Consider hiring guide to help in big-game hunt

So, after years of faithfully submitting your annual big-game tag application, you finally drew your bull elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goat or trophy mule deer tag. Maybe you drew tags for more than one species. In either case, your phone probably began ringing within hours after the tag results were posted, and on the other end of the line were friends offering congratulations and assistance.

Let me add my congratulations to theirs, but now that all the backslapping is over, you have a serious decision to make.

Begin by taking a good look at your tag. Depending on the species, that tag might represent a once-in-a-lifetime hunt opportunity. Do you depend on your own skill and ability, or that of your friends, to fill your tag, or do you hire a professional guide?

No doubt some of you are confident enough in your skills, or in your friends' abilities, that your answer to the question of hiring a professional guide is a straightforward no. On the other end of the spectrum are those who have the financial ability to easily cover the cost of a guide and will answer the question with an equally straightforward yes.

What about the rest of you?

I don't know if the question has a right or a wrong answer. Perhaps the decision to hire an outfitter is just a matter of personal preference, but here are some things to consider.

Your time is valuable, especially in today's economic reality. Do you have the time to properly scout your hunting area and otherwise prepare to put your once-in-a-lifetime tag on the trophy you seek?

A professional guide makes it his business to know the animals in the areas where he guides. He knows their habits, their travel patterns and their hangouts. He also is aware of how those things change as the animals' environment does. Of course, this knowledge also can save you money by cutting down on the amount of time you might otherwise spend trying to locate and bag the animal you are seeking.

Although 87 percent of Nevada is publicly owned, public hunting access can be an issue in some areas. The Ruby and East Humboldt mountain ranges in Area 10 are such a place, but oftentimes guides have special arrangements with landowners that enable them to take their clients across the private property and onto public lands beyond. A guide also might have permission to hunt private property that otherwise might be closed to the average hunter.

Professional guides also have specialized equipment that often is too expensive for the average hunter, and their services usually include food and a place to stay. All you have to do is show up with your firearm, sleeping bag and personal effects. They take care of the rest.

Hiring a hunting guide is not for everyone, but if you consider that option, keep in mind that guides are not created equal. Some are better than others. The key to success in hiring a guide is doing your homework. Just because a guide has a well-crafted brochure or advertisement doesn't mean his services are of equal quality with another.

Be sure to ask potential outfitters the hard questions and check their references thoroughly.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His "In the Outdoors" column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.