Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting I've never been elk hunting.

Figured only when you caught a tag for MT or ID...It’s still hard to come out with elk fur unless it’s guided, an awesome unit you drew, or you have a buddy who’s local and knows the country. I did a WY hunt with some pards 4 years ago for Antelope and Mule Deer. We were hunting out of Lusk, WY...Came home after 6 days with 10 out of 11 tags filled. It was a good trip. 😎

Lets keep spending money...any boots recs? I'm thinking a lightly insulated boot, my feet sweat very easily. Hoping the darn tough merino socks I ordered will help here. Eyeing these:

https://www.cabelas.com/product/foo...nner-high-ground-g/2498612.uts?slotId=12

I prefer all leather and no insulation. I've been using the Cabelas Denali for a couple of years and am happy with them.

I love how Danner boots fit and feel, I have a pair of uninsulated Danner Pronghorn boots, and I used to wear Danners for a job I had. My only real complaint with them is they don't hold up very well. For the cost they seem to wear out quickly.
I would echo Pointer here. I wouldn't go past 200 grams of insulation in a boot. The insulation makes the boots fit tighter it seems to me. Makes it harder to fit in the wool socks unless you buy a larger size boot.

Yep, never ending!

I wear jeans in good weather when I go back East to hunt Idaho or Montana or Colorado. For a Colorado hunt the original poster will likely do fine in jeans.

I wore jeans picking berries on a sunny day last week in Roosie country and aside from being a little binding on steps steeply uphill, they are great. And being wet from thigh down from all day dew etc. cools the legs as the day warms up.

It's a good idea to pay attention to the locals who hunt an area and follow their lead on things like what to wear.

Darn Tough socks are darn good! 👍🏼👍🏼

Ordered some Crispi Idaho's last night...hopefully they are fine. I've worn 11.5EE Irish Setters the last two deer seasons, and campsaver had that size in Idaho's, but no 12EE's if I think they are too small. Fingers crossed.

My feet sweating is always an issue. Salomon Quest 4D keep my feet dry though. I got 6 seasons out of the last pair. They are marginal with 9" snow and temps in the teens, but have perfect for me otherwise. I have a pair of Crispi Guide GTX I wear when it gets cold, they work well too.

One of the truest lines posted thus far. I know it is not what you want to hear but you will be a lot more successful long term hunting elk if you go about it learning elk and their patterns in a specific area.

I know that it is not exactly the same with Roosevelts, but my son, who is one of the most consistently successful Roosie hunters, tells new hunters that it will take them five years to get their first Roosevelt bull. He has hunted the same area for over 20 years now, a horribly miserable place few others hunt and that holds few elk but he has it dialed in. The first year he found elk, stalked them, spooked them and followed where they went. The second year he found elk in the same canyon, set up to ambush them if they left by the same route, and almost got one when other hunters spooked them but yet a third party messed up his ambush. But he had been in the right place. Then he filled a branched antler tag for the next 18 years.

I nudged a lone Rocky Mountain bull off of a flat bench on the middle of a roadless mountain side and tracked it for half a mile as it sneaked off up the mountain. Glimpsed it but no shot. Five years later I came back with two partners, put one in the timber to watch the no-trail escape route the bull had taken years before, and then the other two of us still hunted the bench. That time a bull was there and hunting terrain worked. The watching hunter got a shot at the bull as it walked past him within 25 yards.

Hunt hard and expect to tag a bull the first year but learn, learn , learn. Learn terrain, elk body language, exit routes when elk leave a specific spot, vantage points where you can see not only a big patch of ground but where you can see an obscure trail or route maybe up a ridge through timber. Remember. What an elk does in this spot this year another elk is more likely to do if you find one in the same place and circumstance a year later and ten years later.

Re pants and expense: pants take a beating in brush and rocks. This is a repeat but I buy wool and wool blend dress pants from thrift stores as my main hunting pants. They are thin, cool, lightweight, non-binding, shed light water, quiet and if you tear them or get blood on them, toss them without concern for cost.

Good looking elk. How old is dad?

Dad was 77 in the photo. He turned 80 earlier this year.





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I don't know about Crispi boots. I'd put a bunch of miles on them for break in.

I'm not one to give advice on elk hunting but view it as a hiking/camping trip with the potential to bring home a bunch of delicious vittles. You'll learn a lot and it will set a fire. Don't set the bar for satisfaction of the trip on bringing home meat.

Make friends with some of the locals in the area you'll be hunting. They know where the elk are or will be. I got elk the first 2 years I hunted Colorado and Arizona just by simply listening to what people that lived in the areas I hunted told me. Cheating a little , yes, I know.. I got an elk one year just by taking the advice of a lady I barely knew that owned the cabin we were paying to stay in. She told me where she had seen elk the evening before on her drive home and I got an elk the next evening at the exact spot she had told me. A little friendliness and respectfulness with the local people goes a long ways.

I would skip this part if you have work to do or you're limited on time. Holy crap does he put out the videos. and they're good. All of them. Seriously.

Chris, been reading this thread and I'm very much looking forward to your report back hopefully with pictures of dead elk! My fall is really tied up this year, I'll be lucky to make our annual campfire deer hunt this December in Alabama. If you're interested in that we'd love to have another campfire member there. Hopefully next fall I'll be back in the woods more and hopefully get out west for the first time as well.

Good Luck!

Maybe you should try wool and you won't be so saddlesore.

I know for a fact that saddlesore only uses the finest gear from Sitka, Kuiu, and Patagonia.

Don't that just chap your ass?

Ha,Ha,Ha,That's a laugh and a half.

first Year or two are a huge learning curve especially if hunting the same area or unit. You have to stay with it.
Ive Been very lucky in my draw and some friends donating points so I’ve hunted same unit/area for 7 out of 10 years and have 5 elk out of there and 3 years hunting in bordering unit and I got lucky the first year trying it out...and skunneked the other two.
Last year My friend “joe” asked how I get or find my elk last few years.
I’m not trying to brag as I have been rather lucky than good. But
I Scout, come early for camp, stay and put miles on the boots even after filling my tag to help others . I Hunt the same area over and over and learn something new every year.
“Joe” likes to hunt the newest and best area every year that he hears about and gives up after 3 days of hunting even after “seeing” elk.
I strongly suggest you fly out, camp in back of the rental and set up one or two Trail cameras. By the time you come back to hunt you’ll feel much more
Comfortable as you’ll google earth scout in mean time and see things differently after you actually saw it in real life.

Nothing chaps my ass but thin TP.