EP 56: Applying in Arizona and Wyoming. In this episode of the Epic Outdoors Podcast our hosts, Jason Carter, and, Adam Bronson, talk about the January issue of Epic Outdoors magazine. This issue covers applying in Arizona and Wyoming. We talk about each of these states and share some of the unique opportunities that each state has to offer. Good luck in the draws!
Disclaimer: this podcast has been transcribed from the original audio and likely contains errors. This transcription does not reflect the views and opinions of Epic Outdoors LLC. Please consult the original audio with any concerns.
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They give a non-resident quota and up to half of our quota can go to people at the most points. And then the other half’s available in the random drop
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Trophy. Quality can be off the chart. Like last year I had a great antler growth year for Elk,
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Anything to do with Western Big Game.
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Welcome
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To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.
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Hey everybody, Jason Carter and Adam Bronson here with the Epic Outdoors Podcast coming at you again. I don’t know what number we at Chris. Like 55. 55, let’s call it 58. How about that? Sounds a little better. So anyway, thanks. We’ve been working hard on some of these magazines. We’ve actually been cranking on the February issue and so anyway, we’re a little rummy today. But we do wanna talk to you about a few things before we get started. We wanna thank Under Armour for all the support they’ve given us here at Epic Outdoors. We’ve done a lot of different projects with them, worked with them for years and years with the Ridge Reaper TV show, you know, and other things that we’ve got going. They sponsor our podcasts, they sponsor our YouTube, they do run run ads in the magazine and as well as some other projects we’ve got going.
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So super appreciative of them and the staff they got going, the support they give the hunting industry. So before we get started, we do want to let everybody know that we’re going to the Hunt Expo. We just finished going out to the Wild Sheep Foundation Convention. It was awesome. Got to meet a lot of our members and subscribers and hardcore hunters and hardcore outfitters and it was just awesome to catch up with everybody. We are going to shot show in the morning, crank that out, and then be there for a couple of days, have some meetings with some of the different advertisers and guys within the industry and probably see a few of you there. So anyway, and with that we also are gonna be at the Hunt Expo.
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That’s right, February 8th through the 11th Western Hunting Conservation Expo. And in conjunction to that, with that, the Full Curl Society meets on, I believe it’s Saturday the 10th. Yeah, Saturday they’ll be giving away 10 fully paid for sheep punts, three stone sheep, five doll sheep, a desert sheep, a Rocky Mountain bake horn. They have a few stipulations for for them. Some you have to be present to win. Some you don’t. Some you kind of never killed the doll sheep or a stone sheep, no. Some you can. So go [email protected]. You can buy your tickets there. We’ll be there at the event. It’s again during the Western Hunting Conservation Expo. February 10th, they draw the hunts right there in front of everybody. It’s really awesome to see 10 people yell and scream. They’re normally in, in attendance there. Like I said, there’s a couple of ’em. You don’t have to be present to win. So if you can’t, you can still go online and buy online and buy tickets there. Make sure you apply for the ones that you’re eligible for but will be there. Great event, fun time, see people, you know. Oh yeah,
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Hardcore guys are in there. They, we go in there. It’s a pretty good sized room. It’s within the expo and the, the key thing that Adam’s talking about is you don’t have to do, there’s no stipulation as far as funding any of those hunts. Those are fully paid for. You’re not having to come up with five grand or 75 or any of those other figures that you do at times when you win some of these sheep hunts. So anyway, a great opportunity. Lot of fun People are hollering and hooting and going crazy, especially the guys that wins. So anyway, definitely get onto the, let’s plan on going to that full Curl Society. It’s an awesome, awesome event for everybody there. And you’re gonna be going to the expo anyway ’cause I don’t know anybody that doesn’t go to the expo. Alright, so today let’s get started.
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We want to kind of go through the January issue, the Epic outdoors here, here at Epic Outdoors. We do do a monthly publication January through June and then it’s bimonthly in the fall ’cause there’s pretty much nothing to talk about. But anyway, it is research based and we go through all the Western states and give you drawing on skill percentage best units and kind of outline the application procedures within the states. And so, just so y’all know, Adam and I author these and we also consult with all of our D different subscribers and different things that they want to talk about in regards to their strategies, long-term, short-term, mid-term strategies and all the different species that they’re looking to apply for. So anyway, we kind of wanted to go through this January issue. You know, we did go, this did go to the printer December 29th. A few people got it a little bit late. Of course I just wonder with the government if they just take a little extra holiday here and there, but who knows. So anyway, we do have an EAG out there and we publish it right away. I think ours was up what, Adam, like December 20th or 21st?
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It was before Christmas. Yeah. So we realize I’m one of the guys that likes to get it in my hands as well. But when you’re chomping at the bit ready to start breaking stuff down, you’ll get that two weeks or so early, maybe a little bit longer. ’cause again, the day we send it to the printer, we put it online, it’s free with your paid subscription. It’s not an add-on EAG available the day we go to the printer, you can start breaking stuff down, get you a big jump on it. So highly recommend you do that until your magazine comes in the mail. ’cause it’s gotta go to the printer, get printed, get shipped, come your way. You know, with holidays and all that, like I said, January magazine had some of those, those types of things. But overall, yeah, let’s jump into it. Arizona 2018, the January issue, we cover the elk and antelope due February 13th, the deer, bison, sheep or all that. We’ll cover that later.
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Yeah, we’ll cover that with the application due deadline the second Tuesday in June. So we cover that in a separate issue. This one’s a little bit early, they break it up and so anyway, it’s kind of exciting. You know as we get started here in Arizona, Adam and I are big fans of hunting elk in Arizona, especially Elk Adam’s hunted antelope in Arizona as well. And, and I did too when I was younger. I hunted 19 A and and killed a buck much smaller than atoms. It was over 80 inches. Adam killed a freaking giant. So anyway,
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It’s a state that, you know, trophy quality can be off the charts. Particularly like last year had a great antler growth year for elk. It was, it was a, it was a great year. You know, the cover bull Eric Hunt from Arizona killed a 400 inch giant and
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My dream
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Bull awesome bull has cool characters, split eye guard some extras. But anyway, appreciate Eric putting his story together for us and putting him on the cover. But yeah, most people they think of Arizona probably of the desert. Sheep and elk are probably the well strip deer. I mean I guess it’s all awesome Arizona, it’s awesome. Trophy
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Quality, there’s nothing that’s not awesome in Arizona, right?
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Yeah, it’s, it’s a great state but tough to draw tags depending on what you’re looking for.
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They do have a lot of, a lot of units within the state of Arizona and, and obviously when you think of Arizona you think of big antelope and big elk and giant Mulder. The Mulder however are, you know, giant in a small portion of the state. There are some big bucks and people are gonna be glad that I’m not divulging everything down there in the center of the state. ’cause there’s a lot of guys killing a couple of 200 inches down there in the center and western portions here and there. Even in Eastern portions I guess. But for the most part, as far as your, you know, building points and wanting to kill one of those premium deer, you know, that’s gonna be north of Grand Canyon. So 13 B 13 a twelves. But we’re not here to talk about deer even though we want to.
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The elk are pretty amazing. They’re in a drought, kind of a little bit of a drought right now. We did get a little bit of moisture here recently. So we’re gonna be watching the next couple months and really pay attention. So guys that are applying in Arizona, if you set up that portal account prior to applying, you’ll be able to point guard so you, for five additional bucks you can apply and then you throw in five bucks, click the little spot there for point guard and then you can turn that tag back or have the option to turn that tag back if it is a brutal drought year.
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Yeah. So very important to go do that. Now it’s a newer, newer program. They aren’t gonna release drought results there only they’re telling us this year. So gonna have to do it anyway, get your portal set up so that when you go and apply for elk it will pull up as an option. $5. Do you want to add this? And in a dry year that we’re looking like we may have, you never know it could switch on a dime and be wet all spring. But it’s just something, especially for if you’re preserving a lot of points, if you’ve got minimal to no points and you pull an awesome tag,
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Take a tag when you can
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Get it, you take it. But if you’re packing mid-teens, high teens, twenties points and it’s your year to cash it in and it’s a bust, you’re gonna want that one time turn back. Yeah. You know, which are zone offers
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One time. Yeah, one time per species. So you can’t turn it back this year, get it next year, turn it back next year. That’s not gonna happen. You get one option for that. So anyway, it is pretty exciting. We love talking about elk and of course we all want that giant and they make plenty of them down there in Arizona, we did cover the units, we give a lot of different options. We jump in from, you know, there’s early rifle, rutt hunts, early muzzle, little rutt hunts, there’s late season rifle hunts, which are a lot easier to draw. Not, doesn’t give you those good rutt season dates, but allows guys to go out and hunt and, and do it on a more regular occurrence. I mean a lot of these units are taken, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 points versus 20 plus points in some of these. They did change it though, Adam, and, and this is kind of how you drew your antelope tag. They did change it where they give, they give a non-resident quota and up to half of our quota can go to people at the most points and then the other half’s available in the random draw. And if there’s only one tag, it goes in the random draw. So ink can go to anybody.
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It actually yeah, hurt, hurt the people that had a lot of elk points or antelope points built up that were non-residents because now instead of being able to draw the full non resit quote in the max point draw only, you know, say a unit of 300 tags, all 30 of ’em in most archery premo archery units were going in the max point draw. Yes. No non-res random draw being, being done now it would be 15 and 15. So it’s probably a fair way to do it. It’s just changed as hard after they’d done it a certain way for so long. It’s much more like Utah I guess now, even though it’s not spelled out the same, you know. Yeah. They, they do it like Utah.
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They do, they give 20% of the total number of tags go to the max point holders within that it could be residents or non-residents. We get 10% as not as non-residents. And we, and then of that 10% up to half can go to max point holders. Yeah. So anyway, the, here’s the bottom line, y’all can draw any state in and, and that’s what’s kind of fun about it. So, and
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And like you alluded, the the dream for everybody is those early season rifle muzzle loader and or archery hunts. And that’s what we all think of. You know, you’ve been down there twice, once on an early rifle. Once on a early archery five or archery six years
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Ago. Yeah, yeah. 2013.
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And you know, I, I burned my points last year on an archery hunt. You know, probably like you now I just, I’m looking for, I want a big bull if I go back, but I, I totally am looking at it different. I I burned my po heavy points. Yeah. And there’s a lot of options if you’re willing to go late archeries or the late rifles like you talked about. Yeah. You can go back more often. You’re gonna hunt with a lot more people a field and it’s not, it doesn’t feel the same as September screaming bulls, but No, but you have to almost be realistic to just apply for early rifle and muzz loader hunts your whole life if you’re in the middle of the pack is a very daunting almost.
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Well we just don’t recommend it quite frankly. We get guys that do want those early rifle, early muzz loader hunts. It’s obvious why you wanna freaking kill a giant. You wanna do it in the rutt and you wanna do it with no people. I understand that. But it’s one of those things, you gotta learn how to shoot a bow or take one of these later season hunts. They even give these late season archery elk hunts, which when they first came up with them, I mean we’re talking mid-November with a bow, kind of laughed at it, but at the same time I went down there and COOs deer hunted and you can actually glass up some of these bulls. We’re seeing 350 inch bulls looking for COOs, deer and or cows deer. I mean, just not offend everybody, it’s cos or cows depending on who you talk to.
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But anyway, we’re out there glassing and you can, you’re seeing 350 inch bulls and in the, in the late season like that they bed, you can stalk ’em. They’re not moving, they’re not rutting, they’re not chasing cows. And so they’re killable you realize you can kill ’em. And so there is a possibility maybe you pick a unit 23 or 27 or something like that and, and go try that. I know Chris hunted, the muzz leader season in November kicked his butt quite frankly, but it gave him an opportunity to hunt big bulls and it was the year super dry, super hot. Do you even have a mic? ’cause you’re, I’m alright. So he’s speechless. I can say anything I want and he can’t even talk back. But anyway, he did hunt that and learned a lot in unit 10 and came home eating his tag. But you know, I’ve ate my tag a lot too and so I don’t feel too bad for him. Ha ha. All right. So anyway, as we get cranking hair, we, I mean we can go through all the units and talk about that all on the podcast, but it is listed out in the
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Magazine. The magazine and that’s what it’s there for obviously. Yeah. You know, get it timely, break down a 2018 drawing odds, kill percentages, resident drawing odds, non-resident drawing odds both for Max’s point and random and also some, some comments about it. Sim similar thing for antelope, antelope and, and Arizona are about like drawn desert sheep tags. They are tough. They don’t have a lot of tags collectively, but they have some giants. It’s Arizona’s known for one of the best, if not the best when it’s a, when it’s an on year.
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When it’s an on year. Sometimes the beans dry. Last year was a tougher year. It was, yeah, 2000 last year was tougher than 2016. It feels like 2016 was
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Off the charts.
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It was off the charts and then you happen to draw a tag. Yeah. You know, it was, you got pretty lucky.
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It was good. No
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Question. So anyway, everybody should be applying in Arizona. No question. It’s, you don’t have to front the tag fees. Of course you’re gonna buy an non-refundable hunting license, minimal per species application fee. You can gain a point. It’s the same price to get a point versus applying the draw. Adam and I where you, especially if you don’t have a lot of points, we tell people, you know, point guard it if you think your schedule’s full, but apply, like applying the draw. If you can’t force a draw, you should be in the random draw as many years as you can because quite frankly the odds are so dang tough that if you’re just waiting to build a few points and, and then go jump in there, you’re probably not gonna draw. The one thing about these bonus points are the more points you have, the better your random chance is too. So you get another chance at drawing a low random number in the, in the random draw. So just a little something, something there. We also covered Wyoming.
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That’s right. The sheep, moose, goat, elk and bison in Wyoming. And the elk application deadline, if you’re actually applying for a hunt is January 31st. If you’re gonna do points only for elk or any species, you, you have to wait until July through October. But if you’re gonna apply for elk, it’s the first deadline of all the western states of the year. January 31st. They turn it around quick, you know, by February 22nd, if you’re res, if you’re drawn or not, with regard to sheep, moose, goat, and bison, it’s due February 28th online. They do charge your fees up front in Wyoming. It’s one of those that you gotta,
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You gotta man up, you gotta man up, they’re gonna take your cash. One thing I do wanna bring up though, Adam, a lot of our guys, so we have a license application service and a lot, and we don’t front the fees, we do charge $500 max. That’s the most you can spend with us here at Epic. But we don’t front your fees. We actually apply you as if you’re applying yourself. You’ll get your own tags, you’re gonna get your own refunds. But when it comes to Wyoming, it is fairly pricey. If you’re gonna apply for a lot of these species there, it’s gonna dinging your card a pretty good chunk. You know, we’re, we tell guys apply for that 0% credit card, use it on a state like Wyoming. You know, it’s not gonna charge you a thing. You get, let, let, let the credit card float your fees, just make sure you pay it off when you get your refunds. You know what I’m saying?
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With some of these. And they did have some pretty noticeable permit fee increases this year. Most notable with the bison, it went from, from about 2,500 bucks for the bull to 4,400. And if you apply for bison go sheet moose, you’re gonna need 10 grand on a card just to do those four species. Yeah. And it will, it’ll crush it right up front.
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Yeah, it’s gonna crush
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It. And they’ll keep for the goat and bison where they don’t have points, it’s a minimal application fee minimal. But they will keep, you know, a hundred and fifty, sixty five bucks for the sheep and moose for your point fee. So it’s not cheap and it’s, you know, caused a lot of people, I think to question whether they’re gonna keep going depending on where they’re at in the draw. And
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If you don’t have points build up, you know, you can’t choose whether you apply, whether you pay that $150 fee or not, it comes outta your refund. And so it’s kind of, it makes people really do a self check, analyze the draws, which quite frankly, if you don’t have a lot of points to draw, you should look and make sure there’s a random tag given. So you actually have a chance in the draw if there’s no random tag given, you’re not gonna draw a tag. You’re basically applying for points only, but front in the fee. So anyway. Yeah. Similarly,
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If you’re, if you’re mid to very low points, unless you know you could not go on a hunt, we recommend you apply for the sheep and the goat or sheep and the moose because
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What are you getting a point for?
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Yeah, you’re getting a point that you’re never gonna be in the max point pool. Yeah. And you just spent 150 bucks a point this summer and what’s
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That point gonna get you? And
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It didn’t, you didn’t have a chance to drop what’s
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It ever gonna get you?
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So nothing, there’s nothing you got 4, 5, 6. If
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You’re not
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Applying 10 points,
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If you’re not applying the draw, don’t waste the money on the point fee.
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That’s right. That’s, unless you know one year that I could not do that hunt for whatever reason. But, but even then it’s hard. Just sit it out a year. You don’t lose your points until you miss two consecutive years. Okay. So not the end of the world. If, you know, once again emphasize, if you know you’re never gonna be in the max point, you’re never gonna catch up to it. So, well,
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Well by the way, I, I drew a bison tag there in here in Utah on the Henrys when I was 15 years old. And so I beat the odds and you can beat the odds too, but they did increase the fee good and bad. There’s gonna be less people apply for that there.
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More than likely will be,
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You know, and they opened up unit three, which is new. We talked about it in our magazine. Yep. A couple of old giants, maybe 10, 10 old giants. Yeah,
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15, 18
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That are accessible. So anyway, keep that in mind. We covered it in the magazine. It is expensive. So you get to decide how, how much you know you’re willing to front to be able to be in the bison draw. So as far as that, we covered the sheep. Do we wanna talk anything more about the sheep Adam as far as wilderness hiring a guide, self-guided option, unit five, anything like that you want to bring up? Yeah,
00:18:51:21 –> 00:19:05:24
All of that. You know, keep in mind they’re 23 years into a point system for their, for their sheep. And so it’s very established and they set 75% of their tags aside for the people with the most points and 25% random to
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A random draw. So
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Of the,
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So if there’s three tags, there’s no random draw, there’s
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No, yeah, there’s only five units in the state of, of Wyoming that give enough tags to give one or two in the random draw. And that’s units 1, 2, 3, 4, and five. If you don’t have, you know, let’s say 16, 17 plus points and are trying to draw a maximum point tag, you need to stick to units one through five to have at least a chance to draw because you’re not gonna be in the maximum point draw. Yeah. If you have say 17 or less, you know, 16 or less points. Yeah. Similar to moose. Well
00:19:36:20 –> 00:19:57:18
I think before we leave sheep, just want to reiterate when we talk about not being able to do it without a guide, you can’t do it without a guide. Legally. Legally. So don’t, don’t don’t. Some guys, I know there’s a lot of guys that, that follow the podcasts that are tough dudes. They freaking do the middle of Frank Church wilderness on their own or whatever. I know you can physically do it, you just can’t do it.
00:19:58:24 –> 00:20:16:08
The wilderness, you can’t set foot in there without a resident guide that gets a permit That is usually a family member friend. Yeah. Or a Wyoming licensed outfitter that can take you in there. It’s just one of the, it’s the only state that requires non-residents to hire somebody or have a resident guide you in wilderness.
00:20:16:11 –> 00:20:18:22
I can go fish for rainbows in the middle of the wilderness. You
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Can hunt bluegrass,
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But I, but I can’t carry a gun and go hunt something. Yep. How about that?
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It’s a really tough law for a lot of people to swallow.
00:20:26:11 –> 00:21:06:10
Oh yeah. Geez. But, but hey, maybe, maybe Trump will pull us out of that. I don’t know. And it’s good for the outfit. It is good for the outfitters. And by the way, we do work with some amazing outfitters out there. Kudos to them. We, we did visit with a bunch of ’em out here at the Wild Sheep Show, good guys, hardworking suckers and so, you know, a lot of young aggressive guys that we’re, we’re working with. And so anyway, a little shout out to them, but call us if you wanna visit about any, if you have the points to draw on any of these, any species, call us. We’ll get you lined up. And, and one thing I do, while I’m on this little bit of a rant, I do wanna say, if you know, you can draw a tag, don’t wait till you draw to call us and get an outfitter, they’re gonna be booked.
00:21:06:23 –> 00:21:35:07
Especially if, you know, you’ve got say 18, 17, 18 plus points for sheep or moose or elk. 12 for elk maximum is is 12. Or you know, the unit you’re targeting, you can probably draw at least call, talk with them, get a recommendation. So at least they have you penciled down. And so it’s a quick phone call to ’em. As soon as you check your draw results, boom, I drew put me, I’m sending a deposit versus start from scratch and you’re playing, you know, for a week or two phone time or
00:21:35:11 –> 00:21:53:07
Whatever. And let’s face it, a lot of times clients are in the driver’s seat because outfitters need clients to make money. That’s not the way it is here. There’s more clients than they can take. Yeah, that’s true. There’s only so many outfitters in each of these units and so keep that in mind as we roll forward. So let’s see, did we talk enough about the moose?
00:21:53:25 –> 00:22:21:08
No. Yeah, they’re, they’re down right now. It’s, you’re gonna see very few units in, in Wyoming with a random tag, which once again, if you don’t have 16, 17 points built up, 15 maybe in some or 14, it’s a tough road because there’s not very many units where they give random tags and moose numbers have been cut heavily over the last 10 years. Apply accordingly to what you, your points have, but you know, for the time being, things aren’t gonna be on upswing soon.
00:22:21:13 –> 00:22:45:01
5 25, 38. Some of those come to mind. We did cover ’em in the magazine and you’ll be able to learn more about ’em in there. Yep. The the one thing I guess we’ll move to goat, I mean there’s no point system on the goat. You’re in the random draw every year. You’re all on the same, same playing field every single year. And so it’s kind of fun. It’s actually, when you look at the odds, they’re some, some of the better odds of any of the western states when you’re looking to apply for a goat tag
00:22:45:07 –> 00:22:46:28
One in 55. I mean that’s not bad. I mean
00:22:46:28 –> 00:23:05:16
You and I have applied for ’em, you know, and so anyway, and I’ve, and I killed a goat here in Utah and of course you’ve killed a goat Montana in Montana. So anyway, but, but yeah, they sucker us into applying for those as well. Again with goats, no point system. There’s no $150 fee. They can’t extort 150 bucks outta you. So that’s kind of nice. Let’s crank onto elk.
00:23:06:03 –> 00:23:24:26
Yeah, elk. Wow. What a lot of options you have from the Prairie Mountains, you know, out on the eastern side of the state. Easy access, some private land issues too. The back country wilderness, true horseback, you just can’t and everything in between. Wyoming’s got kind of something for everything. That’s probably the biggest thing
00:23:24:26 –> 00:23:55:11
To exercise. Well what I think’s been one of the most interesting things to watch is when the wolves came in and there was no management of the wolves. It it, people were scared and quite frankly we saw the no elk in some of these boundary park boundary units and stuff. And so, and a lot of these outfitters were thinking, well man, I could sell my outfitting area, but nobody wanted to buy it. Everybody was scared, figured the wolves would wipe ’em out, there’d be not an elk left. Now fast forward to 2018, we’re looking at some of these boundary units in these wilderness country. We’re looking at some of the best bulls in the state being taken. Yeah,
00:23:55:11 –> 00:23:58:28
They’re they’re they’ve come back to some extent. Yeah, they really have. And a lot of
00:23:58:28 –> 00:24:09:19
That is due to being able to hunt wolves, put just a little bit of pressure on ’em, it keeps ’em at bay a little bit and, and has definitely seemed to help. Now I don’t know if that has everything to do with it, but it does feel like it seemed to help. Yeah,
00:24:09:19 –> 00:24:20:11
It does. Some of those units like the 50 nines and 50 sixes and 50 fours, you’re gonna need maximum points as a non-resident to even have a chance to draw again. Low and a chance meeting
00:24:20:19 –> 00:24:21:17
10%. Yeah,
00:24:22:00 –> 00:24:35:23
Because of low tag numbers, they don’t have enough to go in the random draws. So bear that in mind. You may have heard a lot about those units. 56 and 59, especially if you don’t have max points as a non-resident not getting it, you can’t even, you have zero chance. Yeah, don’t apply.
00:24:35:23 –> 00:24:40:28
That’s right. No random tags. So make sure you check that out. In our column we make it pretty simple. You can check in the column,
00:24:41:17 –> 00:24:54:24
But there’s a lot of other options throughout the state, whether you’re in the big horns or on the areas down a little bit lower to Cody. You know, they have enough tags that, you know, the 60 twos and threes and you know, a lot of these units are killing some great bulls
00:24:54:24 –> 00:25:41:19
On just named a couple of the best units in the state. And I do think, I do think we ought to talk a little bit about the archery versus the rifle and some of these type ones a good portion of the type ones. You can also hunt the archery. You generally it, it just depends on the unit, but it could be September 1st or the 30th or the 15th to the 30th. If you don’t kill on the archery, you can go back in the rifle. And some of these units, the rifle opens October 1st, some of ’em open October 15th. And so you’re cranking, oh, and obviously summer in November, but you’re cranking going from the 30th of September to October 1st, picking up a rifle. In some cases in a large portion of, you know, of units such as the big horns, you’ve got type nines, which are archery only and type ones are, which are rifle only. And so they do segregate those out and the archers aren’t competing with the rifle hunters, et cetera. So.
00:25:41:22 –> 00:26:10:18
Yep, very good point. But Wyoming has, our tables are giant, they’re giant for a reason because of the opportunities that exist there for elk are incredible both for rifle and archery hunters. So study them, if you have questions, give us a call. It’s an elk state that we wouldn’t probably rank on par with Arizona or top end Utah or Nevada. But for three 20 to 50 bulls, there’s, it’s off the charts, it’s, and you can draw a lot more, a lot easier than those other states I just mentioned. Well,
00:26:10:18 –> 00:26:52:10
And I like, you know, of course you and i’s offices are next to each other and we’re consulting nonstop every day. But we’re, we are consulting, telling people to use your points. Don’t be saving ’em up. What are you, what are you waiting for? Okay. It’s not one of those, you know, early season unit 10 in Arizona or something like that. The weather dictates some of that this year. There was an early snow storm at the end of September, first part of October, pushed the bulls out of the park. Man those early, those first part of October guys just had an amazing hunt and then it warmed up and you just can’t dictate the weather. And, and I guess our point with some of this is hunt often some of these units you can draw with 5, 6, 7 points, eight points and, and so don’t wait for 15 or to catch what we’re talking about 10% with max.
00:26:52:10 –> 00:27:59:22
Some of these units are 10% draw with 11 points that we showed last year, which was 12 going into this year’s draw. I guess we should mention that Max is 12 today for elk. If you, that’s right For elk. And I’m glad you said that. If you check your points online or call the state, if they say you have 12 today, you have max and you’re going in with 12, you’ll come out of the draw with 13. And so anyway, just a, just a little clarification ’cause we have a lot of guys thinking they add one thinking, they’re going into the draw with that many points in it and it, and it’s a big deal when you look at the drawing odds and you’re trying to decide exactly when you’re gonna get drawn. And so anyway, Wyoming’s one of our favorite states. I’ve hunted unit seven, Adams hunted unit seven as well. You know, mine was clear back in the day, shooting ’em with a crossbow. By the way, you can use crossbows, all archers can use crossbows. And so kind of a fun little thing. It’s not quite frankly, I guess we should just talk about crossbows. They’re a little bit quite, they don’t have the inertia image, they have that short little bolt and so it doesn’t carry as far, and you would think, man, they’re dead with a crossbo. They’re not necessarily dead with the crossbo. You just to eliminate that movement of the draw.
00:28:00:04 –> 00:28:00:26
I’d rather my bow.
00:28:01:03 –> 00:28:05:29
Yeah, any day we, anyway, anything else we want to add before we move out of,
00:28:06:02 –> 00:28:45:07
I think that’s it. Like I said, it’s all in the magazine. One more thing regarding Wyoming is they have a program called the Wyoming Super tag program that they initiated a few years ago. They have 10 species. They draw one tag per every species, every big game species that we just covered. Sheep, moose, goat, deer, elk, antelope, bear, wolf, bison, I might’ve missed one. But anyway, one for every big game species and one which is called a trifecta where if you win that one, you get to pick which three tags you want. Statewide tags that you have to hunt during open seasons. Awesome opportunities. It’s just a strict lottery. 10.
00:28:45:11 –> 00:28:49:12
Could you imagine if a guy picked like antelope, deer and elk? No, she, no.
00:28:49:17 –> 00:28:49:29
No mess.
00:28:50:01 –> 00:28:54:11
I can’t. No goat. I can’t. But we do know a guy that’s drawn the trifecta. Yeah
00:28:54:13 –> 00:29:01:07
He did. We had him in last year’s magazine and he hunted a sheep, believe it or not. He drew a regular sheep tag in the regular draw and
00:29:01:10 –> 00:29:02:10
Hunted the trifecta.
00:29:02:21 –> 00:29:11:10
So then he drew the trifecta, picked a sheep, an elk, and a moose. That’s the three he picked. And so he killed two sheep in one year in the state. I’ve never,
00:29:11:18 –> 00:29:14:20
I don’t know anybody else that’s done that. I maybe have a governor’s tag. You think you
00:29:14:20 –> 00:29:20:08
Maybe buy two governor tags but draw two tags, it’ll never happen again. Yeah, I’m on the record. Pretty
00:29:20:08 –> 00:29:21:24
Awesome. Pretty awesome. But
00:29:21:24 –> 00:29:27:16
Anyway, anyway, you can buy those tickets for $10 a piece. And they are at, at, it’s for the super
00:29:27:21 –> 00:29:28:06
Tag individual.
00:29:28:11 –> 00:29:35:18
That’s right. Individuals and $30 per ticket for the trifecta, which gives you the, again, the opportunity to buy all three. For
00:29:35:18 –> 00:29:56:25
Those of you that are looking to purchase the super tags there in Wyoming, go to wg fd, do w.gov. Epic Outdoors. That’s right. We got an epic outdoors link on the Game and fish website. So anyway, WGF d.w.gov/epic outdoors.
00:29:57:17 –> 00:30:18:06
Well I’m in Game of Fish, been a supporter of us. We’ve had several of their super tag winners in our magazine, including the super tag elk winner, Sean Keaton from last year. He’s in this magazine. You can read about his bull and his hunt. So somebody’s gonna win ’em. We, we have ’em every year in the magazine. It’s another way to just dream big I guess. And you know, go support that. Get
00:30:18:06 –> 00:31:08:01
Some of your, getting some of your tax money back guy might throw in for some of these super tags there in Wyoming. Yep. Or alimony or anything else. Anyway, any other money you got laying around, throw it at, throw it at that super tag opportunity. And that’s the one thing I think we, we believe in is, is have your name in everywhere you can afford to be in. You know, and obviously some guys hit Adam and I up and they’re like, what if I draw too many tags? You know? And we’re like, all right, you know you can turn back tags in Utah, you can turn back tags in Nevada, you can turn back tags in Arizona if you do the point guard. So anyway, there’s things you can do. You can turn back a tag in Colorado. You’re not gonna get all your points as if you didn’t draw. You’ll have the number of points that you went into the draw with, but you’re gonna give up the tag fee. There are things you can do. You’re not gonna draw too many tags apply everywhere.
00:31:08:12 –> 00:31:45:14
It’s 1%, one to a hundred. The ratio of people that call us to say I’ve drawn too many things, I can’t do ’em all justice. It’s so rare this day and age. Now there’s exceptions you may know because of your point situation in some of the states like Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, where you can predictably know what the max points tags are gonna go to that. Yeah, you don’t want to get too crazy and draw three archery ques that you know you’re probably gonna draw. No, you gotta pick ’em one at a time. But if you’re in the random draw, apply and high highly encourage people to have your name in the hat to have a lot hopefully happen.
00:31:46:01 –> 00:32:18:18
So you know, as we kind of finish up this podcast a little bit shorter by design, but I just want everybody to know out there, not like we have notes, we just crank through it. This is something Adam and I live for. It’s something we we’re researching for ourselves as well as all the members. This is all we do for a living and very, very aggressive at it. And so anyway, could have, could have messed something up. Who knows, we don’t have a chalkboard telling us what to say, so bear with us. But overall I’m pretty sure it’s a hundred percent perfect. So
00:32:18:18 –> 00:33:00:02
Mainly just to give you an idea of what’s in the magazine, particularly maybe for some of you, you listeners that, that don’t subscribe, we go into incredible detail in here. You know, we just only scratch the surface on what these states have to offer. That that comes at you. Every issue from now until June, we’ll cover two to three states, break ’em down a month or so before their application periods are due. We invite you to check it, check it out on epic outdoors.com. There is a sample magazine on there if you wanna look at it. But all things Western big game, that’s all we do is Western big game. Whether it’s the draws, landowner tags, guided hunts. Anyway, we know how to get you guys on that. That’s what we
00:33:00:02 –> 00:33:55:20
Talk about in this and in this magazine. We also have a little plug in there. We, we do have Jeffrey that works here in the office. He’s my brother-in-law. He works full-time with our outfitters. So if you’re looking for an outfitted hunt that has guaranteed tags, you don’t wanna mess with the draw or you’ve got, you’re gaining points and you got a point only strategy for now and you’re still looking to go hunting, give us a call. We’ll have something for you. We’ve even got guys in Texas doing crazy predator hunts at night with probably even night vision or who knows, spotlights, anything’s legal in Texas. But anyway, I do wanna talk about real quick the February issue. Adam and I have been cranking, of course that’s why we’re a little rummy at the moment. We have been cranking two in the morning till seven or eight until the phone start ringing. Then we then we console all day long. But we did crank out the Nevada guide, draw a little bit in Montana, Montana alert for deer, elk as well as the entire state of New Mexico. The entire state of Oregon, the entire state of Utah. All species units, just like we talked about today with Arizona and Wyoming.
00:33:56:07 –> 00:34:06:04
Stay tuned for that. Obviously it’s gotta go to print, but you’ll have that here, you know, shortly after the first of the February. But by then we’ll be at the Western Hunting Conservation Expo. Maybe see a bunch of you there. Yeah.
00:34:06:07 –> 00:35:05:08
So anyway, appreciate everybody that’s listening out there. We get a lot of feedback, all positive. Of course nobody calls up and says, Hey I hate listening to your podcast. ’cause they can obviously turn it off. So anyway, appreciate everybody that’s doing that and all the suggestions for, for some of the different guests we’ve got coming on and maybe potential guests in the future. We want to, you know, remain awesome and elite and have the best on the podcast and we feel like we’ve had a lot of awesome people on there and they’ve, they’ve taught Adam and I a lot of things too. So anyway, you can email us [email protected], give us a little feedback if you have any questions, license, app stuff, whatever, as well as [email protected]. So anyway, appreciate all your faithful listeners, all the members out there. Love you guys, you’re awesome. And thanks for submitting the stories as well as some of the trophy room photos. Feel free to throw ’em at us, we’ll print ’em. So anyway, good luck in the draws. Everybody should apply and we’ll go from there.
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