What keeps you from taking an out of state hunting trip? Is it the overall cost? The issue of understanding the regulations and how license work? Or is it like anything else: no time to plan and research? Would you see the benefit of paying someone to “plan” your trip? Like a consultant of sorts? It wouldn’t be like other services where folks go and scout an area and report back to you what they are seeing- and the price would reflect that. It would be a detailed plan that laid out regulations, dates, and areas that had been e-scouted based off the species and what type of hunt you are wanting (backpack, base camp, hotel, etc...). The consult would involve you answering some questions to get a feel of what you are wanting. The service would be as simple as “here are the regs and a few areas I e-scouted after talking with biologist in the area” all the way to helping with planning how to get out and back. The service would be in the hundreds, nowhere near the thousands and geared towards OTC DIY hunts that anyone could go do. It could be for as many people per trip as you wanted. Could split the cost amongst your buddies. I envision it being where a OTC DIY elk hunt plan would cost 4 folks $100-$125 a piece. I try to read through the forums daily, so if you are interested, send me a message here or email me at [email protected] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Money is the #1 and only factor. I'm a hunter education instructor in TN. Many state now require a bowhunting course to BH. Do your homework and check with the regulations. These can be found online. If you call for clarification, get the name of the person you talk with. That way, if you are confronted by an officer, you can have some recourse in your favor. FWIW, I do this anytime I talk with someone when I need information. Good luck and safe hunting.
I pay for go hunt and the huntin fool. They have been very helpful in out of state hunt planning. Personally I think go hunt is a better service but have found value in talking in person to some hunt planners at the huntin fool. Going forward though, I think I am going to just stick with go hunt.. I am paying for a lot of redundancy having both services. E-scouting only gets you so far.. both of these services have some awesome resources from people that have actually hunted the specific areas for the specific game. I think total investment I have with both services is $250 per year. I am already planned out multiple years for hunts and can keep track of any updates or changes through simple website checks, emails or phone calls.
I also subscribe to Huntin Fool and used to take EBJ. The problem with those is when they publish a hot spot, it becomes overcrowded. Learn to use Excel, set up a spreadsheet and research states websites. It will state to make sense pretty quick. A 10 day elk hunt out west usually costs around $1500 or less for me, but I’ve accumulated all the needed gear over the years. The cost would drop if I could find a dependable partner to split gas with.
I'm planning a southern Colorado muley hunt next year. Do any of yall know a good forum or site that has some insight?
You can do an immense amount of research on go hunt.. whats nice about that is when you click and individual unit you can type a comment and a go hunt employee will respond with the answer. I have seen where they will even reach out to the different agencies to make sure they are correct. A lot of times other members that have hunted that unit will chime in with info as well. As far as a forum type setting huntin fool has a nice set up for that. On top of those paid resources I use elk101 and rokslide a lot. I do agree with jtstephens61 on some of these resources blowing up a hot spot but I have found with go hunts new research tools you can filter out a lot of the potential areas with more pressure than you want. Lets put it this way, I have spent countless hours.. probably days researching different out of state hunts.. never have a I found a more comprehensive source of information than I have on go hunt. If only I would have realized the benefits of go hunt a while back... I could be well on my way to even more out of state hunts.
