Planning 1st Elk hunting trip....NEED HELP

I understand that your hunt was truly a once in a lifetime deal, but all I was saying is hunt while you are saving preference points for that hunt. You can easily do that in Colorado and there is no advantage to hunting versus not hunting. You need to accumulate points to have a shot at the premium units anyway, but you can still hunt over the counter. I know Colorado is known for having 'a lot of pressure' but if you are willing to get more than 1/2 mile off of a road, you will find very little to no pressure. I have hunted many different over the counter areas and units in Colorado and pressure has never been an issue.

If you are going to use a guide once you draw a good hunt, why not just hire a guide in a trophy area? There are plenty of those opportunities out there as well where you don't have to wait to draw a tag. Just a thought.
 
I hunt elk just like cohunter14 is describing... OTC tags while I save preference points.

And my philosophy is to hunt the OTC units smarter AND harder. I shoot a bull every year, and although I don't shoot a trophy bull every year, it certainly is not luck to shoot one. Quite the opposite. Public land OTC unit trophy bulls are very smart and elusive. I think connecting with a 330 class OTC unit bull is much more of a challenge than shooting a 360 bull in a premium unit.

So obviously you are going to find a huge bull in premium units much easier, there is no doubt about that. So if you're going to hunt elk just once in your life, save up and make it worth it... find the right outfitter and you'll get to hunt this year in an area that holds huge trophy elk. But you can do DIY hunts in OTC units, from out of state, for a very reasonable cost and then get to hunt every year.

And when you're still relatively young, assuming you are a healthy guy without any health conditions, there is no excuse for not being able to pack a bull elk out of the mountains all alone. You have to stay in shape all year long, and then you get to be healthy and feel great all year long too.

Now days with the internet and forums like this, if you're willing to do the research, you can figure out how other guys are doing DIY elk hunts and what they're doing to be successful. It all comes down to how much you really want it.
 
thanks guys. i really appreciate all the info. i'm an outdoors man. i love to hunt. i would love to take a trophy bull elk but "I LOVE TO HUNT". i enjoy the hunt not the kill. hunting OTC elk while accumulating prefrence points sounds like a great idea. if its as addicting as everyone says it is then i'm sure i'd want to go back every year. thanks again.
 
thanks guys. i really appreciate all the info. i'm an outdoors man. i love to hunt. i would love to take a trophy bull elk but "I LOVE TO HUNT". i enjoy the hunt not the kill. hunting OTC elk while accumulating prefrence points sounds like a great idea. if its as addicting as everyone says it is then i'm sure i'd want to go back every year. thanks again.

well we share the same mind set! Just to nudge you in the same direction, I have a buddy from California that makes the trip out to CO every year to hunt with me. He travels out here on a plane rather than drive to save time, but it also costs more with the plane ticket and paying for meat to either be shipped back or in extra luggage fees on the plane. But it can be done.

Between the archery and rifle season, with OTC tags, we had guys drive out from Oregon and New Mexico as well as fly out from Arkansas.

And I've gotten to know some guys that make the drive out to western Colorado every year from Virginia! Just met them on the mountain. Those boys shoot elk every year too.

All of us DIY hunt even though there's an outfitter right in the same area.
 
cohunter14,

I agree with you and have agreed with you. We can never hunt too much. However, we have to examine reality of OTC hunting.

Colorado has fantastic opportunities. And like most places, getting beyond roads usually means a lot less pressure. But too far in brings another problem that can be solved. Quartering & caping a bull along with antlers is a lot of weight to pack out. A way to solve that problem is to find ranches with horses. A few hundred bucks to a rancher to haul out a bull is money well spent.

I try to hunt every season. But I've learned to not rush headlong into tags. I'm far more selective than my younger years. I live in CA and won't hunt this state, although were I to find a decent blacktail area, I'd probably go. But Washington State would be a better place for a decent blacktail buck.

Timber338, sometimes finding any bull can be difficult. But doing research including checking out states' fish & game elk hunting stats go a long way in eliminating areas.

Many premium areas will produce big bulls but not necessarily 360+ bulls. Drawing a premium tag guarantees nothing. My guide told me that he had a hunter in camp a few years ago who said he wasn't shooting anything smaller than a 400 bull. My guide said that he had politely tried to explain to him that while he was hunting a famed trophy area, not everyone is going to see a 400 bull. I believe the hunter shot a 380 class bull near the end of the season. I told my guide that I had no delusions of shooting of shooting a B&C bull, but were Mother Nature cooperative, I would not turn my back on such an opportunity. I didn't shoot a B&C bull, but I did kill a massive 7 x 7 that went well above 370 & weighed better than 900 pounds. He was a mature, 10 year-old bull. But it was entire experience of hearing bugling bulls and seeing huge elk everyday that made the hunt memorable.

I hunted to the point of exhaustion. That my bull made it arduous made the hunt all the better. Had I shot him off a road, it would have been a lot less memorable. Hunting hard is a whole lot better when we think that our efforts might result in a bull or buck worth our efforts.

It is possible to kill a huge bull with an OTC tag. Every year, hunters with OTC tags manage to kill 360+ bulls. But they are the exception.

I have hunted elk with OTC tags. One was in a spike only unit. While hunting, I realized that I had no interest in shooting a spike bull. So I did some deer season scouting & then left. I should have bought an elk tag while deer hunting in Idaho. I did see a very respectable 6 x 6 bull that would have required a strenuous stalk to get close enough for a shot. The area was known for mule deer, so when we bought tags we didn't consider elk tags, which was our mistake.

I might do Wyoming in the general draw. I know it's not an easy tag to draw. I know going in that a general season Wyoming elk tag will not guarantee even seeing a bull. But it's better than not going. If I were drawn, I'd go with a guide. To me, five grand or so is worth a guide's knowledge and my time & physical exertion. That, and I'd need help getting a bull out.

So my advice is the same as yours. Hunt while accumulating bonus points. Remain realistic in that most OTC elk hunters will not be successful. And when you've accumulated enough bonus points to have a decent chance of drawing a premium tag, hire a guide. The reality of our elk hunting situation is that most of us might have but one opportunity to shoot a 360 or larger bull. If we get a chance to hunt a premium unit, we ought to seize every opportunity to increase our odds of getting a bull that we'll want on our walls.

Now if I can draw a desert bighorn tag. I have a whole lot of bonus point, but I might need five more before I'd have a realistic chance of drawing. I might put in this year. I ain't yet figured it out. I might concentrate on mule deer.

We can never do enough hunting.
 
i have been reading the brochures for Colorado game and fish. i an having trouble understanding. can i apply for just a preference point then later buy an OTC tag or do i have to enter a draw hunt and if i dont get drawn get a preference point?
 
i have been reading the brochures for Colorado game and fish. i an having trouble understanding. can i apply for just a preference point then later buy an OTC tag or do i have to enter a draw hunt and if i dont get drawn get a preference point?

Yes, you can apply for just a preference point in the draw and nothing else. And then you can get an OTC tag at any time you want before the season starts.

The way it works is when you are filling out your hunt codes, there is an "unsuccessful" portion of the application that you fill out, where you choose what you want assuming you do not draw a hunt. A preference point does not count as a hunt, and if you do not draw any of your 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice hunt codes then you are "unsuccessful" in the draw.

Your choices for the unsuccessful portion are:
Refund
OTC Archery
OTC 2nd season
OTC 3rd season

If you choose refund, they will send you all of your money back minus $3. And then you can still buy an OTC tag any time you want online before the season starts.
 
I forgot to mention that you can do exactly what you mentioned as well... you can simply enter a hunt code as your first choice, and if you do not draw that 1st choice hunt code, then you will get 1 preference point.

Even if you draw your 2nd or 3rd choice hunt codes, you will still get a preference point.

I always put preference point down as my 1st choice, then my 2nd and 3rd choice hunt codes are hunts that I have a very high chance of drawing. If you dig through the website and figure out how to read their "statistics" information, you can see all of the results from the past several years, such as draw statistics, harvest info, etc, preference points required for a particular hunt code... lots of info.

It gaurantees nothing for this years draw, but you can assume that it will not change too much. But keep in mind that certain hunt codes might list say 50% success to draw without a preference point for guys that put it in as their 1st choice, and that means that there is a 0% (zero!) to draw that hunt code for guys that ist it as 2nd choice or beyond.
 
Thanks. Sounds like learning the draw process is as much of the hunt as learning where and how to hunt these magnificent creatures. Thanks for the tips.
 
Thanks. Sounds like learning the draw process is as much of the hunt as learning where and how to hunt these magnificent creatures. Thanks for the tips.

Yes, figuring out all of the tricks to to the draw process is not easy. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask even through a PM.
 
Good luck finding an outfitter in Wyoming or Colorado that will make any type of guarantee on a 360"+ bull elk. Do they exist? Sure! Does every client get to see one? No! I've been hunting and guiding elk hunters for a long time and there is no way I would even consider telling my client to expect a bull of that caliber. I shy away from someone who told you to expect a 360+ bull. AZ or UT can be a different story.
 
Still time to apply in N.M. If you apply with an outfitter your odds of drawing increase greatly and if you do not draw most outfitters have tags they can sell. Jack Diamond at Beaverhead outfitters has some premium private land and if you draw a tag he can hunt you on public land.My hunting partner guides bow and Ml hunters on public land and they take some monster bulls.They are wrapping up a huge ranch right now and should have land owner tags for this fall.
 
I don't think your odds increase "greatly" if you put in with an outfitter. Nothing against outfitters or guides, they are getting at least 10% to try and help keep them in business. You get put into a 10% pool where if you don't have a guide you are put into a 6% pool. A difference of four tags/100 tags available. So let's say you put in for a hunt code with 100 tags. 84 go to residents, 10 go to residents and non-residents who apply with a guide, and 6 go to non-residents.

So I live here and am going with a guide and my three in state buddies. The computer assigns my application drawn first so we just took four tags out of 10. Now I could not enter into the 6% non-resident pool. What I would rather do is enter into the 84% pool and then contract with an outfitter if I needed one. Gives me a better chance rather than having non-residents fill the 10% pool by getting drawn first.

They go by hunt applications by "random" draw. Once your pool is filled ( resident, non-resident with guide or without) by hunt choice, it is filled. If your first choice 10% is filled they go to your second choice even if the 6% has no hunters drawn. If your second choice 10% is filled they go to your third choice even if the 6% has no hunters drawn. You are locked into that draw pool. So it is possible to not get drawn even with an outfitter. The tags the outfitters usually get without the draw are private land owner tags. I see them advertised in the Albuquerque Journal around hunt time from ranches that sell them if they have not leased to a guide.

So look at the full report by G&F to figure your draw odds. The hard part is this year they combined archery hunts so you only have two choices rather than three per unit. Same number of tags but two hunt choices rather than three so there will be about 150 more hunters putting in for 50 more tags for my first choice.
 
I am a resident and always apply in the 84% resident pool;but the OP is a non resident.He can only apply in the non resident pool so his odds are 6 out of 100 or 10 out of 100-better odds.The only good odds are to contact an outfitter or rancher and buy a tag.A tag may be ranch only or unit wide.What I have never understood is if there are 100 tags for a hunt and ranchers in the unit get 50 tags are those 50 deducted from the 100.If so then non residents may end up getting first shot at 50%-50 tags + 5 guided + 3 random draw .
I just apply every year and if I do not draw I try to get a cow tag because I enjoy elk hunting and elk meat.
 
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