2018 Elk Hunt?

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  • davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    thx for ideas etc, and please keep them coming. will check out the various websites.

    here in VA i can go out back or drive an hour or two and be deer hunting, and if i get skunked it's no big deal. i know nothing is guaranteed, but if i'm going to head to colo for a week or two would like to have the best odds i can get.
     

    CrazySanMan

    2013'er
    Mar 4, 2013
    11,390
    Colorful Colorado
    If anyone is serious about coming out here to hunt I'll volunteer to go scout out the land you are interested in and post pictures and drone video of it, and let you know where the good free campsites are located in that area.

    Make sure you are in good shape if you come out here. The Colorado terrain is no joke. It's all steep with a capital S and the elevation sucks all the air out of you. I live at 5700' and when I spend a weekend camping at 9 or 10,000' I'm breathing heavy the entire time. At elevation there is less atmosphere, which means less oxygen. Your body will compensate by reducing the fluid in your blood, which thickens it and increases the number of red blood cells available to carry oxygen. This dehydrates you very quickly. You'll get headaches from it and will have to carry a lot of extra water, which weighs you down and makes the hiking that much harder.

    It's kind of amazing just how little atmosphere there is up there. Here is a thick plastic Nalgene water bottle that I used on a hike around 12,000'. I last opened it at that elevation so it was pressurized inside at the air pressure around 12,500'. By the time I got to my house at 5,700' the air pressure at lower elevation crushed in the Nalgene bottle.



    I saw a question about drones. Drones are illegal to use to scout when hunting in Colorado. It is also illegal to fly a drone over or near wildlife as the tree huggers say it puts too much stress on the animals.
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    If anyone is serious about coming out here to hunt I'll volunteer to go scout out the land you are interested in and post pictures and drone video of it, and let you know where the good free campsites are located in that area.

    that's an awesome offer! no idea yet on a good place to hunt. but if you are out and about hiking and camping and happen upon a spot that is or should be awesome for elk, i would greatly appreciate you letting me (us) know!
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    fyi i'm also looking at northern New Mexico (n central and nw). appreciate any info there as well. looks like it's a draw process unless hunting on private land. units 50, 52, 5b all in and around the carson nat'l forest.
     

    Sportstud4891

    Resident SMIB
    Jun 7, 2011
    1,508
    Chuck County
    I did a Colorado archery hunt in 2009. It was considered a semi-guided hunt however in reality it was self guided, we paid a guy a trespassing fee to hunt his 28,000 acres and he provided a place to sleep (essentially a 1 room cabin with cots around) and breakfast and dinner. He showed us the corners of his property and the rest was left to us. There were six of us that went. Highly recommend training and training hard. Only 2 of us trained for the hunt (myself and another guy). We both connected on animals. Of the other 4, only 1 guy was successful.

    My training regime was to walk/jog on the treadmill in the morning on a 10% to 13% grade for 2 miles. Then when I got home from work I put my boots on and my hiking pack (filled with 40 to 60 lbs of dumbbells) and walked another 3 miles. I did this 5-6 days a week for 5 months prior to my hunt. One thing I screwed up, I should have carried my bow with me on my hikes, or at least a weighted stick. FWIW, for all the training I did prior, I still lost 4 lbs the week of the hunt. We began our hunts at about 4:30 a.m. and didn't end until about 9 p.m. for our entire week of hunting.

    I would do it again tomorrow if I had the money and time (have 2 kids now). It was the most exhilarating hunting I have ever done.

    My advice:

    Buy good socks
    Buy a very good hiking pack
    Train early and hard (stick with it)
    Shoot a lot (hate to screw up a shot after all that work)
    Watch a lot of elk shows and practice calling at home until its perfect

    And one other thing that nobody told me to do: Practice crapping in the woods. It's not as easy as you might think, especially when its 25 degrees outside and you are wearing layers.
     

    Antarctica

    YEEEEEHAWWW!!!!
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 29, 2012
    1,728
    Southern Anne Arundel
    fyi i'm also looking at northern New Mexico (n central and nw). appreciate any info there as well. looks like it's a draw process unless hunting on private land. units 50, 52, 5b all in and around the carson nat'l forest.

    I've got some buddies that hunt 52 and 6A (and I think one other - maybe 50 - I know they thought they hit the lotto when the drew that tag). They have killed some nice bulls.

    One showed me where he planned to hunt two years ago and all I could think was 'good god that's steep'. The previous two years each shot a bull in that area. One year they got lucky and a guy who had a string of horses on the way out packed it out for $100. The second year, they packed it out and on the second trip had to run off a bear that had claimed it.

    Their pics and stories are what got me interested in doing this. I haven't looked into it, but I understand tags are hard to come by for them and I have no idea what it might be like for a non-resident.

    As stated in one of my previous posts, I'm trying to learn how to do this for the long haul, so I've been focusing on Colorado because I want to learn how to hunt a unit that I can be sure to return to every year and build on knowledge year over year.

    If you want more particulars, I can try to poll one of them.

    Brent
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    I've got some buddies that hunt 52 and 6A (and I think one other - maybe 50 - I know they thought they hit the lotto when the drew that tag).

    yeah in NM, nonresidents generally get allocated 6% of the allotted tags for each unit/area. but because a lot of nonresidents apply for that 6% piece of the pie, nonresident have (based on recent draws) from 1% to 33% chances of getting tags, depending on the popularity of each unit.

    definitely if any of your buddies have any advice, suggestions or just stories, i'd certainly appreciate hearing them. thanks!
     

    Mtwoodson

    Active Member
    May 7, 2011
    232
    Western Eastern Shore
    Random Thoughts on Colorado Elk Hunting.
    We hunted near Meeker, Colorado for about 10 years starting in 2002. Our hunting party of 10-12 drove in from SoCal, Arizona and Oklahoma. We had a sheep ranching with about 12,000 acres (private land tags) and they gave us self-guided free reign. Trespass fees went from $600 to $900 during that time, which included staying in a cabin on the ranch. Probably higher trespass fees now.
    We hunted near Bumblebee Pass close the National Forest. Opening morning in the National Forest sounded like WWIII. That usually got the elk headed in our direction by dusk or earlier. We'd see elk in groups of 3-4 to 250+. I harvested 9 elk in 10 years, with kills at 200 to 675 yards. Shots ranged from 75 yards in the timber to 700+ yards in the flatlands. Use a good rangefinder and know your holdovers. Or write them on your flip-up scope caps.
    I'm a cheapskate meat hunter and shot more cow elk than bulls. We usually shot the first Wednesday to Saturday season and temps could vary from 70 degrees to snow and freezing rain. Got my first elk at 525 yards and it took 3 guys six hours to get it down to the truck. Eventually took shots based on access, except during the last hours of the last day.
    The National Forest and other Public Lands anywhere close to access looked like parking lots, with people from all over the country. It took a lot of doing to get away from the crowds.
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    Dang, Dave, why you going out west when we have elk here in Virginia?

    interesting! you know anything about this? i knew there were a few but didn't realize hunting was allowed. looking i see that the same deer regs apply to elk, although 3 counties are closed to hunting.
     

    Ericw

    Member
    Feb 28, 2012
    55
    Greencastle, PA
    You may see in my other post but I use toprut.com for draw statistics and .kml downloads of land ownership and unit boundaries. I also use caltopo.com for making custom maps.
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    welp, entered both the NM and Colo elk draws (rifle)!!! guess it's a couple month wait to see what, if anything, i got.

    plan is to drive out, getting there at least two days early, to acclimate to altitude and do some scouting.
     

    BigSteve57

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 14, 2011
    3,245
    welp, entered both the NM and Colo elk draws (rifle)!!! guess it's a couple month wait to see what, if anything, i got.

    plan is to drive out, getting there at least two days early, to acclimate to altitude and do some scouting.

    We're in the MT draw which is April 16th. We're undecided how to get there. Travel by air and road each have their pros & cons.
    Good luck!
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    welp, entered both the NM and Colo elk draws (rifle)!!! guess it's a couple month wait to see what, if anything, i got.

    plan is to drive out, getting there at least two days early, to acclimate to altitude and do some scouting.

    unfortunately i struck out in NM's draw. still hoping to draw in Colo, i think they announce the end of May. if not, i plan to just get an OTC tag there.
     

    delaware_export

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 10, 2018
    3,143
    our draw deadline was this week.

    i put in for antelope, elk and muley.

    we'll see what happens. ***edit, june 8 is result date.

    unlike the east cost, it's odd to have to pay just to get in the drawing for a 1/x chance to maybe hunt.

    as an east coaster, you overlook how easy it is to buy a tag, go for a ride and maybe shoot some deer. in some places several if you want.

    unfortunately i struck out in NM's draw. still hoping to draw in Colo, i think they announce the end of May. if not, i plan to just get an OTC tag there.
     

    BearArms

    Member
    Sep 25, 2013
    47
    Upper Marlboro
    Update on my end. Work panned out and as of August I'll be a CO resident. I'll be available to scout what people are interested in. I'm in the drawing for WY Pronghorn tags, as that seemed more reasonable than $661 for an elk tag non-res in CO still while not having scouted myself. My wife convinced me to go over-budget on the house so I won't have much in the line of DIY projects to do at the house over the next few years I'm here. So scouting from the Jeep and on-foot it is!

    The air is thin, and as someone who has been rowing 3-4 days a week to work on my PA Whitetail addiction in the back country of the ANF it's definitely helped. We drove up Pike's Peak the other day and it was the first time the elevation really hit me other than some of the acclimatization hikes I've done with my wife. We've hiked all over the US and by far this is one of the most taxing environments. Don't take training lightly, and don't give up. I was the psychopath in my neighborhood walking around with my bag packed with bricks on my friend's suggestion from running GoRucks for years. I just walked my dogs with the pack and boots.
     

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