Originally Posted by
skb2706
No limit and no season. Clean em and hang em....let em hang for a very long time. At least til the pot holes fill in.
Last year I wasn't elk hunting but went with a friend to be his sherpa. Met up with a group from out of state that only hunted from the road and only when it was warm. Found one of them drunk on the streets of Walden needing assistance back to his motel.
They flew in, drove 180 miles to hunt one and a half days then drive back to Denver and fly home. Doubt they got more than 50 yards off any road.
I often hear about hunters not getting very far away from the roads when hunting for elk. That is not an effective strategy . . . which I suppose everyone reading this already knows. My attitude to that is if 75% of the hunters don't go more than 1/2 mile off the road, that leaves a lot of prime hunting land to me. I took my 5x5 bull on public land about 4 miles from any road last year.
Having said that, my first year hunting elk in 2006 I actually saw elk as they crossed the road not 50 yards in front of me. I could have parked, taken my rifle, walked off the road a legal distance, and shot one of those cow elk likely pretty readily. It would have been easier getting out than my bull 4 miles from the truck. I didn't do that if for no other reason than I wasn't sure they were elk! I knew what a bull elk looked like, but at that time -- never seen elk in the wild before -- I wasn't sure what the difference between a cow elk and a mule deer doe was. I know, seems obvious, but it wasn't something I had studied at that time. I didn't want to be wrong. I'm not sure even then I would have taken the shot even if I was 100% sure it was a cow elk. If that was what my hunting was like EVERY year I probably wouldn't keep elk hunting. On the other hand, elk meat is REALLY good! It is more fun going off road to get them though.