gobears870
Lil-Rokslider
It’s that time of year when many folks are starting to plan their first elk hunt. I was in the same place 12 months ago, and while there are several articles and posts out there on the topic, I wanted to share my lessons learned.
We hunted a unit in central Colorado for 1st Rifle in 2020. We only had one brief encounter with a nice bull but weren’t able to take a shot. We ran into several hunters on the road, on the trail, and encamped, and our one sighting was as good as any of them had done. It was just a tough year. What I want to share below aren't the keys to killing elk (obviously), but how to approach your planning.
First and overarching lesson: You HAVE to have the right frame of mind when you take on an elk hunt on your own. There is no other way around it. It’s not like TV or YouTube. Don't get into this expecting to kill an elk. If you want to hunt elk DIY, you need to do it for the right reasons: spending time in the mountains and playing the chess match with this amazing wild animal. It's a grind, and you need to get your mind right on that going into it.
There were several key decisions we made in our planning process, and realizations once we got there, that I hoped may be of some use to others out there.
Picking a partner
This may be the biggest decision you make. I don’t have many friends who are serious hunters, and among the few that are, most couldn’t make the trip and others I knew I would clash with, personality-wise, if we were alone for too long. That left the old standby, my dad, who is 62. I knew he and I would get along and have a good time, but I was concerned about his physical abilities at his age. Sure enough, we did have a great time together, but every day he struggled mightily with the altitude and steepness.
In my opinion, your priority in who you hunt with should be your ability to get along and work together. Next, you need to know what everyone's limitations are, because that will be the group's limit. Plan your hunt accordingly.
Selecting a unit
I would suggest picking one or two states to home in on based on how far you want to drive and tag availability. If for any reason, this will make trying to understand the draw process a lot simpler. Then, think about what kind of terrain you want to be in and how accessible the elk areas are to you. GoHunt is a tremendous resource for ironing out a lot of these factors, especially when you are looking at multiple states. However, if you already decided to target just one or two states, literally everything you need to know is on the state wildlife division’s website. If you have time and some ability with Microsoft Excel, I think your $149 for GoHunt can be better spent elsewhere. As far as the mapping goes, Google Earth, OnXHunt, and .KMZ overlays from TopRut and state wildlife departments are a very effective combination.
Although a lot of attention is paid to harvest success rates, what interested me more was days hunted per harvested animal and public acres per hunter. These were easily calculated after you pull the data. What I wish I had paid more attention to was the population trend. It had been going down in our unit, but I glossed over that fact. It became apparent that this was a big issue once we spent a week on the ground there. I also wish we had expanded how far we would be willing to drive to open up more opportunities for us.
Hunt style
I think a lot of people that are getting interested in backcountry hunting are first exposed to online personalities that are doing it backpack-style. There is a lot of romanticism in this, and there has been for decades, but its popularity has skyrocketed in the past few years. However, I do not think a backpack hunt is a good idea for a first hunt for a few reasons.
First of all, is it is extremely expensive. To get all the gear you need to do it the right way – lightweight, high performance stuff – you are going to spend a boatload of money. It’s too much for most people to take on right up front. Second, it limits your mobility. Once you hike “5 miles deep” or what have you, you are pretty much stuck in that area for at least a couple of days. If you picked the wrong part of the map, you’re going to spend a lot of time relocating when you could be hunting.
All that to say, we did a basecamp hunt and I think you are much better off doing the same on your first attempt. Most of the camp gear you need will be stuff you already have. And perhaps more importantly, being able to day hunt gives you the ability to cover a lot of miles from the truck or pull stakes and move to the other side of the unit if you need to. That’s what ended up happening to us. What I now know is we brought too much stuff that wasn't organized neatly enough, and that hampered our ability to move fast. One thing we did well was meal plan and use dehydrated meals for every breakfast and dinner. This was a giant time and space saver at camp.
Regarding archery or rifle hunting, I think I could go either way for a first hunt. We went with rifle because we drew rifle tags on 2nd choice in Colorado. Our unsuccessful 1st choice was an archery tag in another unit. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, which you will find discussed elsewhere, but I say go with where you can draw. You will have fun either way.
Conditioning
I caught onto the Atomic Athlete backcountry hunting program early on, which it is an outstanding 5-day/week mix of cardio, plyometric, lower body, and functional training. But midway into it I realized this wasn’t the best preparation for our hunt. The program was getting me in great shape, but I realized it is primarily designed for backpack hunters. I knew we would be day hunting with a base camp, and though the possibility existed we would have heavy loads on our back at some point, it seemed more important to me to build up my aerobic capacity so we could cover more ground and adapt to altitude faster.
Bottom line, focus your training on your hunt plan. When I backed off the Atomic Athlete plan, I started running 4-5 miles twice a week, doing two days of mixed strength and cardio circuits for 45-60 minutes, and hiking with increasing weight and duration once a week, eventually getting to 60 lbs. for 5 miles. Because of Covid I did this all at home with little equipment. I would do the exact same thing again if I was doing a similar hunt again.
Education
Early on I bought the University of Elk Hunting membership from Elk101. It’s a pretty great soup-to-nuts course, but it is also heavily weighted towards bowhunters. I think I learned just as much for our rifle hunt for free by reading articles, listening to podcasts, and watching Randy Newberg videos, although admittedly it takes a lot more time to consume all of that than what UEH offers. UEH has the benefit of putting everything in one digestible and well-thought-out package, with some great videos and an app to boot. If you’re starting from square one and know you will bowhunt, I would recommend it.
Randy Newberg’s videos and Live Q&A archive are an unbelievable resource for someone starting out. If you’re looking to save money, I would go there and stay there. If you’re looking to save time and will bowhunt, UEH is a great choice. I think the podcasts I learned the most from were Hunt Backcountry and Elk Talk. I know there are several others, but I think these two have the most relevant content for a beginner.
I spoke a number times to the CPW biologist for our unit. He was more than happy to talk about areas to look at and told me he was surprised by how few hunters reach out to him. I know these people can be hit-or-miss with how helpful they are, but I absolutely recommend the cold call.
Gear
I think people put too much emphasis on this, and while we were careful not to ourselves, we still went overboard on some things. Basically, if you are a whitetail hunter and camp frequently, you have 90% of what you need. Focus your purchases on things you don’t have, and think very hard about what you’re spending money on upgrading.
Everywhere you look people will say to invest in a good pack, boots, and rain gear. That’s pretty much true. I would also add quality base layers to the list. This will do the most to keep you warm, dry, and comfortable. If you’re a hunter you probably have decent fleece and an insulating jacket – I say run what ya brung. Mix and match camo and earth tones to save money. Again, focus on what you don’t have.
I think there are a ton of great options in the $300 range for good backpacks that can haul meat. Don’t go cheap on this but don’t feel like you need to spend $600, either. I had a mid-priced pack and my dad had a bargain brand. There was a huge difference.
Take your time finding the right boots. Boot brands/models are a personal choice, but I am a believer in having a moderately stiff boot (think 3 out of 5 on the GoHunt scale) as a good all-around choice unless you plan to be extensively off trail for days at a time, in which case you might need a 4 or 5. When we had a bad day of sidehills, I was shocked how much my boot flexed. The biggest factor is that your boot fit really well. REI has the best return policy, by far, but not the best selection. If you take your time buying, trying on, and sending back boots from GoHunt, BlackOvis, MidwayUSA, or Amazon, you will probably find the right design and fit, but it will take weeks to sort it out.
In conclusion
Just go for it! It’s not impossible. It’s also not prohibitively expensive. Even if you don’t fill a tag, which the odds favor to be the case, your success should be determined by the experience you gain. You will have a great time regardless of the outcome if you prepare the right way, and if you can do it with family or good friends, you will talk about it forever.
We hunted a unit in central Colorado for 1st Rifle in 2020. We only had one brief encounter with a nice bull but weren’t able to take a shot. We ran into several hunters on the road, on the trail, and encamped, and our one sighting was as good as any of them had done. It was just a tough year. What I want to share below aren't the keys to killing elk (obviously), but how to approach your planning.
First and overarching lesson: You HAVE to have the right frame of mind when you take on an elk hunt on your own. There is no other way around it. It’s not like TV or YouTube. Don't get into this expecting to kill an elk. If you want to hunt elk DIY, you need to do it for the right reasons: spending time in the mountains and playing the chess match with this amazing wild animal. It's a grind, and you need to get your mind right on that going into it.
There were several key decisions we made in our planning process, and realizations once we got there, that I hoped may be of some use to others out there.
Picking a partner
This may be the biggest decision you make. I don’t have many friends who are serious hunters, and among the few that are, most couldn’t make the trip and others I knew I would clash with, personality-wise, if we were alone for too long. That left the old standby, my dad, who is 62. I knew he and I would get along and have a good time, but I was concerned about his physical abilities at his age. Sure enough, we did have a great time together, but every day he struggled mightily with the altitude and steepness.
In my opinion, your priority in who you hunt with should be your ability to get along and work together. Next, you need to know what everyone's limitations are, because that will be the group's limit. Plan your hunt accordingly.
Selecting a unit
I would suggest picking one or two states to home in on based on how far you want to drive and tag availability. If for any reason, this will make trying to understand the draw process a lot simpler. Then, think about what kind of terrain you want to be in and how accessible the elk areas are to you. GoHunt is a tremendous resource for ironing out a lot of these factors, especially when you are looking at multiple states. However, if you already decided to target just one or two states, literally everything you need to know is on the state wildlife division’s website. If you have time and some ability with Microsoft Excel, I think your $149 for GoHunt can be better spent elsewhere. As far as the mapping goes, Google Earth, OnXHunt, and .KMZ overlays from TopRut and state wildlife departments are a very effective combination.
Although a lot of attention is paid to harvest success rates, what interested me more was days hunted per harvested animal and public acres per hunter. These were easily calculated after you pull the data. What I wish I had paid more attention to was the population trend. It had been going down in our unit, but I glossed over that fact. It became apparent that this was a big issue once we spent a week on the ground there. I also wish we had expanded how far we would be willing to drive to open up more opportunities for us.
Hunt style
I think a lot of people that are getting interested in backcountry hunting are first exposed to online personalities that are doing it backpack-style. There is a lot of romanticism in this, and there has been for decades, but its popularity has skyrocketed in the past few years. However, I do not think a backpack hunt is a good idea for a first hunt for a few reasons.
First of all, is it is extremely expensive. To get all the gear you need to do it the right way – lightweight, high performance stuff – you are going to spend a boatload of money. It’s too much for most people to take on right up front. Second, it limits your mobility. Once you hike “5 miles deep” or what have you, you are pretty much stuck in that area for at least a couple of days. If you picked the wrong part of the map, you’re going to spend a lot of time relocating when you could be hunting.
All that to say, we did a basecamp hunt and I think you are much better off doing the same on your first attempt. Most of the camp gear you need will be stuff you already have. And perhaps more importantly, being able to day hunt gives you the ability to cover a lot of miles from the truck or pull stakes and move to the other side of the unit if you need to. That’s what ended up happening to us. What I now know is we brought too much stuff that wasn't organized neatly enough, and that hampered our ability to move fast. One thing we did well was meal plan and use dehydrated meals for every breakfast and dinner. This was a giant time and space saver at camp.
Regarding archery or rifle hunting, I think I could go either way for a first hunt. We went with rifle because we drew rifle tags on 2nd choice in Colorado. Our unsuccessful 1st choice was an archery tag in another unit. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, which you will find discussed elsewhere, but I say go with where you can draw. You will have fun either way.
Conditioning
I caught onto the Atomic Athlete backcountry hunting program early on, which it is an outstanding 5-day/week mix of cardio, plyometric, lower body, and functional training. But midway into it I realized this wasn’t the best preparation for our hunt. The program was getting me in great shape, but I realized it is primarily designed for backpack hunters. I knew we would be day hunting with a base camp, and though the possibility existed we would have heavy loads on our back at some point, it seemed more important to me to build up my aerobic capacity so we could cover more ground and adapt to altitude faster.
Bottom line, focus your training on your hunt plan. When I backed off the Atomic Athlete plan, I started running 4-5 miles twice a week, doing two days of mixed strength and cardio circuits for 45-60 minutes, and hiking with increasing weight and duration once a week, eventually getting to 60 lbs. for 5 miles. Because of Covid I did this all at home with little equipment. I would do the exact same thing again if I was doing a similar hunt again.
Education
Early on I bought the University of Elk Hunting membership from Elk101. It’s a pretty great soup-to-nuts course, but it is also heavily weighted towards bowhunters. I think I learned just as much for our rifle hunt for free by reading articles, listening to podcasts, and watching Randy Newberg videos, although admittedly it takes a lot more time to consume all of that than what UEH offers. UEH has the benefit of putting everything in one digestible and well-thought-out package, with some great videos and an app to boot. If you’re starting from square one and know you will bowhunt, I would recommend it.
Randy Newberg’s videos and Live Q&A archive are an unbelievable resource for someone starting out. If you’re looking to save money, I would go there and stay there. If you’re looking to save time and will bowhunt, UEH is a great choice. I think the podcasts I learned the most from were Hunt Backcountry and Elk Talk. I know there are several others, but I think these two have the most relevant content for a beginner.
I spoke a number times to the CPW biologist for our unit. He was more than happy to talk about areas to look at and told me he was surprised by how few hunters reach out to him. I know these people can be hit-or-miss with how helpful they are, but I absolutely recommend the cold call.
Gear
I think people put too much emphasis on this, and while we were careful not to ourselves, we still went overboard on some things. Basically, if you are a whitetail hunter and camp frequently, you have 90% of what you need. Focus your purchases on things you don’t have, and think very hard about what you’re spending money on upgrading.
Everywhere you look people will say to invest in a good pack, boots, and rain gear. That’s pretty much true. I would also add quality base layers to the list. This will do the most to keep you warm, dry, and comfortable. If you’re a hunter you probably have decent fleece and an insulating jacket – I say run what ya brung. Mix and match camo and earth tones to save money. Again, focus on what you don’t have.
I think there are a ton of great options in the $300 range for good backpacks that can haul meat. Don’t go cheap on this but don’t feel like you need to spend $600, either. I had a mid-priced pack and my dad had a bargain brand. There was a huge difference.
Take your time finding the right boots. Boot brands/models are a personal choice, but I am a believer in having a moderately stiff boot (think 3 out of 5 on the GoHunt scale) as a good all-around choice unless you plan to be extensively off trail for days at a time, in which case you might need a 4 or 5. When we had a bad day of sidehills, I was shocked how much my boot flexed. The biggest factor is that your boot fit really well. REI has the best return policy, by far, but not the best selection. If you take your time buying, trying on, and sending back boots from GoHunt, BlackOvis, MidwayUSA, or Amazon, you will probably find the right design and fit, but it will take weeks to sort it out.
In conclusion
Just go for it! It’s not impossible. It’s also not prohibitively expensive. Even if you don’t fill a tag, which the odds favor to be the case, your success should be determined by the experience you gain. You will have a great time regardless of the outcome if you prepare the right way, and if you can do it with family or good friends, you will talk about it forever.
