Now I do have a rv to use as a base camp that I can pull a atv or a geo tracker to get around in. The rv has not seen the west since 1999 when gas was a whopping 99 cent a gallon and if gas prices look like they are going to be under $3 bucks a gallon in the fall of 2015 I may think of using it next fall for a hunt. But the hunt does not have to be with the rv. I would also drive in the truck to someplace also, even if it's 2k miles away. Most of my elk hunts have been DIY backpack hunts just so you can see,, another backpack hunt can be in the mix.
The hunt can be a trespass fee hunt for whitetail, muledeer or pronghorn or so on. Maybe even a Ontairo moose hunt with a outfitter that gives you a cabin and a area to hunt in. The moose hunt would have to be basically a DIY hunt.
So here's what I'm thinking, but not set in stone on this just yet. If gas prices look like they are going to stay below 3 a gallon next fall. ( Funny I do follow oil prices on a regular bases and crude oil prices today 12/10/14 are at $63.84 a barrel and the forecasted price a barrel for one year from now is only $73 a barrel. So that, if right. Will keep the price of gas at under $3 a gallon.) So the rv may be in the mix. But at $3 a gallon I'm still looking at about $1700 for round trip (5K mile) hunt with it.
This is the only hunt I'm favoring right now.. Pronghorn, and why am I favoring Pronghorn? Well I have about 16 or 17 points for pronghorn in Colorado and that will let me hunt any unit in Colorado. Kinda looking at the 2 northwest corner units in Co if I do Co. I also have 4 or 5 points in Wyoming for pronghorn also. One other reason is my girl friend likes to sit in the blind with me when I hunt from it here in the east.. She's also a photography teacher, has off when Pronghorn season starts and can go. Plus she'd take lots of pix's on the trip and from the blind why I hunted or she could sit in one of the other blinds by her shelf and take pix's and scout for me. :) Would love to have another couple go on this trip to cut costs and for company. But with needing points to draw and finding a couple from the east to go out with would be slim to none. Also would go out a few days before the season opens to scout out and build a few pit blinds..
Anyway I'm not decided what I want to do just yet and a hunt say like a moose hunt I would have to look for another person to hunt with and that's fine.. So any ideas or help would be much appreciated.. Funny putting in for Wyoming draws starts in less than 3 weeks. Wow!!time flies.
Ed
If you hunt pronghorn the week before the opener for deer/elk you should tag out on antelope then already be out west to add on a couple weeks of elk hunting!
If you have 16 PH points, sounds like you do a lot of applications. Why not let what you draw decide for you? I only make these decisions after I don't draw something...
Do you want to hunt pronghorns? Go hunt pronghorns!
I have zero need to shoot any bull moose or black bear unless it would be a wilderness adventure like rafting a river in Alaska.
What is it that you want do next? If I have been punching points for goats then it would be a no brainer for me.
Elk is always my first choice but I typically focus on quality hunts and not on any bull.
I have driven in the past from the prairie and chasing goats just to get to the high country for aesthetic reasons alone.
I am jonesing for a big mule deer and to sit amongst alpine basins in thin air.
IdyllwildArcher makes a good point about waiting until after the draw.
My choices are strictly driven by what and where. Most women would not accompany me on any hunt so I do not have to consider others in the equation.
Also, I am totally selfish in my selection. My hunt equals my choice.
The hunt that I want to go on is the one that I will reflect upon most over the winter.
I know most of this will not help you choose but it may help to understand why you are choosing it.
Two goats do sound better than one.
Didn't even think of doing two hunts on the same trip.. That's a idea.
Moose hunt in Alaska is a two year plan for me. Would need to find someone that I know is going to be a good partner on that trip and maybe has done one already. But it is a trip I want to do and have been looking at it the last few years. It's hard for me to find guys from the east that want's to do the types of hunts I like to do. When I tell guys about packing in 4,5 or 6 miles with a pack on and having to get in shape and so on. Guys just don't seem to want to do it.
"Early season high country mule deer in CO or NV. " I do have the same number of points for muledeer as pronghorn for Co but Zero for Nv..
RockyD, I'm not sure what I want to hunt just yet. This year I will only be able to do one hunt and for as long as say 16 days.. So if I was going to do pronghorn then I will not be putting in for say Wy elk this January .. I don't think you can put in for Wy elk and then turn your tag back in and get your money back and keep your points if you want to do something diff. " BUT CAN YOU ???"
otcwill, If I go pronghorn I may take you up on that offer. Thanks
One more thing I think I'd like to keep it at under $3K or maybe a little more for the right hunt this year. Just bought a new house and getting lot of new stuff for it. Last week the washer started leaking oil and it and the drier are 20 years old. So next week washer and drier shopping. Wahooooo! My Idea of shopping is making a list get everything on it and get out. Ok one more thing anyone have any ideas on a hunter friendly washer and drier.. :) lol
If I go Wy elk with my points I will draw. So I have to know what I'm doing by the end of January
Thanks again everyone and please keep the ideas coming. Ed
Joe
Joe I would love to chat about your post sometime. With saving for that long I got to say I'd like to get a nice goat also..
Chatted with a guy that's doing Alaska moose this fall so I'm going to watch their hunt and if it looks like it's a good hunt I may try to do that same hunt in 2016 or 2017. They are local guys that I've hunted with before, "but" they do more gun hunts than bow and this hunt will be a gun hunt for them. They will be floating a river for 16 days and over 100 miles I believe..
Ed
Sure understand City and at xmas time too.. Looks like a DIY hunt for you this year.. Yes No ??
Anyway I'm still trying to figure out the fall of 2015.. Now I'm thinking of doing a spring bear hunt also.. I have not done a bear hunt since 2001. I've done a bunch of them over the years. Know a bear outfitter just 7 hours from upstate Pa in Quebec. Just thinking on that one right now but if I could get a few good fun guys together I might think harder on spring bear..
Ed
