First DIY Western Elk Hunt... Tell Me Your Story

[Transition Wild]

We all have certain expectations for a first-time elk hunt but the reality can often times be much different than what had originally been imagined. I’m interested in hearing from people who have taken their first DIY public land western elk without any prior intel from friends or family, and how it all went down.

Was it everything you dreamed of, or did things not go as planned? What were some of your biggest lessons learned? Would you do it again based on what you experienced the first year? I’d be interested to hear your story, regardless of whether or not you killed or were “successful”.

- Adam

 

[JPHuntingAUS]

We all have certain expectations for a first-time elk hunt but the reality can often times be much different than what had originally been imagined. I’m interested in hearing from people who have taken their first DIY public land western elk without any prior intel from friends or family, and how it all went down.

Was it everything you dreamed of, or did things not go as planned? What were some of your biggest lessons learned? Would you do it again based on what you experienced the first year? I’d be interested to hear your story, regardless of whether or not you killed or were “successful”.

- Adam

I'm no help being on the other side of the world but where can we listen in?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Stilpr]

I’ll let you know in about 8 months!

 

[Sturgeon]

Stilp-where are you heading for elk? My dad and I are heading out to Wyoming this fall. We hunted CO private two years ago for elk, but Wyoming will be all public.

Paulick

 

[timekiller13]

My first elk hunt was Colorado OTC archery 2016. My expectations goals for the hunt were simple. I had 3 main ones I wanted to meet. First, have fun and be safe. Easily met, had an absolute blast and no issues/injuries. Second, see an elk. Met this goal, though it took a couple days. Third, hear an elk bugle. Easily met. Heard dozens of bugles. My other goals that I felt were realistic but harder to meet were as follows. Get within shooting range of an elk. I met this goal. Next, Kill an elk. Didnt meet this goal but came dang close. To some it may seem odd that I didn't have a high expectation of killing an elk. But I preferred to be realistic. Success rates for archery are less than 10%, I was a first time elk hunter in country I had never seen, chasing an animal I had zero real world experience with. Killing an elk was a lofty goal. I had so much fun I went back in 2017. My goals for 2nd hunt were similar to first, except I felt I had a little better chance of killing an elk. Didnt kill one, but came close. I will return in 2018 and feel like my chances of killing an elk are pretty good. But, my main goals will remain the same. Have fun, be safe and enjoy myself.

 

[Btaylor]

This past Sept I went on my second elk hunt but went solo to an area I had never set foot in or talked to anyone who had. I think that fits your description. It was way more than I dreamed of and things did not go as planned. I was successful without filling a tag and yes I am planning to go back this fall. I spent a lot of time looking (internet scouting) for a spot that I thought would be dang near unpossible to get to and that's where I went. I thought there would be three possible ways in and found that two of those were not viable options once there. The one viable option turned out to be much more difficult than I expected but doable. My biggest mistake was thinking I could just day hunt it but that was not a good plan due to the difficulty of getting in and out. I am nearing completion of a kit so I can go and stay up there where I needed to be to hunt more efficiently. I was in elk everyday I hunted that spot and had one good opportunity to kill that I let get by but that was my fault not the elk. Got winded on a setup and got busted on a stalk, not by the target elk but the sneaky lookout hiding in the bushes.

i learned a lot about the area and I learned more about elk. While that trip certainly had its frustrations, my confidence heading towards this coming fall is much higher and there is no substitute for that.

 

[5MilesBack]

Mine was 38 years ago at the age of 15 (the minimum age back then in CO).

A little background.......from the time I could crawl my exploring and hunting instincts were strong. My dad wasn't much of a hunter, his passion was fly fishing. However, his best friend was a hunter and my dad used to tag along. My dad never brought anything home, but man I wanted to go. He told me that when I turned 10 that he'd take me along with them. That year I was so excited just to tag along on an elk hunt.

Well, that summer my dad's best friend and his entire family were killed in their private plane landing at our local airport after some strong wind sheer that forced a wingtip into the runway. My dad never went hunting again. So when I turned 15 I took Hunters Safety and bought my first rifle. I really wanted to go archery, but back then being LH and already a really long draw.....I just couldn't make it work well. My best friend who was 16 and driving and I took off to the unknown that October. We were successful and never looked back from there. It's been an amazing run since then, and finally switching over to archery has made it even better. My dad never did understand my passion for hunting, but I told him before he died three years ago that "He made me a fly fisherman, but God made me a hunter".

 

[Scoot]

"He made me a fly fisherman, but God made me a hunter".

Great quote from your dad! That one will stick with you until your final days, I bet!

 

[fightthenoise]

Mine was 38 years ago at the age of 15 (the minimum age back then in CO).

A little background.......from the time I could crawl my exploring and hunting instincts were strong. My dad wasn't much of a hunter, his passion was fly fishing. However, his best friend was a hunter and my dad used to tag along. My dad never brought anything home, but man I wanted to go. He told me that when I turned 10 that he'd take me along with them. That year I was so excited just to tag along on an elk hunt.

Well, that summer my dad's best friend and his entire family were killed in their private plane landing at our local airport after some strong wind sheer that forced a wingtip into the runway. My dad never went hunting again. So when I turned 15 I took Hunters Safety and bought my first rifle. I really wanted to go archery, but back then being LH and already a really long draw.....I just couldn't make it work well. My best friend who was 16 and driving and I took off to the unknown that October. We were successful and never looked back from there. It's been an amazing run since then, and finally switching over to archery has made it even better. My dad never did understand my passion for hunting, but I told him before he died three years ago that "He made me a fly fisherman, but God made me a hunter".

Wow what a story! Are anyone else’s eyes sweating? It’s the weirdest thing. I wish I had been able to get started as young as you did. My first hunt was last year at 29 years old. 2nd rifle in Colorado after moving to Denver in the spring. I had no idea what I was doing. Still don’t, but I had a blast figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Mostly what doesn’t. Can’t wait till next season now that I can enter the draw. My largest takeaways are basically how I like to go about living in the backcountry for a time. Don’t hunt so high in the late season (I hunted 4th rifle too), don’t spend so much time trying to get away from other hunters, just out hike them. Stuff like that. Also I learned that being fit doesn’t translate to the mountain. Mountain fit is a specific kind. I’ll also be better in that regard in my 2nd year living here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rayporter]

while I realize you said with out any input from friends, my first trip on my own was still a huge step to take.

in '83 a good friend invited me to go to help drive as his partner had cancelled out. I was 34 and finally getting to go!

so in '84 I told my bud 'we can do this' and we borrowed dads mules and I built wooden pack panniers for packing. we went in 15 miles in the snow and it never quit snowing. the 3 season tent collapsed under the snow. about daybreak on the first day of season we were riding the mules up the trail and my mule stopped and stared off to the side. it was an elk. I turned to Sam and says 'do you want this one'

his tongue hit the saddle horn as he tried to clear the rifle and get off. cause he has not seen it yet, he had to crawl through 3 ft deep snow to get into position. bang! one down. I sat and watched him tag it and just had to say ' skin that one pilgrim, I will get you another one'

so before noon I got mine and then the fun started. the mules did not care but man my packing skills were nonexistent. plus we only had one packer and had to get camp out too. the next day I found an outfitter taking his people out because of the storm and he helped us get our meat out. my stuff fell off many times going out. that mule just stood and waited till I got it back on. the deep snow wore out the animals quickly but we knew we had to get the first 3 miles behind us or risk not getting out. it was a long ride. at the trail head it was pandemonium as everyone wanted off the mountain.

we had a shovel and had to dig out the tires and then we had to put on chains to go down the mountain to get to town.

a side note- we had decided to both carry a 30-06 to cut back on ammo. each of us carried 10 rounds and there were 10 rounds in camp.
Sam had bought a savage and when we got the truck he went to clear the magazine. the bolt would not open. we thought it was a warped wood stock. we beat the bolt open and neither of us has had any use for a savage since. he sold it and went to a 7 mm mag. with a synthetic stock.

man do I wish I had started sooner. Sam passed in '09 and the end is near for me.

 

[5MilesBack]

Great quote from your dad! That one will stick with you until your final days, I bet!

That was my quote to him. He really was an amazing fly fisherman. That man could catch fish in our irrigation ditch.

Ray, that '84 snow is one of my fondest memories of hunting in all 38 years. Man, we had a blast. We stayed put because we were already prepared for that elk season and the deer season that followed. So we had plenty of supplies, a good shelter, and plenty of wood to tough it out. I'm 6'6" with a 38" inseam and the snow level was up above my crotch where we were.

 

[David Gough]

The past three years I have hunted OTC archery elk in Idaho, mostly solo. I finally killed an elk this last September at twenty yards after calling him in while snow was swirling. Many days were spent without hearing a bull or seeing an elk (up to five days in a row in 2017). If you can grind it out and work through all of the struggles you'll encounter it will be worth it.

View attachment 64993

 

[Ross]

1980 was my first elk season ...17 and no idea what an elk looked like nor what or how to do it An army brat lived in many places and came from Georgia to north Idaho. A time of wool and borrowed gear. Still remember that first morning in the camp of elk killers, the sound of my uncle rifle echoing and the sight of an elk in close, who let that horse loose left a lasting impression and one I wanted to expand on. I eventually moved on to my own camp and that is where I learned by trial and error to hunt in a new fashion and areas the old timers had not tried...so many resources today to learn quickly and much nicer gear to keep you smiling for a longer period of timeIt was as dreamed and better now with knowledge and an appreciation of each season

 

[Disco14]

I’ll let you know in about 8 months!

Me too!

 

[7Bartman]

Mine was a collective of what others have shared. In full disclosure, my first elk hunt was in 2016, but I had to go back this past year as the hook was sunk deep. My friend who took me in 2016 couldn't go. While I tried to recruit others to join me (primarily for safety and companionship), I knew I was going regardless of whether someone was going to join me. I picked a new area to concentrate on as I wanted it be a new totally DIY experience. I did carry a Sat phone to give my wife piece of mind.
I had similar goals as others in this thread. I was hoping to see an elk and possibly get them on film (I was self-filming). I was also hoping to get one to bugle back to me. I was mistaken on my initial choice on the map, in that the mountains surrounding my canyon were almost too steep to climb. I stuck it out for two days when I realized with all the snow and subsequent melt that I'd be lucky to get my rental car (Jeep Patriot) out of the canyon I was in. I broke camp and was very fortunate to make it out to the main road through some very nasty mud. I eventually ended up back in the same drainage as I was the year before as my backup spot had worse roads then my first choice.
I knew the area I was in the year before would have better roads and some more hunters around in case I got the Jeep stuck so I took the hour drive over to that area. Despite not wanting to go back to the area I was in previously, I promised myself to explore new canyons everyday to better learn the area. The heavy snow kept me a little lower as I wasn't seeing much sign up high. By day three I finally heard an elk, by day 5 I had a nice bull at 80 yards before an ATV spooked them (I was pissed). On my last morning I was fortunate enough to get in on the same herd of elk I was one the previous day and I took out the herd bull. For me, this hunt worked out perfectly. Lots of struggle, followed by hope and disappointment, ultimately finding success on the last morning. I've posted my video on here before, but here's the link in case you didn't see it.

Yes, I'll be going back this September!

 

[archer wapiti]

I bought a bow in about 2008 and finally got around to putting in for and drawing a tag in 2011. I drew the Pecos. I researched what I could on elk hunting, but not the resources like there are now via forums like this. I remember spending a lot of time on a 'how to hunt elk' website put together by a guy out of Montana. I'm not sure whose site that is/was (never bookmarked it or anything; I remember his wife had ads for her massage therapy business on the site), but knowing much more about elk hunters now, I'd be curious if anybody knows what site that was. It was helpful, but nothing like being on the ground and learning first hand.
I chose an area I that I'd seen elk on the prior November, and started there. 2 days hiking around there yielded no elk. I drove to another spot one afternoon to try a different elevation and saw a few cow elk well below me about 300 feet down and a quarter mile away. I didn't think I wanted to go all that way to get after an elk, so I kept on driving and hunted another area that was as elk-less as the first. I began to realize that one has to hunt elk where the elk are, and headed back up to near where I saw the cows and spent the night. In the morning, there was about 40 elk grazing in the meadow below me, half mile away, 300 feet down and another 100 feet up the other side of the valley. Too far away. A truck drove up and it turned out it was a guy from California scouting for a rifle hunt later in the year. I hailed him in my normal volume of voice and he 'shushed' me immediately and told me there was elk over there. I told him I knew that but they were too far away. He convinced me otherwise and helped me plan a stalk as they filed out of the meadow back into dark timber (too many eyes - get ahead of them and let them pass you by). It didn't work (didn't get ahead of them, but T-boned them), but I got close. Every day after that I got up before dawn, hiked down into the canyon, back up the other side, and was into elk essentially every day after that once I understood how hard one has to work - this isn't hunting whitetails in the midwest. I've since found that this scenario - the distances covered and elevations covered weren't nearly as severe as others encountered since, but it was a good baby step to get me out of my whitetail hunting bubble and into the world of western hunting. I also learned how much it sucks to get up at 5:00 in order to hike 3 miles to get to where the elk are. I now usually backpack hunt and cover many fewer miles per day.

 

[Pinewood]

while I realize you said with out any input from friends, my first trip on my own was still a huge step to take.

in '83 a good friend invited me to go to help drive as his partner had cancelled out. I was 34 and finally getting to go!

so in '84 I told my bud 'we can do this' and we borrowed dads mules and I built wooden pack panniers for packing. we went in 15 miles in the snow and it never quit snowing. the 3 season tent collapsed under the snow. about daybreak on the first day of season we were riding the mules up the trail and my mule stopped and stared off to the side. it was an elk. I turned to Sam and says 'do you want this one'

his tongue hit the saddle horn as he tried to clear the rifle and get off. cause he has not seen it yet, he had to crawl through 3 ft deep snow to get into position. bang! one down. I sat and watched him tag it and just had to say ' skin that one pilgrim, I will get you another one'

so before noon I got mine and then the fun started. the mules did not care but man my packing skills were nonexistent. plus we only had one packer and had to get camp out too. the next day I found an outfitter taking his people out because of the storm and he helped us get our meat out. my stuff fell off many times going out. that mule just stood and waited till I got it back on. the deep snow wore out the animals quickly but we knew we had to get the first 3 miles behind us or risk not getting out. it was a long ride. at the trail head it was pandemonium as everyone wanted off the mountain.

we had a shovel and had to dig out the tires and then we had to put on chains to go down the mountain to get to town.

a side note- we had decided to both carry a 30-06 to cut back on ammo. each of us carried 10 rounds and there were 10 rounds in camp.
Sam had bought a savage and when we got the truck he went to clear the magazine. the bolt would not open. we thought it was a warped wood stock. we beat the bolt open and neither of us has had any use for a savage since. he sold it and went to a 7 mm mag. with a synthetic stock.

man do I wish I had started sooner. Sam passed in '09 and the end is near for me.

This is a great story Mr. Porter, thank you for sharing.

 

[Transition Wild]

My first elk hunt was Colorado OTC archery 2016. My expectations goals for the hunt were simple. I had 3 main ones I wanted to meet. First, have fun and be safe. Easily met, had an absolute blast and no issues/injuries. Second, see an elk. Met this goal, though it took a couple days. Third, hear an elk bugle. Easily met. Heard dozens of bugles. My other goals that I felt were realistic but harder to meet were as follows. Get within shooting range of an elk. I met this goal. Next, Kill an elk. Didnt meet this goal but came dang close. To some it may seem odd that I didn't have a high expectation of killing an elk. But I preferred to be realistic. Success rates for archery are less than 10%, I was a first time elk hunter in country I had never seen, chasing an animal I had zero real world experience with. Killing an elk was a lofty goal. I had so much fun I went back in 2017. My goals for 2nd hunt were similar to first, except I felt I had a little better chance of killing an elk. Didnt kill one, but came close. I will return in 2018 and feel like my chances of killing an elk are pretty good. But, my main goals will remain the same. Have fun, be safe and enjoy myself.

timekiller - it sounds like you had two very successful trips to the mountains. What you describe is common for many first time hunters and your realistic expectations kept things in perspective. Kill or not kill, it sounds like they were trips you never will forget. Best of luck in 2018!

 

[Transition Wild]

This past Sept I went on my second elk hunt but went solo to an area I had never set foot in or talked to anyone who had. I think that fits your description. It was way more than I dreamed of and things did not go as planned. I was successful without filling a tag and yes I am planning to go back this fall. I spent a lot of time looking (internet scouting) for a spot that I thought would be dang near unpossible to get to and that's where I went. I thought there would be three possible ways in and found that two of those were not viable options once there. The one viable option turned out to be much more difficult than I expected but doable. My biggest mistake was thinking I could just day hunt it but that was not a good plan due to the difficulty of getting in and out. I am nearing completion of a kit so I can go and stay up there where I needed to be to hunt more efficiently. I was in elk everyday I hunted that spot and had one good opportunity to kill that I let get by but that was my fault not the elk. Got winded on a setup and got busted on a stalk, not by the target elk but the sneaky lookout hiding in the bushes.

i learned a lot about the area and I learned more about elk. While that trip certainly had its frustrations, my confidence heading towards this coming fall is much higher and there is no substitute for that.

Wow - I'm impressed! Going in blind into the terrain you describe sounds daunting to say the least but it sounds like the elk were there so it was worth it. It takes a while to figure things out. I've heard guys say it takes 3 years to really learn an area and I'd say you are well on your way to killing on this fall. Awesome job with the digital scouting btw. Good luck in September!

 

[Transition Wild]

Mine was 38 years ago at the age of 15 (the minimum age back then in CO).

A little background.......from the time I could crawl my exploring and hunting instincts were strong. My dad wasn't much of a hunter, his passion was fly fishing. However, his best friend was a hunter and my dad used to tag along. My dad never brought anything home, but man I wanted to go. He told me that when I turned 10 that he'd take me along with them. That year I was so excited just to tag along on an elk hunt.

Well, that summer my dad's best friend and his entire family were killed in their private plane landing at our local airport after some strong wind sheer that forced a wingtip into the runway. My dad never went hunting again. So when I turned 15 I took Hunters Safety and bought my first rifle. I really wanted to go archery, but back then being LH and already a really long draw.....I just couldn't make it work well. My best friend who was 16 and driving and I took off to the unknown that October. We were successful and never looked back from there. It's been an amazing run since then, and finally switching over to archery has made it even better. My dad never did understand my passion for hunting, but I told him before he died three years ago that "He made me a fly fisherman, but God made me a hunter".

That is great you hear that you still made it happen even with the obstacles presented. When you follow a passion, you will do whatever it takes. Thanks for sharing!