The points game

I know this question has been asked many times many different ways. I have done a ton of research on this forum and all over the web, but just need some guidance. I am hoping to do one trip a year and want to have some points built up in a few years for quality for some high quality hunts. Here is what I am thinking, any feedback, positive or negative is welcome.
I am headed to Idaho on an OTC elk/Deer tag in 2018. Hopefully Alaska for caribou in 2019. After that I don’t have our next destination lined up. My trips are all with my father, 67 years old and awesome health. Not sure how long he can keep this up, but he is my hunting partner until he bows out on his terms. We are opportunity hunters and not after a record book animal, but we like to see/harvest nice animals just like anyone and have a great time while doing it. Hard work is part of the adventure and just makes the reward that much sweeter.

I was thinking of building points in AZ for elk and Deer as it seems they have great options that can be had for both after 4-5 years. At the same time build points in WY for antelope, thinking it would be a great hunt to take my kids on as they become capable and CO for Deer as well. Also thought SD and KS for whitetails. Not sure if I can afford it all, but I think it would give me some good options down the road.

I know these are long shots and most likely to never happen, but if you were trying to build points for a goat or sheep tag. What state(s) would make the most sense? Most options just seem like a pipe dream, is there any where that you could apply for 20 years and be able to draw a tag eventually?

Thanks, open to any suggestions.

Moose, mountain goat and sheep are tags that as a non-resident you should not expect to draw unless get some luck. Most applicants will never draw all three. Of course, MT has unlimited units so can hunt bighorn rams every year if want then if harvest have a brief waiting period to apply again. CO has some archery bighorn ram tags and some rifle ewe tags that you can draw in under a decade.

No easy mountain goat states but ID is most likely your best odds at around 1 in 50. You can only apply for moose or goat or sheep in ID, though.

Idaho moose is around 1 in 25 odds when economy is good and 1 in 20 when economy bad.

One thing is certain in the points game as a non-resident, application cost and tag cost never go down in price and tag allocations never go up. The only people that benefit from a preference point system are the ones that are there for the first year. There are only so many ways to allocate tags when demand greatly exceeds supply so people bad at math like to be selfish and push a preference point system that screws any applicant not old enough to apply in Year 1. When are bad at math you assume that 1 in 200 odds mean if you do not draw after 10 years that loyalty should be rewarded by screwing over a bunch of folks. No more tags created just takes a fair, random system and bastardizes it forever.

If your budget is unlimited then can buy tags for the Big 3. If is limited then the two issues are how much are you willing to spend each year with no guarantee you will draw a tag and how much are you willing to have out on deposit at one time while wait for refunds from unsuccessful applications?

I personally think a mountain goat hunt is the physically hardest hunt in North America. The caveat is that you hunt the goats away from hikers that are prone to feed the goats cruelly changing the nature of those goats. I would say is harder to kill a mature goat from a herd of 30 goats in a unit that to kill a sheep from 30 sheep in a unit. Often, the hardest part of the sheep hunt is getting the tag. Some sheep units barely have any sheep though and the sheep they have are in nasty places such as a few units in ID.

Moose are not hard to kill if in a healthy moose unit but finding a big bull can take looking over a lot of bulls.

I would apply in NV, UT and AZ for sheep. UT also for goat, moose and bison. ID for moose unless have zero interest then apply for goat instead unless zero interest and only then for sheep. NM offers sheep but is two tags for the 6% pool that is NR not signed to an outfitter contract. WY is an expensive roll of the dice for sheep and moose as you are realistically only chasing the 25% of NR tags awarded randomly for the rest of your life now that 100+ years of people are ahead of you. WY goat is without bonus points so you can apply for the 1 or two tags there. WY bison is a very, very expensive date and harvest rates are very weather dependent so most years you will have strong odds for a serving of $4000 tag soup.

MT squares points so is a long shot similar to NV but have some big rocky bighorn rams in several units.

In CO, you effectively apply "dead" for sheep, goat and moose for 3 years as they only award preference points for your first 3 years then you can earn bonus points. Applicants with bonus points get all tags so that is why are drawing dead early on.

If you apply as NR in every state with a sheep ram tag then I think your odds are around 1 in 75 will draw one or more sheep tags in a given year. So, if you are 20 years old then your expected age when draw would be 95 with half of the people in that scenario drawing before age 58 and half after. That is a rough calculation.

Good luck and if you view the cost to apply as a hobby and in this for multiple decades then should draw a sheep, goat, moose or bison tag. Try not to focus on the cost to get to the point you draw that first tag as likely will be $10,000s spent as get to Day 1 of the hunt.

The better "investment" would be to not apply as a NR for sheep/goat/moose/bison put instead place $100 to $200 a month into a stock fund with low costs such as SPY and might be a able to get 6% returns over the next 30 years at which point can most likely pick the year to go on a Big 3 hunt and buy the hunt.

If you have around $5K burning a hole in your pocket then consider an aoudad hunt in TX with high harvest rates or for less money can try to draw an aoudad tag in NM for public land and chase free-range aoudad but those harvest rates are typically low. Mature Aoudad rams have horns that can weigh as much as a typical bighorn ram harvested i the Lower 48.

Good luck.

Do your research well if you have only enough money to spend on a handful of apps. Some states odds are a bit misleading at first glance. An example is MT on the big 3, they lump nonresidents in with residents on the odds reports and the fact that nonres only get UP TO 10% (meaning many units will get no tags for nores) and then the nonres to res applicant percentage is way different to boot. I did some math on some moose stuff a couple years ago and figured the odds were about 10% of the posted odds in many hunt choices. Keep point creep in mind too, some states and choices are a fools game at entry level at this point.

Thank you both. I will pocket my money for the big 3 and focus on just building points for elk and Deer as expected. Even trying for some of the “famous” units for elk seems like a waste.

I may even just keep the states to CO and WY as it may be the most economical to build a few points and get in to some better areas in a few years. Thanks again.