Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How many people have killed a Bull elk on a otc elk tag?

Just archery.

Kent

I have, in Idaho. However, not recently. These days most of the bull hunts in southern ID are draw only and the few open hunts have tag quotas and are very hard to get. If you don't buy it the 1st day they go on sale, you don't get it. In what's probably the premier OTC hunt in so. Idaho, unit 36, the tags sell out in less than an hour. So, the last 5 or 6 years, my group has switched to just hunting cows. The tags are much easier to get and I don't care about antlers.

No, the only points I’m getting are deer and antelope in Wyo.

I quit the points quit a few years back. Figured I was better putting that money towards UW authorizations for lesser units in NM. In essence I guess that makes it OTC. Even the lesser unit authorizations are skyrocketing in price now, so not sure that was a smart move.

Wyoming general elk hunts are pretty good SLM. Usually 2-3 points and you'll snag a tag. I can't say enough good about the units I have hunted there. Usually very accessible and good to great hunting.





















Usually draw a mix of cow/calf and general tags in our group. Typically we do pretty decent.

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.co...-B6E2-25AEDD60FD34_zpshkfqtltr.jpg[/img]

Good stuff.

I probably screwed up on my “plan”. Will probably start adding Wyo. elk points as well. Hunted OTC archery in CO once and decided that wasn’t for me.

My dad and I tag-teamed one on an ID OTC tag (with iddave).

I did for many years. I shot cows in ML season and then bought a OTC bull tag for 2nd season. Probably shot 30 of them or so. Last one was in 2018 on a solo hunt. After that,I figured I was too old to handle one alone,and I no longer relished playing in the snow and cold. So I only hunt ML now.

Awesome Scott. Idaho was my first western hunt after I returned from OIF I in 2003. I would’ve never ventured elsewhere, but wolves came on strong and quick in a lot of the units I hunted but it’s still near my top places to hunt.

I actually need to do some research and get back there. My best bull came from there. Not a beast but I am pretty proud of the hunt.

SLM, elk points for a general elk tag are worth the trouble. Goats, Sheep, moose are getting outta control for me as a non res, but deer, elk and antelope are still top shelf great hunting.

Hell ya Dave is a hellava hunter, and a good guy to boot. 👍

You guys do well too Scotty. 👊🏻 Hell ya

nice pictures thanks for posting, Pete53

My one and only bull was a do-it-yourself hunt on public land with an OTC tag. Colorado

Bulls both CO OTC and WY General on public lands. MT NR draw tags. Tagging varies by state. More recently by draw tags but still public lands. Also cows on general (for meat) or draw as second choice since I want to hunt even without preferred tag. Have a few years in and a lot of meat packed out on my back.

For many many years here in Idaho you could get over the counter tags for some areas, especially the Selway areas. We killed lot of bulls in there in September and I'm sure some of them had never seen a human being before. Many times I called in bulls just using my mouth, no bugle. A couple of times my mule called them in when she got scared & started braying.
I've taken 25 elk in my life, about half of them with revolvers & a good share of them have been cows because now days most hunts are a draw hunt & it's easier to draw a cow tag plus I'm a lot older & cows are easier to handle. You can see the revolver in my shoulder rig in the first photo. In the second one I had to left my six gun & all my gear & the other side of the river to ride across & retrieve the bull. Almost always my OM Ruger 44 flat top.




Dick

I’ve only shot nine, one of which was in area 76, a draw unit in Colorado.

Hell ya, very cool Dick. Got a couple older buddy’s that used to hunt the selway/lochsa pre wolf, boy I wish I woulda been born sooner! Sounded pretty epic. 👍

Awesome stuff. Thanks for the pictures!

For years, Idaho's Stanley Basin was an open hunt, surrounded by draw hunts. If we didn't draw closer to home, we'd go buy bull tags in the Stanley area. They had a quota but you could buy tags as late as August. Then a few years ago, it got discovered. They had to reduce the number of tags to 1800. When they go on sale, they'll put 900 on sale at vendors at 10am. Those will sell out in under an hour. Then the other 900 go on sale online at 1pm. They'll be gone in under an hour, too. It's turned into a zoo.
If you applied for a draw hunt but didn't draw, you have to wait 5 days before you can buy a tag in one of these quota units. You wait 5 days for a tag that sold out in 1 hr. Yeah, right.

I have taken 16 bulls in 4x4 or better areas, all on public land and otc tags. Two of those hunts I did solo from Pa.
All hunts diy with no outfitters.