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Hello everyone, I am new to the site and a friend of mine suggested it. I'm a 24 year old guy who is in pretty good shape and I was hoping to do a DIY elk hunt in either Colorado (OTC most likely) or Wyoming (draw if I get lucky. I am from PA and would be driving out for 2 weeks (about 7-8 days of hunting). There is just so many areas and I do not even know where to start. I would be most likely hunting out of a backpack after hiking in a few miles so i'm leaning towards wilderness hunting. I'm also considering going with another person or possibly by myself. I just do not want to be covered up with hunters which is why I want to pack in and hunt. I also figure i'm young and an would like the physical challenge. I understand that a hunt like this will be extremely hard, both mentally and physically, but I am planning on going in September of 2015. I am not trying to get on huge bulls, but like anyone would not be opposed to the idea! I just want to cut my teeth and perhaps even a cow would do for my first trip. So if anyone can point me in the right direction. Should I try Colorado or Wyoming (assuming I draw)? any help would be appreciated!
First of all you won't draw a Wyoming general tag with zero points unless you go thru the special draw. Tag will cost $400 more. However you can get a reduced price cow tag. As for areas look over draw/hunt stats. They will tell you how much pressure each area gets. Success percentage can be misleading. So make sure you know how much public land is available. Or if its a migration hunt (more so a rifle hunt). Another thing to think about is what type of terrain you want to hunt. You mentioned wilderness. Wilderness in Co can be very rugged. That's what I hunt in Co. The thing about the unit I hunt is there is only 4 areas to access the wilderness area. So you will want to check into access as well.
There is no magic unit. They all can be good. One more thing I do is pay attention to units mentioned on the internet. I will check them out and if I like what I see I will hunt them. Once you scout out a unit thru cyber space put some boots on the ground in the unit.
Colorado has lots of public land and a good number of elk , I have never hunted Wyoming . My advice would be do some research and make a few calls to the DOW and go from there the main thing is to go and try it I have friends who every year say I sure would like to go but they never do . Look for rough and steep stuff that's hard to access where most people want to avoid it's been my experience that's where the elk often hide . If you have to make your first trip a scouting trip as much as hunting narrow it down so at least the next year you will know where to start . But just don't put it off cause you don't know a good spot .
You may already know this but you can't hunt Wyo wilderness as a nonres without an outfitter/guide. You may want to come out to Wyo or Colo during the summer and do a backpack/fishing trip to scout things out. One of the biggest mistakes first timers do backpack with too much gear. A summer backpack trip will help you figure what works and what does not! Just remember if you get a bull down it will likely take several trips to get your camp and bull out!
You ought to be able to still see elk tree scrapes/wallows from year's pastduring the summer. If you find those you are in the right area! OTC tags means gobs and gobs of hunters! Unless you are 3+ miles in you likely will see and hear hunters. I would circle areas on maps with no 4 wheeler or hiking trails for several miles. This may sound easy...but in Colo it's tough to find areas like this!
Just remember it may take several trips before you learn the ropes...and have success! The more times you do it the better you will get.
My advice; search
Search this site with any keyword you can think of and you will have reading for months....
and reading OTC Wills current hunt thread gives you a good idea of what to expect- great story...and very informative if you read between the lines
KS, you sound like someone I would get along with. Don't know a lot about Colorado, but will definitely know more after this September! Wyoming, I could definitely help ya get started! PM me for more info. Plus, I'm just south of ya in WV.
Keven
PS: buy a Wyoming point now, regardless of any plans you may consider.
Regardless of where you might hunt, or I should say" lucky enough to hunt". You need to put more consideration in "if you kill" how are you going to find and pack your elk out. I found out the hard way. 5 years ago I drew a tag in an area I new nothing about... I studied the unit, all maps possible, and scouted for weeks... i planned for a 6 day hunt....just happened that i got very lucky mid morning on the 2nd day. I stuck a 270" class bull!!! Clean double lung shot and found him within 200 yards. But i was by myself... it took me very bit of the remaining 4days to pack him out. It was both the easiest and the hardest hunt of my life. Too many hunters come out west and only consider and ask how to kill big elk.... but don't give a second thought about the work after the shot.
If you buy a WY PP now (50 bucks) you stand a good chance of drawing a WY general tag in 2015 in the regular draw (about $600 bucks) or you can put in for the special draw (about 1100 bucks) and you'll draw a General tag for sure.
There was a big disagreement between myself and someone else several months ago on this, but I speculate you'll have about a 2/3 chance of drawing a WY general tag with one point in 2015. With zero points, it'll be between 15-20%.
The WY general tag is leaps and bounds, far better than CO OTC hunting if you want a chance to get away from other hunters during the archery season and that includes not hunting the Wilderness in WY since you can't without a guide (in WY). (I base this opinion on the fact that success rates of the WY Gen tag being far better than CO OTC and the reported hunter numbers on average per zone, and less importantly, my own experience in CO OTC and WY Gen tag hunting).
There's plenty of national forest and BLM land in WY to hunt outside of the wilderness.
If you wanted to draw the regular tag and failed to do so, you could always buy a CO tag OTC and the WY draw is one of the earliest to be drawn so you'd have plenty of time to plan it.
If you want to hunt WY, the preference point can be purchased till Sept 30th for credit going into 2015's draw.
I will purchase the WY point regardless of what I do, and hopefully draw a general tag for next archery season. I'm leaning towards towards WY over OTC colorado because of hunter numbers , but like you said if I fail to draw a tag cutting my teeth in colorado will be fine.
building points in Colorado is cheap, hunt otc till you get some points for a better unit later. get your Wyoming points and do general area choices as your second choice so you preserve your points if you don't draw your first choice limited entry unit.
I agree with most of the above. Get your Wyoming point and then next year you will have the choice to either apply for the general tag with a decent chance of drawing, or you can continue to build points and hunt OTC Colorado or leftover Montana.
I was in the exact same situation as you recently. I chose a general tag in Wyoming and had a great hunt with my dad last fall. We didn't come home with an elk, but we had a great time and learned a lot. I didn't see another hunter the entire hunt and we were into elk daily.
First off, you are in the right place. Great place to research DIY elk hunting.
We are all NR's in 49 states and you looking at two good states.
You say explicitly that you were planning for 2015, but since you are looking at purchasing a PP, I will make that assumption.
Good advice on above. In your shoes, I would purchase PP in WYO NOW. (Must be done before Sept 30th if memory serves.
2015- Apply in WYO with your PP. (Depending upon your financial tolerance your can apply in regular draw or special draw. Nothing different in license other than price and drawing odds {As a rule of thumb, the special draw/expensive tag has better draw odds. But there are exceptions!) Draw is due by Mid Feb if memory serves. You will have your results by late Feb or first of March.
If you don't draw WYO, apply for CO and apply for a PP. No need to apply for a license as if you want to hunt CO you will be hunting OTC anyway and you can buy those licenses starting in August.
With this approach you are not handcuffed to either state. You might decide a left over MT license is preferred over CO OTC for 2015.
In 2016 and beyond, you will have PP's to play with in WYO and CO. Only advice I would give is cash in your PP's early in CO as saving any more than 5 is a waste of time and money for the most part. But you are young so if you are willing to buy PP's for 20 + years, you can hunt a good LE unit in CO. Assuming the playground rules stay the same, which since I have been playing the game, you cannot assume!
But that is for another thread!
Thanks for your help and yes I will get that PP for Wyoming this weekend. I'm just trying to figure out which area in each state I would like to hunt. I am not asking for specifics, but if I am gonna hope I draw in Wyoming and I do not I would like to have a OTC spot in Colorado that I am pretty content with. Once I have my spot selected then i will worry about my gear, but I understand the need to get some back packing experience in as soon as possible.
KS, take Spike Bull's advice. If you don't have back packing experience get some. I think more DIY hunters go home early than finish out the hunt. The only 2 groups I have run into in our OTC spot spent a grand total of 3 days hunting between them. If you like work and adventure with the chance to chase and maybe kill an elk you will do well in almost any unit.
I wish I would have started at your age:)
My best advice to to find someone that has been on an elk hunt before preferably several times, has had success and tag along. I am from PA and started down the same route 35 years ago. My buddy knew a spot that held elk. Knowing there are elk where you are hunting is important. Unlike PA that has whitetails in ever patch of woods you can walk for miles in CO and never see and elk.
Kyle, advice sound like something you might have heard before? Welcome to bowsite my friend. You are getting advice from some of the best in the business!
Like others have said, I wish I would have started this when I was 24
I have actually talked with a guy from my hometown who has done a number of DiY elk hunts in CO and WY. He is the one who turned me on to this site and I'm glad he did. I appreciate all the advice you guys are giving me. I'll look at buying the right pack for the trip and will start getting used to it and also perhaps plan a backpack trip for a few days just as a bit of a warm up. Until then iwill keep scouring the map and reading this forum for ideas on where I would like to try my first elk hunt.
Next time you see a cow in a pasture as you drive by, imagine that you just shot it and now have to process it and haul it 4 miles to your truck BY YOURSELF. That should give you pause and try and find a buddy to go with (or Bullsac!)
As atated, apply for a point in Wyoming, but maybe plan for a trip to Colorado in 2015. Pick any of the bigger wildernesses in Colorado (Flat Tops, Holy Cross, Maroon Bells, Weminuche, etc) and they will hold elk. Sometimes it is the mid-range (1-3 miles) that can hold elk. Most people don't get more than a mile from the trailhead, but outfitters and die hard hunters go farther. So don't discount the mid ranges
Lots of great advice, except don't go to WY... too many wolves and bbbig nasty bears! :^)
I agree with Rick M, because I've been there myself. You don't know what you don't know until you do it, or you learn it. It is definitely worth the effort to see what DIY elk hunting is all about though. Follow any and/or all of this and you will be fine.
Friend, you’re going to be hunting ELK. If you've got two weeks why limit yourself to 7 or 8 days, you have the weekend’s book ended so you should have 16 days to work with. My partner and I go to Colorado almost every year, sadly this year will be the exception, but we drive it in about 32 hours from upstate New York to the four corners region. Leave early in the morning and be at your camp site by early afternoon the next day. I did it by myself a few years ago and it took me till early evening to get there. We get 12 days of hunting that way. Once you’re there, you’ll want to stay as long as possible.
I mean once I plan this hunt out I will most certainly try and hunt as many days as possible. Even if that means packing in for 5-6 days and then coming back to the truck to resupply for another 5-6. My friend who hunted in Wyoming never mentioned anything about wolves or bears. Anyone else run into a problem with them while hunting in Wyoming??
Will their be outfiiters in areas like the flat tops for example if I would pack in 2-4 miles to camp? What I mean is would they be in a wilderness area that has OTC tags? Obviously they could be and I would never see them because of the vast amount of space I just meant in anyones experience>?
For the most part wolves aren't going to be a problem if you are finding elk. I was somewhat messing around with my post, but griz can be a problem in the northwest corner of the state. If you want the stories, there are a few who will tell you about the bears.
