Biggs300

I've hunted elk in CO for the past two years; a semi-guided hunt with horses and a backpack hunt this past October. Hunting in CO can be rugged as we found out this year, almost too rugged for this 61 year old. Next year we're going to try for a semi-guided hunt in NM in at lower altitude.

DJfan

You can go online and purchase the migration routes for elk, and they can be downloaded right to your Google Earth program.

Grizzly13

Nitro I and a couple fo friends went and tented for 9 years in CO for Elk and Deer. We hunted the White River National Forest just outside of Dotsero followed the Colo river north approx 25 miles and headed up into the 9500 ft range. We had some great times and killed a few animals. Seen some great ones but the ladder years the four wheel drive clubs were pushing the Elk deeper and deeper into the mountains making it much harder to reach them. You might want to consider renting a couple of horses if not for the travel at least for the hauling out of the animals when they are down. I shot a Bull back in a long ways one day with my flintlock and on the way out that night after quartering the animal for the haul the next day, I ran into a old timer on the trail back by camp and his advice was to take a coupe of loafs of bread back in with me and eat him where he lays, I never forgot that. The experiences were of a lifetime ! My best advice is to " Pick Good and I mean Very Good hunting buddies" your life might just depend on them. GoodLuck

Topgun 3006

Go to CO this year and get your feet wet while buying a PP in Wyoming this summer (7/1-9/30 is the application period) for $50. That should get you a general tag in the 2014 drawing for a lot of units. However, be aware that Wyoming will probably be raising it's license for a regular tag to about $750 and you will have an application fee and Conservation Stamp to buy if you draw, so those will add another $30 or so.

Alsatian

A few thoughts. Monster bulls are not easy to come by, any where, any time. A monster bull is, by definition, a statistical exception -- a 95th% bull or a 98th% bull. As a general rules, hunters don't stumble onto monster bulls: they arrange to hunt in a limited permit area that is known to have monster bulls. This usually involves building many preference points and maybe paying lots of money to get hauled in by an outfitter and guide.

DIY elk hunting is complicated. You don't learn all of this by reading books. If you want to hunt elk, you need to bite the bullet and get out there to hunt. You will learn a lot by doing it, though your prospects for taking an elk -- either a cow or a modest bull -- may be very slim during your first elk hunt. If you want to "jump start" the elk hunting learning curve, you might go with an outfitter and guide. Maybe you can learn more rapidly from a guide? I've never done this -- just throwing out as a hypothesis.

Elk are high in the mountains in early seasons and stay until driven down by moderate to heavy snow. You need to match your hunting season and hunting unit with an understanding of where the elk will be. If you get a late season license for a unit that is all over 10000', the elk will likely all be down on low altitude winter range during your hunt and access via 4 wheel drive truck is probably impossible anyway. If you get an early season license for a unit that is less than 8000', the elk are likely to be up higher. In some places, low elevations are predominately private lands; high elevations are predominantly public lands. This stuff has to be taken into consideration.

If you DIY, you will need a comfortable camp near your elk hunting area. Generally hunting out of a motel is difficult. For example, if you stay in the hotel and have to drive 90 minutes to where your park your truck and then walk an hour to get to your hunting spot . . . what time do you have to get up in the morning at your hotel to be on hunt at say 6 AM? If you are not comfortable, problems can develop. Having safe heat in your tent is something to work out. How you will get meat back from your kill site to your camp is something to figure out. Getting meat from camp back home is something to figure out.

In Colorado you can apply for first season rifle and depending on the unit may get drawn. If you fail, this gives you a preference point next time. You can select a second choice which is the second season which is 100% draw. Select your unit with understanding of seasonal distribution of elk. You should buy and study the Colorado Department of Wildlife "Big Game CD." This has a wealth of information on draw probabilities in different units, success in different units, elk distribution seasonally in different units.

Partly you need to do research; partly you need to get out there to find out what you don't know yet. It is a great experience.

SnakeEater

Speaking of which, has any of you ever tried to take meat back home as checked baggage? Do most airlines allow it? The times I've traveled out of state for a hunt, I usually drove. I've been looking into an elk or buffalo in the future and do not feel like driving out west.

Champlain Islander

Great post Alsatian and one that my experience echos. I will add this to the mix. If you have ever thought about hunting elk do it. Waiting will only reduce the number of hunts you will be able to go on. Once you start to hunt elk you will want to do it forever.

I always drive. No problem bringing back a cut up, packaged and frozen or refrigerated deboned elk in a 156 qt cooler with ice packs. Our trips last 3 days and the meat is the same at the end as when we pack it.

Alsatian

One way to care for meat during a long drive home is to store the meat in a cooler with dry ice. You don't necessarily want to freeze the meat solid -- unless it is already cut up and packaged into meal sized packages -- just keep it cold. Put dry ice in the bottom of the cooler, 1/4" of newspaper, and then the elk meat in canvas bags on top of the newspaper. Close the cooler and tape it shut with duct tape. The tape slows the loss of the dry ice and reduces the outgassing of CO2 into the vehicle. I've heard it said that it can be dangerous to have too much CO2 leak into a vehicle: the driver can fall asleep from lack of oxygen and then have an accident. Urban legend? I don't know. I occasionally open all the windows while driving to let the air circulate just in case. A nice thing about dry ice is that it doesn't pool as liquid and doesn't wet the meat. Also, it doesn't leak out of a cooler, like a cooler with a crack in it or with a poor drain plug, into your truck. Speaking of which, do put a tarp under your cooler in the truck. One year elk blood leaked out onto the carpet in the back of my Suburban. I got the truck detailed and the stain removed before the wife saw it!

Driving gives you some freedom that flying doesn't. You have your own vehicle there. You don't get bound into rigid schedules. What if you take your elk the last evening of the hunting season? Maybe it is two days later when you take out your camp and then the third day when you are ready to leave town? Maybe you get your elk on opening morning and are ready to pull out 2 days after opening day? If you have plane tickets, that may not be flexible. Also, the long drive -- speaking for myself -- is a good time to think about and get excited about the forthcoming hunt. I lose the concerns and worries of my home life and work life and get tuned into the wild and the mountains, slowly. If you are driving with hunting partners I'm sure this is all the more sweet. It is a great time for comraderie.

Champlain Islander

I have tried to pack dry ice which is widely available in the west to transport frozen game. It worked well but IMO was expensive and didn't do much more than our frozen jugs we packed in the last couple of trips. We processed my elk which I shot on day 1 about 4 days later and then froze all the packages including chunked up burger pieces. I packed them all into a 156 qt cooler and it filled it to the top. I added a few small jugs of frozen water and all the meat was still frozen 3 days later. I thawed out the burger fixins and ground them up when I got home and made sausage and it turned out great. Like you said Alsatian if you get an elk on the last day which is exactly what my hunting partner did. He shot the 5X6 15 minutes before the end of the season and we were set to leave at 4am the next morning. We got up and deboned all the meat after leaving it in a cold truck all night and then packed them along with some ice jugs into another cooler. The temp inside the cooler was in the low 40's when we got it all home after 3 days so that worked out great. Had we flown out we wouldn't have been able to deal with that last minute elk. I love a good road trip.

mthusker

Where in Nebraska do you call home? I am in Montana but grew up near Elkhorn and have hunted many area of Nebr.. I actually have a 6000 acre hunting lease near Big Timber,MT that has elk, deer, bear and turkeys on it about an your west of Billings,MT. Might be looking for a couple of guys to go in on lease for 2013 would include both bow and rifle seasons if your interested let me know, I am not a guide or outfitter, just like to hunt and looking for someone who is a good respectful hunter(s)