Originally Posted by
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Why use an outfitter? If you're wanting to hunt elk in CO in 2016 then you have plenty of time to plan a DIY hunt. Any elk taken on your own will have much more meaning to you than one taken with an outfitter. Rather than put $5K into an outfitter's pocket, do the hunt on your own and keep a large chunk of that $$$ for another hunt.
CO has a huge elk herd and millions upon millions of acres of public land to hunt on. My suggestion is to go to the DOW website and begin to research elk hunting. They have a huge amount of info on there. You can even contact the game biologists for areas you're interested in and get their scoop on things. Once you narrow down an area, come back to this site and I'm sure that several of the members, including myself, will pony up some info for you.
How is it you can tell how much meaning an elk will have to somebody? Have you ever been on an outfitted hunt? I have a fella that hunts with us every year, he does so because he builds bows and knives after work as sells them to pay for his hunt. How many people hire a mechanic, contractor, eat out etc? They should all be "doing it on their own" to get more satisfaction? Some people find great satisfaction in being successful enough to pay for an outfitted hunt, whether they are building bows or owning a business. I am a perfectly capable elk hunter, but if I hunt out of state I will definitely hire an outfitter. I don't find satisfaction in cooking, cleaning, cutting wood, and setting up camp when I only have a week to hunt, and many guys are just like me. The OP had a question about finding a Colorado outfitter, not opinions from the anti-outfitting crowd.