Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Help with Western/Elk hunting...recommendations please

So I am growing older and my young sons are too, and I've not made it out to do many of the things I want to do, especially in terms of hunting, particularly in the west. I had a connection (I thought) with someone in Montana who was willing to show us the ropes this year, but that did not pan out in the end, as he lost his job and moved on.

I want to get out and take my sons elk hunting, but maybe Mule Deer etc. as well, but living in Texas, we lack the experience and knowledge on how to do it successfully under the different conditions out west, so I need to go with someone to teach us. I cannot afford the 4k or so per hunter price that I see for most guided trophy hunts, but I need to get out with someone who knows how to do this so we can learn and then try on my own on subsequent hunts.

On another thread, someone mentioned Urge to Hunt as an outfit to look into. Anyone hunted with them, especially on a cow elk hunt in Utah?

Any other ideas on other companies/outfitters that we should look into to guide/teach us at an affordable price?

Not talking about a trophy hunt here, just an opportunity I can afford that will teach us so we can try self guided safely and effectively in the future.

Thanks!

Honestly elk hunting is not that complex. You need to be able to camp, and then if you get an elk, get it out. You can figure that out all from TX. I only offer this up to let you know it's doable. If you can find someone to teach you the ropes, that's great too.

A good dedicated elk hunting partner is great too. Learn their style and whack the hell out of elk, using good tactics on them.... One thing I've learned is people hunt differently and expect the same results. I recently went on a hunt with 2 buddies and they are older than my hunting partner and I, so the first elk they should have had, got away. Luckily we were in a very high success unit hunt on private logging land. Elk there are very plentiful and pretty easy to get. What should have been a get your critter first thing in the morning turned into a pack-out your critter after dark instead. Added 1 more day to the hunt, but that's the way it goes with different people hunting.... My partner and I would have been home early if it would have been us hunting that unit...

You can learn a lot about elk hunting reading forums and watching Fresh tracks with Randy Newberg on TV and similar shows. There is lots of public land in all the elk hunting states so you don't have to pay to hunt a private ranch. If coming home empty handed after hiking and hunting some beautiful country is ok with you for the first year or two then public land hunting will save you lots of money.

We hunt CO public land every year for less than $2K per person with a Bull and Cow tag, all food, fuel etc. But that assumes you already have a 4 wheel drive truck, good waterproof boots and cold weather gear. To be successful we are willing to hike a couple of miles off the road and make at a 1,000 climb every morning and when you succeed it means that you have to cut up and pack out the elk.

If you are in shape it is much easier to be successful but I am a relatively fat old guy that can still climb hills so you don't need to run a marathon to kill elk most years.

Sometimes you do need to be able to shoot accurately past 250 yards

One of the biggest regrets I have is that my father and I never went elk hunting together before he died. We always intended to go elk hunting, my first rifle purchased at 17 was a 7mm Remington Magnum so I'd be ready to go elk hunting in the Rockies when the time came. It was only 25 years later that that rifle was used on a bull and cow elk but Dad wasn't still around.

So get off the daydreaming couch, take a long walk with your backpack tomorrow and plan and schedule a trip this coming season.

Yep you can do an awful lot of research online, pick a a state or two that works with you schedules and start looking at all the numbers. If you're fixed on elk and your boys are in their teens I'd look to colorado, with high elk numbers and cheaper youth licenses it's a good fit for you.
The time afield hunting with your kids is something you'll never regret,

I guess it's time for my annual post of this article.

ELK HUNTING IN COLORADO

If you expect to start do-it-yourself elk hunting in Colorado, Wyoming or any other western state and go home with a 6x6 bull on your first hunt, and that's the only thing that will make it worth the effort, then don't bother, because those expectations probably won’t be realized. I love the high mountains, especially alpine ecosystems at or above timberline; hiking, camping, backpacking, sightseeing, climbing and occasionally wetting a line. I live in elk country and in the late 1970’s, I started hunting elk because it was an excuse to go to the mountains after the climbing season was over. For the first few years all I managed to do was carry a rifle while hiking and camping. Eventually I figured out a few basic hunting skills, I picked a hunting area and hunted it year after year until I knew it like my back yard, and that's when I started being successful at bringing home meat and antlers. In Colorado only 25% of elk hunters are successful and that includes hunters who have killed cow elk. I've often heard it said that 25% of the hunters kill 75% of the elk because the experienced elk hunters are most successful at killing animals.

However, if you expect to enjoy yourself camping, hunting, hiking, and viewing eye-popping wilderness beauty while learning to hunt elk, and you expect to do it several times, then get ready for adventure. Everyone who hunts elk with the right attitude will be successful if they enjoy themselves and Mother Nature. Be content, hunt hard and realize that you are alive and in the mountains.



My first elk camp in 1978.

For over twenty years, I got an elk almost every year. Sometimes I got both a cow and a bull. My hunting buddies rarely got an elk and one guy asked me why. I replied that there are no secrets to hunting elk. You already know what you have to do to be successful. But most people won't or can't do what it takes to be successful.

You have to hunt every day of the entire season. You should arrive at camp no later than the day before opening day and don't leave until the day after the last day of the season. You can't expect to be successful if you hunt on just the weekend or if you hunt for just part of the season.



Inside the wall tent at our elk hunting base camp, 1993

You have to hunt all day. The most productive times to hunt are just after dawn and just before sunset. So if you want to hunt during those times you have to do most of your hiking to and from the truck or camp, in the dark. Stay in the field for the entire day. Don't go back to camp for lunch. The first hour after sunrise is worth all of the rest of them right up to the last half hour before the sun sets, which is worth all the rest of them combined.

You have to learn to think like an elk. Pretend that you are an elk and you know that hunters are trying to kill you. Imagine where you would go and what you would do to stay alive. Then go there and do that. That's how you find elk. Hiding in the local bar doesn’t count.

You have to hunt the places that others won't or can't. Get away from the roads and hunt in the mean nasty hollows, where it's hard to get into and hard to get out of. Hunt where the elk are. 75% of the elk live in 25% of the available suitable habitat. You need to find out where that 25% area is and spend your time there. It’s valuable when learning to hunt elk to go with the attitude that killing a cow would be great. The big bulls will come in time, after you’ve educated yourself. Once you've committed to do all that, you can employ the following strategies.

ELK HUNTING STRATEGIES

#1: BE SAFE WITH YOUR RIFLE: Assume that any firearm is loaded unless the breech is open and you can see that it's empty. Always point the muzzle in a safe direction and never point your rifle at anything unless you intend to shoot it. Don't rely on the safety. Carry your rifle with the chamber empty and the safety on. Don't chamber a round until you spot a target. Never shoot at a target unless you are sure what it is, sure you can hit it and sure of what's behind it.

#2: BE PROFICIENT WITH YOUR RIFLE: Always make a clean, quick, humane kill. In order to do this you must be proficient with your rifle. No matter how good you have been in the past, you need to practice several times each summer to ensure that you are current. Don't just sight in your rifle. You must practice to ensure that your rhythm is smooth and habitual and you can hit what you aim at. Practice at 200 yards and 300 yards so that you can determine in the field, if you should take that shot. Also, get off the bench and practice in the prone position resting your rifle on a daypack and also in the sitting position. There never seems to be a bench rest in the field just where you want it.

#3: BE IN GOOD SHAPE: Altitude sickness is a real concern in the mountains. You need to be in good cardio/pulmonary condition to deal with it. Drink lots of liquids, take Aspirin and Tums in order to minimize the effects of dehydration and Acute Mountain Sickness. It's really endurance breathing that you need to develop before you arrive at high elevation. Bicycling, climbing stairs, swimming and high altitude hiking are excellent exercises for this purpose.

Also, everyone must do their share and you can't do that if you can't hike the hills, and haul out your share of the game, collect firewood, carry water, setup & break down camp, etc. If you are in bad physical condition, then you will be miserable and you will not enjoy the adventure.

Elk hunting requires a lot of walking through potentially rough terrain. It’s not like hunting whitetails where you can pattern an animal then wait for him to walk by. You have to find the elk and it usually takes a lot of hiking to do that. Then hope that they stay put long enough that you can figure out how to get to one.

#4: SCOUT, SCOUT, SCOUT: You need to know your hunting area like your back yard. Don’t expect to travel to Colorado and be successful the first year. Pick an area and hunt that same area year after year. That’s how to get to know your hunting grounds. Take camping/hiking trips and backpack trips into your hunting area in the summer. Know where their winter range is, where their summer range is and where the migration routes are that connect the two. Know where the game trails are concentrated crossing saddles on ridges, where the bedding areas are to be found, where the water holes are located, where the hideouts are, where there are gentle terraces on north-facing slopes.



This photo was taken summer 2010 scouting trip. We won’t find them here during hunting season. They will be hiding in the dark timber. But at least I know they are there somewhere.

Buy US Forest Service maps, USGS maps, county maps and BLM maps of your area. These maps contain different information. Copy this information onto the USGS maps. You can only reasonably hunt the area on one USGS 7.5' map. But as luck would have it, the best hunting area is usually where several maps come together. Tape the maps together. Memorize your map. Update it with field data from your scouting trips. You now have a map containing information in a way that no one else has. In the off-season, I spend time on Google Earth and I like to switch back and forth between that site and a USGS map site. All this helps me get a better feel for the country.

#5: HUNT WHERE THE ELK ARE: Seventy-five percent (75%) of the elk live in twenty-five percent (25%) of the available habitat. You can waste a lot of time hunting unproductively in an area where there is always some thin sign but never enough sign to indicate the presence of a large herd. Sure there’s the off chance that by pure dumb luck you might encounter a lonesome elk and every year someone gets lucky and fills their tag that way. But your best probability of success will be in the vicinity of the large herds. You scouting goal is to discover where that 25% hotbed is located. When you find that area it’s hard to miss. It will stink with elk musk and urine, there will be heavily used game trails in every direction, the grass will be cropped short, there will be lots fresh elk droppings and you can hear elk scurrying away just beyond in the trees.

You have to be mobile and flexible. If you can't find elk where you are hunting, then move to another location.

#6: USE HUNTING PRESSURE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: I hunt an area on opening morning where there is good vehicle access and lots of other hunters. I hunt in the places where I think the animals will run to avoid the opening day hunters. Most hunters will stay within a mile or so of a road. A few others will horse pack in six or eight miles or more. So it's good to get back in 3 or 4 miles before the sun comes up and hunt the in-between areas.

By late October the rut will be over and elk will be responding to hunting pressure more than anything else. They hide in sanctuaries, usually very remote wilderness or on private property. Learn where the sanctuaries are located and which routes they will use when they begin to filter out of the sanctuaries and back onto huntable land. Then setup an ambush on the exit routes. I have a friend whose strategy is to go in half a mile further than anyone else. He’s very successful at bringing home meat and antlers so there must be something to it.

#7: HUNT THE RIGHT ELEVATION FOR THE MIGRATION: Elk accomplish an annual migration, spending the summer at higher elevation and spending the winter in some sheltered place, usually at lower elevation. In mid-summer I can hike into several high basins that will always hold elk casually lounging in the tundra. But by Colorado's 1st and 2nd rifle season, most elk will have moved into subalpine and montaine regions. They can travel a long way for water. Look for them to start moving down their migration routes during the 3rd and 4th seasons.

Elk will wait as long as they can before being forced to migrate by bad weather. They will go back up if it warms. So if weather in the 3rd season is warm and dry, then look for them up high. Mule deer will migrate sooner and faster than elk. One day of really bad weather and deep snow, will result in lots of deer in the sage where the day before there wasn't an animal to be found. Deer usually stay down once they have migrated. In the late seasons elk can often be found in rancher’s pastures.

When the weather is warm, there will always be a few elk spread out throughout their entire range. So the population density (elk/square mile) is less dense and your chance of bumping into an elk is low. I hunt Colorado’s 3rd rifle season (early November) and hope for heavy snow and bad weather to drive them out of the high country. They will concentrate in the foothills, at the bottom of the snow line. Since they are concentrated, the population density is higher and your chance of seeing an elk is improved.

I'll say it again. You have to be mobile and flexible. If you can't find elk where you are hunting, then move to another location.

#8: HUNT BEDDING AREAS AT DAWN: Elk like to bed down in isolated, gently sloping groves of mixed aspen/evergreens with lots of grass and forbs for food. They can travel a long way for water. Isolated means someplace where it’s difficult for people to access. Find several places like this when you go scouting. Hike in the dark to arrive at an overlook before the sun comes up and wait to see what comes out of the grove.


I shot this bull at dawn, in 1997. This small 6x6 bull is about as big as we can expect to see in the area where I hunt.

#9: HUNT THE RIDGES AT MID-DAY: Setup overlooking a saddle on a ridge where game trails are concentrated and wait to see what walks by. This takes lots of patience and works best if you have somebody still hunting through the dark timber to get the animals moving.

#10: HUNT THE WATERHOLES IN THE AFTERNOON: Find some isolated water source, maybe the highest place where a creek first starts coming out of the ground. Setup concealed from view, with a good field of fire a couple hundred yards away, at least 3 hours before sunset, and wait to see what comes to drink. This works best in dry locations like Utah’s LaSalle Mountains or Arizona’s Mogollon Rim but I have also had good luck watching springs on warm Colorado afternoons. Wait until the very last shooting light is gone before going back to camp. I have field dressed a lot of animals in the dark using a flashlight.

#11: HUNT THE HIDEOUTS LATE IN THE SEASON: Elk know that someone is trying to kill them as soon as the first shot is fired. So they run and hide in the most inaccessible terrain around. Find some cozy little pocket surrounded by the meanest, nastiest country around; a place where it looks like there's no way that an elk could get in there; a place where you would hate to get an animal down because you would hate to have to haul him out. That's where the elk will be and that's where you should be (and where I will be) late in the season.

I like to hunt the dark timber. I walk quietly and slowly looking for something that's out of place. I spend more time standing, listening and watching than walking. It’s easier to walk quietly if you walk on a game trail and that also improves your chances of bumping into game. Every time you come over a small rise, or around a corner, or to the edge of a glade, do it slowly and quietly and be ready with your rifle because an elk might be standing just around the corner. Get a cheap cow elk call and carry it on a string around your neck. Also get a recording of what the call should sound like and practice. When you see and animal, let out a squeak and that animal may think that you are another elk. I have called in bulls with just a couple of squeaks. It may be more productive to sit and wait for the animals but you will live more in one day of stalking through the dark timber than in a week of sitting and waiting. When hunting in thick cover look for horizontal lines. Most everything except game animals grows straight up.

Sometimes it's very difficult to be quiet. Walking on dry aspen leaves is like walking on potato chips and walking on hard crusty snow is also noisy. In those situations you can't be quiet, so walk quickly to get to a spot that you already know from your scouting will be good, find a comfortable position then sit there and don't move. It will take only fifteen or twenty minutes for things to be like you never walked there.

#12: BE PERSISTANT: You can't catch fish unless you have your bait in the water and you can't find an elk unless you are in the field looking for them. They're not going to walk up and surrender themselves to you. You have to find them. That's why they call it hunting and not killing. Many hunters give up after a couple of unsuccessful days and go home. Be prepared to stay the entire length of the season and to endure whatever fatigue and weather, you may encounter. Hunt an area for several days and if you don't find anything promising, then try a different strategy or different area, but don't give up.

#13: BE PATIENT: Human beings are noisy, stinky creatures. Our dominant sense is our vision. The elk's best senses are their smell and hearing. Their vision is motion sensitive and they can't see colors. Many young hunters spend lots of time hiking and covering a lot of ground and wonder why they never see any animals. You should spend most of your time sitting quietly and watching. You should hike slowly and quietly and most of your hiking should be in the dark.

RIFLE CALIBER: I hunt elk with a 30-06 and 180 grain Nosler Partitions with Spitzer points, hand-loaded to perform like a .300 magnum (61 grains RL22 – 2,870 fps). It might seem simpler to just use a .300 magnum but I already have the '06 and the hand-load has a trajectory that is close enough to factory loads Federal Premium 30-06, 150 grain Sierra Game King BTSP that I can switch loads without adjusting my scope.

I think the middle calibers, anything from as small as .270 to as big as .338 magnum, are best suited for hunting elk. I recommend a minimum of 150 grain premium controlled expansion bullets. A 30-30 will kill an elk but its’ range is limited to about 200 yards. It’s my opinion that anything bigger than a .338mag is more gun than necessary and I don’t enjoy the recoil of those big calibers. A well placed shot from just about any legal caliber will kill an elk but nothing will work right with bad bullet placement, so one needs to use a caliber with which they are comfortable and proficient and take the time to get it right the first time. I know a twenty-something, hundred and thirty pound, young lady who has killed six elk with a 25-06 and 115 grain Nosler Partitions. So much for my middle caliber theory.

We’ve always been able to get very accurate rifles if we were willing to pay the price. But for many of us those custom rifles and high-end production firearms were out of our budget range. However, modern computerized manufacturing methods have enabled manufacturers to make extremely accurate firearms at an affordable price. So now any new rifle that I buy is one that is guaranteed by the manufacturer to shoot MOA out of the box. The Weatherby "Vanguard Series 2" and the Thompson Center Arms "Venture" are rifles that are guaranteed by the manufacturer to shoot MOA out of the box and both can be found on the retail market for less than $500. They're not pretty but they are accurate, reliable and durable enough to last a lifetime with proper maintenance.

Don't forget that your optics are as important as the rifle and caliber. It’s my opinion that the Leupold VX-III is probably the best value scope on the market. You can spend a lot more on a scope but you can't get a better scope at any price. You can spend less but you will get less.

BINOCULARS: I do very little spot and stalk hunting for elk. It’s mostly at distances less than 300 yards. When hunting in the dark timber it’s usually much closer than that and I try to look through intermediate foliage by adjusting the focus and looking for and ear or a butt or leg. This doesn’t require great glass and a pair of 8x35 is OK in that situation and just about any manufacturer will do. I own a pair of old Bushnell 8x35 binos that I like because they are not very heavy. I carry them with a chest harness to make sure that they are available to use when I need them. When I spot-and-stalk hunt for Coues deer or antelope I use a pair of Oculus 15x56 binoculars with a tripod.

HIKING IN THE DARK: Get used to it. Tonight drive away from lights of your home town and take a short walk into the woods. Sit down and wait for your eyes to become accustomed to the darkness. You might be surprised by how well you can see in the dark. It's rarely pitch-black at night. Starlight, moonlight and light pollution from cities/towns all make it easier to see. I carry a flashlight and a head lamp but I try to avoid using them except in an emergency because every time you turn the light on, you ruin your night vision. I don’t buy into the red lens theory. I think elk can see a point of light that's brighter than everything else no matter what color it is. After leaving the truck, I don't start hiking immediately. I sit and wait for my eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. Then if I can, I walk without any supplementary light. When there's snow on the ground and a little moonlight, things are pretty bright. But if there's no snow and it's overcast, then the hiking can be very slow. I like to hike a route in the day time so that I can become familiar with it, then I know what I will encounter when I hike it in the dark. It's also easier to hike in the dark if you pick a route with some kind of reference like a fence line, trail, ridge line, sandy creek bed or old logging road. It’s also a good idea to use a small straight stick, like a blind man’s cane, to feel the ground in front of you when you can’t see it. I like to sit and listen to the sounds of the night because my ears pickup so much life that I don't see in the day time.

BE PREPARED FOR WILDERNESS SURVIVAL: Finding your way back to camp in the dark can be tricky if you have followed your nose looking for game. I have used USGS maps and compass for over fifty years and I am very comfortable with that system. But several years ago, I bought a GPS and used it on an Alaska hunting trip. You can set your truck or camp as a way-point in the GPS and never have to worry about finding your way back. You should also carry minimum survival gear in your day pack. Not necessarily enough to be comfortable, but enough that you have the option of staying put once the sun goes down. I have spent a few unplanned nights out in the woods either because I wasn't comfortable trying to get back to camp or because I had found a good spot and I wanted to be there when the sun came up the next morning.

PREDATORS: Very few people get the privilege of seeing a predator. There's a 99% chance that you won't see a bear and if you do it will be running away. Cats are even more secretive. The best place to see a predator is in your back yard where they may be raiding trash cans or stealing dog food. The only situation where a bear might bother you is if you leave stinky food out for the bears to smell. Then they might trash your camp trying to find that food. This is especially true in places like US Forest Service campgrounds where ignorant tourists keep untidy camps and thus habituate the bears to the idea that they can find food there. If you are lucky enough to see a predator don't worry because you should be carrying a hunting rifle. Anything more than that is extra weight and bulk that you don't need to bother with. I have been on more wilderness backpack trips than I can count since 1958 and the predators that I have seen I can count on one hand and I have never been threatened. One time a young hunter wrote me and mentioned that a couple of guys had said that they had been stalked by cougars in the area where he intended to hunt and he asked me what I would do in that situation. I responded that I would buy a cougar license.

CAMPING: You need to be proficient at camping. Some people try to hunt elk from a motel or some similar type of lodging and some are successful but I don’t know how they do it unless it’s just pure dumb luck. The biggest problem with that kind of lodging is that it’s not located in prime elk habitat and you have to spend time in the morning and evening traveling between where you are staying and where you are hunting. So you either have to spend less time hunting or less time sleeping. You need to be proficient at camping so that you can sleep near where you hunt. Proficiency at car camping is a minimum and lots of people use campers and trailers. Every year for a couple of decades I setup a big base camp using tents. These days I may setup a base camp at the trailhead but I do most of my hunting out of backpack camps. The cheaper your gear is, the tougher you have to be. If you are going to use tents, be sure to protect them from the wind. Try to “hunt uphill”. That means set your camp low and hike uphill to do your hunting. Therefore, when you kill an elk you can drag it downhill instead of hauling it uphill. I’m not going to try to educate you on how to camp in this article. That’s another article all by itself but I will say this much; don’t try to learn to camp on your first elk hunt. That’s a recipe for disaster. A guided hunt is not the way to learn to camp because they do everything and since you do nothing, you don’t learn anything. Start camping in your home state and then maybe consider a drop camp for your first elk hunt.

WEATHER: The weather is entirely unpredictable in the Rockies. On a recent two-night backpack trip onto Pikes Peak, it snowed once, rained twice, and was mild for the rest of the time, and that was in September. In October and November you need to be prepared for two feet of snow or high temps in the 60s. You can have both situations on the same hunt and I’m not exaggerating.

PACKING OUT YOUR KILL: If you go into the hunt with the mindset that getting it out is gonna' suck, you'll never be disappointed. Before you go elk hunting you need to think about and prepare yourself to pack out an elk on your back. Don’t expect the elk to drop dead at a convenient location and don’t kill an elk and then think “What do I do now?” You need to be able to dress out a 700# animal in the field, skin it and if you have to carry it very far, de-bone it, then get it back to your vehicle. When I’m hunting, I’m using an ultra-light backpack with a capacity of about 4,000 cu.in., which is mostly empty. When I kill an elk, I carry out the first load of loose meat in that pack and then I switch to a bigger pack (about 6,400 cu.in.) capable of carrying 80#. I carry out the big quarters in that pack. Then I switch back to the smaller pack to go back in and get my camp.



Anyway that’s how I use to do it when I was young and strong. Now that I’m getting older, I rent a horse to pack out an elk.

MEAT CARE: If it's warm, you will have to be concerned with keeping your meat from spoiling. Skin and quarter the animal immediately, bag it and hang it in the shade. Cover it with a tarp to keep the birds away but make sure that there’s still good air circulation. Do not put it in plastic bags. That’s a sure recipe for spoiled meat. I have seen people place their meat in a side braid of the river or a creek so that the cold water kept the meat cool. I’ve also used Game Saver citric acid spray. You mix the powder with water in a spray bottle and it works great. I ordered it over the Internet from Indian Valley Meat Co., in Indian Valley, AK. http://www.indianvalleymeats.com/about.htm

VEHICLES IN THE MOUNTAINS: You need a 4x4 vehicle. Just about any stock 4x4 pickup will do and most stock 4x4 SUVs will also work. You need some ground clearance but you don’t need a lift kit. We can get deep snow and sloppy slippery roads during any of the rifle season. So you need to carry tire chains for all four wheels and know how to use them. Remember that you have to stay on established roads, usually US Forest Service roads or BLM roads, and that in a wilderness area nothing with a wheel or motor is allowed. A lot of people will drive to the end of a dirt road at or near a wilderness area boundary, camp there, and hike in from there.

PICKING A HUNTING AREA: Picking an area to hunt is the easiest and the most difficult part of hunting. There are literally millions of acres of public land located in National Forests and on BLM land. So it’s easy to find a place where it's legal to hunt. But finding "the right place" to hunt is more difficult.

Most Western hunters are not going to tell you where their honey holes are located. You're going to have to find your own spot. But there's lots of info available and if you do your home work, you might be able to find a good place to start. If you want to hunt in Colorado, here's how to locate an area.

Get a copy of a road map of Colorado that indicates which land is public. Compare that to the map of game management units in the Colorado Big Game Hunting brochure. Look for units with lots of public land.

Next, look on the CO P&W big game web page for the recap of preference points required to get a license in limited draw units.
http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx
There are more licenses offered than there are applicants in those units that require zero points. Those are places where game populations are at or above management objectives. Look for units which require zero points and have lots of public land.

Then, go to the interactive game management unit maps. http://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/huntingatlas/index.aspx?keyword=gmu&value=54 . There you can find winter ranges, calving areas and summer ranges in each GMU. Finally get a copy of the USGS map(s) for the area and memorize it. With all that info, you ought to be able to pick an area where there are lots of elk and lots of public land. And then you should be able to determine where they are in summer, where their winter range is located, the most likely routes that they use to get from one area to the other, and therefore where they are most likely to be during hunting season.

If you want to put in for the computer draw, here's a link that gives draw expectations. http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx

I’m not familiar with the resources available in other western states, but I would wager that there’s similar info available in all of them.

THE DRAWING SYSTEM IN COLORADO: Learning how the drawing process works is an important part of learning how to hunt elk in Colorado. The state is divided into game management units (GMU). Each year the game managers determine a quota for each species in each GMU and from that determine how many licenses of each species they will issue in order to manage each population. It's a very complicated system. Here's a simplified (maybe over-simplified) summary.

Over-the-counter bull elk tags can be purchased at sporting goods stores, some department stores, gun shops, Parks & Wildlife offices, etc. The number of those licenses is unlimited and they are valid in about half of the GMUs west of I-25. Low probability of success on OTC bull tags but each year a few tags are filled that way. Sometimes it just takes luck.

Cow elk tags are issued only through the draw (there are some exceptions but let's keep it simple for this introductory narrative). There are many GMUs where there are more cow tags offered than there are applicants. The extra tags are called leftover tags and they are offered first-come first-serve at Parks & Wildlife offices in early August. You have a much better chance of bagging a cow elk than you do of tagging out on a bull. A lot of people will hunt for cow elk in a unit where they eventually hope to hunt for bulls and in the process they learn the unit and are ready for the day that they get a bull tag. It probably makes most sense for a nonresident to apply for an either-sex tag.

If you apply for the draw and if you don't get what you applied for you get a preference point. You can also apply for a preference point. Each time that you are unsuccessful you get another point. People with the most points are awarded licenses before people with fewer points.

There are several GMUs where the OTC bull tags are not valid and bull tags are issued through the draw. You can draw a bull tag in some of those units with only a few preference points and some have pretty good success for representative bulls. These units are where a lot of elk hunters get their bulls.

There are a hand full of premium units that are managed to produce trophy bulls and there are only a few tags issued each year. Success rates are very high and quality is very high. In those units it now takes a couple of decades worth of points to draw a license and the number of points required increases slowly. It will eventually get to the point where it takes so many points that those units will be de-facto once-in-a-lifetime units.

You can apply for up to four choices on the application. Each year I apply for a preference point as my first choice. Second and subsequent choices do not use up your points. My second choice is a cow tag in a unit that has historically had leftover cow tags so I'm pretty sure I'll get that tag and it's also in a unit where OTC bull tags are valid. So each year I get another preference point and I go into the field with a cow tag and a bull tag. I shoot the first cow that I see and spend the rest of the season looking for a bull. I now have 17 preference points for elk. I've shot 32 elk since 1978, although only eight of them have been bulls and they are all big five point (5x5) or small six point (6x6) bulls.

Pronghorn and deer tags are issued only through the draw and the system is similar to that for elk.

Colorado issues very few licenses for moose, rocky mountain bighorn sheep, mountain goats and desert bighorns. You have to apply for three years just to get into the draw and start collecting points. One should consider any license for any of those species as a once-in-a-lifetime tag although if you were to start applying for and gathering points when young it's conceivable that you could hunt those species two or three times in a lifetime.

Internet is the easiest way to apply. Here's the home page for CO Parks & Wildlife.
http://cpw.state.co.us/

There are so many options that there is no easy answer for just how and what you should apply for. There is a lot of info on the CO P&W web site and you need to spend mucho, mucho hours studying all that's available. Concentrate on big game statistics.
http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx

When you're ready to apply, start here.
http://cpw.state.co.us/BuyApply/pages/hunting.aspx
In Colorado there is no separate big game hunting license. Your elk tag is your hunting license. They will send your license/tag in the mail.

You must have completed a hunter education course if you were born after January 1, 1949. You also need to buy a $10 habitat stamp. If you don't draw any tag, everything but a small application fee is refunded.

I started writing this article a long time ago. I have updated it over the years, and things have changed since I started writing. Now I don’t care too much about killing an elk myself, but I try very hard to help my hunting companions connect.

I hope this helps. Good luck and safe hunting.

No matter how good or experienced you are, you can expect to get skunked once in a while. I hunt with 2 other guys. I'm the youngest at 67 and we've been hunting elk for many years with great success. This year, though, was different. We had cow tags and were hunting our usual places where we'd taken elk year after year. During the season, we saw maybe 150 elk between us but none of us ever got in a position to shoot one. They were all too far, not safe to shoot, across a road, or before/after shooting hours. That's elk hunting for you.

Great post KC. Very informative. Enjoyed reading that.

I agree..

+2.

Especially the parts about never give up, hunt all day, go to the uglies.

yes, thank you for the advice, that's a great write up! I think considering my time, resources etc., and opportunities, in agreement with another poster, I am going to try and focus on a guided cow hunt.

Assuming I can get a decent deal, I would get some training/experience to help me jumpstart the process and cut a few seasons off of the learning curve.

Wish I lived somewhere out west so that that I could just spend the time to do the scouting and learning more 'organically', but that not being the case, I think this is the wisest course of action.

So if any one has any information on 'Urge to Hunt', or another outfitter they can recommend, love to hear it. Montana and Wyoming are particular favorites, but I am open.

Thanks!

Elk hunting success is usually around 17%. Of that 17% it is usually 80% of the success goes to the same guys year after year. 17% of 20% leaves about 3.4% success rate for just a guy from Texas heading to another state and hunting elk.

From those numbers, I would say elk hunting is easy, but killing elk isn't. The idea for help from an outfitter will dramatically increase your odds. The fact that you just want to get a chance at any elk makes the prospect much cheaper than a big bull, which could cost easily $10,000.00-$20,000.00.

There should be guide services available in the Colorado, Wyoming, Montana areas that would be both pleasurable and affordable. DIY could be much cheaper and you could always consider it a camping trip with a chance at getting an elk...

Two comments:

First, great post KC.

Second, for the OP a question. Are you going to be content going on an elk hunt and not shooting an elk? If you need to kill an elk to be satisfied, pony up the $ and hire a good outfitter. If it about the hunt and experience, which I sort of deduce from your post, KC offers some great insights. I know a few guys who need to fill the freezer in order to feel the hunt was a success. That's thier thing and so be it. For others it is about the experience, the learning, the frustrations and the sunrises and filing their tag is the icing on the cake. If thats the case, go for it, dont get too twisted up if all is not perfect and enjoy what can rapidly become a very fine addiction.

Yes, I am an elk-aholic and I am proud of it.

Rocky:

I don't recall seeing you in my elk camp this year, but it sounds like you were there.

KC

My partner and I get skunked about every other year. We also hunt public land with a 4% hunters success rate.... My best advice is STAY positive through the whole hunt!!!!! Expect a lot of work and when the hunt is done and even if you don't have an animal on the ground, know you did your best...

I love your post Razz... That about sums it up. Some of these guys that hunt private land where the elk are plentiful and are guaranteed a nice bull just don't get this. They are guided in to the big bulls, they take an easy shot (with their 243) and then the land owners hired hand backs the tractor up to them and lifts the elk up and someone else guts them out and skins them out for them. Then off to the butchers they go. They consider this hunting. Most times these are the loud mouths asking you to post up your elk kill pics to show everyone your big bulls. These guys wouldn't know what it is to get their shins all scraped up from manzanita, rhododendron or vine maple. They don't get to experience the frustration of when you know you are within 30 yards of a nice bull and it's too thick to see them and take the shot. Where I hunt, any bull is a trophy and well earned. A cow hunt is even better, but those aren't even guaranteed meat in the freezer.... To each their own I guess. Like you said, it is an addiction and the biggest reward to me is that I was out there giving it my all..

1. load vehicle with gear
2. drive to area that should have Elk
3. get out of vehicle and just start.

It really is that simple. I waited for a few years because of friends who kept "talking" about an Elk hunt.

One day I decided the talking part was done, now about 8 hunts later, just starting was the biggest decision I ever had to make.

Sounds like you might want to look into a drop camp.

I like your first three, but I think there's a #4:

4. If you're not seeing elk or very fresh sign after a couple days, return to vehicle and repeat steps 1-3.

and maybe a #5:

5. Realize that on most public land, the farther you get from vehicle access, the better the hunting will be.

Which brings up #6:

6. Have a good plan and all the equipment you need to cut up the elk and carry it out on your back, preferably with help from your hunting partners, i.e., each of you should have a pack or pack frame that's good for hauling loads, and the capability to haul the loads.

If you spook elk out of a spot, don't bother to hunt it for a while. They won't be back the next day. They won't be back for a week or more unless they're run out of everywhere else. A spooked elk doesn't just run out of sight. It puts on some mileage before it stops.