Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting first time "hunt of a life time" elk hunt

In Idaho, non-res tags are hard to get as the demand is very high. In the draw hunts, NR's are limited to 10% of the total tags for any unit. In the hunts with OTC tags, they put a quota on NR tags and they sell them on Dec 1 of the previous year. They put them online and they normally sell out in an hour or less. There are some outfitter tags available but I don't know how that works. If you're interested, I suggest you call some outfitters now for the '25 season. It's unlikely that they'll have any tags left for this year.

In the draw hunts, Idaho doesn't have a point system. Each year it's a free for all. Your odds of drawing are determined strictly by the number of applicants.

The cream of the crop is White Mountain Apache reservation hunt. But, those are in very few budgets. I dont even have a guess for you on price, but, unless you are stupid rich, they are truly once in a lifetime hunts.

A portion of the information from The White Mountain Apache's on trophy bull elk:

SAYS THEY ARE SOLD OUT:

PACKAGE COST: $20,000.00 - 1st & 2nd hunts.

$18,000.00 - 3rd Maverick hunt

​

TROPHY FEE:

$3,000.00 for any Typical Bull that net, green scores 375 B&C points or larger or any Non-Typical Bull that net, green scores 385 B&C points or larger.

​

LEGAL TAKING DEVICE: Any legal firearm or bow and arrow as described in section R1.B.



HUNT PACKAGE: Fully guided/outfitted 7-day OR 10-day hunt (depending on camp), booked through the Game & Fish office which includes; tag/permit, lodging, meals (at Base Camps only), guide and hunt transportation.



CONTACT INFORMATION
Jesse Palmer
Wildlife Biologist

(928) 338-4385

Whiteriver Office

jpalmerwmat.us

Chadwick Amos
Acting Director

(928) 338-4385 ext. 228

Whiteriver Office

ChadwickAmoswmat.us

I have been doing my “once in a lifetime” hunts since 2003 with I think 3 seasons that I didn’t elk hunt. Since there are no guarantees as to the length of a lifetime, any hunt could be your best/last. The guys have posted some good suggestions. Good hunting! 😎

guided elk hunts can be the best bet to tag a decent Bull was for me i went with a bow and arrow got a huge bull that scored 376 B.C. . but a few years later son and i started going out west and did well by ourselves but it takes plenty of time and hard work we were bowhunters , son being very fit killed some nice bulls including one bull that was bigger than my bull with his bow too ,i called that bull in. if your only going on one elk hunt do some research and hire a good guide .good luck ,Pete53

A "once and a time elk hunt" and "Texas" don't belong in the same sentence.

There’s no such thing as a “once in a lifetime elk hunt.” Once you go, you start planning your next trip on the drive home.

That’s because there are a lot of ways to hunt elk. You can snipe them across big alpine bowls ass-deep in snow, stalk them through black timber with an iron-sighted lever gun, call them during the rut with a bow, backpack in (and out) to kill them where they live, etc.

There are also different species of elk: Roosevelt in the Pacific Northwest, Tule in northern California, Manitoban in Canada, and Rocky Mountain everywhere else.

So pick a species and decide how you want to hunt them. Then you can start looking for outfitters in the part of the country where you can do the kind of hunt you want.


Okie John

I'd be thinking of a wilderness, horeseback hunt in WY, ID, MT or BC.

BC would be at the top of my list.

I don't know if it is any cheaper or not to do that but I sure don't regret going to Argentina 10 years ago and shooting a free range stag, balls deep in the 'roar'. It was awesome. It wasn't a backcountry gaucho style hunt in the Andes, which I do plan to do someday. It was more like hunting in western South Dakota but it was still a hell of a good time.

OP, are you willing to shoot a raghorn? I presume you have no points built up anywhere so that would limit options to some extent but there's still plenty of realistic options especially if you're not stuck on a 300+ bull. Once you get into private land and landowner tags, the sky is the limit but dollar amount also will go up, in a general sense.

Same. Quintessential elk hunt.

Although I wouldn’t turn down a chance to go and try it out to see the country they live in.

West TX may not be the high mountain hunt many think of when thinking elk hunting, but they are killing some great free range bulls.

Agreed to both the above, but not at all what I'd consider the "hunt of a lifetime" for elk.

For sure. I bet it would be fun though, pretty neat to me they're there.

If money isn’t an issue I’d buy a gov’s tag in WY. Several good areas there that take lots of points to draw so not an option on a limited budget or want to go in next couple years. The White Mountain res would also be a great hunt if your budget can handle it.

If once in a life time means this is the only bull elk hunt you and your brother will go on and you want to make sure you get a great bull then yes find a reputable outfitter with guaranteed tags and high % success rate. But if both of you are in your 50's I wouldn't sell myself short on just one hunt and spend a lot of money on it, rather do your homework in different states such as Oregon, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado and see if you can find rancher that charges a trespass fee or sell their landowner preference tag and hunt on their land. You can contact Fish and Wildlife Dpt in different states and ask them about cooperating ranchers. You can even try DIY hunt on public land. At 50 years old you have a lot of years to get a great bull.

I think one could approach this by

a. pick a firearm or bow
b. pick a state that has seasons which work with your general schedule (Wyoming generally earlier than Colorado/Montana, for example)
c. start accumulating preference points
d. start looking at outfitters and preparing to book a few years out

I'm 55 and have gone every year for the past 12 years and am not planning on quitting any time soon. I've gone on horseback with outfitters and have done DIY as well. I found a place etc that suits me. If the goal is to "kill an elk" that is one thing; if its to experience horsepacking into the San Juans or the Thorofare, that is something else. Look at it as an experience and then seek offerings accordingly.

BK has good advice. Unless you are hunting for a bull only, lots of choices every year.

Yep!

Have been hunting elk in Montana since my teens, as I was born and raised and grew up here--but have also hunted them in New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho and British Columbia. The BC hunt was 10-day horse-packing trip in the Prophet-Muskwa area, about 100 miles south of the Yukon border, in early September. Had elk, moose and caribou tags, and saw all three--though never saw a caribou I wanted (had hunted them in several other places). Got a "good" moose and elk, but the real trophy was riding over 100 miles in some of the most spectacular mountain country in North America, with all that entails, including hiking considerably after dismounting. Also saw a bunch of Stone sheep (the main camp was where L.S. Chadwick camped when he killed his famous ram in 1936), along with an average of a grizzly a day--one of which was a 2-year-old that followed me and my guide up a side-canyon after we'd tied up our horses.

Have been lucky enough to go on a number of "wilderness" hunts in places from Alaska to Africa, but that would be in the top three.

The outfitter is still doing top-grade hunts: https://www.olmsteadhunting.com/

Bingo on BC. I had an extraordinary trip in 2008 with Stone Mountain Safaris out of Toad River. Moose and elk with an almost on mountain caribou. Breathtaking.