Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Getting away from the orange. A hard truth.

Started elk hunting 2 years ago. DIY, public land. Followed all the advice on getting away from the orange...

- Choose places without ATV access
- Find where the paved road ends. Keep driving
- Avoid marked/cleared trails
- Go deeper than the road hunter, but not as far as the guide/drop camps
- One road in, one road out. Fewer road the better.

Even went so far as to map all the roads in the unit and circle the areas that were miles from the nearest access point. Meaning - there is no way I'll see another hunter unless they drive the same nasty miles, then walk the same nasty walk. No way they can drop in off another road from any direction/drainage/ridge line.

All that said and done, I still couldn't get away from the orange.

It shocked me on multiple occasions to realize I wasn't alone in the woods I chose to hunt. Not to say the areas I was hunting was crawling with hunters, far from it. But on a handful of occasions, I would cross a set of fresh tracks, or see an orange hat sitting near a remote meadow I was glassing. With that, I've come to 2 realizations that I think are important for any DIY, walk-in hunter:

1) If OTC tags can be had for the unit you are hunting, you will be in the presence of other hunters. Plain and simple.

2) If you are willing to make the walk, slug the miles up/over/around, someone else is willing to do it too.

I've seen the advice given many times over about avoiding roads, walking the extra miles, getting into the thick stuff. And from my experience, that advice doesn't jive with avoiding the orange. Does it help avoid the crowds? Yes. But will it put you alone in the woods, being the only noise/scent/human pressure for those elk? No, no it won't.

Just my experience. And it was a bummer. All those miles in, and to cut someones tracks really made your heart sink. So to those planning a hunt in remote areas - go in expecting to see others. Maybe not the road crowds, but you won't be alone. If you have planned it and physically made it, so has someone else. Out wit the elk with your hunting knowledge, because outwitting the elk and elk hunters by going further and deeper is tough to do.

I have always recommended that hunters work on what happens to the elk from other hunting pressure. Don't worry about what they do outside hunting season. Two or 5-6 hunters in the same area does not hurt much. In fact 1-2 is a lot better than trying to hunt one on one for elk .Except if those others don't know squat about elk hunting and are not ethical enough to give you space. Of course only hunting elk two years, you might not now enough yet either.. No offense intended there

If you hunt NM or CO, there are no big tracks of wilderness as there are further north. GO in 8-10 miles and you will meet hunters coming in from the other side.

IT's a fact of life now. Colorado is the dumping grounds for all hunters that did not draw in other states.

Two options. Hunt other seasons. If you hunt the 1st rifle in CO that is where most NR hunt. There are still quite a few in 2nd season. Look to the 3rd and 4th season or apply for muzzle loader tags. Still hunters, but they are spread out more.

You already noticed that any OTC unit has most of the hunters. Build PP and look to other areas.

I didn't see where you mentioned which state.
No need to. Everyone knows.

Exactly why I'd never recommend an OTC CO hunt to anyone. My friend went on one "once" and said it was the most beautiful camping trip he ever went on, but that was it....he never saw an elk, no matter how far he hiked in. It just never happened for him.

What unit were you in? Yes, 2nd or 3rd season rifle are notoriously "crowded" in CO. Most of the out of staters will hunt the first 3-4 days and give up/or will be too tired to go back out again. I would skip that opening weekend if you have to go back again 2nd/3rd season and focus on during the week. Forget about the elk being out in the open during the morning or evening and get into the trees and stalk/track, especially good if there is new snow.

The problem most hunters make during rifle seasons is that they sit in one place and glass and don't see a thing. The elk will only feed at night in the open.

I've hunted one of the most crowded units during 3rd season and had multiple days where I was totally alone and didn't see anybody until I got back to the trailhead. There are ways to avoid people and it usually involves going in at access points that most people don't even know that are there. One of my go-to spots that has elk every year is only 2 miles off a 2 lane paved highway.

Other options
1. go during archery season and hunt week days, you have a full month.
2. 1st season rifle
3. buy some acreage in the mountains, it's a nice investment!

I dont worry too much about other people in the area..Most are clueless. If the elk are there, they're there, they are big critters and leave a lot of sign.

Last year I hunted a unit group that is supposedly a "dumping" ground for Denverites, and it was indeed packed with people..still seen elk, and some good bulls several days..Never bought a tag.

Just wanted to add, most of those elk were glassed up in the open (small ones,close to cover), from the start of the hunt to the end, 3rd season general elk tag..

Very much agree with saddlesore on his points. When I hunted Colorado, I definitely felt that I was meeting myself coming from the other side. Truly disappointing after putting in a hard effort to get there.

Also very true that a few hunters can help you, especially depending on conditions.

Regardless, too many hunters in an area spoils the whole experience for me. Best way is to hunt somewhere else where licenses are limited and where truly big tracts of land are available.

If a remote spot has hunters, it may simply be too obvious. Remember that elk rapidly move away from pressure, and try to figure how where they might go. Heavily timbered and rough areas have been very productive for me in Wyoming.

In truth, there are simply too many hunters wanting to hunt elk at the same time in the same place. Can't blame them, as I am one of them.

But I would rather find another place to hunt where the experience is more to my liking. Horses can help with this too.

WyoM70

I hate to be the one to say this, but this is the reason you were surprised by other people hunting where you were. That there were others willing to walk to the same places you were is pretty much a given unless you're super-human.

Do it enough though, in the right places (it might take more than 2 years to find those) and you'll get lucky and have some places, some years, to yourself. Or nearly so. Which is still better than hunting hear the road.

I don't have a ton of experience in CO, but there was an OTC elk hunt going on in the area I hunted deer.

I would have to check my hunting journal to be sure, but I believe I could have shot legal bull elk 4 of the days.

Hint: hunt closer to the roads. Your mentality is wrong, having been polluted by traditional wisdom of getting way back in.

All animals go where they do to avoid pressure. They don't care if it is a house's backyard, or the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Instead of thinking in terms of how many miles away you are, think of where the least pressure is. That is often much closer in than you're thinking.

getting away from "ORANGE" is really not that difficult in my experience,it DOES require a bit of careful research. but hunting the areas that the vast majority of that "ORANGE" avoids like the PLAGUE may be, difficult for someone whose not familiar with it.keep in mind the areas lightly hunted are AVOIDED for a good reason and 90% plus of the time its been due in my opinion a big reluctance to hunt areas that WILL BE RATHER difficult to get to without getting wet, or working on steep terrain, damn few guys want to back pack elk meat out of some steep canyon, or wade belt deep in ice water.

the green dots indicate areas Ive hunted, the key if finding a topo map , getting out a few fairly recent satellite photos and getting the land ownership, BLM, and forest service boundry maps and looking for steep well wooded areas that will REQUIRE you to WADE ACROSS A STREAM or CLIMB DOWN OR UP OVER A STEEP SLOPE FOR ACCESS,larger areas virtually surrounded by private land, and requiring you to wade a creek or climb for access are usually lightly hunted, especially if theres no decent areas near by to park a truck, which virtually mandates you are forced to be dropped off and picked up.

http://www.mytopo.com/maps/index.cfm
https://www.google.com/earth/
THIS IS A PICTURE OF ONE OF SEVERAL OF THE AREA,S I HUNT FREQUENTLY FOR ELK

ELK tend to cluster where the hunting pressure is lower and where the timber provides cover and theres access to water, so look for those factors and in most cases DISTANCE from roads MAY NOT be a huge factor, but no place to park a truck and a darn hard climb will.AREAS THAT LOOK LIKE THIS generally don,t have a great deal of foot traffic

why would I tell everyone the SECRET??
well Ive taken a few dozen guys along on elk hunt back-pack trips and theres been few members of my elk hunt club that have a masochistic streak like I do, so very few do this as it takes EFFORT there for I,m not all that worried I'll be flooded with competition, in fact many years Ive had guys give up and walk back to hunt near the truck after just looking over the destination up close! I'm 67 years old , I'm not in top physical condition, but I plod along and I don,t get discouraged if I have to lean against a tree to catch my breath at 7000-11000 feet altitude every 50 feet I travel,or it takes me 3 hours to get 1.5 miles into steep canyons.
yeah! set in my ways but Ive been successful most years

Sometimes orange doesn't hike. 3 years ago I took a cow out of a herd of about 80 on an open hillside within a horizontal mile of the road and in plain sight of it...but 2000' higher. It took me 3 hrs to climb up there but I had a nice selection of cows to choose from. There was plenty of orange on the road with binocs but only me on the hill.

The catch? I had my llamas in camp to get it out the next day. My knees are too old to backpack an elk down a steep hill like that. I've played that game too many times in the past.

Here's the view from about 400 yds below the kill site. Behind me where the elk were it got seriously steep. I was able to roll her this far before she got hung up in brush.

Now, here is a guy who has been paying attention.

Pressure causes a reaction from elk, and for hunters averse to company. If you see a guy - or gal - out in the remote with you, tip your hat to a person willing to put in the effort. Then try to have a whispered palaver with them so you each know the other's general trajectory. That way you can continue to hunt without stepping on them and vice versa. You might even hatch a cooperative plan.

Where my heart sinks is when I got to a good place by foot and find ATV tracks there - very illegally - before me. If I find the bootprints of another hunter who put in dues to get there, well, must be a kindred spirit. I did once find a guy whose tracks indicated he hunted exactly like I did - same movements, same strategy, same waiting pattern. It was peculiar and interesting to find a phantom whose shadow I was following several days distant in time.

Speaking of shadowing others, you can do worse in a new area to see what other hunters have done, what their approach may have been. Not only can you learn from a guy like the phantom, you will know where someone already blew the elk out.

I hate sharing my chosen area with orange, but it is a short season and limited resource. Especially with those mini-seasons in CO. I so much prefer Wyoming's seasons. Now I no longer have to live a whole year waiting for a mere 7-10 day hunt.

One other comment, 2 years is a pretty short time to accumulate knowledge of elk hunting. Put in more time and you will come to know how to see fewer hunters and more elk. But in CO, there is always a lot of pressure from limited jumping off points.

I applaud 340mag for hunting that hard. I don't, but I am older. The stupid elk don't frequent those nasty areas and they taste just as good as the smart elk.

I ride my mules to within 1 mile or so where I hunt, never into the area I am going to hunt and try not to screw up someone else's hunt. Go shoot an elk ,go back and get the mules. Ride back and process the carcass. Pack it back to camp.

Got my little pack mule within about 10 ft of that 5 point dink bull I posted above,last year.



I had left the mules way down in the trees below this meadow and worked the timber above it the meadow below the rocks. Have to confess though, I could only ride back up to within about 30 yards of the kill site.

Some good info here, especially from Dakota Deer. Two years experience poises you to learn faster or quit. When I have moved to a new state/area, it usually takes me several years to find and filter out a good place to hunt, and learn how to hunt it.

I have not hunted Colorado, but in other places I look for short backpack or day hunt pockets that other hunters are likely to ignore because they are too small, not visible from any road or trail, in an area with low numbers of animals and because sometimes they seem too close to a road to hunt. Maybe no such place exists in CO, but I'd look for it.

One is a kind of buttonhook place, less than a mile from a highway but appears horribly hard to get to unless you hike in seven miles uphill on a trail to nowhere and then leave the trail and go cross country back down toward where you parked. The miniscule numbers of hunters who get that far hunt up into the open alpine, once, and never come back. Its meadows and benches cannot be seen from highway nor trail and it appears to be the same heavily timbered cliffs as the rest of the mountain. We've killed at least nine bucks there of which 6 are wall hangers.

My son found this patch by tracking a deer going what seemed like an odd direction, to find out where the deer were.

Along that line, my best moose spot I found by backtracking a moose that seemed way out of his habitat and coming from an odd direction. Found a pocket of moose paradise surrounded by miles of country no self respecting moose hunter would bother with. Five bulls in six years, two of them very big. 4 1/2 miles from my house.

My son has hunted one elk area for over ten years now, and the first two were unsuccessful but spent intimately learning the terrain, where elk went when bothered by hunters, as well as learning hunter patterns in the area. In one of the lowest success areas in N. America he has consistently killed branched antler bulls for many years now.

You are off to a good start, have discovered the obvious, and are in position to learn even faster if you keep at it. The higher the dues, the fewer who pay them.

OTOH two friends of mine, excellent hunters, virtually ignore other hunters and go right after the biggest herds and highest elk concentrations, though they pack in well away from roads.

340Mag, wish I had a hunting partner like you. My partners are a little on the "I'm not going up there". So am getting in better shape this year and they can go there way and I'll go mine, usually up and over. I waited all my life to hunt elk and now at 58 don't want to be held back by anybody or anything. Killed my first elk last year and can't wait to get back into the mountains this fall.

ATTITUDE AND PERSISTENCE TEND TO PAY OFF.
getting in better shape is damn near mandatory,I try, but at 67 its not easy, like it used to be from 18 years-50 years old or so, but like I stated I must have a bit of a masochistic streak, because I almost always spend the first day in the hunt area with a my-grain headache induced by both altitude and my marginal high blood pressure. yet I refuse to let that get me down, Ive learned to lie around while my body compensates and acclimates, to the altitude change, drink lots of warm tea, gator-aid and take a few aspirin every 4-5 hours , checking into a motel, a few thousand feet lower altitude, or just setting up camp and sleeping after getting into camp a couple days prior to opening day helps.
learning to read a topo map and anticipate elk movement away from easy access helps
keep in mind while hunting your on your own time schedule, making it too some intended remote canyon on your topo map,may take you 1-3 hours, just take the trip into and especially out if you have a heavy pack, at your own steady pace.
you might be amazed at how often youll find you see game while your doing the slow, stop and scan 360 degrees, while your resting while covering ground.(btw try too lean on a tree and stay in the shade while you can, and carry enough water..)

Excellent post/thread. Exactly right!! The elk around here will be here today and be gone tomorrow. Success all depends on finding them. Hunters push them around, weather pushes them around and so does food/shelter. You can read all the bs in books, but it doesn't do much good when everyone else is reading the same books. Your best education is out in the woods. Go elk hunting every year, learn the herds and their migration patterns and you are more likely to shoot a bull or cow every year than the guy who's reading books and planning on being 50 miles from the beaten path only to find out there's many other guys that read that book and he's not alone... Just sayin

High altitudes have always been my friend.
Few seem to want to climb high.



















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Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. Looks like some stuff above tree line. I never ventured that high. Made it around 11,000.