Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting late season WY elk - tag first, or outfitter first?

a decade or so ago, i was ate up with the thought of killing an elk. i hunted co and nm archery seasons for four years and british columbia once. never killed a bull. about that time, i bought my first wy pref point. my passion also shifted. i got ate up with bird dogs, got in on an OK quail lease, and my string of bird dogs grew... kinda forgot about elk for a while...

i still spend most of my time afield following pointers, but i also have 11 wy elk points that i need to do something with. the approaching deadline got me thinking about the process. i'm in a position, that i could now go during any of the coming nov/dec's. i'm planning to start applying in 2020. i will have 12 points. i'm a MI resident. i know i want to do the late season rifle hunt.

does it make more sense to pick the outfitter first or the unit? i'm thinking outfitter... how do outfitters book hunters before they know if the hunter will successfully draw a tag? if their clients don't draw, are there reputable outfitters looking for hunters after the draw? which begs the question, does it ever make sense to put in for a desirable unit, even if you don't have an outfitter lined up?

i'm kinda coming at this from a strange place... i'm sure most with 12 points have spent the entire 12 years planning the hunt. i'm just getting up to speed. thanks in advance for the patience.

Well, I'm a point ahead of you, and there is no hope in sight for the primo units... That said, a couple buddies have hunted with Yellowstone outfitters out of the hawks nest camp and killed good bulls. When I cash mine in, I will book that hunt just because.....m

...

Most of the units that you have enough points to draw have low tag numbers. I would narrow it down to the unit you want to hunt, then select an outfitter. Put down a deposit for 2020. Everything should fall into place when you do that.

I just booked with an outfitter for an elk hunt this fall. I had the same question about booking before drawing a license. The outfitters group their hunters' applications together to optimize the chances of the group drawing. For example, if they have 4 hunters with 10 points and one with 11, the group average is 10.2. 10.2 points will be ahead of hunters with 10.0 points. By looking are the draw results for the last few years, you can get a pretty good idea if you will draw a license.

I did a few outfitter hunts in Wyoming 15-20 years ago and things were different then. I would draw the license and then contact the outfitters.

Good luck.

If you can manage a 38 bow archery tag, you most likel would t need a guide?

Have the points to do Oregon's primo unit, but could not get guides/outfitters to respond to e-mails before our draw was executed. I want bookings and details nailed down before I burn those points. With our system, if I apply, I will draw the tag.