It seems to me that a lot of guys have had plenty of opportunities on taking elk. It seems like some shoot elk anually. Can you get tags every year or every other year. We don't have elk in my area. If you live in the west can you hunt elk like we hunt deer.
lots of states are draw only so I put in for at least 3 states plus Colorado .if I don't get drawn in Co I buy an over the counter tag. this year I got drawn for Wyo/NM and Colorado so its going to be a terrific year.
Here in CO., there are many units/areas that are hunted with draw permits only. Some of the best units may take 8, 10, or more years to draw a permit to hunt. BUT there are also many units that you can buy a tag OTC/over the counter and go hunt. Hunting isn't the best in these units for various reasons, BUT you can go hunt none the less!
Deer tags are all by drawing only. Antelope is much like elk, most units are by drawing only, BUT there are a few OTC units, especially if you bow hunt!
Once you get very familiar to an area, it isn't uncommon for some rifles hunters to kill an elk annually. BUT in the big scheem of elk hunting, the success ratio is not good, around, maybe below 20% for rifle hunters, and worse for archery hunters!
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In Utah we have two types of units. Draw only and OTC. Like others have said the draw tags are the coveted tags. These are "trophy" units. The OTC tags are easy to get and in some ways is like a deer hunt. It can be done anually and you can hunt the same places every year if you like.
The problem is elk aren't like deer. They are very sensitive to pressure and they move around a lot. One year they can be thick as flies in an area and the next 3 years you might not even see a track in that same area. So to be able to get elk anually in Utah you MUST have private land or access to it where they aren't pressured, except by you of course. Or you gotta have a honey hole that is usually only accessible by horse oryou have to bewilling to back pack in many miles to get to it. I don't know of anyone around here that doesn't have horses and goes out to public land with an OTC tag and gets a bull every year.
In Alberta ,there are many zones where over the counter tags are available that are good for 3 point or 6 point bulls.The rifle season opens mid September in one zone that I hunt ,so I am able to hunt elk in the rut with a rifle every year.
Here in Saskatchewan, while draws do exist for special zones or anterless elk tags. I can hunt elk every year with an over the counter tag. Archery season you can harvest an Either-sexelk(end of august first of sept), butduring the rifle season which runs middle of sept it is bulls only.
Where i hunt cow elk are draw but bulls are a general tag. So im guaranteed a tag every year and i pretty much get drawn for cows every year so i guess it all depends if im seeing lot of bulls or cows during my scouting which determines which tag i will buy.The thing with the general bull tags is in some areas they only have to be three points or better on one side and in some they have to be six on one side or better.
if i applied for a wyoming tag or montana would i have a good chance my first time to get a tag or would it take a few years. Here in michigan its once in a life. I've applied for four years now and found out today i didnt get one this year.
Here in Colorado, many in our camp get two tags each year (one early draw and one left over draw) [you can't do this in every area];usually one of these tagsis an either sex tag and the other a cow tag, sometimes it is two cows.
We tend to get the multiple tags each year so we don't have to get into the "moral"/legal debate over party hunting. If you are in our group and are luckyenough to get into some elk, then we expect you to hammer some elk booty like you mean business. Ours is largely a "tribal hunt" i.e. when we got enough elk down (as much as we can reasonably pack out and reasonably consume in a year) then we stop. Then most of us work as a group to pack out the meat using horses and get the meat cooled/refrigerated. Later, webutcher, process, package and freeze all of our meat right in camp and then split it evenly according to the number of licenses held.
On ocassion we have someone who really wants to focus specifically ongetting a big trophy bull andin those cases wecan have some folksstalking around for days. Folks usually go this routeafter they popa cow first and then they focus on the bull --- meantime we're packing out their cow with the horses.Sometimes luck plays its hand and the bulls are right there and itall goes down easy. Wehave been skunked though; not often, but it has happened.
That is about how we do it.
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How do you guys do it?
