Bowhunts out-of-state can be expensive,yet they doen’t have to be. This post from the Realtree website will lay out four specific bowhunts and I’ll do my best to support your decision with 40 years of DIY experience. Here are five tips to make any unguided hunt easier and more successful:
Go as a Group
Solo bowhunts are fun for experienced hunters who know an area well, but an invitation to disaster for the first-time sportsman. Should you kill a deer or elk two miles into the back country, can you pack it out? Keep from getting lost? Carry enough food and water to thrive in the back country? All of these challenges are more easily overcome with help and you will quickly learn the importance of friendly support.
Plan Ahead
Some of the best big game bowhunts in the West are on public land, but you must have a coveted license to hunt them. Plan that special hunt at least two years ahead and three-to-five allows you time to create preference points that can put you squarely in the midst of trophy animals. Postponing that great adventure will seem difficult at first, yet time will pass and you can save your money along the way.
Learn to Camp
Once you have a license, hunting Western game during archery season becomes a glorified camping trip. In Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and other states, you can drive into deer or elk country, park your rig and go hunting. My last trip to Wyoming, a friend and I planned to sleep in our rental car the first night. As we assembled our gear in the dark the next morning, a bull bugled 200 yards away.
Bivouac is Best
Expand your camping skills to overnight jaunts in the mountains or distant lands. East and West, the best hunting is usually well away from easy access. My younger elk hunting buddies regularly leave base camp with three days of food and water and sleep with the deer or elk. It’s an amazingly successful strategy and will make you feel like an 18th Century mountain man.
These four hunts are a good place to start:
