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

So I'm thinking it isn't very legal for my buddy to carry my backup rifle eh?

Well, you never know. A game warden might believe that a guy hiking the backcountry during elk season with a rifle is "only carrying it for his friend."

A person carrying a rifle legal for hunting elk during elk season is considered evidence that they are hunting in Colorado.He will be ticketed if caught

I know, i was being facetious.

I was checked by warden in Idaho, I told him no Elk tag but I do have this Wolf tag and he told me I should have 2. I then told him that the 1st year of de-listing I bought 5 which he thought was hilarious.

Fact... If you have only a Wolf tag you will see plenty of Elk and Deer and sheep and Antelope, guaranteed.


mike r

Welp, we are two weeks out. Since starting this thread I am down 30+ lbs. That alone makes this worth it for me. Me and 3 first time buddies are all packed up around the 50-60 lb mark with water and weapon (I'll be the only one with a tag this year; hedged my bets talking people into going with me and wound up with a full truck, got some awesome friends). We've been hitting the gym 3-5 times a week and hiking with packs at least twice a week. We have a solid plan A IMO, although we don't have all the vacation time in the world, we won't be in the woods until the 2nd day of 2nd rifle and won't be able to stay the entire time, will have to leave the day before the last day. Thanks everyone here for your help! Will come back with many pics, hopefully some of a dead bull!

Sounds like you have done all the hard work already, congrats on the weight loss. Now for the inside secret to backpack hunting: Eat all your food the first 3 days, it is a great incentive to kill something and less to pack out when you get your Elk. Elk hunting w/ a truck load of good friends is the best time ever, have fun.


mike r

Good times ahead. Looking forward to hearing about your adventures. Killing an elk will be secondary to all the memories, the resetting of your internal well-being and all the knowledge gained.

Damn I wish I was 27-35 again, single, enough money and time to pull off this kind of trip. Life gets in the way and dreams change, good luck to you and your buds. Can't wait to see the picts.

We are back. No luck for me, but we had a one hell of a time. Did run into an amazing pair of dudes who got an absolute monster 7x6. Helped them pack it out. Camped for 5 nights 6 hours hike from the truck. I didn’t see an elk, though members of my party did.

A part of me was born there, but I didn’t get to bring that part back.

I’ll just have to go visit that part yearly now.

Good for you! Glad you got the experience!

Chris, it’s terminal...You’ll be back again, and again. Start planning for next year 😎

It does become a bit of a sickness... Glad you had a great experience.

A few select pics:

[img]https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...5b399d1d3f1e19f1a516de39&oe=5C4A1288[/img]

[img]https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...617f529e083ca5271bed8207&oe=5C4BC9B6[/img]

[img]https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...efe8ba5897cd891fa4d3f832&oe=5C3C2DD4[/img]

[img]https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...eee9df50be89e4a485d52e22&oe=5C42596D[/img]

Idk why it won't just post them but if you click them it takes you to them.

Excellent! Looking forward to hearing what worked, or not. It’s a steep learning, I’ve been there. Or, still am on a steep curve.

I’ll say from a camp/comfort level, we did damn good considering our experience level. This site and Rokslide are incredibly valuable.

Revolutionary items:

Cottons balls in Vaseline. We started fire with absolutely no effort. Even in drenched conditions. It rained 8 hours one night, and 10 minutes after the rain stopped we had fire.

Puffy layers. Put em on when you sit to glass. Take em off to move. Simple.

Zip off Kuiu bottom base layers. Can take em off and put em on without taking off boots. Can take them off without even dropping trousers.

Enlightened Equipment 20* quilt with Nemo Tensor pad. Temps frequently dropped in the teens. Those nights I wore puffys over single
Base layers and was very comfy. A couple nights I slept in a t shirt and no socks.

Merino. Holy crap. How did I not know about this stuff. Changed boxers and socks after 3 days and they smelled and felt brand new. I had no chafing either.

Injinji wool liner socks. No blisters, at all, anywhere.


What was stupid or didn’t work:

Solar charger. Dead weight.

Excessive food. None of us ate more than 1800 calories a day. We prepared for 2700.

We didn’t drink enough water. Force 3L down per day minimum. We prob only sat around 1.75L per day.

Short boots. Even at 9” with gaiters I managed to get water in my boots. This brought out leukotape as a precaution. I then ripped all the callouses off the bottom of my feet prematurely taking the tape off at first night out at the hotel. Let that stuff wear off!

Dude, you have to change the title of this thread.


"I've been elk hunting!"

Oh and also, OnX was awesome. Gotta have that. Used it to make sure we were still on a trail many times as we went into places not many people go.

The best trails aren't on OnX......they're the ones you stumble across whilst following the ones on OnX. Or, no trail at all.