Whitetail for the wife trade hunt

I took my wife on her first ever hunting trip today. She has a tag for a late season antelope doe. We didn't get one, but it was amazing to see her excitement when she saw one run across the road and found a small herd all on her own. She is hooked!!

Herein lies my problem.... Thanks in large part to outdoor TV, she has been obsessed with whitetail deer and wants a buck in the worst way. Whitetails are pretty scarce where I am in Colorado, and the tags are all draw (unless you can find a leftover with public land), and most of the land where I am is privately owned...so getting her a whitetail where I am is a pretty slim outlook. Plus she has no points for anything in Colorado yet. Her birthday is in November (Veteran's Day) and I would really love to find a way to get her a buck next year.

So, I am looking to trade a hunt with a fellow Hunt Talker before I start looking in to outfitted or guided hunts. She has rheumatoid arthritis, so a blind or tree stand set up would be preferred, since she isn't very mobile for long distances, especially in cold weather. The hunt time wouldn't have to be right on her birthday. She is a crack shot with her rifle out to 300 yards, and 200 with a scoped muzzleloader, and she will be shooting a bow by next season, so season dates are wide open. She says she'd prefer a rifle hunt, but she will be just as excited about any weapon. I don't want to use up anyone's time during the rut. We will travel anywhere in the country, since we both enjoy travelling and I like showing her other parts of the country.

What I can offer in trade... Antelope... Archery tags where I am are OTC and muzzleloader bucks can be drawn as a NR for 0-1 point. Archery starts August 15th and runs usually to September 20th. The 2 weeks in August are buck only, then September is either sex. Muzzleloader season is getting moved next year to right after archery season ends and runs for (if I remember correctly) 8 days. I live about 15 minutes from the hunting area in the Comanchee National Grasslands (400,000+ acres of public land) and know the area very well. I have a 5 bedroom house to put you up in and a degree in Culinary Arts, so I can feed you pretty damn well too (and my wife makes the BEST meatballs and spaghetti sauce). I have taken 4 archery bucks, a rifle buck, and several muzzleloader and rifle does in the area in the 7 years I have lived here. The way the archery season runs, you could easily plan in an archery elk hunt as well. I have several freezers, as well as all the necessary butchering equipment, so caring for your animal is no issue.

Thanks for reading this long winded post and hopefully some consideration...I just want to do something cool for my wife.

PM sent

Thanks for the info

I'm guessing New Zealand is too far

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-re...unt/southland/stewart-island-rakiura-hunting/

She won't get on a plane...lol

Good luck finding a hunt for the wife.

John, sorry I can't help you out on the hunt. This is my wife's second deer season and she found out very early that deer hunting is a lot different then most of the TV shows make it out to be.

You may check out Ohio. I realize that is a good drive from where you are but the licenses are probably about as cheap as you can get in the country for a whitetail, especially with the quality of bucks Ohio has. The nonresident hunting license(which includes all small game except fur-bearers and migratory birds) is $125 and you can buy a either sex tag for $24. If you would have asked for a hunt like this 15 years ago, I could have had you on prime private land. Now, private land is tough, although there are some farmers that just want the deer gone. There are some huge deer killed on public land around here, but it would require some walking probably. In fact, due to lack of private land to hunt, I am looking at hunting the state forests around here like I would do out west-just pack in and hunt. Derek

John, you should reach out to Tbone about whitetail in South Dakota. As I recall, when he was living there, he did really well hunting on public land.
The only whitetail buck I've taken was in Kansas on walk in access property and really enjoyed that trip. Lots of good properties in their program.
Good luck!

I think you're overlooking CO opportunity for WT on public. Also check the Black Hills in WY. Tons of whitetails there, and decent amount of public. KS has lots of public areas, and if you're not too interested in killing a giant, there is quite a bit of walk in land open.

If you're looking for a private land type hunt, I think you're on the right track with a swap. You might post on a whitetail board like Realtree, or something where there are a lot more guys from the Midwest. I'm sure many would jump at the chance to hunt antelope.

Good luck with this trade. I offered to trade a moose hunt for whitetail hunt and all I got was grief and no one who could provide what I was looking for. http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=248262

Bambi, while "giants" may be hard to come by, there are decent bucks on the walk in properties:

http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=248980

Thanks for all the input. Hey Bambi, I believe I got ahold of you about your trade...lol

John, are you absolutely sure you want to trade a whitetail for the wife? I couldn't resist that after I saw the title of your thread, LOL! Seriously though, I would do like some mentioned and look at the Black Hills in SD and WY. There are also a lot of whitetails in the various drainages in Wyoming and a lot of ranchers don't like them, so you may want to put out some feelers and you might get a relatively free hunt somewhere. A guy just shot a huge 10 pointer down low right near the road we take to head up to hunt mulies on the west slope of the BigHorns.

John, I'm hopefully getting a new lease worked out soon. It may not happen as soon as you would like to get it planned but I can get in touch with you at a later time. If it works out it will only have modest trophy potential the first year for certain. Hopefully you will get something figured out quickly, but if you don't maybe this will work out.

Also eastern Wyoming ranchers generally hate whitetails and have extended seasons. Drawing a tag will be easy and trespass fees aren't terrible. Not to say public land won't work, but I think it will require too much walking.

PM sent.

Topgun 30-06 said:

John, are you absolutely sure you want to trade a whitetail for the wife? I couldn't resist that after I saw the title of your thread, LOL!

Click to expand...

I might be willing to trade her for a moose

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. Powderhorn, I pm'd you back

wish we had deer in pa

I lived in Erie for about a year and a half between stints in the military and deer were slim pickins even back in the late 90s

John. Ive read all your posts and I like your style. I would be more than willing to take you and your wife here in Iowa. Ive wanted to meet other hunt talkers in person for a while. I hunt Iowas early muzzle loader deer season. I have some private land here where I live and also some public in northeast Iowa that is really fun to hunt. I have a cabin along the Mississippi River where I stay . All I ask for in trade is a fun time and to pick your brain on learning western hunting. As a Iowa resident I will need go get back to you on nonresident applications. Please let me know if you are interested. I will help you do some research on the application.