DIY 2011 Colorado Elk Hunt

[dave19113]

I posed this question last night to my hunting buddy while at work;

    For 2011 why dont we do a now hunt in colorado for elk.... We plan it all?

Well.... he gave me a look like, "yea ok....."  :(  
He has rifle hunted Co before for Elk... I think area 70?... So he knows the area and hotels, butchers etc.


So I figured Id ask you guys for advise. I have been reading alot of the posts about elk hunts and it really is what I want....I just dont know how to start.

    I guess Ill start with what I want and we can go from there.

1) Self guided  hunt, Unless some nice Trad Gang members on here would like to meet up in Co and could kinda steer me along ( or use me as a pack mule to pack out their elk.... I would not mind at all)

2) 2011 Bow season, Was hoping to hunt mulies too if it is possible. I went on the Co web to find season dates and it is still chinese to me...

3) I want to call em in myself ( or with a lil help) And you guessed it.... Ive never called in an elk before... I have in fact only saw 3 in my lifetime.

I will be driving to Co bc it just seems more cost effective. I was thinking of hiring a guy to pack out meat so as not to lose any of it. It will just be me and my girlfriend packing it out. ( so in reality it is just me packing 90% out...lol)

So there it is...... can it be done ?....


Any help would be great

[just_a_hunter]

I typed this up a couple years ago  

There is a lot of good info from a lot of folks..

Elknut1 has a few threads that have great info...

Good luck,

Todd

[Gehrke145]

Shoot me a PM, I might be able to help you out.  Put in for a deer PP this year so your good to go for next year.

[dave19113]

ok gehrke145 thanks..... ill PM you...

[wapiti792]

Dave there is good info here...search and you will find a ton of information. I am a flatlander too and have been going out there for 12 years now. You CAN kill an elk, but calling them on public ground is tough. My technique is to sit on my a** and glass, find out where the elk are heading, then go there. I usually wait 24 hours before doing some serious climbing but when I am ready that is the first thing I do. I climb to the highest point I can and glass. It is mostly a spot and stalk thing and the slobbering, bugle-monster that you see responding to a cow call on TV happens very rarely in OTC units. GOOD LUCK! Go get 'em!

[dave19113]

When i went on the Co Hunting page I was looking at OTC tags. Am I reading right that you can just purchase an OTC either sex tag for the bow season?

[Doug Treat]

Dave, it depends on which game management unit you are looking at.  There are lots of OTC units for elk that have either-sex archery tags and several units that you need to apply for.  In my experience, it's better to hunt in a limited unit (that you have to apply for in April) so that the number of hunters is limited and you don't have everyone bugling the bulls out of the country.  All deer tags are limited.  The Colorado DOW website can get you info. on which units can be drawn without a preference point (look under "statistics").  You might want to apply this year for a preference point for deer and elk (before Apr. 6) so that next year you can look into units that take 1 preference point (better units).  As a general rule, the units closer to the front range (East side of the mountains) are more crowded and the farther away from Denver you go, it seems less crowded...but not always.  Look for areas that don't have access roads for 4-wheelers (like wilderness areas).  It is very confusing if you haven't hunted here before but I hope this helps.

[wapiti792]

Depending on the unit...some are OTC and some are draw only. If you look at the first page of the elk hunting regs it gives the units that are not available with OTC...if your unit is not in the list it is OTC. Good luck!