Hey everyone, I've been lurking here the past couple of years, and have yet to post but have done a ton of reading and learning. This year, I hunted CO OTC for the second year and as my second ever elk hunt, and was successful! I credit ya'll here at Rokslide for a lot of the learning that I've done over the past couple years, so I figured I'd post some lessons I learned, as well as try to get some feedback on a few mistakes I made along the way. I live in the southeast and a born and raised whitetail hunter, so I do understand basic hunting concepts. I am also an avid hiker/backpacker and have spent weeks in the backcountry out west, so I at least did have the advantage of understanding how to handle things in the backcountry. I was not at all familiar with elk or elk hunting except for what I've seen online or on the TV, so I did have a pretty decent starting point - I understood backcountry hiking/backpacking and know the basics of hunting cervids, but pretty much started from scratch on elk in particular.
First, here's a rundown of the hunt: My buddy and I headed west the Wednesday before the rifle started and reached the area we designated as our base camp on Friday morning. Our plan was to get our base camp set up and in order, then backpack up a ridge adjacent to our camp and spike camp for the first 3 days of the season. We took off up the ridge that Friday afternoon and hiked in about 1.5 miles. The hike-in took much longer than expected due to tons of beetle-kill deadfall littering the ridge, so we ended up reaching our first spike camp right at dusk. I had extensively scouted this area using google maps and onX and decided on a couple of spots down the ridge where we would try to glass the valley and adjacent hillside over the next few days, so we set up camp for the night with the expectation to glass from the opposite side of the ridge the next morning. We get to our glassing spot the next morning on opening day, and as the sun is rising, I realize that this ridge is not going to be great to glass from because it is shrouded in pine, blocking our views of the valley below. We start scouting the ridge (which consists of a series of several saddles) for sign and realize that each saddle is covered in very fresh elk sign (elk droppings, bedding areas that reek of elk, rubs on trees). Now, I feel like we have two potential choices: 1. head back to base camp and move to plan b in order to glass larger areas or 2. stay and hunt the ridge itself... We decide to stay on the ridge since we are in an area where elk definitely frequent, but we feel like we have blown out this saddle with our scent and movement. We decide to use the day Saturday to slowly move down the ridge to a saddle that we have not scouted, but assume is full of sign like the previous 2 saddles. We end up deciding to hunt it the next morning, basically using a tree stand strategy, setting up at the highpoint of one side of the saddle and hunting over the saddle, which runs about 250 yards. We get to our spot Sunday morning about 1 hour before first light. As the morning progresses, we aren't seeing any elk. Feeling discouraged, I pull out onX and start scouting other nearby areas. Then at 9:30am, I see movement across the other side of the saddle. A herd of 5 elk, 3 cows and 2 bulls, come filtering up onto the saddle. I am literally in disbelief that we are seeing elk and that we may have an opportunity for a shot. It's a dream come true. They end up moving directly toward us and I get a shot off at the smaller of the 2 bulls (a 4x4) at about 100 yards, where he moves about 10 yards and drops. We spend the next 2 days packing out the meat and moving it to our coolers at base camp and a third day to retrieve our spike camp and antlers. My legs are busted to s**t from the deadfall and we ended up running very short on water by the end of the hunt, due to there being no water sources on the ridge, so we are worn out by the time we get to base camp, but still, I am absolutely elated to have killed my first elk.
First, here's a rundown of the hunt: My buddy and I headed west the Wednesday before the rifle started and reached the area we designated as our base camp on Friday morning. Our plan was to get our base camp set up and in order, then backpack up a ridge adjacent to our camp and spike camp for the first 3 days of the season. We took off up the ridge that Friday afternoon and hiked in about 1.5 miles. The hike-in took much longer than expected due to tons of beetle-kill deadfall littering the ridge, so we ended up reaching our first spike camp right at dusk. I had extensively scouted this area using google maps and onX and decided on a couple of spots down the ridge where we would try to glass the valley and adjacent hillside over the next few days, so we set up camp for the night with the expectation to glass from the opposite side of the ridge the next morning. We get to our glassing spot the next morning on opening day, and as the sun is rising, I realize that this ridge is not going to be great to glass from because it is shrouded in pine, blocking our views of the valley below. We start scouting the ridge (which consists of a series of several saddles) for sign and realize that each saddle is covered in very fresh elk sign (elk droppings, bedding areas that reek of elk, rubs on trees). Now, I feel like we have two potential choices: 1. head back to base camp and move to plan b in order to glass larger areas or 2. stay and hunt the ridge itself... We decide to stay on the ridge since we are in an area where elk definitely frequent, but we feel like we have blown out this saddle with our scent and movement. We decide to use the day Saturday to slowly move down the ridge to a saddle that we have not scouted, but assume is full of sign like the previous 2 saddles. We end up deciding to hunt it the next morning, basically using a tree stand strategy, setting up at the highpoint of one side of the saddle and hunting over the saddle, which runs about 250 yards. We get to our spot Sunday morning about 1 hour before first light. As the morning progresses, we aren't seeing any elk. Feeling discouraged, I pull out onX and start scouting other nearby areas. Then at 9:30am, I see movement across the other side of the saddle. A herd of 5 elk, 3 cows and 2 bulls, come filtering up onto the saddle. I am literally in disbelief that we are seeing elk and that we may have an opportunity for a shot. It's a dream come true. They end up moving directly toward us and I get a shot off at the smaller of the 2 bulls (a 4x4) at about 100 yards, where he moves about 10 yards and drops. We spend the next 2 days packing out the meat and moving it to our coolers at base camp and a third day to retrieve our spike camp and antlers. My legs are busted to s**t from the deadfall and we ended up running very short on water by the end of the hunt, due to there being no water sources on the ridge, so we are worn out by the time we get to base camp, but still, I am absolutely elated to have killed my first elk.
- First off, some tools that I used to scout and learn the basics of elk hunting. onX and google earth are indispensable mapping software if you are scouting from across the country and cannot get boots on the ground before the season. Just remember, boots on the ground will give you a real idea of the lay of the land. I would not have expected to glass from the ridge if I had seen it in person prior to the hunt. Also, the elk101 course by Corey Jacobsen was absolutely worth the cost. I did not use it my first year out, and thought I understood the basics of elk hunting, but purchased elk101 before my hunt this year and it made me realize how lost I actually was last year. If you want the basics of elk hunting consolidated in an easy-to-consume and use platform, get elk101.
- It cannot be overstated how helpful it is to get off the trail or road and get away from other hunters. We base-camped at the end of a forest service road surrounded by at least 5 other camps full of multiple hunters. Once we got about 1.5 to 2 miles in on the ridge, we did not see one hunter the 3 days we were out. It also "helped" that this ridge was littered with beetle-kill deadfall, making the hike-in difficult and likely keeping other hunters away. Like Randy Newberg says, if you see an area and you think, man I would hate to pack an elk out of there, then that's where you need to be.
- When you find elk or get into fresh elk sign, stay the course, even if it means adjusting your original strategy. Finding the elk seems to be the most difficult part of hunting public land. Once you find them, develop a strategy, and stay on them.
- Plan your spike camps around a water source if possible. Not doing this was the most dangerous mistake we made. We entered the woods on Friday with 4 liters of water each, as well as water treatment systems, but it was not enough because there were no water sources along the ridge. By the time I killed my elk on Sunday, I was already pretty dehydrated from trying to ration my water over the days, and then I had to pack a load of meat back to base-camp with no water. Once we made it back to base-camp, we were both pretty severely dehydrated. We will not make that mistake again.
- A good hunting-specific backpack is not necessary, but definitely worth it if you have the money. I used my Osprey Atmos 65 L that I use for my backpacking trips, and it was definitely serviceable, but my buddy used a Mystery Ranch Metcalf, and the meat shelf overload feature was amazing. It would have saved us an extra trip to retrieve our camp if I would have had one too because I could have had room for the meat plus the camp gear. Needless to say, I was impressed with it and ordered one on cyber Monday.
- Make sure you have ample cooler space and enough room for your gear, plus elk heads. You would think this would be common sense, but we brought along a Pelican 50 qt and a RTIC 65 qt and just barely had enough space for the meat. If we shot two, we would have had to buy another cooler, and somehow made room for that and 2 elk heads. Plan ahead when it comes to having enough space for your mounts in your vehicle if you plan on riding home with them.
- We have met several guys over the last 2 years who claim to have hunted certain areas for decades and always had luck. I'm wondering if this area could become that for me. There were old rubs, new rubs, fresh droppings and established game trails all over this area. I understand that changes in weather and hunting pressure year-to-year could have an effect on the area, but overall, does anybody here have a similar area that they hunt successfully every year?
- When I make it back to hunt next year, should I hunt these saddles in a step-wise manner, hunting each saddle each day over a period of several days? Since each saddle seems to foster elk activity, this seems like the best strategy, but just wanted to see what y'all thought.
- How far do y'all typically spike camp from a water source? The nearest to us was about a half mile, so not too far, but being on the ridge, it would have been a hellacious half mile climbing over deadfall there and back up the steep ridge. Also, how many days in a row do you spike camp?
