Last week I gave me current employer notice that I would be leaving the company. Come June I am going to be headed over to Africa to be an Apprentice Professional Hunter. I get back to the states at the end of October. I had asked earlier where people enjoyed living, and my plan is to spend November and December road tripping across America, hunting, and visiting areas I'm interested in moving to.

My plan is to head west right away, and try to be in the Mtn states in Early November. I know I will have missed most of the big game hunting, and I have missed most of the draws for late season hunts. Although I believe I still have time to apply in Idaho, Montana and Arizona.

I have family with about 1800 acres near Pocatello, ID where I know there are OTC tags. That said, I am totally overwhelmed with the areas, OTC tags, odds of success and ease of access among the various states.

I'm 24, in good shape, and have done long backpack hunts before, so I am not afraid to go into difficult areas.

I'd really like to hunt mule deer and I'd love to do a cat hunt (which I might be able to do in ID), but honestly I'm fine with hunting just about anything. I'm willing to do a hunt with a rifle, muzzleloader, or archery.

I am hoping to get a few mountain big game hunts in. Meet up with some friends to chukar hunt, then hunt my way back east stopping to bird and deer hunt along the way.

So if you guys had November and December totally free, where would you go and what would you do? Keeping in mind I'm a non-resident.

I have no problem with hunting with an outfitter, but I would like to keep my costs down, so I don't really think that is an option. Are cull hunts something I should look into?

Thanks in advance.

There are usually leftover deer and elk tags in NM. Most are for less than desirable units with bows or muzzleloaders. If you're interested, keep an eye on the NM game and fish website, and if you see something interesting, I would be glad to offer any insight I have.

Wyoming also sells leftover tags. They're not posted yet, but should be later in the summer.

You could probably find a west Texas muley hunt, but it'll likely cost more than a public land hunt in NM or WY. Of course, you could book a place with mule deer and auodad and really have fun!

I think AZ sells OTC Coues deer bowhunts in the southern part of the state. You might also check into applying in AZ for javelina in case they fall in the latter part of the year. (I'd suggest the same thing here, but our javelina hunts are in January and Febuary).

You could always go whack hogs in TX or CA.

I think the MT antelope draw is open until late may or erly June. That might be worth a look to see if there are any late season hunts avaialable.

Failing all that, or other fun stuff that folks are bound to suggest, just come down to southern NM and we'll kill coyotes and look for quail. Licenses are cheap and there's plenty of public land for you to play on.

As for mule deer, there were tags left over for CO in some units and some seasons last year. They have seasons from August through at least November. Drummond Lindsey seems to be in the know about some things there.

The western states bird hunting is what I'd recommend. Dakotas for geese and pheasants, Wyoming and Montana for geese, maybe Utah and Nevada for ducks, Oregon and Washington for ducks and geese.

If you want to drive into and thru central CA and book a several day several pig hunt. Cheaper big game hunting and certainly lots of fun. It can be processed locally with the assistance of your guide and shipped home reasonably.

Hey Gents, thanks a lot for the info. I am doing some more research, but I appreciate the leads.

The Arizona deer draw is coming up. Oct and Nov rifle Coues deer tags are 90%+ draw odd, plus a couple thousand leftovers after the draw. Easy to draw, public land galore.

Late august/early sept in AZ is OTC archery deer, both coues and mule deer. In velvet.

Second half of Dec, and all of January is Archery deer season, again. Massive amounts of AZ are open, but some units are closed, so check the regs for any areas that interest you.

In January, an OTC deer hunt could be combined with Javelina, in addition to ducks, predators and small game.
February is General (rifle) Javelina season. All Javelina tags must be drawn, with an Oct deadline.

Regards,

Matt Woodward
Borderland Adventures

Consider doing a ferule hog hunt.
They can be hunted before the real big game seasons are open, so you might be able to do that as part of your early travels.
East Texas has plenty and would only require a basic 5 day hunting lecense (low cost). Access to propery may be a small challenge, but there are lots of farm owners that would love to reduce the hog population (since they really tear up pastures).

Touch base when you get back....I have 2 English Setters that will be in fine shape by then.

I did something very simmilar when i graduated college....

Went to canada and started september 1 duck and goose hunting, did as much of that as I could, and made as many outfitter friends as I could and basically put out an offer for a tag for deer in casa anyone had a left over or a cancelation.... went to north dakota then, got a couple of otc archery tags and deer tags, from there went to south dakota, then back north to canada for the deer season, and then hunted ducks and geese back down the flyway with diferent friends and also some public land....

Try to find friends or other people you know as the hotel costs will eat you up if you arent wealthy.

North dakota has plenty of otc deer archery tags, and most locals dont archery hunt, it is also a right to tresspass state and people wont post their property untill gun season.

there are also otc tags in south dakota but you will run into access issues unless you go west or to some other public areas

nebraska , kansas you can usually find late tags if you keep an eye on the internet and on hunting forums, just be ready to go at a moments notice.

Montana non resident application period was over on May 1. Sorry!

In Utah the first 10 days of November you have the muzzleloader elk hunts, OTC for a spike tag or an any bull tag(I'd take the spike....fun hunt, you will see lots of elk and even some big bulls as these hunts happen on the Limited Entry units, the any bull units have much fewer elk). Also we have decent duck/goose hunting. I wouldn't even bother with our pheasant season, just a waste of time.

Bull elk tags are over-the-counter and there is a lot of public land. There are usually leftover cow tags as well, and they are a lot cheaper than bull tags.

You were given some bad info from JCS271. The draws in Montana for antelope have a deadline of June 1st.