Drawing a tag in the West can sometimes seem like a mystery, much like algebra was to my feeble mind in junior high. But what if I told you that there is an “easy button” to make sure you are giving yourself the opportunity to regularly draw tags and get out to the West to hunt?
The easy button is making sure that you take the time to actually have a strategy in place for drawing tags every single year and the centerpiece of drawing those tags is the states that offer the most opportunity- which are Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and New Mexico. For Wyoming and Montana the summer season is one of the most important times of year to capitalize on strategy building. That is when their points-only application season is open. Buying points in both of these states makes sure the opportunity will come at a regular clip for hunting out West. With a well-thought-out strategy, you could be hunting out West every single year.
For instance, in Montana, if you have two general points, your odds of drawing a general tag are 80% or better. So you could draw a general tag in Montana every other year, and you could likely draw the special elk tag every third or fourth year in Wyoming. On the years, you don’t know if you will draw Wyoming or Montana, burn those Colorado points or go the OTC direction or apply for an easy to draw archery tag.
Take a look at both of the pictures in this article and the visual will show you two important things, number one being the opportunity states. Number two is if you are a DIY public land guy it is very easy to adjust the filter to find the hunts with high percentages of public land. Click on the unit or area and take a look at the access grade to see if the public land available is accessible.
Now Eastmans’ TagHub also has the ability to take your application strategy to the next level. We have a new partnership in place that will let you talk with a western hunting application expert, build a plan, and then they will apply for you. We offer that option with The Draw, our trusted application service partner! Reach out to us at [email protected] if you want us to help you press the easy button on building a personalized hunt strategy!
