I have been watching and dreaming of elk hunting since I was a kid. But with my profession thought it was a more of a wait and maybe in a few years kind of thing. I have been trying to look into doing it next year and have watched more videos on tag applications and where to apply than I can count. I also have emailed a few guides off of searches but there is no way I could tax my family that kind of money. So I guess I was hoping for some starting points.

State - I would like to drive from the Midwest so any will do
Bull or Cow - wouldnt matter much to me.
My family consumes a lot of game meat. Chance of success is preferred over sex.
Rifle or Bow - doesn’t matter to me - have been bow hunting for 30+ years, a former marine infantryman and an avid outdoorsman/hunter since I could walk.

An added bonus would be if I could trailer and use my horses. If feasible this would be awesome. I have good horses and this would push a great experience into a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

I appreciate any advice because all of my research online has yielded a bit of frustration

I grew up in Colorado and share your frustration. Hunting was easy growing up. We could hunt elk close to home and there were elk to hunt. Co dept of wildlife culled our herd so heavily that going home to hunt is just walking or riding trails vacationing now. The heavily pressured herd has moved off national forest through blm to the canyons between farm ground. Access is tough as private blocks the blm below. Yes it is just changing times but living through it wasn’t fun trip.
To be fair, the elk finding the alfalfa in the 1980’s and resulting crop damage payments drove the culling but they way overdid it in my opinion.
there are good hunting areas still but finding them on the internet will be tough. The center part of the Colorado still holds a lot of elk as does nw Colorado. Hold lots of hunters too.

Thanks for the reply

Cow hunt in Colorado. PM me if you need a starting point.

Idaho's got to be a fiasco with non-res tags and they're pricey. You can apply for a draw but non-res are limited to 10% of the total tags for each hunt. Usually the drawing odds are pretty low. There are a few OTC hunts but they put a quota on non-res tags for each one. This year they put them all on sale at the same time and it turned into a disaster. They got overwhelmed by people wanting tags, far more than any year in the past. They had 64,000 people online at the same time and it crashed the system. I heard reports of people being online for up to 8 hours waiting in line.

As with many states, getting the tag is the hardest part of the hunt.

Just go. Honestly, just go. Don't over think it, there's no perfect place, there's no perfect hunt. Just go. Pick a state, get a tag and just go. Start figuring it out on your own.

A cow tag is always easier to draw, as there are about 5 times as many cows as bulls. Archery hunting success ratio is about 1/2 or less of rifle hunting. It use to be quoted as 18-20 % for rifle and 10-11% for archery. Due to ever increasing number of hunters I believe it is more like 14-15% for rifle and 5% for archery. So factor in those two statistic before choosing sex and what to use

Season wise, you can buy an Over the Counter tag (OTC) for 2nd and 3rd rifle season and archery for some big game units. Colorado is divided into Units and you select which unit you want to hunt in. Many units are lumped into one big area. I don't know of any OTC units that are not tremendously over crowded and success ratio is probably at least half of units that require a to draw a tag in a lottery.

Weather is a big factor too. Of the four rifle seasons the first season is more likely to have warmer weather, but that effects the success kill ratio. The later the season, the more chance of snow which could limit access to hunt areas, but success kill ratio climbs, especially for cows since they will be herded up more and at lower elevations if the snow is deep in the high country.

Horses will definitely get you into better country. Many areas in Colorado are Wilderness designated and ATV or any motorized/wheeled vehicle is not permitted . So it is either back packing or horses/mules. If successful, those horses will be invaluable in packing 300-400's of meat back to your truck. IF, and that is a big IF, the horses will pack meat, you have the experience to do so, and are very familiar with handling horses. You cannot depend on there being forage for your stock, the later the season the less there will be. Therefore,you will need weed free certified hay or any processed feed . Water is a big concern. You will have to camp near a good water source. The later the season the more of a chance the water will be frozen up. Lack of water will kill your horses.Then you get into the problems of the horse being hobble broke, high line or picketing broke and the possibility of encountering moose, and bears, or even the occasional llama.

On the plus side, horses will expand your hunting territory and make you more mobile. A lot of foot hunters will exhaust themselves in 3 days hiking around 10,000 ft elevations. With horses, you can hunt hard all day and all you have to worry about is having enough energy to crawl back into the saddle. However, they will add an hour to an hour and a half to you camp chores morning and evening and taking care of them during the day.

For your first hunt, I would seriously recommend this guy and hunt Wyoming. http://www.headinwest.net/ The learning curve is tremendous and it is money well spent. Most of the time, new hunters spend 5 years + before being successful .

Someone mentioned, " just go,don't over think it ". That is fine if you want to go on a camping trip and hike around with a rifle. 10% of the hunters, kill 90% of the elk, they don't do that with that kind of attitude.

Lessee now....
By the late 1920's--depending on who we ask or what we read--there were somewhere between 500 to 5000 elk in Colorado.

By 1960 there were ~50,000 elk in Colorado.

By 1980 there were ~120,000 elk in Colorado.

By 1990 there were ~220,000 elk in Colorado.

By 2000 there were ~300,000+ elk in Colorado. That represented an over-population of elk.

Colorado significantly increased cow tags for the next 10-15 years, which resulted in harvest figures and success rates which will probably never be duplicated on a statewide level again.

Today we have somewhere between 260,000 and 280,000 elk in Colorado.

Things have indeed changed to make elk hunting success for bulls harder than it was, say, in the 80's and through the 90's, but at this juncture it's not a lack of elk. Although there are factors out there that could change this.

Generally cow elk hunting success depends on drawing a tag if one wants to put enough effort into the hunt. The success rate on cow elk in the 1970's was around 80%, today it's around 40%. In the 70's drawing a cow tag was rare and something to be celebrated. Small number of cow elk hunters resulted in high success. As the number of cow elk tags increased over the years the success rate decreased. An increase in the number of big game hunters in the field have always correlated to decreased hunting success.

SaddleSore,
In some of if not most of the OTC archery units where cow elk can be killed with a bull tag the success rate of archers can meet or even exceed that of OTC rifle bull tags.

Bmedin,
Fist thing I would do is look to acquire elk preference points various states. Generally you have to give them money for those PP's but even a couple elk PP's gets a lot better chance to draw a cow or even a bull tag that has greater chance of killing one.

For Colorado, get a 2022 Big Game brochure if you can. The 2023 Brochure usually doesn't come out until a month or so before the big game draw deadline and then you have time constraints to deal with. The Big Game brochure is also online.

Then go here and take a look at the PP requirements for a tag for each hunt code. https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx

Some units still take zero PP's to draw a cow tag. Sometimes it's because the elk aren't around there during that time of year. In Colorado altitude is sometimes important because it's too high for elk by the time rifle seasons roll around. Expecially because the 2md, 3rd, and 4th rifle seasons are now two weeks later then they used to be.

Only because of the total number of OTC rifle tags sold vs OTC archery tags. There are still only so many elk to be killed. Studies have been done that show if you put a limited number of hunters in an a certain area, XXX number of animals will be killed. Increase the number of hunters and about the same number of animals will be killed. My opinion only, but I suspect when a NR pays in the realm of $800 for an OTC or draw elk tag, they will l pass on a lot of cows. I did mention that success rates for rifle OTC units are reduced by at least 1/2 vs draw units. Either way, from what the OP noted, he was very concerned about killing an elk and it is my opinion, that an OTC tag whether it is archery or rifle reduces that probability and even more so with an archery tag. If you compare cow kills with a rifle vs archery only, I am sure the difference would be about the same

Statistics given by CPW of kills is for all seasons , for all elk for all means of kills. So I suspect those %'s are a little off for each season. You probably scour the statistics more than I do and there are probably kill ratio numbers for each season.

No worries though. OP asked for advice, and gave my opinions and others may differ.

SS,
That's kind've what I said--increased hunters results in decreased success rate.

The success rate of archery vs rifle is expressed in a percentage, so it does matter if 10 archery hunters kill 2 elk--the success is 20% If 50 rifle hunters kill 10 elk than the success rate is still 20%. But.....archery has a almost 30 day season while rifle has a 5-9 day season. Archers have more opportunity and there is also a ratio that can be used to determined success on per day hunted basis.

Yes, NR's tend to hunt longer and harder than the average resident and that often results in higher success rates for NR's.

And yes, statewide success rate is worth what it is. Hunt code success rate is more telling for a hunter. Although management is generally looking at it from a DAU perspective.

Your contributions are always good SS!

This^^^

My pick would be this outfitter in NW Wyoming. Huge tracks of land and they offer cow elk hunts for three days. They are 100% or, close to 100% on these hunts, and I have very good second-hand info on these people from friends who’ve done these hunts for years. Granted, it’s an outfitter, and the hunt costs $3k (these were $2300 a year or so ago but like everyone in this country they are suffering from “Bidenflation”) but that includes your food and lodging. Stop to think what it would cost on your own, the gear you would need, food, logistics, etc. to make a serious attempt. Then the $3k isn’t so much more. This outfitter would be a very good start to get your “elk legs” under you so to speak. Also, I think it’s pretty easy to get this tag in Wyo, but this outfitter usually fills up fast, so you might want to get on it.

https://www.skyline-outfitters.com/

Best,
George

Have you considered a elk hunt in canada? Alberta, Sask ?? There are a couple options. You can pay for a guided hunt or have a resident hunter host you...under a hunter host licence you can hunt for the cost of the tag and licence fees ( under 400$ CDN) as the hunter host cannot take payment...not certain about getting meat back state side but I'm certain its possible. Anyways with the cdn dollar how it is right now it's probably much cheaper than a out of state hunt...https://albertaregulations.ca/huntingregs/licencecosts.html#:~:text=Prior%20to%20purchasing%20any%20licence,Wildlife%20Certificate%2C%20which%20costs%20%2468.22.
You would be looking at non resident alien for costs... then you just have to find a hunter host... or look for a guided elk hunt.
Just giving you an outside the box idea.

A good option if you don't have a pile of preference points is landowner cow tags, every year I see them for 500.00 and up. Wyoming doesn't use points on reduced price cow tags either.

This is some of the best advice in the thread. I began elk hunting exactly the way the OP is suggesting, minus the horses, and would have been much better served by going with an outfitter. In addition to the cost of gearing up being fairly close to that of a guided cow hunt (as George accurately pointed out), I didn't have the time to scout elk, nor did I really know how to find them with any real skill or consistency. I hunted CO first rifle season, which is only five days. It's not easy for a brand new elk hunter to roll into an unfamiliar area, find elk and punch a tag in five days. I look at a guide the same way I would view an education. Pay your tuition and enjoy the benefits for the remainder of your life.

As a side note, the shot opportunities out west usually come and go much faster than the typical deer hunting we are used to in the Midwest. We get spoiled out here, waiting for deer to turn at just the right angle for our preferred shots. Do that out in the mountains and you'll likely be waiting a very, very long time. Be ready to take a quick shot the moment you get a good opportunity.

PM me interested. I have hunted with horses or mules for about 50 years and know the in's and out's.

Man!!! You guys are great! What an amazing amount of good responses. All of the information would have saved me hours over the past week. Thank you all very much. I think I am going to start by reaching out to those outfitters and go from there. The prices I was getting quoted were WAY more than that and it seemed like a ride in a truck and shoot off the tailgate kind of thing and I’m not really interested in that.

I emailed you SS. I am still a rookie on here and it won’t let me PM. I want to say again how impressed with you guys I am. I did an Ironman this past year and was a rookie at that and can’t tell you how many forums I got on looking for advice where people were elitist and just run new people down. The fact you guys took the time and careful consideration with your posts really says a lot - cheers to all!

I guess no one will need to tell you to work on your cardio!!!

Replied to your message.

Most good outfitters are booked for 2023 ,although a few may have cancellations. Although success is higher, outfitters onl eased or owners of private land as usually a lot more expensive than outfitters using public land.

Ya I noticed that. Have emailed a couple private land outfitters and a couple public land and the cost is significantly different. Is it pretty safe to say that if I go the guided hunt route (either public or private) that they will provide their own mode of transportation and won’t using my horses (all have said so far they use UTVs).

The headin west company that was mentioned sounds interesting. It says you send them information on the type of hunt you want and he sends you suggestions of places, maps, ect. Does anyone have any experience with this?

They will provide their own transportation

No experience, but I have followed him for years on WapitiTalk.com and have only heard good reviews from people that have used him. He goes by Indian Summer. That is a good forum also. Check it out

Pick a state. Find ANY elk tag you can. Go where everyone else is unwilling to. You will VERY likely find elk there.

If you’re not suffering a bit, you’re doing it wrong.

Dave

I would suggest to check out a private lands in Unit 4 of New Mexico. The unit is overrun with elk, folks put up 8 foot fences around their house to keep the elk away. A lot of residents there consider them pests. Cows are cheap depending on the outfitter. The bulls will not be big, unless you hunt one of the large ranches, like Chama Land & Cattle and a couple of others, those hunts will be expensive. Shot opportunities are easy and close, a .308 is more than adequate.

I would suggest the book.

Horses Hitches and Rocky Trails

By Joe Back.


Tune your ponies up this summer.

I like saddle panniers and 50 pond mineral bags.

Good Luck

Book has been ordered. Thanks for the recommendation.

Instead of saddle panniers which are trouble to load, unload, and balance, look at the MountainRidgeGear.com XL Hunter panniers that can be used on a saw buck or riding saddle. Most riding saddles except for mules do not have britching and that can get you in trouble going downhills with saddle panniers.

Here is a great web site for all kinds of packing .

https://packsaddleshop.com/pages/horse-packing.

Good Facebook page. Packing In on Horses and Mules- BackCountry Stock Users

This is good advice. I found a place the hard way by doing my own research, in Montana, private land with a house, trespass fee and with food gas and licenses, its hard to come in less than $3k each for a six man outing. I think that's about the floor for such a trip any more.

BKinSD - If you don't mind me asking where did you do your research? This seems to be a pretty knowledgeable forum with high participation. A lot of the facebook, websites, or forums are not as much.

Same way one finds elk really. By looking where other people don't. Research is easy on the inter web, isn't it? But using maps and making calls to small towns, off the beaten path, talking to real people, stuff like that, is hard. We found a place in Colorado originally, which was amazing. Elk all over the place, easy to get to, other people drove by it on their way to do some real elk hunting etc. Unfortunately the family that operated it kinda fell apart, so we had to start over.

Found a place in Montana, that was full up because its that kind of place, but we kept expressing interest and when he had a cancellation, he called us because we seemed like the kind of people he likes. We are as it turned out. His place suits us perfectly and I think this next fall will be the fourth year going back there.

Looking for an amazing cheap elk hunting place on face crap or on a forum like this is like going to classifieds and expecting to see a .270 Kimber Montana NIB for $99 or a Colt Python B engraved for $199. Aint going to happen, is it? And if it does, someone else saw it before you did.

A Wyoming zone 7 (excuse me......hunt area 7), type 6 cow tag is valid from August 15th through December 31st. Valid for archery and rifle, some stipulations.

Even if you are relatively brainless (like Brad).........it's a no-brainer.

For a gutshooting archer (like BuzzH)........crossbows are legal for everyone.

Always wanted to hunt all season(s).......and then just tag a cow on December 31st.

2020.....December 26th.
2021.....December 29th.
2022.....November 20th (going backwards)

Maybe next year.

If you have the time (like me)...Wyoming.

Thanks Mike!

Yeah great advice if you want to search for elk without access.
Funny Mike, as Buzz posted more elk pics than anyone else on here. He helped get a handful of elk for himself and other folks but yet he's a gut shooter ?

I would look at Colorado OTC elk and then maybe also out in for a Wyoming reduced price cow tag that has the same season. Co seasons are short and Wyoming cow elk seasons usually run pretty long. Might have success in one or the other on the same trip.

Wyoming also has some Type 4 cow elk licenses that are full price and take PPs but many can be drawn with 0 PPs or in the leftover draw.

Awesome. Thanks. Have been looking into both of them. Keeping all of the hunt areas and types straight and going after the right one is kind of like solving the Da Vinci Code.

Good to know...

If you decide to go the CO route don't spend too much time poring over the Gov't stats like hunter success or population #'s. Their methodology is poor at best and deceptive at worst. Maps and trails should be your focus once you decide on a unit or block of units. Find where the people aren't and you will likely find some elk. Pack stock makes everything easier but everything harder, depending on you and the stock's skill set. It can be very rewarding... or fatal.

Try to avoid riding out of camp at dawn and looking for elk from atop your mighty steed as you ride trails all day. It has about the same chance of success as doing the same from your truck/roads. (better but not dramatically so).

When you get to where the "trail" looks like two pikas may have followed each other 10 years ago, that's where your hunt starts in earnest, and it starts with tying off your horse.

And the Indians lost for a reason, if you want to hunt elk: hunt with a bow for the whole season. If you want to eat elk, hunt with a rifle.

Elk hunters dont generally fail from the bodies frailties, they fail from the shoulders up.

Without access? Huh?

And......if you wait for 'leftovers', you can purchase a type 4 tag that does NOT chew your preference points. Surprised 'tex didn't know that, but half the folks are below average.

Still full price (and they still go fast), but a fall back if the 4 combined opportunities at a type 6 do not pan out.

BuzzH posted a gut-shot bull pic a while back. You must have scheduled a colonoscopy, and missed it.

If you hunt elk on public land in CO your success will be predicated on getting back in a ways, away from motorized access. And then getting your elk out

If your body is not up to it for whatever reason--age, injuries, or physical fitness, it won't matter what you have above the shoulders.

Stupidest post I've read in a while.

6 easy trips can be decided on.......versus 3 or 4 dangerous trips. Even if multiple days.....time off is likely there already, anyway. Leave some scent.

The brainless normally don't see the brain as an asset.

Frequently humbled, but total avoidance of any sliver of wisdom.

Wow Mike some great advice...who knew that ANY leftover tag didn't take your points? Same with a second choice in the initial draw and also the leftover draw.

Nothing better than recommending a full price leftover NR tag with limited access...strong advice there.

Oh, and is this the picture you're referring to?



Yeah, the bull was quartering away and I caught the liver and the back of both lungs, probably why it only went about 80 yards and died.

Tell that dead bull it was a bad shot...

Buzz......are you implying my zone 7, type 4 FILLED 2022 tag chewed my preference points?

Limited access? Tell all those dead elk, on public ground. Garmin and a Wyoming card.

Also, are you implying your bull was not gut-shot? You are raking that angle, with archery? Both lungs........yea, sure.

Bulls often die from a bad shot......congrats?????

Sure hope there are no challenges coming.....

You ever heard of hooked on phonics?

It might help with your comprehension issues.

I'm implying nothing, facts/results speak for themselves...and you need a lesson in elk anatomy and just about everything else to do with elk hunting in Wyoming.

Oh, and feel free to post a picture of a better bull you've shot in Wyoming.

LOL, swing and a miss Mikey. If you're physically unable to get a few miles from the road in steep terrain and with altitude, adding more round trips ain't gonna solve the problem.

The point being, if you're able, get in shape. If you're not able or willing, the best attitude in the world won't overcome your physical limitations.

You still insist that shot was a double-lunger?

You really should check with some of the experts here, before posting pics like that.

Limited access? If you're a public land BHA guy, why hunt limited-public-access zone 7?

Why the apparent disdain for Cow Creek, being 'just' public land.

You seem like an expert around here.
Congrats.

Never claimed to be an expert Mikey.

Don't need to be an expert to refute your bullshìt.

Don't sell yourself short.......there are enough ex-boyfriends that can do that.

What experts might those be?

Find me someone on this board that's shot more than 83 elk, 82 of them on public, and we can discuss anything you want to about elk...and for the record, elk are barely on the top 5 animals I like to hunt.

There's lots of them, I get 3 Resident tags a year, and they're good table fare...which are all good reasons to hunt them.

83 elk prove that severe raking archery shot was a double-lung?

Let them post, I always say.

83 elk...you don't look that old.

3 a year still takes 27 years of elk hunting.

Pretty impressive record. That's a lot of tags.

Not really that impressive, just living at the right time in the right states. Just completed my 42nd hunting season and shot my first elk at age 12.

I was born in MT grew up hunting there have had at least one elk tag, sometimes 2, from 1980-2013. Drew 3 tags in Arizona, killed 2 six points and a 7x6 on those hunts. Have lived in Wyoming since 2000 and have had one NR tag the year I moved here, filled it in 20 minutes of hunting. Since then, have had a minimum of 2 elk tags and ever since the commission has allowed 3 tags, I've had 3 every year.

First elk, Montana at age 12, seems like a long, long time ago:



Latest elk a few weeks ago:



Been a lot of miles in between.

Well done buzzh


Very cool. You've lived what many hunters dream of!

-Jake

Oh look... a downward spiral into "look how big my Weiner is"... from the usual suspects.

On your adventure there will be a bunch of perfectly good reasons to quit, and only one not to, because you refuse to do so.

I agree with this. But you misspelled "Werner."

Werner, weiner, weenie…… same same

Wow........look at all that frothy, bright red lung blood!

There are internet experts out there that may say that blood looks relatively old, like it laid overnight.

Other internet experts may suspect we are seeing the 'good' side, when it comes to the wound channel.

If you incessantly crave the internet atta-boy's..........perhaps cropping out the hideous shot placement would be prudent, in the future.

It is a great bull.

I think it would be a very interesting path angle of an arrow to get the back ( caudal) of both lungs and the liver.

The liver is on the right side of the animal caudal to the diaphragm. The diaphragm on the ventral aspect of an elk is between the 6 and 7 th rib. Elk have 13 ribs.

The path in my mind would have to go through the front ( rostral) aspect of the left lung to accomplish entering the right lung and the liver.

The entry / exit point would be near if not at the left front leg. IMO.

Nice bull!

WAM........excuse me for constantly overlooking your substantive and thought-provoking posts.

How was your elk season? Were you 'successful' in keeping your truck and side-by-side fueled all season?

We all view success differently.

I was just thinking (when I ain't used to it) that another option if you are taking your own horses out is to hire an outfitter to set up a drop camp for you. Tent is set with stove/ firewood and weed free /certified hay can be already packed in for you. Saves you some time and trouble, though you will be somewhat lighter in the pocketbook. We used to provide that service years ago , but don't know how many are still doing it in Colorado.

It sure is. Killed with a bow and obviously recovered. This famous quote seems apropos:

“O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on."

The experts say dogs sometimes take on their owners characteristics.

Does your dog lick the butts of short, portly dogs......with round heads?

Congratulations Mikey. Only you could look at the photo of that bull, find fault wth it, and then effortlessly transition into dogs licking butts.

I just wanted to get into the spirit of what this thread has become.

Hahaha… was thinking the same thing.

I have the video footage of killing that bull taken by my brother. Wasn't even going to hunt that day, but had time to get out the day before pronghorn opened for my dad and brother. Have video footage of my bull and a 350 class 6 point fighting a week prior to when I killed him.

After the shot the bull went maybe 80 yards and I gave it an hour...he died way sooner than that.

Tell that dead bull it was a bad shot...

Hang a photo of your best WY bull...I promise not to laugh if you don't crop yourself out the photo.

Buzz, why all the bitterness?

Some have no need to post every pic of every animal, online. There are way too many pics, but mostly shared with family and close friends.

I get it. You are trying to forward your pay-out from a bogus organization that was caught, red handed.

Buzz-Bankman-Fried.

Making the Elk Hunting Forum great again.

Ok. Now that we have determined who is the worlds greatest elk slayer and who is the best dog butt licker, we can move on.

Happy New year!

Not so fast. I heard that MIkey is working on a video showing tips and tricks for lighting a dumpster fire......

Show us all your area 7 elk Mikey, we'd love to see them.
Just like seeing nice bulls and successful cow hunts, post up your area 7 success on public lands since you have so many.

Wait........who can kill elk in zone 7 with virtually no public access?

Isn't that what you posted?

WAM........my better half refuses to give up her PRN status for local home health.

She visits many Veterans that have no current drivers to the VA.

Yours truly volunteered........being quickly rejected from a lack of any jab.

Who on the planet would be safer from harm, than those being chauffeured by Weiner?

Even offered my prized, grocery-getter F150.....and gas to boot.

You posted you took one there, post it up. Oh yeah it was a cow you said.
Early elk hunting is ok, archery season. Once rifle opens they head to private lands for the most part. Later in season they tend to wander across the wintering area but also hold up on private lands. Yes elk can be had but you better have time and ways to get around later in season if that is when to want to hunt.

If he wants a regular price cow license then area 7 is a good choice if you have the time to hunt it. I know a better area with more access though for a Type 4 license, also better bull draw odds on that area and big bulls to be found with plenty of access on public ground.

Lets see your trophy cow elk Mikey, it is your only area 7 kill? Post 'em up.

What will you eat, for every photo posted?

It's time to man up here, tough guy.

Let's do this.

My son harvested a 6x6 bull on Wednesday, opening rifle week. Public land, random draw.

Zone 7, type 6........and type 4.......are the same seasons, exception being price.

Are you seriously a resident?

People who go kill a lot more elk than people who don’t go. I agree that a small number of us kill most of the elk. I killed two in Colorado this year, one with a bow and one yesterday with a rifle.

Bmedlin,
Welcome to the campfire, Marine! You have found a great place for info or just to kill time if you’re ever bored.

I’m an elk newbie and can’t offer the experience that most of these guys can. But I can add a couple things! I’ve hunted a week for two seasons, and this past fall me and my 2 hunting partners hunted 8 days for a total of 3 elk hunts in my life. We were unsuccessful the first year, but I killed a bull the last two years on public land.

The first thing I would say is don’t expect this to be your first and last elk hunt. You will become addicted. Keep that in mind if you’re acquiring any gear or supplies.

Second, I would suggest getting a guide the first go around. This has been mentioned a lot, but I will add that any guide is better than no guide. We went cheap (really cheap) our first go around. 1 guide for 3 hunters for 5 days. The guide was not a good hunter or guide, but, it was enough to get our feet wet. While we were unsuccessful, it gave us something to build on. We spent the next year dreaming, planning and executing. Even though the guide wasn’t great, the experience was priceless.

Third, go for as long as you can. This year it snowed hard the first three days of our hunt. The animals were holed up during that period and we didn’t see a thing those three days.

Lastly, get a good group organized. The first two years we hunted licenses were 100% for us. This year, one of us didn’t get a tag, but we all still got to go together for the hunt. Having a good hunting party you can hunt with each year will improve the general experience and help ensure tags for the group.

Hope this info helps and you get as much enjoyment hunting elk as I have. If so, you will be in for a real treat.

Good luck and Semper fi!

-Jeff

Apply in NM. No points to worry about but tough on DIY NRs. I suggest applying with an outfitter and booking a semi guided two day hunt(legal limit length.) you get into the 10% pool and get the guide to show you around for two days. They probably won’t take you to a honey hole but it would be a crash course especially if you weren’t able to scout. Plan your hunt by the moon. It can be a killer. Bring your horses. They add another dimension of stress but can also add to your enjoyment and help you too. If you’re a bow hunter Sept is a magical time to be in the elk woods. Good luck!