Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting New Guy... DIY elk hunt in Colorado!

hehe, pretty much spot on. Living in the elk mountains I have a pretty good idea of where a lot of the herds roam and can usually spot them 95% of the time all summer and during archery season, but as soon as rifle season comes they won't be out in the open. They'll still be in the same areas, but they'll be in the dense timber and you'll have to go in to find them. Good luck catching one out in the open during daylight hours in rifle seasons though.

AussieGunWriter and BDKeg are telling you some wisdom here.

As a resident I often hear/and talk to guys in the field during hunting season - all of them comment on how they cannot believe how many hunters and trucks there are hunting in the same unit. When they scouted, and looked at the stats they never thought it would be like it really is. Even the Division of Wildlife will tell you the most often mentioned complaint on harvest studies is - too much hunting pressure.

Last year ...I saw on one forest road - 83 vehicles. And this is an area of hunting that is less than 7 miles of hunting land.

You know how many had elk hanging in their camps? One.

I'd say there has been some great advice already given to you. Fitness and health are big ways to start helping tip the scales in your favor. Scouting and time in the field are also necessary for utilizing your hunting time more effectively. And you should expect that most people have the same info you do. All the map work is out there. Google earth ect. There are no secrets these days. The difference between you and the other guys is that they might know (from experience in that unit) where the pressured elk run to, and hide. And the really successful hunters will already be laying in wait in those areas.

The best advice I can give you, is to look into the Ranching for Wildlife program in December for cow elk. It is the highest success ratio you can find. It will take a preference point or two, but when you draw you will see elk, and better yet have a very good chance on harvesting one.

As far as general units, your expectations of a nice camping experience filled with hiking with your weapon...THAT is a great way to look at it.

The last bit of advice is to find an area, and really stick with it. Every day out will teach you something, and eventually you will start learning how to run into more elk.

I am late as usual but I would love to read that article too KC. Please send it to me.

Welcome to the group.
The first time you kill an elk, especially a long way from the road, it'll all euphoria. The 2d time, now that you have a bit of experience, it won't matter how good of shape you're in. You'll look at that huge pile of meat, look in the general direction of the road, do a quick calculation, and say something like 'Oh sxxt. What have I done."

Yup.

Especially when this greets you:



Had to quarter him as he lay - couldn't get him turned around or out of that pile. It sucked.

Kinda reminds me of a moose my partner shot 10 or 12 years ago. He was standing between 2 big rocks. When he went down, he just dropped and wedgeg between the rocks. You couldn't get a hand in on either side. 2 men couldn't work on him at once. It was a case of start on top and bone to the bottom. It took him about 5 hrs to bone it.

BallFroguy,

First, welcome to the Fire, there's some great folks here. I know you've said you've hunted before, so I don't think dressing your game in the field is anything new. There is a technique that I've seen Colorado Elk hunters used that is banned in Arizona called the gut-less method. You did say you were is good condition and you worked out; dressing your animal in this fashion does make it easier (IMHO) to packing your animal out. Have a good time and get you some!!!

HaYen

Why would AZ ban gutless dressing?

I've done a bunch of elk and a couple moose boneless. There's no doubt that it saves a bunch of work and time. It comes with a big 'however', though. I've become convinced that boning meat before it's cool and stiff causes it to be much tougher. Every one of the elk I've done that way have been tough. For the best meat, I prefer to keep the corpse whole until it stiffens up if at all possible.

LOL, I kind of agree , but I like working with animal carcasses instead of a corpse! I like to hang the quarters whole overnight and bone them out just before I load 'em in the pack, but that still leaves the backstraps and I've had some that were tougher than they should have been, after being cut out right after I killed the animal. Tenderloins have been good though.

If the gutless method is illegal in AZ, I'd be interested to hear the rationale on that too. I just read through their regs and didn't see anything pertaining to that. The only new reg that was close prohibited the import into the state of any spine or brain material to prevent CWD.

I have seen the difference in the toughness of back strap when compared to gutless method and traditional. The legs,I leave the bone in. However, as a disclaimer it is pretty hard to say there is a direct correlation because one year you may kill an old elk and the next year a young one or cow vs bull

I remember as a very young kid when my Dad would always remind us that the meat is a hell of a lot tougher when there is none.

Maybe I should just say 'the deceased'?

I'm calling BS on the gutless method being illegal in AZ...if it is, I've been in violation on 2 bull elk I've shot there, as well as a coues deer.

I got checked by a warden on 1 of the 2 bulls I killed and they never said anything.

R12-4-305
Possessing, Transporting, Importing,
Exporting, and Selling Carcasses or Parts of
Wildlife
A. An individual shall ensure that evidence of legality
remains with the carcass or parts of a carcass of any wild
mammal, bird, or reptile that the individual possesses,
transports, or imports until arrival at the individual’s
permanent abode, a commercial processing plant, or the
place where the wildlife is to be consumed.

An issue with gutless is guys who get lazy and leave too much meat on the carcase. Idaho used to require that the meat even be taken from between the ribs but they've dropped that one.

I agree it's hard to generalize, but I remember one particular mule deer buck that I shot right before dark and cut the backstraps out and quartered while the muscles were still quivering.

I hauled the straps and TLs out that evening but hung the quarters in a tree, boned 'em out the next day. It was only a 3 year old buck but those straps were the toughest I've ever had, while steaks cut from the hind quarter were tasty and tender from the same animal.

Colorado does not require neck meat as there are lymph glands there that also hold CWD tissue.

I fillet out the ribs, the little bit of meat between the ribs is mostly sinew and fat.

Idaho does require the neck meat to be taken but so far CWD hasn't been found here.

I am curious and puzzled by the comments about meat being tough after boning while still warm. I have done this for years - since I pack meat out on my back - for elk, deer, sheep, goat, and antelope, even bison (the quick boning that is). Compared to the rare whole-animal retrieval and hanging the unboned carcass, I have not noticed a difference. I have only experienced one really tough animal after this treatment and that was an old post-rut worn out bull with no remaining body fat. That bull was tough everywhere, even after extra aging on backstraps.

A few have commented on tough meat, but no one has mentioned how the meat was handled between boning and arrival on a plate. Do you age it, freeze it immediately, cook and eat it immediately...?

Seems meat frozen within a day or two of death will be tough when you thaw it out since aging was truncated. But if you allow it to sit refrigerated for several days after thawing it, aging picks back up and it is much more tender.

I generally try to age steaks the equivalent of 2 weeks (adjusted by temperature and time before I get it under refrigeration). This is on meat I bone out as soon as possible because I want to get the meat away from the carcass quickly where a griz may show up while I am gone - or even before I am gone. I have not had any trouble with meat being tough when handled this way.

What are y'all doing to the meat after boning?

I was told many years ago, and have experienced, that you should let the meat go through rigor mortise before cutting it up, 1-2 hours. I killed a young whitetail close to camp and the fire was already going, we put the tenderloins on the fire and were eating within 45 minutes of the bullet flyin. Had the best flavor I've ever tasted but it would've been easier to chew on my boots.....

Our meat is either put in a walk in d cooler for two weeks, or some less if it has hung in camp for awhile. Still see difference in back straps that had the spine left in and hung vs not.
I killed an old bull back in 2009 and it took me 5 years to eat it. Ended up grinding most of it in a little kitchen grinder as we needed it. However, even the grind was tough.