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Jan/Feb 2011 No. 49

COYOTE CRAFT SKILLS YOU NEED WHEN THE WIND HOWLS

PREMIUM DEER, ELK TAGS: DRAW SOONER!

HANDLOADSFOR HUNTERSMAKE EVERY SHOT COUNT!

GET WESTERNMULIES & PRONGHORN

SHEEPQUEST

22 – Tag, You Win! Careful application management is the key to pulling coveted big game permits. by Ron Spomer

32 – Culls & Trophies Mule Deer and Pronghorn on the High Plains of Wyoming by Lee J. Hoots

38 – Stone Rams A Modern Perspective on North America’s Most Challenging Sheep Hunt by Ken Nowicki

28 – Howlin’ Wind Don’t let foul weather end your coyote hunt. by David Draper

Cover: ©2011 Vic Schendel

Careful application management is the key to pulling coveted

big game permits.

There was a time when hunting was the challenge. We studied woodcraft, learned to read sign and follow tracks. We honed our shooting skills and tailored our rifles and ammunition to shoot true

when the fleeting moment came. Then we bore home meat and skins and trophies as evidence of our skills and perse-verance. We were hunters. Now the biggest challenge in hunting is getting a danged tag, particularly for high pro-file species in the West like sheep, mountain goats and moose. Even in many Midwest states and some Northeast states, you can enjoy better hunting with special, hard-to-draw permits for special trophy units or seasons.

Bison tags on public land are rare and exceedingly difficult to draw. But you’ll never get one if you don’t apply.

TAG, You Win!

By Ron Spomer

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Table of Contents: ©2010 Lee J. Hoots

42 – Brant on the Baja One of Waterfowling’s Greatest Traditions by Gary Kramer

48 – Handloading for Hunters Tips and Techniques That Enhance Accuracy and Save Money by John Haviland

It was still dark when we met our guide, Sergio, at the Old Mill Motel launch ramp. Once our gear was loaded, we left the ramp, motoring

toward the open bay. In the darkness, only the forms of my hunting partners Fritz Reid and Gary Stewart were visible amid-

By Gary Kramer

One of Waterfowling’s Greatest Traditions

Brant On The

BAJA

ships in the skiff. As the boat skimmed over the light chop, the monotonous drone of the outboard obscured all other sounds. For me, it was both an exciting and famil-iar place. It was Fritz’s second trip to San Quintin Bay, and for Gary it was a new ex-perience.

Wyoming may be the perfect intermingling of the Rocky Mountains and Midwest prairies. At nearly 98,000

square miles in size, Wyoming is the 10th largest state in the U.S., yet it is among the lowest in human population. Its landscape varies from grassland plateaus to lush river valleys to imposing north/south-running (mostly) mountain ranges. Wyoming is the traditional home to an assemblage of semi-nomadic native peoples – Arapaho, Lakota, Cheyenne and others – who survived and thrived on great herds of bison. Mule deer and pronghorn were also part of their diet.

By Lee J. Hoots

Mule Deer and Pronghorn on the High Plains of Wyoming &&&Culls Trophies

January-February 2011Volume 9 / Number 1

p p pvaries from grassvaries from grassland plateaus to land plateaus to lush river lush river

ll t imp ivalleys to imposivalleys to imposin n rth/ th rng north/south-rung north/south-runninnning nning (mostly) mountain(mostly) mountain ranges Wyoming ranges. Wyoming is theis the

di i l htraditional home traditional home blto an assemblage to an assemblage f iof semiof semi-nomadic native penomadic native penomadic native penomadic native peoples Arapahooples Arapahooples – Arapaho, oples – Arapaho, LakotaLakotaLakota, Lakota, Cheyenne and others – who survived andthrived on great herds of bison. Mule deerand pronghorn were also part of their diet.

38 SUCCESSFUL HUNTER • Jan-Feb 2011

Stone sheep populations are doing well in British Columbia. That is the consensus from just about everyone in the hunting commu-

nity. Ask an outfitter, biologist or resident hunter and you pretty well get the same answers. Why, then, are Stone rams so tough to hunt and so expensive? The an-swers are complicated.

My first Stone sheep was shot after 21 days of hard hunting with good guides and an outfitter with a good track record. I was in shape and we covered dozens of miles of prime country with horses, using backpacks to get up into good sheep country. Once there, we had to sift the terrain like a placer miner sluicing in a glacial stream for an elusive gold nugget. Stone rams do not glitter like a gold nugget. They are actually perfectly camouflaged with dark salt-and-pepper hides, and their only bright, shiny giveaway is the broad white rump patch that, in the right lighting conditions, can shine like a heliograph. Without spotting that rump patch, I doubt many hunters would ever see a ram.

Sheep live in rough mountain country, and these days that terrain has been changing. “It seems to us that we find sheep in the timber more,” says one old-time outfitter in the Rocky Mountain Trench. “It may be that the rams are responding to predators, but it is also that the timber is getting higher on the mountains, which might relate to global warming or who knows what?”

I am part of the big gossip ring of dedicated sheep nuts and members of the Wild Sheep Foundation and the hunting fraternity in B.C. We talk about these things, and while nobody can say for sure, it seems there is more brush and timber up on the mountains these

A Modern Perspective on North America’s Most Challenging Sheep Hunt

By Ken Nowicki

StoneRAMS

Sheep hunters take advantage of good weather, hiking and glassing far and wide for the

tiniest hint of a mature ram.

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th an exciting anth an excitinth an excitiing ananwaswaswaswaswas Fritz’s second t Fritz’s second t Fritz’s second titz’s second trip trip to San rip t n ry, and y, and y, and for Gary it wfor Gary it wfor Gary it was afor Gary it wa new ex-

Handloading your own hunting cartridges provides the best possible bang for your buck. Not only will you save money

over buying factory-loaded cartridges, but also by loading cartridges with your own hands, you can tailor loads to obtain your rifle’s best accuracy, velocity and terminal whack. A certain anticipation also builds when you handload cartridges for hunt-ing, culminating in the fulfillment of tak-ing game with cartridges crafted by your own hand.

When my son drew a coveted moose tag in 2009, there was much rejoicing in the house. As soon as the celebrating settled down, though, I set out to develop a load for the hunt. This was serious business, because a lot of my son’s hopes, sweat and time would ride on a single shot.

Choices and SavingsThe hunting area is fairly open and a 300-yard shot would be a definite possibility. After a lot of delib-eration, we settled on a Winchester Model 70 Feath-erweight rifle chambered in .300 Winchester Short Magnum. The bullet would be a Nosler 180-grain AccuBond because its sleek shape helps it fly flat, and its thick jacket and lead core penetrate deeply.

The dollar savings of handloads is substantial com-pared to similar factory-loaded cartridges. With your free labor and not having to pay for any corporate over-head, the cost of handloads is about one-third the price of factory-loaded cartridges. A search on a large mail-order website turned up factory-loaded .300 WSM car-tridges with AccuBond bullets costing $47.99 for a box of 20, or about $2.40 per round.

By John Haviland

Handloading forHUNTERSTips and Techniques That Enhance Accuracy and Save Money

A great deal of preparation, time and expense go into a big game hunt. Make sure your hunting handloads are up to the task when the time comes to end the hunt.

Brass is the most expensive cartridge component. You can use that brass over and over for handloading. Fig-ure a case can be fired four times or so for hunting car-tridges and at least another five times for practice loads. From the website, the total calculated cost per loaded

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successfulhunter.com Jan-Feb 2011 • SUCCESSFUL HUNTER 49

TTTTThere was a time when huntingg was the challengge. e. ggggWe studied woodcrWe studied woodcrWe studied woodcraft learned to raft, learned to raft, learned to read sign andead sign and ead sign and follow tracks. Wefollow tracks. Weo ow t ac s. We honed our shooti honed our shootio ed ou s oot ng skills and ng skills and g s s a dtailored our rifles and ammunition to shoot true

when the fleeting moment came. Then we bore home meat and skins and trophies as evidence of our skills and perse-verance. We were hunters. Now the biggest challenge inhunting is getting a danged tag, particularly for high pro-file species in the West like sheep, mountain goats andmoose. Even in many Midwest states and some Northeast states, you can enjoy better hunting with special, hard-to-draw permits for special trophy units or seasons.

By Ron Spomer

successfulhunter.com28 SUCCESSFUL HUNTER • Jan-Feb 2011

We’d spent most of the day bucking Wyoming’s ubiquitous wind, which reached upwards of 30 to

40 mph for much of the afternoon. Shoot-ing prairie dogs in the gale had ranged from challenging to downright impossible. We knew coyote hunting would be just as challenging, but if nothing else, it would save enough of what remained of our am-munition for another day of controlling varmints for the friendly local ranchers.

Don’t let foul weather end your coyote hunt.

By David Draper

Our first few calling sets had drawn blanks, but we were determined and had just enough daylight to get in one more. When we walked to the edge of that plateau, I couldn’t have pictured a more perfect place to end the day. The sun had just dropped below the mountains, al-lowing us to face west without the glare of the sun, yet giving us enough light for one long, last calling session. Even the wind couldn’t blunt my optimism.

Five minutes after setting up, I wondered why Dan hadn’t started calling yet. The three of us dropped below the rim rock – Tom and I setting up with a cou-ple hundred yards between us, Dan splitting the dis-tance in the middle with the call. Ten minutes in with no calling, I started to think something was wrong. Around minute 15, after sneaking a glance to check on the other guys, I finally realized Dan had been, and still was, running his Foxpro. Despite the fact that he was less than 100 yards from me and slightly quarter-ing upwind, no sound was reaching my ears. The howl-ing wind had grabbed the electronic rabbit’s distress sounds and taken them to points far northwest. And if I couldn’t hear the call at 100 yards, no coyote would be hearing it either. We sat there another 15 minutes, but my optimism was gone. Not a single coyote showed.

Out West, wind is an unavoidable part of daily life. If you’re a hunter, the wind can ruin the best laid plans, turning an ideal calling setup into a waste of time. On the other hand, perfect calling conditions are rare, the wind is going to blow, and you can either stay home or hunt. Cory Lundberg hunts because it’s his job.

Cory has spent a third of his life coaxing coyotes to the call. He’s been doing it professionally under CODA Depredation Services (codahunts.com) for the past seven years. Originally, Cory’s business involved dis-patching problem coyotes for ranches and game-bird operations in his home state of Utah. Not long after showing a knack for killing coyotes, Cory started book-

Mouth calls are effective on windy days, but it takes strong lungs and a loud call. Electronic callers are far more useful. ©

2011

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Berit Aagaard

Jack Ballard

John Barsness

John Haviland

Gary Lewis

Brandon Ray

Bob Robb

Phil Shoemaker

Ron Spomer

E. Donnall Thomas Jr.

Issue 49 • Jan-Feb 2011

6 – Observations Long Horizons and Wild Game by Lee J. Hoots

10 – The Great Land Caribou: Nomad of the North by Phil Shoemaker

14 – Rifle Rack The Winchester Model 67 by E. Donnall Thomas, Jr.

18 – Wingshots The Haviland Family Turkey Camp

by John Haviland

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Subscription Information: 1-800-899-7810www.successfulhunter.com

Successful Hunter® (ISSN 1541-6259) is published bimonthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation dba Wolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, President), 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, AZ 86301. Telephone (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription rates: U.S. possessions – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $19.97; 12 issues, $36. Foreign and Canada – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $26; 12 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved.

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Publisher of Successful Hunter ® is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by any member of the staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Publisher assumes all North American rights upon acceptance and payment for all manu-scripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts.

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62 – One More Shot Winter Wonderland of Fools by Ron Spomer

Departments

54 – Hunting Gear

58 – Trophy Board

+ Shipping and Handling $3.25(1-4 targets)

AZ Tax 9.35%

• Place target at 100 yards for a life-size image at 200 yards.• Practice shooting positions to improve your abilities.• Great for sighting in a new rifle or checking zero on an old favorite.

• $3.00 ea.• 2 for $5.00• 4 for $10.00

Wolfe Publishing Company • 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A • Prescott, AZ 863011-800-899-7810 • www.riflemagazine.com

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The Haviland Family Turkey Camp

by John HavilandWingshots

A spring turkey hunt at our house starts with a pile of camping and hunting gear

on the garage floor, followed by a drive to the Coeur d’Alene Moun-tains and a fitful night’s sleep until the hour before opening day. The hunting is all uphill from there. In fact, hunting Merriam’s mountain turkeys is like bugling bull elk in the fall, with lots of glassing, hiking and calling.

A couple of years back, my wife and two sons drew turkey permits. I was the chief camp attendant, packer of extra gear and head caller.

An hour before daylight, my son Thomas poked me and said it was time to get up. There was no other movement from him, or anyone else in the tent, so I fired up the stove and dressed in the light of the flames. Lantern light failed to stir anyone, so I clanked some pans to-gether in the pretense of cooking. That got them moving.

The previous evening Thomas and his brother Paul had watched a flock of turkeys fly up into a line of Douglas fir trees to roost for the

night. I could hear the click-clack loading of their 12-gauge pumps as they headed that direction in the dark. Gail had also put a flock to bed, and she led the way up the mountain.

A gobbler greeted the first trace of day and led us farther uphill. More toms sounded off, and we figured we had better find a seat.

The gobbles carried a shock, and we flinched a bit at every one, even though we knew they were coming. Hens started chiming in at daylight. I tried to hen yelp but couldn’t get a word in edgewise among the ruckus. Turkeys started flying down from the trees with a coarse rush of wings cutting the air, and the ruckus turned into a riot.

Gail’s eyes were wide open be-hind her facemask. Her shotgun was up on shooting sticks, the barrel swiveling this way and that toward the sound of each gobble.

The woods went silent at a thud of a shot from far below, but a mo-ment later the racket cranked back up. Surely one of the boys had shot, and I gave Gail a thumbs-up.

The gobbling and hen yelps started to taper off as the turkeys went about their day. A lone gobbler walked past about 100 yards below. It gobbled in response to a light stroke on a box call and then gob-bled again at half the distance. The turkey was close but behind a slight rise. Gail kept swaying her shotgun muzzle toward where she thought the bird would come over the rise. A stilted hen yelp came from behind

18 SUCCESSFUL HUNTER • Jan-Feb 2011 successfulhunter.com

The Haviland family wall tent serves as base camp whenever turkey permits are drawn.

Gail Haviland is set up on an opening-day gobbler that never materializes in spite of John’s best hen imitations.

20 SUCCESSFUL HUNTER • Jan-Feb 2011 successfulhunter.com

us, so I kept my eye out for other hunters.

The turkey gobbled again, and there it was, standing in plain sight, uphill. Gail turned her gun and the bird ducked back behind the hill, gobbling as it walked away. I cranked on the box call like I was banging the lid on a garbage can, which turned the gobbler back. But the boom of a shot from down the hill ran him off. We plainly saw two hunters walking through the woods, and so did all the turkeys, which turned silent.

As we hiked back toward camp for a bite to eat, a mist of rain fell and water streamed out of the melt-ing banks of snow. The woods smelled like vanilla as we walked beneath stands of grand ponderosa pines.

Thomas hoisted his gobbler as we walked into camp. Its beard measured 9¼ inches. Thomas and Paul sat shoulder to shoulder wait-ing for the turkeys to fly down from their roost. Most of them flew into an open field, but one gobbler flew over to investigate Thomas’s hen yelp. A 20-yard shot put it in the bag. The gobbler wasn’t Thomas’s first, but you couldn’t tell that from his grin. Gail patted him on the back, and Thomas blushed like he was in first grade.

With water bottles filled, Paul, Gail and I started up the mountain. Thomas crawled back into his sleep-ing bag.

We hiked up and down and around the mountain four times during the remainder of the day. We saw turkeys, too, but the hunters just couldn’t put the hammer down. We spotted small flocks on open hillsides and stalked up on them as

close as we dared. The toms gobbled at my most seductive hen yelps but wouldn’t come closer. Why would they leave hens in hand to look for another back in the trees? In fact, the gobblers walked away, perhaps with the hens leading them.

That afternoon Paul and I set up within 75 yards of a flock with a gobbler calling its head off. We sat with our backs against the split or-ange bark of an ancient ponderosa. The gobbler jumped in the middle of each of my hen yelps but would not take a step our way.

The turkeys drifted off and we closed the distance again. Paul went forward as close as he dared and hunched over in a crouch with his shotgun in his hands. He remained motionless for the longest time, so the turkeys must have been close. The birds quit talking, but still Paul never moved. Ever since Paul was a baby, he could sit in one place and not move if something caught his attention.

After another 20 minutes, I crawled up to Paul. “Are they there?” I whispered.

Paul slowly turned his head. “No,” he mouthed.

We hiked up the direction the birds had gone and stumbled onto the flock in a hollow. Their heads were down pecking, and they didn’t see us until we were right on them. The birds trotted uphill single file and Paul shouldered his shotgun, but the gobbler was mixed in with the hens so he had no shot.

Thomas had caught up with us and took off on the run with his mother in tow down the moun-tain after another flock. I caught a glimpse of them with my binocular far down the mountain, sneaking along the edge of a field green with spring. Everyone walked off the mountain by flashlight.

After dinner Gail read her book beneath the lantern. Thomas poked his head through the tent flap and announced that he and Paul were going to watch a movie. The pickup doors opened and closed, and I thought, What the heck, if they want to drive all the way into town to see a movie?

Gail saw the confused look on

Thomas Haviland took this fine Montana gobbler shortly after fly-down. It had a 9¼-inch beard.

High country Merriam’s habitat is steep and rugged. The Havilands enjoy spring

turkey hunting as often as possible.

my face. “They’re going to sit in the pickup, because that’s where the power port is,” she said, “and watch a movie on their laptop.”

The ground was hard with frost in the morning. A red squirrel chat-tered at the dawn, but the turkeys were quiet. We hiked for a couple of hours back and forth across the mountain face. Up high the grass had but a hint of green, and the dogwood near seeps of water were just starting to bud. Mating Canada geese sailed above the silver thread of the river below, and their sharp honking, at first, sounded like a hen yelp. Hundreds of white-tailed deer, still on their winter range, ran off in panic in twos and fives, no doubt taking any turkeys ahead with them. We must have changed direction 20 times to get away from the deer but eventually just kept on in one direction.

A gobble finally came from below. We rushed downhill and sat against ponderosas with our heels dug in to keep from sliding on the slippery duff of pine needles on the steep face. I made a soft hen yelp, and the gobbler ran up beneath the lip of the slope, skirted around and came into sight 50 long yards to the side. It was a jake that must have figured a big gobbler was with the fake hen and was afraid it would get its tail kicked if it came any closer. It walked on up through the trees gobbling like it was the cock of the walk.

The rest of the weekend went that way too. When we heard or saw turkeys, they went the other direc-tion. We came down the mountain that Sunday evening on sore feet. The boys have known the drill of tearing down camp for years, and we were soon packed up and on the road. School required Paul’s atten-tion, and Thomas was on call at the fire station. That left Gail and me to continue the hunt. Obligations and one thing or another kept us from heading out until the next Saturday afternoon. Sun shined through the clouds, but within an hour clouds had built up against the mountain top, and a cold rain began to fall.

We slowly walked along a trail cut in the mountain. Turkeys were

close, somewhere. A crack of thun-der broke from the clouds, and a tom shot back a gobble from the other side of the ridge. The gobbler, then a second one, liked my soft hen yelp, but after 10 minutes we saw the flock move off up the hill.

We circled back and climbed way above where the birds had dis-appeared in hopes of intercepting them. We found them pecking away beneath a stand of ponderosas. Gail watched them with her binocular from 100 yards while I called. The hens and two gobblers looked up and stared in the direction of each call but then went back to scratch-ing and pecking.

With only one night to stay, we rented a room at a nearby Stumble Inn motel. The room contained a bath and a bed. What else do you need? We had a cozy, romantic din-ner of cold baked chicken and po-tato salad with orange slices for dessert. We ate on the bed, the only place big enough for the both of us.

We were out the door an hour before light with the intention of setting up decoys at the head of a creek where turkeys always crossed. That lasted about 30 boring min-utes, and we started up the hill. As we came back past the head of the creek an hour later, three gobblers strutted among nine hens where the decoys had been staked out on a small flat. The hens wandered off followed by the smitten gobblers.

We tagged along but never saw the turkeys again. The bare branches of western larch had started to un-furl green needles, proclaiming the arrival of spring. We hunted some more, our ears tuned to the sounds of the forest. We sat in the sun just as much. A pileated woodpecker flew past, then perched on the trunk of a pine and rang a squawking caw. We went down the mountain for a final time through where sunflower bouquets of arrowleaf balsamroot bloomed, declaring summer was close at hand.

successfulhunter.com Jan-Feb 2011 • SUCCESSFUL HUNTER 21

The Haviland boys make quick work of pulling down the wall tent.

Careful application management is the key to pulling coveted

big game permits.

Bison tags on public land are rare and exceedingly difficult to draw. But you’ll never get one if you don’t apply.

TAG, You Win!

There was a time when hunting was the challenge. We studied woodcraft, learned to read sign and follow tracks. We honed our shooting skills and tailored our rifles and ammunition to shoot true

when the fleeting moment came. Then we bore home meat and skins and trophies as evidence of our skills and perse-verance. We were hunters. Now the biggest challenge in hunting is getting a danged tag, particularly for high pro-file species in the West like sheep, mountain goats and moose. Even in many Midwest states and some Northeast states, you can enjoy better hunting with special, hard-to-draw permits for special trophy units or seasons.

By Ron Spomer

successfulhunter.com24 SUCCESSFUL HUNTER • Jan-Feb 2011

tery.” Techniques for accomplishing this vary from state to state along these lines:• All licensed hunters can apply for limited tags for all species. This might result in 5,000 people trying for one tag, but they all have an equal chance at getting lucky.• All licensed hunters can apply for limited tags but must choose among a limited number of species. In Idaho, for instance, residents can apply for either moose, mountain goat or bighorn sheep in any one year but can still apply for limited trophy hunts for deer and elk. This increases one’s odds for being successful for any one species but wipes out any chance at the others.• Only licensed resident hunters may apply for certain tags. You may have to move to get a crack at a sheep tag in some states.• Applicants may accumulate preference points each year they fail to draw a tag. These points give them extra chances at pulling a tag. (Their name is tossed into the hat for two drawings or three or as many points as they have saved up.) Some preference systems move appli-cants up a list to become “first in line.” The trouble here is that more people are already standing in line than can be accommodated in their lifetimes, meaning anyone just joining the list has a snowball’s chance of ever get-ting a tag.• Applicants may apply for preference points only, hop-ing to try for the tag in later years. This is an inexpen-sive way to work your way up the list, although some states charge $25 just to reserve a preference point – added expense but reduced competition.• Applicants are discouraged from applying by requiring them to pay a nonrefundable application fee.• Nonresidents are usually required to purchase a basic hunting license ($100 to $200) just to apply for the tag they really want.• Some states let you increase your odds of success by applying for more expensive tags. These are often for the same hunts you’d make using a regular limited tag, but your odds for drawing increase because fewer people want to pay the added expense.

The best chance at a trophy pronghorn requires that you enter a drawing for a limited number of tags in some states. Pulling a limited-opportunity elk (below) tag is the holy grail out West.

This is the price we pay for pushing the population of Homo sapiens past 6 billion, while letting elk fall to 1.2 million, pronghorn to 1 million, mule deer to about 5 million and so on. Despite sport hunters’ license dollars, aggressive habitat management, species reintroductions and support from hunter-funded con-servation organizations, wildlife habitat continues to decline. Our wild lands and animals are slowly becom-ing overwhelmed by the unrelenting pressures of civili-zation. Consequently hunting licenses/tags have to be curtailed.

In Idaho, for instance, the bag limit for moose isn’t one a year but one per lifetime. Ditto mountain goat and bighorn sheep. It’s the same in other states, and these days it has become difficult to get a tag to hunt even abundant species like whitetails, mule deer and pronghorn. Last time I checked, a nonresident had one chance in five of drawing a mule deer tag in Montana. If you want a tag to hunt the most productive, popular trophy units in nearly every state, you must draw from a limited pool of permits. In Washington, more than 1,800 folks applied for roughly 700 late-season whitetail tags in one popular area, and this wasn’t in any special, limited-entry unit with special trophy buck manage-ment.

Truly, the toughest part of big game hunting today is winning a tag. It’s a good idea to figure out how to do this. Begin by learning the system.

State wildlife agencies manage virtually all hunting-tag distribution. By and large they make it as fair as pos-sible by keeping prices reasonable and giving most legal citizens an equal chance at winning the annual “tag lot-

TAG, You Win!

successfulhunter.com Jan-Feb 2011 • SUCCESSFUL HUNTER 25

• Hunters can buy lottery tickets with the winning ticket getting a tag or even a “super tag” (for more than one animal and often an extended season).• Hunters can bid at auction for special tags sold for wildlife agencies by conservation organizations. These usually sell for more than most hunters bring home in a year. One could argue that this system unfairly gives wealthy individuals preference over “the little guy,” but the huge sums generated (I think the record for a sheep tag thus sold was $400,000.) fuel habitat purchases, dis-ease research, species reintroductions and similar pro-grams that ultimately result in more game for everyone.

So, you have your work cut out for you. Persistence and attention to detail are critical. If you’re serious about winning some of these tags, contact each state wildlife agency where you hope to hunt and research their tag/application processes and various trophy man-agement units for various species. This takes hours of study for each state. You can do it online. Get a big cal-endar, hang it in a prominent location and pencil in the deadlines for each application you wish to submit. Don’t procrastinate. Apply early or sure as heck you’ll forget. Wyoming’s application period for some spe-cies ends in January. Most states’ application periods are over by May. Some may linger into June or July for more common species, but get started now or you’ll miss some. Most applications can be filed online, but some states may require a paper application submitted through the mail.

Start a special savings account. You’ll need lots of money to apply for these tags because most states re-quire the money at time of application. They’ll refund all or most of it several months later, but you need the cash up front. This reduces the competition real fast. You’ll be asked to submit a personal check, cashier’s check, money order or credit card number.

Apply in multiple states. I used to worry that with my luck I’d draw four bighorn sheep tags for the same season in four different states and not be able to make all the hunts, thus losing not only my once-in-a-lifetime tag but also my money! Some nonresident sheep and goat tags are selling for $2,252, heck, maybe $3,000 by the time this gets printed. I’ve stopped worrying. In three years I haven’t even drawn a Montana deer or pronghorn tag. The odds for drawing some of these tags are as poor as 1 chance in 100, though most are closer to 1 in 10. Study the success rates (posted on state wild-life agencies’ websites) and make your decisions based on those odds as well as health of local herds, previous hunter success in the unit and your ability to access the unit. You might not want to backpack 25 miles over a 10,000-foot mountain.

For sheep, try for every bloody tag you can, and you might get one before you fly up to that great hunting mountain in the sky. In a unit with 1-in-10 odds, you should draw after 10 years, so stick to it. If you apply for five units with 1-in-10 odds, you theoretically should

The crown jewel: Drawing a bighorn sheep tag is a major lifetime accomplishment.

draw something in two years! Apply for more than one species with similar drawing odds and you should be making at least one special, trophy unit hunt each year. Then again, there is that odd chance you really will draw multiple tags at once. Decades ago I drew two big-horn tags in just three years of trying. Dreams really can come true.

Consider hunting with a “primitive weapon” like a muzzleloader or bow. Tags for these hunts are usually easier to draw. Yes, there is an anti-centerfire bias in the system, but this is the price we pay for developing such efficient rifles.

Pay attention and maintain your preference points. States that years ago initiated a preference system that gradually moves repeat applicants toward the front of the list are now modifying programs to give new appli-cants at least a glimmer of hope. Some set aside a certain percentage of tags for first-time applicants. Others have switched to giving long-time applicants more chances at tags, but not the only chances, etc. It is sensible to re-ward persistent applicants with increased chances, but still, in a democracy, everyone ought to have a chance. What really torques me are guys who make their non-hunting girlfriends, wives and dogs apply for tags while dyed-in-wool hunters who live and breathe for a chance at those hunts miss out. I heard about a Mon-tana hunter who drew a rare bighorn tag, then decided he really didn’t have time to use it. If you aren’t serious about these hunts, do the polite thing and leave them for those who are. If you do draw a tag, do your best to make the hunt.

One more thing: If you can afford to hunt in far off wildernesses where you can just buy a tag and hire an outfitter, consider leaving limited-tag applications alone to give others a chance. I’ve been lucky enough to have hunted mountain goats in Canada five times, so I don’t

successfulhunter.com26 SUCCESSFUL HUNTER • Jan-Feb 2011

apply for goat tags in Idaho, Mon-tana, etc. (I’m hoping this will offset some small sins come the judgment day.)

Pay To PlayThere are businesses that will make all of your applications for you. Generically, they’re called Hunter Services or Hunter Application Ser-vices. Specifically, there are Carter’s License Application Services (huntinfool.com), Cabela’s Trophy Appli-cation and Guide Service (cabelas.com), Hunter Application Service (hunterapplicationservice.com) and many more. To various degrees, this is how these services work:1) During an initial consultation, you discuss your desires and goals and how much time and money you can throw at them. A consul-tant then recommends various states and game management units within those states best meeting your situa-tion. They’ll consider your physical abilities and whether you want to hunt alone or guided.2) You fill out individual applica-tions for each state/unit selected and send them via e-mail or snail mail to the service, or fill out a universal form with information the service subsequently uses to fill out all state applications for you.3) The service keeps track of all ap-plication deadlines and applies for you. Some require your money up front; some pay the fees for you and only require the money if and when you draw a tag.4) All charge either a flat fee for each application they submit or a percentage of each application fee.5) Many services provide refer-ences to guides and outfitters. Some provide names and phone numbers of previous customers who have hunted your drawn unit, so you can call them for information.

You can investigate hunter ser-vices online without spending a dime. Most provide a wealth of

basic information to get you started. Some, like Carter’s, sell an extensive list of topo maps, both paper and GPS, showing hunting unit bound-aries, land ownership and sometimes even traditional big game migration corridors. This site also publishes lists of Colorado and New Mexico landowner tags, which can be pur-chased without winning any state lotteries. The cost is higher, obvi-ously, but at least you get a tag, and on many private ranches, you find lots of older animals and minimum hunting pressure.

Using one of these services does not increase your odds for drawing anything, but it simplifies the pro-cess and pretty much assures you’ll actually get the applications in on time. Better services should be able to recommend the best units that meet your needs. If you don’t have hours and days to invest in research-ing all the states, units, tags, drawing odds, etc., a service might be ideal.

Consultant OptionTraditional hunting consultants, also called booking agents, can help you find a great trophy hunt/

tag through their outfitted hunts. Atcheson & Sons, for instance, will visit with you about your aspirations and then recommend states, prov-inces and specific outfitters where you can actually hunt when you want to without first winning a tag. Often “outfitter guaranteed tags” are available after regular tags have sold out, because most folks don’t want to pay the extra for outfitter tags. Consultants, because they’ve spent years following hunting sea-sons, regulations and tag systems in most states and many foreign countries, know critical things like where the biggest trophies are living, which units offer the best chances for drawing, season dates, applica-tion dates and even the best seasons to hunt. These services cost you nothing. Consultants are paid by the outfitter after you book a hunt.

Applying for tags is a time-consuming and expensive process, but trophy unit tags are your best chance for finally getting a crack at the “big one.” If, like most of us, you live and work so you can afford to hunt, you owe it to yourself to apply for limited permits.

Most Alaska Dall sheep units have gone to draw-only for trophy ram units.

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58 SUCCESSFUL HUNTER • Jan-Feb 2011

Allen Johnson &Corey Johnson

Willard, UTNorth Dakota Elk

Pat RowlandMedford, OR

Wyoming Pronghorn

Andy HaughayPrince George, BCCanada Black Bear

Mike TruettLovington, NM

Alaska Brown Bear

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Jan-Feb 2011 • SUCCESSFUL HUNTER 59

Jake JonesTucson, AZArizona Elk

Frank BrophyCounty Wexford, Ireland

South African Kudu

Jody BeckTucson, AZ

Arizona Coues Deer

Jeremiah Polacek and Grandpa

Chino Valley, AZArizona Mule Deer

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Barnes ParkerTucson, AZ

Arizona Coues Deer