Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Help for New Elk Hunter

My son in law has moved from Florida to Colorado and wants to hunt elk. He has hunted deer and pigs in Florida so he has some hunting experience, and is currently trying to figure out the Colorado elk hunting regs and purchase a lifetime tag. The rub is that has really no idea where to start looking for an elk. He would like to put in for a cow tag, for a meat hunt, and is located near Alamosa, any suggestions would be great. thanks.

Brand new hunting then id recommend a guide all day. Most of them get tags as well so you would get that guaranteed

There is no life time tag. I agree with JB ,get him to hire an outfitter for the first hunt.

Make sure he qualifies as a resident 1st.

I would not go guided if he lives there, he has deer hunting experience he just needs to learn what elk sign looks like and go hunt. Elk are just big deer.
He should get to know some local hunters and just inquire about hunting pressure, not where the elk are.

He has time to get out and look over some terrain this summer and look for elk sign. Tell him to buy a fishing license and go do some backcountry hiking and fishing and look for elk sign while hiking.
One of the perks of being a resident is he has time to get to know an area, no need to hire a guide or outfitter to learn about elk hunting. The biggest issue is getting one out of the forest in a timely manner and that is not too hard. He needs a good pack frame and some survival supplies for that pack and just go hunt.

Get him on some western hunting forums and read over the elk threads. He can learn a ton that way without paying someone thousands of dollars for the education. If he really wants an elk this year maybe look into the RFW draw for residents if he qualifies. Even a cow elk hunt would be a good learning experience.

Throwing another vote in the box for hiring an outfitter. They have the resources and info to get him on elk a whole lot quicker and easier than a public land adventure. I’d suggest outfitter now, then after he’s lived there for a while and more importantly, more familiar with any public or private land he can hunt on, and the tendencies of the elk in that region, then start the do it yourself elk hunts. Just a suggestion, and good luck to him whatever he decides.

Doc_Holidude

A great deal of the fun is in figuring it out oneself. Use the harvest stats, call and visit the CO's, get onx maps, put his own boots on the ground, trial and error, and get after it. Plus there's the fact that someone from his work, his neighborhood or his church is going elk hunting this fall.

Honestly, not to be mean but if he's not motivated enough to figure it out himself, he's likely not motivated enough to go do it himself.

Never been elk hunting….

He definitely needs to hire a guide on his first hunt! My gosh, he moved from Florida….180 degrees different than anything he’s seen before.

If he doesn’t hire a guide, he needs to make friends quickly with locals that can mentor him, take him out, scout, etc. I wouldn’t count on them showing him any of their honey holes though.

I’m not throwing off on him in any way…..it’s just that going from Florida whitetail hunting to Rocky Mountain elk is a HUGE first step.

I'm with wytex.

In 2012 I was a new resident to CO. Sat out that fall as a NR, talked to locals about elk in general and poured over the statistics (with a grain of salt), did my scouting the next summer and put in for season 3 cow tag and then picked up an OTC either sex season 4 tag in the same unit. I hunted everyday of season 3 passing up a nice bull at 30 yards in the timber and then the first afternoon of of season 4 filled my tag with a cow. I learned a lot that first year and never regret the time spent.

The reason for an outfitter is that there is lot more to be learned than just finding the elk. A person can spend 5 yeas leaning it by trial and error or pay an outfitter to get a crash course....A person needs to learn what gear is needed, how to get the meat out, what to expect weather wise and whole lot more. 99% of the time,the first time elk hunter ends up hiking around carrying a rifle and freezing his/her butt of at night. Being in a wilderness area or just national forest 5-6 miles from help, bad things can happen and they happen fast. Hunting a couple100,000 acres is a lot different than hunting 40 acres in Florida.

the highest point in FL is about 600' and it's not a hill. The lowest in CO is something like 3500'. Most likely the elk are way above that. I hope he's moving soon enough to get acclimated this summer.

Does he want to hunt Elk, or kill elk? Count me in the hire an outfitter for his first time camp. He'll learn more in that one hunt than in years of doing it himself.

colorado does NOT HAVE OR OFFER lifetime tags or licenses

he has big game hunting experience he DOES NOT need to hire a guide,he needs to spend time in the woods with boots on the ground learning the area he intends to hunt ,he also needs to get to know his local fwp office and employees study maps look at harvest report for prior yrs etc.

i agree with a prior post if he isn't motivated enough to do the research himself then he isn't motivated enough to hunt period

no he won't

rockchuck it is about 465ft .up hill all the way to the top 😃

Just becasue someone has hunted big game,does not make them an elk hunter . Big difference between a FL whitetail and an elk.

Thank you all for the help, he has been on one hunt with me in Idaho a couple of years back. He learned as much as I could teach him in a week, and is 52 years old anb fit and ready to go. He just has to break the ice and get out there, I will pass on the info here.

Tell him to visualize dealing w/ a dead elk on a steep slope 1 hour before dark 5 miles from the truck. When he is ready to handle this he'll be ready to elk hunt on his own. The learning curve is steep but lots of guys have done it. It is all about the scenery and the adventure.

It is all fun until you walk up that giant critter for the first time, then the adventure begins.


mike r

If he can afford a guided hunt, then I would say that's the way to go--especially since he's 52. That leaves less time to learn before he becomes a little past the prime age to hunt and pack 'em out.

I grew up in Montana and learned to hunt elk from experienced, older hunters. Learned where they lived at various times of the fall, and various methods in packing them out. But would NOT want to start all over again in my 50s without such knowledge, partly because basic elk patterns have changed considerably since I started hunting them, including on public land in the area where I've now lived and hunted for 32 years.

This is partly due to "forest management" changing. When I started learning this local area, small clearcuts were common, and attracted elk (and mule deer) due to fresh browse and grazing. But those areas grew up into REALLY tight, elk-free thickets and have not been "replaced" nearly as much as they used to be 30 years ago. Plus, more elk migrate from National Forest to private, inaccessible land, even before the bow season starts in September.

We still manage to have elk meat in the freezer, but for somebody coming in from elsewhere, it would be very difficult to learn the same patterns--especially since Colorado's seasons can be far shorter than Montana's. Oh, and I haven't encountered many deer hunters who can "visualize" packing out even a medium-sized cow elk before they've done it.

gotta agree with you .....bob