Share your out of state experience

Big Game Hunting > Out Of State Hunting

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jackelope:

--- Quote from: Boss .300 winmag on August 03, 2025, 06:04:48 PM ---
--- Quote from: HighlandLofts on August 02, 2025, 10:10:00 PM ---I hunt New York every year for whitetail.
I take a whole month off of work for deer hunting.
My nonresident hunting license ( small game/ big game license) cost me $100. You get a buck tag and a bear tag, then yfor $10 you can apply for two Deer Management Permits (Doe tags) .
Four years ago i invited a friend from Anacortes to come deer hunting .
This will be his 4th year hunting New York.
Last year I invited a friend from Oregon to hunt deer with us.
His vacation is all tied up this year, he is planing on coming back to New York next year.
Our hunting party generally consist of four guys.
They hunting licenses go on sale August 1st, they quit selling doe tags on August 31st. November 1st they give you two more deer tags for free.
Doe tags are transferable.
This year the four of us have four buck tags, four bear tags and we will have sixteen Doe tags.
Plus my brother archery tag and a muzzle loader tag. So he can shoot an additional two bucks or two does.
We only shoot what we will use up through out the year.
Last year we shot three bucks and six does.

I buy a round trip airline ticket from Seattle to Binghamton New York and it usually cost $350 to $375.
A friend has a small eight room motel back there. I have a room reserved for the whole month. $250 a week. We have two double beds and a single bed in the room. Our hunting spots are with in a ten minute ride from the motel.
I bought a four door 4x4 Nissan Titan pickup truck that I will get shipped to new york for our hunting truck.
I generally shoot two to five deer a year.
They charge $100 to cut a deer up. We cut our deer uo. So that saved us $900 last deer season.just that savings paid for two of our airline tickets and hunting licenses.
This year I am thinking of offering to do some deer butchering on my down time to help cut down our expenses.
I will have three to four hours of dead time every night after we are done deer hunting.
So I would like to cut three to four deer up a week.
I leave all of my guns and cloths back there in New York, so does my friend from Anacortes.
So we both can bring back two ice chest (50 pounds a piece) full of boned out venison.
I quit deer hunting Washington state twenty some years ago.
It cost to much to hunt this state and the deer are about gone.
Washington state the average deer harvest is 26,000 deer a year.
New York State the average deer harvest is 220,000 deer a year.
We hunt close to the Pennsylvania border, some years we will hunt Pennsylvania the nonresident Pennsylvania small game/big game hunting license cost $100, doe tags run $26 a piece and in some areas you cal buy up to six does tags.
Pennsylvania the average deer harvest is 330,000 deer a year.

Since my friend from Anacortes came back to new york to go deer hunting he quit buying a Washington hunting license.

This year, one of my cousins from Pennsylvania will be hunting with us

--- End quote ---

What’s the hanging weight of these deer?

--- End quote ---

Not little.

HighlandLofts:
In New York and Pennsylvania we hunt both public and private land. The region we hunt in New York state there is over 100,000 acres of state land, some of it is prime deer habitat.
When we hunt Pennsylvania we also hunt public and private land.
New York deer season opens up the third Saturday of November, Pennsylvania opens up the following Saturday.

The first day to buy the New York licenses was this past Friday, i bought my license, my friend from Anacortes Ed's license and
my cousin from Pennsylvania license and we all got two doe tags apiece.

November 1st I will pick us up six more doe tags.
I fly in to New York November 12th, Ed fly in to New York November 13th.
Saturday the 15th deer season opens up.

ljsommer:
I am trying not to be too salty as I post this because I've had a very frustrating weekend, but asking genuinely: as someone who has been hunting (albeit lightly some years) for about a decade now with a single blacktail to show for it back in 2019, should I stop trying for things like Weyerhauser permits and endless local drives to/from overhunted and underpopulated areas and instead just go out of state?

My only out of state hunting experience was a guided Idaho whitetail hunt that was a total bust and a horrible use of $20k, but I am not naive to the fact that the hunting in other states is a completely different experience to sitting in the freezing cold rain year after year hoping for a blacktail to show up and then going home empty handed every time.

I am a meat hunter and I have heard that even for non-residents there are areas where you can get doe tags on the cheap, and game is plentiful.

Alan K:
Definitely better hunting out of state. No question.

That said, it's not necessarily a gimme either, especially going in blind to a new area if you aren't already at least somewhat of an accomplished hunter. Most hunting skills translate regardless of state, even species often times. Once you find success and can replicate it here, you can do the same anywhere. If you are struggling to find success here, I'd dissect that and try and understand why. If you're truly just meat hunting, finding a legal animal still isn't difficult here in WA once you figure it out. Just trust your skills and have patience. Finding a mature animal consistently is another story though.

You comment on endless local drives... Are you driving to/from University Place to Aberdeen/St. Helen's each day? If so, consider camping in the unit. Less mental pressure to get headed out early and starting the long drive home, and you can be where you want to be at daybreak without getting up at 3:00 am. Less travel time dwelling on not having success can help with maintaining a positive attitude and keep burnout at bay.

builtfordtough:
And $20k for a guided whitetail hunt??? What's the story behind that if you dont mind sharing?

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