California Big Game Hunting Application Period, should you "Burn up" your points this year or wait?

Big game hunting in California is a fickle sport. It is always difficult at best to decide to hunt any zone because we have so many other factors in play.

In other states like Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and the others if you draw a tag you pretty much know what the weather will be like, and you can plan accordingly.

With other states you can also conclude if the tag you may draw is worth the points you lose in the draw and if it’s worth paying the money for the tag and all the costs involved in the hunt.

For example, in Nevada it is so difficult to draw a Non-resident Rifle Tag that you really should make the effort and spend the money to go if you can. In Nevada drawing a rifle tag is really the most difficult part of the hunt.

In California it is a real crap shoot. Points in California are valuable, and you really have to shop around and find a Premium Tag or other tag that works for you.

Most decent California deer tags in X Zones will cost you 5 to Max points. And if you draw those tags and are not able to hunt the zone, it is becoming more difficult to return Tags and still receive your points back, and that’s only if you return the tag within the time and have some kind of medical excuse or extraordinary circumstance that they approve of.

With Elk and Antelope Tags, if you draw the Tag, they send you a letter asking you to pay for the tag before a certain date or decline the Tag. If you decline the tag or don’t pay for the tag before the deadline they remove your name, give the tag to the alternate on the list and your points are fully restored.

All of us like the feeling of having a fist full of points, but at some point, we have to decide.

If you’re having trouble deciding when to burn up your points let me tell you a story about two Elk hunters that I helped guide this year and why this topic has bothered me since October of last year.

One of my hunting buddies and I have hunted together for 30 years. Whenever we have friends that draw really good tags, we almost always volunteer to go with them and help them hunt the zone. This is a great way to learn a new zone and decide if you want to hunt the zone in the future without wasting your points on that zone.

Most of the people we help are older men or women or people with disabilities. We do not do it for profit or compensation we just do it to help the Old Timers out. I have helped guides out in the past and I have decided that I get more enjoyment out of a stress-free friends helping friends hunt than being paid.

And the story goes, both of these gentlemen had max points for Elk, that was I believe to be 22 for last year. One of these men was 84 years old the other one was 74 years old. Neither of these two guys knew each other but both of them happened to have max points and both of them had drawn California Bull Tags in the past but due to weather, fire dangers and closures both men had returned their tags twice before without ever going hunting, they just didn’t go because things weren’t perfect.

The 84-year-old could not be a nicer man. Unfortunately, because he is 84 years old, he just didn’t have the leg strength to handle the hunt. To say it was difficult would be an understatement.

Early in the hunt he had a very close encounter with a big bull elk, but the sudden chaos of a bull standing in front of him rattled him and he never got off a shot. Later in the hunt he had a shot at bull but couldn’t connect because it was over 400 yards through the trees and moving and didn’t have the legs to close the distance.

The physical demand of getting up early in the morning, hunting hard and then taking a short knap and doing it again in the evening took its toll. He ended up going home in the middle of the hunt, returning for a few days and calling it quits early.

The 74-year-old is also a very nice man, but tired. He has had a rough life and unfortunately, he is very price conscious. That’s a nice way to say he’s a cheapskate. He has drawn this tag twice before. One time he just couldn’t commit to the hunt because he couldn’t make himself pay for a tag that cost over $500.00.

Another year he drew the tag, the zone was mostly covered by wildfire, and he opted to return his tag and get his points back which was a good idea because DFW closed the area off due to the wildfires.

When he finally drew the tag this last year he couldn’t part with his money to go up several times before the hunt and scout the area and develop a game plan. He was convinced the hunt was a slam dunk and that he would shoot a bull from the road because a friend of a friend of that friend had told him how easy the hunt was. He was ill-prepared for the hunt and about three days before the hunt he dusted off his old rifle to find out the scope mount was broken and he had to hustle through the process of fixing all of that before the hunt.

Over the years his health had worsened he was having difficulty breathing due to the dust and asthma and the truth be told he just couldn’t keep up. Unfortunately, in the last two years he developed a problem in one eye and was basically blind in that one eye. Walking in the sage brush and tanglefoot was difficult and he just couldn’t see well enough to hunt properly.

At one point we had over 100 elk within 300 yards of us bedded in the sage brush and junipers. He could only see two cows. One bull was less than 150 yards away stashed up in the thick junipers and he couldn’t see it. Talk about frustrating. Finally, when the elk winded us, they stood up in one big whirlwind and he couldn’t get a shot off. They were gone. A couple days later we had five or six bulls at 500 yards late in the evening. He couldn’t see them and identify them as bulls, and they walked away.

He also ended up getting sick and just ran out of enthusiasm and energy and went home early.

I have personally known him for 40 years and 10 years ago he could out hike me and you.

In the past, both men had held off applying for an Elk Tag in California because of financial obligations, lack of time and all the factors that we use every year to decide when and if we will pull the trigger and apply for and draw and commit to the hunt.

Unfortunately, both men failed to recognize, or maybe refused to except that they were just getting too old to participate in a difficult elk hunt.

It’s smart to research your zones and tags and evaluate when you should and shouldn’t hunt.

But we should also take into consideration other factors when we decide if and when to hunt. If you think about is, this year in California Max Points is 23, if you were 18 when you started accumulating points that puts you at around 41 years old. That’s nothing to worry about but for some people who were 40 or 50 when they started accumulation points you could be in the same boat as these guys I took hunting this last year.

The experts will tell you to “Die Broke”, spend every last cent and plan it to where the day you die you have spent all your money and done everything you ever wanted to do.

I think the same holds true for Big Game Hunting Points. Burn them up on a good hunt, it would be a shame to get too old to hunt or die with a handful of points you could have used up.

But that’s just my humble opinion.

Enjoy your application period, it will close before you know it.