HuntingNet.com Forums - I NEED INFO ON OUT WEST HUNTING

hunting is hunting. period. that is why hunters from atlanta can tag out in alaska and vice versa.

watch TV, hunters go to all 50 states and hunt, Bill Jordan hunts from tree stands for deer in montana, I have hunted over waterholes in blinds ( ground stands) and treestands over waterholes and tanksin Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana.

the biggest difference I see in hunting west vs east is there is more game in the west and the whole attitude is more hunter friendly. If you can fill your tags in the east you can sure as hell fill them in the west, there's tons more game!

and I have NEVER in 30 years of hunting out there ever knocked on a door and been told NO when I ask to hunt, some say sure, drop your landowner coupons in the jar on such and such gate, others say sure, but my neighbor has more pronghorn, let's go over and I'll introduce you...never happen back east, would it? damn right no.

harder to learn, not really, it's no different than hunting a new spot back home only difference is instead of a 45 minute ride to the new spot its a 30 hour drive. thank god for maps and google and bowsite.com and etc.

as for different species there is some learning curve but no more so than being a deer hunter back home and then taking up waterfowl, and turkey hunting...you werent BORN a deer, turkey, rabbit, bobcat, bear, or duck hutner were you? hell no, you had to learn it, same for elk, muleys and pronghorn, sheep and goats, and bison too. But with internet, BOOKS, videos, a 1,000 TV shows on about hunting 24/7, and SUPER helpful F&W people out there ( in wyoming 2 years ago i stopped to buy leftover pronghorn tags, not only did they mark my map for me but gave me three landowners names and numbers and directions to these folks looking for hunters to take game on their land---lifesize picture of THAT happening in NY, MA PA SC or VA right? LOL) learning what to do and where to go is a snap!

a saddle is a saddle in west or east, water is water, bedding is bedding and feeding areas are feeding areas. PLUS you get snow that moves game DOWN and into tighter confines in the west, in the east the damn things are either our in daylight or went nocturnal on you and went into the posted land to boot.

Much more opportunity to get tagged out in the west.

How we did it is we started out hunting something we could get easy access and a whack at, for us that was pronghorns and coyotes, people let us in no problem, told us we should go get elk tags, deer tags, or what have you, and where to go and things went on from there.

first year in any new state we buy small game tags and apply to get points for limited areas big game, we hunt small game and learn the country, some areas, get our feet under us there and then pattern some big game while hunting upland birds or small game, knock on some doors, and then the next year we buy the tags or apply for the tags in the areas we learned last year

you know you have been doing it along time and correctly when the locals will stop by the trailer to knock and say, hey you got deer tags? there is a monster in my horse pasture right now. Or there are a pile of elk in the meadow back behind my where my beaver board is.

we shot three elk in Colorado our first year there and the rancher came up with his horses and hauled them out to his own truck for us, let us plug our freezer in his barn and butcher everything right there, parked and camped in his yard that night, wouldn't take a thing, though we left him many new bottles of brown liquid of the type on his shelf, and filled his freezer with steaks and a roast.

Harder than back east? the only hard part is leaving great hunting and even greater people and heading back east.