here especially if he is charging anything makes him a criminal. Now the legality out of the way.
Even though I am an outfitter I am still a pretty decent guy. I will agree that Wyoming antelope is probably the best choice to start your western hunting resume'. If you do your research you can find some very good public land hunting here for lopes. However the tags on good public hunts can get quite difficult to come by. So apply for good tags and hope for the best. The next best way is to call ahead to your chosen place and get listings from the Game and Fish and or the local Chambers of Commerce. They should both have lists of landowners who are willing to let you hunt for an access fee hunt. That however can be good or bad depending on how many folks the landowner lets in to hunt. So check on that too. There are also some very good outfitters out there that you can take a trip with. You can learn a lot from a very good outfitter and then you can come back on a DIY. Or you will find that the right outfitter is really worth their fees. There have been studies showing the economy of an outfitter is much better than going DIY when it comes to western hunting. If a trophy is what you are looking for then a good outfitter is the way to go. If you are OK with traditionally low trophy quality but usually a lot of fun and a challenging hunt, then DIY can be a blast. If you decide to go DIY then best of luck to you. If you decide to go with an outfitter then for your sake CHECK AS MANY REFERENCES AS YOU CAN. No matter who you go with.

I appreciate it turkeyward, ive been researching for 6 months or so and antelope is what I have settled on, I just wanted to see what everyone had to say. You guys live out there so im sure you know better than anyone. I was debating on Nebraska or Wyoming.

diy lopes
 

Hey Podunk:
Just to tell you what I do. I try for the good public land tags. I never draw them but if I do I go hunting DIY. See I cannot afford an outfitter either. I know that is strange because I am one. But I cannot even afford to hunt the properties I have leased. Not to mention I would rather save them for my clients and I also have lots of big bucks on the wall already. What I do is get surface area land management maps from the BLM office in Cheyenne. I find the public ground in an area I hear has good bucks. Then I check for the season openings and then corollate the season openers with public land. Lopes are always out and about in the daytime so you hunt them all day. You just need good optics and patience. Once you find them, then you need to have good stalking skills. You are doing the right thing by getting into chat rooms and forums of hunting sites to get your info. I realize you are looking to go DIY so I am not going to try to sell you a hunt. However my site really has a lot of hunting information on it and there are also some pictures of antelope on there to give you a bit of help in judging lopes.
http://www.antelopeoutfitters.com/
You can email me through the hot link at the bottom of each page.
If you have any questions after checking out my site, just send an email.
Best of luck to you podunk

Affordability isnt the option, the experience is what im after. To go to a state ive never been to and kill a legal animal of a species ive never seen in my opinion is the ultimate test of my hunting skills. Im gonna start with antelopes because i have some similar experience with hunting hogs on sod farms in south florida, while antelope have far better eyesight I have a grasp of the concept. I consider myself an outdoorsman not just a hunter.

New Mexico Elk odds range from bad to decent I'd think, you'd have to look into an area/season etc...

if you get yourself an outfitter, they have their own drawing, and much better odds typically.

Put in as a party, so all of you draw or none of you..., less you wanna tag along and your buddy does as well if only 1 of you draw. I'm not sure, but if 2 or 3 of your choices are drawn before they goto the next applicant, then I'd put in for a great unit, followed by a lesser quality/higher draw odds unit...

Hey Podunk,

I live in Oklahoma and I go on a DIY hunt every year in Wyoming for antelope. If you have done any research at all you would already know Wy. is the place to go for goats. The amount of public land Wy has is retarded! The draw odds for non residents are excellent also. I use Eastman's hunting journal for alot of my research. The magazine breaks down different units and also the draw odds that pertain to the units. It is an excellent tool to get started in my opinion.

Since the OP specifically asked about "do it yourself" I can't figure out why he'd want a guide.

I'd suggest a DIY antelope in WY. Its easy to get a license and not hard to find good public land hunting. With any luck you could also hunt coyotes and shoot a few pds at the same time.

If you need any help let me know. I live in NE Wyoming and although I do not usually hunt antelope I know the areas around here. There are so many antelope out here you really can be picky. There is starting to get some pretty good ones out here again as far as size goes. There are two areas north of HWy450 that have better odds for drawing. I believe they are 23 and 24. There are national grasslands public lands in those areas. Area 27 is also full of public land but that area is very hard to draw. Get the USGS thunder basin national grasslands map so you can study the public lands in those areas and then decide on which one you would like to try to hunt.

Oh and I have also hunted North West Nebraska for antelope with archery tags that are over the counter. The Ogllala national grasslands hold quite a few of them and there are water holes to set up on as well. Those antelope are very skittish but we managed to get close and get a shot at them. If you don't draw Wyoming that is always an option.

Thats the only reason I was considering nebraska is the over the counter tags, I was worried the locals would know of all the water holes and theyd all be hunted though.

I believe we only ran into two hunters over the labor day weekend when we were hunting. There are a ton of pastures spread out over miles of land. The key was to find the ones that the antelope were in and hunt them. I don't think there are all that many hunters down there. Of course you never know when everyone plans their hunts so there is a possibility.

Wyoming pronghorn antelope. Units 23 and 24 typically have a 100% draw rate for non-residents. You can hunt on public land or pay modest trespass fees to hunt on ranches. The success rate for pronghorn antelope is about 95%. The hunt is not physically challenging. You can put up in a hotel. If you are looking for trophy pronghorn, the game changes. The better areas are known and it is difficult to drawin those areas. The land where the trophys are located, unless by chance they are on public land, are leased by outfitters who will charge you some substantial money to hunt with them -- maybe not totally outrageous, say $2,000 per hunter, but more expensive than DIY in units 23 and 24.