Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting CO Drop camp recommendations (elk)

FYI, Winterhawk had their permit pulled after 2015 season and have vacated the area. Glad their gone too, I had more problems with their hired hands than I care to share.

I've never been dropped in, always had my own camp, rent horses, been doin it since 92 but moved to CO 10 years ago. Hunted the same area the whole time and know it very well. I'd rather do it on my own, my way. Filling tags is always the goal but I'm not unhappy if I don't.

I had heard something was up with winterhawk but wasn't sure what. Wonder what pushed it over the top?


regarding filling tags I agree completely.

Had two friends hunt with Winterhawk several years back,

They came home with a decent Bull and fairly nice buck.

Only thing they weren't happy about was WH required them to haul the game to the nearest horse trail. That hadn't been mentioned, or asked.

The Devil is in the details.

Many many years ago,probably in the mid 80's we hunted unit 25 a lot,where Winterhawk hunted.Only we were there first.This was before the area was written up in a lot of magazines. In the late 70's we consistently filled every bull tag in camp 5-6, plus deer.

Winterhawk moved in and set up a base camp at the end of the road ,called Big Springs. They promptly erected a corral that fouled the only water source there. The first season,they didn't do well and tried to bully all the DYIer's there thinking it was their own private hunting area. We didn't bully.

We were bringing elk in every day. The 2nd year they were there, they had two guides( at least they called themselves that) follow us around. Although we packed all our elk out after dark,it wasn't long before they tracked us in the snow and found out where to hunt. That pretty much ended that good area,and we baled out and hunted elsewhere.

That area is out of Derby Junction long the Colorado River and into the end of W Mountain. I still knew a few honey holes back in a ways.I sent a few guys in there,but every year got worse and worse. Winterhawk wouldn't go to the kill site and pack meat,because they were not very skilled horsemen or packers. I had a few hunters in drop camps with Tenderfoot tell me the same thing happened to them.

I then moved further west and hunted out of Sweetwater Lake .For many years,I packed a camp into the Turret Meadows local,but in later years, I rode in every day form the lake.

At that location. AJ Brink ran an outfitters business.Drop Camps and full guided service and at the end of the road High Guide Service operated by Dennis Berghstead and Cade Benson. It sold three times during the years I hunted there,and the new buyers ran it into the ground. There was also an outfitter operating out of the public parking area near Sweetwater lake. There were lot of unhappy hunters that got poor hunts there. A J Brink was ok ,but there were just too many outfitters in the same location and it was a favorite for NR's to hunt also.I took 8 bulls in 8 years out of there and then several cows,but it eventually got hunted out, but the outfitters still hunt it. and a lot of clients go home with unpunched tags.During all this time ,I also hunted Unit5 4 on and off and finally started to hunt it exclusively in rifle season.Now that area is pretty poor in terms of success rates.I knew both the previous owners of Tenderfoot,before Fred Stinson bought it.

I relate all this to give a brief account of my association with drop camps/outfitters. Not that I used them, but I sure talked to a lot of guys in those camps.

I see a lot of outfitters having booths at the trade shows like the Sportsman's Exposition in Denver and I know a lot of them set up back east for western hunts. There is undoubtedly some good outfitters at those places,but the really good outfitters are already booked full for 2017. As mentioned a fellow really has to do his homework before signing up with an outfitter.

Wyogal nailed it. She could have saved the trouble and just said "don't be such an assh*le" though.

i grew up in the midwest and now live out west in elk country the past 13 years chasing, hunting photographing elk.I have elk by my house year round.

i learned early though to stop running my mouth and listen to guys like kc, saddlesore, scenar and smokepole and others on here. Very big learning curve for successful elk hunter.I put at least 50 60 days a year scouting and still have more to learn.

Nice of you to mention my name but both those guys have forgotten more than I know. I did hunt out of a drop camp, and stayed in a Holiday Inn Express once though.

I'm with you on the learning curve. Grew up hunting whitetails back east. Some skills are transferable but it's a totally different ballgame. One thing I learned early on is as they say "elk are where you find them."

A spot that was red hot one year may be no good the next, due to hunting pressure or just the natural movement of the animals. If you get plopped down in an unfamiliar spot and it's an off year, you need to be able to pick up and move. If you can't change your location, success will be limited. If you're backpacking or car camping, or hunting guided, moving ain't a big deal.

In a drop camp, it's impossible.

Jump in with both feet and do it yourself. To hell with paying big money for someone to deny you the experience and learning that you'll get from DIY. Study and research starting now and go make it happen. It isn't that complicated when you get into it. Pick a unit, study your maps to find areas a mile from a road and go have a ball learning about elk hunting.

That will work.I have met a lot of guys that do that.Then when they walk up to an elk they start to try to figure out how to get it out. Th en ext thing you know,they are at my camp or another's asking to pack it out. SO if you choose this route, make recover a big part of your plan.

Not aimed at Greentimber,but a few years back down in Unit 54 there was a guy from TN that after successfully getting his elk,he put the meat in plastic garbage bags.Don't know if the meat was still warm or not, but when he went back to get it,it was spoiled.He told me when he opened the bags he almost puked. Again, know how to take care of you meat and figure out how to get it out

If you're doing 4 guys and $1800 each is top end of your budget, you guys can put together a nice wall tent setup for $2500 and you'll be set for many years of DIY wilderness hunting. That's how it all started with me.

That's how the guys I go with have done it for years. They started backpacking in the Flat Tops in the early 80's . Then after a couple years they got a wall tent that we still use today. Pay someone to pack you and the gear in or camp at a trailhead and don't pack in, just hike to a deep nasty , dark drainage . I'm empty handed so far, but that doesn't mean it's been unsuccessful. .Study maps and get in shape

Fully guided or bust.

No other way.

Nobody said that, at least most on here didn't say it. But it's your ball, so go ahead and take it home with you.

You're the one saying it. No one else did.

Geez, get over it.

I spoke with Jeanne earlier this week.

Booked for 2019 2nd rifle

It's the continual bad advice from the 'experts' that irritates me,

Moving from one drop camp to another drop camp is impossible?

Let me inform you, your 'impossible' things are actually quite possible.

I've done it.

OK, it's "usually" impossible.

Just because you were lucky enough to hunt with an outfitter who had another camp open for you to move into doesn't mean that most operate that way.

Your still assuming, mis-leading and making general blanket statements.

Stop digging.

I've gotta keep digging so I don't lose sight of you.

What's the definition of "drop camp?" Does it mean you go to one camp, and if you don't like it the outfitter moves you to another?

I'm actually growing fond of you too,

You've been preaching the whole time you need to be where the Elk are,

I only did what you taught me.