I'm looking to connect with anyone familiar with the tag system in Nevada. I'm living in SoCal and this is one of the closest states to me that I see the possibility of being able to hunt. My preferred game would be muleys first elk second. The tag system is really confusing to me and honestly, I'm just looking for clarification on how hard it is to even get the chance to go hunt. I'm originally from South Carolina where you can just buy over the counter tags. I'm trying to find hope in being able to still hunt with living out here in Cali, I figured I'd have to just go on guided trips but some of the members here helped me push to find more information in my surrounding states. I'll be working as a firefighter so I'll have a decent schedule, trying to weigh my odds and get some insight really. Thanks.
Draw odds for NR in Nevada are horrible. I have friends that draw tags and hunt someplace in CA every as residents, that's best bet.
That's what I was trying to tell you, brother. Bad as Commifornia is; it's not hard to draw a bow tag. Utah and Nevada are rough for NRs. I don't know about OR but that's a far drive for you. You might want to check out AZ though- OTC for Cous deer for sure. Not so sure for mulies but I think so. Check out TPH, HUSH, etc and all those dudes OTC hunt for Arizona Cous deer.
Yeah, I hear you, I just think the muleys in Cali are more up North but I'm doing more research on it. I'm just trying to understand these states and their tag systems as its all new to me and reading it just blows my mind. That's why I was looking into the neighbor states and thought I'd ask cause I have no clue. What is HUSH and TPH ? Hope I don't sound snobby but the cous deer species just really don't get me fired up for some reason. Muleys/whitetails is what gets me fired up with elk being a later goal.
HUSH and The Public Hunter are free internet streamed hunting shows. Both feature crews that do a ton of public land hunting (almost exclusively); some are in draw states and some OTC. TPH is mostly midwestern/prairie states for whitetail and some mulie (and turkeys) while HUSH is mostly western states for elk and mulies. Both shows go to AZ for cous deer and it looks like an absolute blast- desert hills in January when it's not so hot and most every other state is closed for the season. I am pretty sure that tag is also for good for mulies but I could be wrong. For elk; about your only shot at an OTC is Idaho or Colorado. Wyoming and Montana are not too hard to draw but you have to pay attention as both state's entry deadlines are pretty early in the year. I saw a couple weeks back that Idaho is sold out already for the year.
Oh man, I'm super excited about this, never heard of it before. I did some more research and found out it is easy to draw bow tags out here in cali and apparently there are mule deer in all zones you just have to work really hard for it and pack in and camp using the spot and stalk method. So these shows will be great for me in learning the gear they use to pack in and how they are successful. Luckily I have some family up in Idaho so that might be a future option. It's so ingrained in me to think that I need to be somewhere for a significant amount of time and do all the scouting so these DIY trips have to be tough without having the scouting knowledge. Thanks, you are the man.
no problem good luck and stay safe. IIRC @Scott/IL has made some AZ cous deer trips- check out his historical threads on it.
I wouldn't say that NR draw odds are horrible, but this last year, I wanna say NV had 24,000 tags to give out and over a million put in for them. I don't know much about the NR results because I'm an NV resident. Area 10 (101-109) is not my favorite hunting area, but anytime I've put it on my application, I've gotten that tag.
As I said, that's always been a guaranteed tag for me, but I'm never successful there, so I don't put it down.
