Couple of Questions

[Beastmode]

Thanks! Personally I would not recommend you to stay out from a base camp all night! You're a new hunter at it alone, you need to get your feet wet as it were & do most your elk hunting inside 4 miles from either where you camp/base or drive from base to pre-scouted areas via your pre-season scouting through the internet & topos of areas you plan to hunt. Save a bivy hunt once you have a good idea what elk hunting is all about & gear you may need or not need, it may be you will decide not to bivy at all once you know your areas well. Most elk taken are inside 3 miles of ones starting points & many inside the one mile range. Pick several areas via topo scouting from home so you become as familiar as can be done minus boot leather on the ground. Once in these areas it can take several years to learn them intimately, this means you know these small hidey holes where elk seek refuge from other hunters as well as where they bed, feed, water, wallow, breed, etc. Knowing these things takes time & energy. This knowledge here can lead to your consistent success.

Too, by returning to a base each day or night you can dress accordingly for the day ahead as you will have a selection of clothing at camp that best meets your needs for your time there. Being mobile may be needed if elk are not in the 1st area you had hoped they would be. By returning each day it would be easy to check out area 2-3-4- etc if needed.

At 25 years of age & in good shape hunting 3 to 8 miles a day is not a big deal. Those 8 mile days would actually be rare once you know your areas well. By hunting in this manner you are now in total control of your situation & getting meat out is no longer a monumental task that can weigh on your mind!

An example here is we in the ElkNut Crew have never done a bivy hunt to date yet we are successful every year because of the fact we know our country well. We hunt DIY OTC public lands like everyone else. When we consider a bivy style hunt it will be for larger bulls that see little pressure & have the chance to get some age on them. In your case you are looking for "any elk" be reasonable in your decision making & do not get over your head because you feel you need to prove you can do it. Good luck to you bud!

ElkNut1

I wouldn't discredit this one bit. Some of the biggest animals I have seen have been within a mile or 2 of a road or populated area. You don't have to be miles back to see animals. Animals want little pressure, food/water and a place to sleep. You combine all this and you will soon realize a ton of guys walk right past some prime areas thinking they need to be way back to get away from pressure. Sometimes there is more pressure 5 miles back than a half a mile off the trail a mile from the trailhead. Sometimes the most obvious is the least obvious.

 

[ElkNut1]

dkime, here's a bit more info that may be helpful. I know I sure wish someone would have shared this with me near 45 years ago (grin)

Trailheads are hunter magnets! Most camp near them & hunt them. We do our best to hunt away from access points such as this. We use our topo maps to see where trails may be in the areas we want to hunt & stay away from possible hunting pressure. Please take this to heart as it's money! We select areas that most hunters would shy away from, this will reduce your hunting pressure & increase your odds of close encounters. Select dates after Sept 15th & your odds of bugling bulls will increase!

Notice in the photos some of the areas we will park at & head into. Most drive past these areas because of difficulty right off the get go. Look for like drop off spots & you will rarely have to go more that 2 GPS miles, this will be very negotiable for you. All the photos shown are in semi hidden areas with no roads or trails leading into them. Please feel free to ask any questions.

ElkNut1

 

[bz_711]

Thanks! Personally I would not recommend you to stay out from a base camp all night! You're a new hunter at it alone, you need to get your feet wet as it were & do most your elk hunting inside 4 miles from either where you camp/base or drive from base to pre-scouted areas via your pre-season scouting through the internet & topos of areas you plan to hunt. Save a bivy hunt once you have a good idea what elk hunting is all about & gear you may need or not need, it may be you will decide not to bivy at all once you know your areas well. Most elk taken are inside 3 miles of ones starting points & many inside the one mile range. Pick several areas via topo scouting from home so you become as familiar as can be done minus boot leather on the ground. Once in these areas it can take several years to learn them intimately, this means you know these small hidey holes where elk seek refuge from other hunters as well as where they bed, feed, water, wallow, breed, etc. Knowing these things takes time & energy. This knowledge here can lead to your consistent success.

Too, by returning to a base each day or night you can dress accordingly for the day ahead as you will have a selection of clothing at camp that best meets your needs for your time there. Being mobile may be needed if elk are not in the 1st area you had hoped they would be. By returning each day it would be easy to check out area 2-3-4- etc if needed.

At 25 years of age & in good shape hunting 3 to 8 miles a day is not a big deal. Those 8 mile days would actually be rare once you know your areas well. By hunting in this manner you are now in total control of your situation & getting meat out is no longer a monumental task that can weigh on your mind!

An example here is we in the ElkNut Crew have never done a bivy hunt to date yet we are successful every year because of the fact we know our country well. We hunt DIY OTC public lands like everyone else. When we consider a bivy style hunt it will be for larger bulls that see little pressure & have the chance to get some age on them. In your case you are looking for "any elk" be reasonable in your decision making & do not get over your head because you feel you need to prove you can do it. Good luck to you bud!

ElkNut1

Spot on!

 

[dkime]

I wouldn't discredit this one bit. Some of the biggest animals I have seen have been within a mile or 2 of a road or populated area. You don't have to be miles back to see animals. Animals want little pressure, food/water and a place to sleep. You combine all this and you will soon realize a ton of guys walk right past some prime areas thinking they need to be way back to get away from pressure. Sometimes there is more pressure 5 miles back than a half a mile off the trail a mile from the trailhead. Sometimes the most obvious is the least obvious.

Elknut, where are you guys leaving your vehicles when you hike in away from the trail head?

 

[ElkNut1]

Give me a call this evening & I'd be happy to talk with you a few minutes, it would be much quicker than my slow typing plus you can feel free to ask other questions! It's no problem at all bud! 208-315-0562 -- Paul

 

[Finch]

A buddy and I are going to do the backpack thing as well this Sept in CO. I've actually been planning since this time last year and have acquired most of the "big ticket" items and have everything I need to do a few practice runs here in Appalachia. I'm told a backpack hunt is a little ambitious for a first elk hunt but I'm up for the challenge. Here's some tips from a fellow newbie.

- http://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/EHU.aspx - Elk hunting university (great resource on everything elk hunting in CO)
- http://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/BrochureOrderForm.aspx - Link to receiving a hard copy of the 2015 reg book-never to early to learn the regs.

Also, I love researching gear and finding the best prices. Most everything I've bought has been used and at good prices. I could actually sell most everything I have and make money. Not bragging, just saying deals can be had if you're willing to be patient. What I did was research (this can take months and is very overwhelming at first since you're starting from the ground up) and I made a list of the items I had decided on. I included the best price I had found on that particular piece of gear and kept it in a word document. When something would come up in the classifieds, I knew it was an item I had researched, what it normally sold for, etc and then I would jump on it.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[ndbuck09]

DKime,
As a guy who started hunting out west from his home in Indiana in 2010 at 23 and every year since between Colorado and Montana (a side note is that I finally got moved out west here to IDAHO!), the biggest enemy for us younger guys in really good shape is the mental battle that you will inevitably face, hyper magnified hunting solo. Dark mountains a mile from camp with significant elevation gain or loss, deadfall to navigate, no trail to follow other than maps and GPS plus the knowledge that more than whitetails and coyotes are out there with you can pretty much rattle a midwest guy really quick. I'm not sure of your past experiences but hunting a lot with my Marine buddy from college has taught me that the military shortens the mental learning curve quite a bit in dealing with the isolation and what if scenarios that can play out in your head. I did not have this training and it has taken me 4-5 years to really feel comfortable getting into mountains solo and starting before light and sticking it out til after dark. Do whatever you can to do a couple of 3-4 day trips where you're going to be completely solo and have no cell phone. Practice with you GPS in the dark and figure out how to have maps to back you up.

Being in our 20's and active gets us ahead of the curve physically but sharpen that mental game and thats the key to success. Experienced guys in the mountains with a lot more years on their knees can out hunt me because of knowledge, skill and ability to stay mentally sharp over the long haul. Every year I get out in the Elk mountains I feel that sharpness lasting longer and longer. So do it this year and every year after!
Also, the Gunnison area is pretty solid for elk and a little less on the radar; you can get away from people pretty decently. Now I just need to figure out a unit for Elk here in my new state of Idaho lol

 

[ndbuck09]

Oh ya, one more thing. You should also invest in some sort of method of communications with some people on a daily check up basis while out of cell service. A SPOT device could save your life.