Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Is 40 elk enough?

I posed these questions to get opinions and suggestions...

You got 'em!

I'm two shy of 50 elk kills, but I am an old fart who has been at it a lot of years. There isn't any bragging there and it isn't a game to me. I keep the punched tags as mementos of the hunt. I made a conscious decision to move to Colorado from NM so I could hunt elk every year in 1974. In NM you could not, even 40 years ago.

I also made my elk hunting a priority. I cannot remember missing a season in Colorado since 1974.I have all the necessary good equipment, keep at least two mules, have truck and trailer to haul them and equipment.

In the last several years, Colorado has offered two tags and one year offered three. In the years where I killed more than one, I shared those elk with my hunting companions that did not kill an elk . Other than that, I eat one elk a year. Colorado sells those tags and they want those elk killed. Most of my tags thru the years were OTC or 2nd choice. For twenty years when I was applying for Unit 201 ,I know darn well they were. So those same OTC tags were available to anyone else who wanted to buy one.

I am not rich by any means. I make sacrifices throughout the year so I can pay for my hunts. Except for one guided hunt in Alberta( guide required) all of my hunts have been on public land, in Colorado, DYI. Ditto on the hunts in NM. One year, I did do a cull hunt on a nearby ranch that needed to get rid of some spike bulls and I bought that elk. I don't have a boat, ATV, don't fish, don't play golf or any other hobbies. I have no 60 inch TV. I am debt free. In my gun safe there are only 12 rifles. Two of which I can hunt elk with and one for deer or pronghorns. The others are 22's, 20 year old ML's, or family heirlooms that will get passed to my grandson.

One reason I keep track of the numbers is then I know when I offer advice to someone.I know darn well I have the knowledge and experience to back it up. When I go elk hunting, I don't play at it. Some guys quit hunting with me because they said I work too hard at it.


Most guys that complain, are the ones that do not make elk hunting a priority.

I'm 39 and with deginerative spinal discs I'm not sure how long I'll be able to hunt. The disc issue also makes nerve issues arise. Dew to a steady dose of percoset and nerve drugs I get around OK. I'm going to put off back surgery until I just can't take the pain anymore.

I had a grandfather who lived to be 99 and he farmed well into his late 70's or early 80's before he broke a hip and that did him in. God bless you old timers who still get it done, alone too.