What is the attraction of elk hunting?

[MuleyFever]

I have no real desire to hunt OTC elk in CO. I hate crowded hunting and while you can find those areas away from people, I dont really want to spend the time wading through the people to find them. Then again, I dont have any real desire to hunt elk, specifically. I like to hunt though and hunting elk is another opportunity to be out hunting so I apply for draw tags. Although, some of them can be pretty crowded too.

 

[ckleeves]

Sounds like you didn't have much fun elk hunting or just prefer the sit and wait method. Different strokes for different folks but I couldn't satisfy myself with just "chasing" whitetail racks.

And why is it that you're comparing a mature animal to a young one? Are you only purchasing raghorn tags when you go west? I thought Colorado had minimum point restrictions? Why not shoot a mature 6 point or better?

Lol dude I live in Colorado. I love elk hunting, I’m simply stating I don’t see the appeal of the time/effort/money involved to drive across the county for the quality of the hunt and experience of hunts like CO otc or the Utah anybull hunts.

I guess what I’m saying is I can hunt 12 minutes from my house for a very low investment of time or money, but if I lived across the country I can’t say I would take 2 weeks off work and drive 1000 miles for that same experience.

It’s interesting the pedestal elk are put on.

 

[SDHNTR]

Why are hot, wild and horny babes so fun to play with? I just don’t get it!

 

[Cameron.25]

Colorado sees your blunts and raises you legal mushrooms plus fentanyl zombies. I can do this all day.
Quick everyone, click on www.dfw.state.or.us !! Let’s all get some Rosies!

We legalized everything in Oregon lol. We had an illegal shroom dispensary pop up for a few days last year, it was all over the news before it got shut down. Lines around the block

 

[TheViking]

Lol dude I live in Colorado. I love elk hunting, I’m simply stating I don’t see the appeal of the time/effort/money involved to drive across the county for the quality of the hunt and experience of hunts like CO otc or the Utah anybull hunts.

I guess what I’m saying is I can hunt 12 minutes from my house for a very low investment of time or money, but if I lived across the country I can’t say I would take 2 weeks off work and drive 1000 miles for that same experience.

It’s interesting the pedestal elk are put on.

Elk hunting in the mountains is a super unique experience.

I grew up in the upper Midwest - we sat in a rifle blind from 5am until 5pm, freezing our dicks off, HOPING a deer walked by. Everyday, same thing, for at least a week. We absolutely loved it.

It is literally the most boring hunt ever. I moved to colorado 16 years ago and started mountain hunting right away. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back and sit in a blind all day like that again.

You and I are spoiled. We live in colorado - it’s a beautiful and amazing place. Most of these people live in a shit hole town in the Midwest, zero scenery, not much wildlife. Coming to colorado for an elk hunting is absolutely the highlight of their year.

Don’t take what you have for granted ;-)

 

[Broomd]

For us it's simply the meat; the abundance and flavor.

I'd much rather hunt deer, but those elk fill a freezer.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Sitting in a blind or Treestand for a WT sounds like one of the most boring things on planet earth.
I don't think I'd be a hunter if thats all I had.

Maybe I could get into it with the thought of management and trying to cultivate some big bucks.
But I feel like sitting would just be something to get away and have alone time.

Id probably build a blind, put a cot and heater in it, and it would just be like a fort I went to when I don't feel like being around anyone.

 

[Coveyleader]

Pretty good question, and over the last 20 years, I've often thought about this. I've said it before, I hunt elk a lot, but don't put it high on my list of hunts I like to do. But, for some reason, I spend weeks every September hunting elk. I do like to eat them, and would hate to go a year without an elk in the freezer, but if it was only about that, I could pick a cow tag up, and kill one in a day and be done with it, so there is surely more to it than just the meat.

The last couple of years has gotten a bit worse from a "bumping into hunters" standpoint, which makes it even more perplexing, but as sure as September arrives, I'll be out there hunting, spending weeks on something not high up in the rankings of hunts I like to do.

 

[tdoublev]

It sounds like OP takes what he has for granted. Your standards for ‘quality hunt’ sound high, which is great for you! Many people would kill for a better OTC opportunity but that’s clearly not possible. Any elk hunt is better than no elk hunt for most. And I’d venture to say the OTC crowd is made up of 3 types of hunters. Those who are there to be with friends and just want to be out - probably not hunting very hard, maybe drinking so quality doesn’t matter much to them. Those who are the die hards and fall into the 10% of successful hunters, and those who are new to elk hunting. OP also seems to be focused on NR OTC hunters - does anyone know the split of R vs. NR OTC tags sold in CO?

 

[barehandlineman]

When you go on a elk hunt and get a bull come charging in ready to **** or fight get back to me on why its not fun

 

[Keener22]

I’m originally from Ohio and have been on one elk hunt here in NM. The first time I had a mythical horse with small trees growing from its head scream at me within bow range was the day I knew that I couldn’t go back to tree stand hunting whitetails. I figure if a 240 inch bull (maybe) could do all that I better figure out a way to do that as much as possible.

Colorado might seem crappy for reasons mentioned but for many it’s the best option after they don’t draw. Guys still can work hard and have success, and you still can learn a lot either way.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

Remember, the intent is not necessarily what/where/how you hunt. The intent often is to stroke a fragile ego and show superiority to others. These "elite" hunters are like vegans. Just ask and they will go on for hours on why they are superior and your are inferior.

The sad part is so many folks are blinded from the fecal matter they spew to grasp that that hunters are not all the same. If a person does not agree with anything these "elite" hunters spew, then the vitriol begins.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

When you go on a elk hunt and get a bull come charging in ready to **** or fight get back to me on why its not fun

Can do the same with a black bear, brown bear, mountain lion, etc. when predator calling. The difference is one is coming to fight (elk) and the others are coming to kill.

If you want a real rush, hunt boar with a knife like the Pacific Islanders do.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I’ve hunted WT in Iowa for more than 25 years. I’ve been fortunate to kill 10 PY bucks from 130-160. However, I’ve never had an opportunity at a BC deer. My father in law has hunted them for 65 years and has a dozen or more PY and one BC.

I went on my first elk hunt in 2021. My brother and I bought an outfitted pack-in hunt in the Bob Marshall. That trip forever changed my perspective on adventure, true “hunting”, and fair chase, and WT simply can no longer compare. We also came away humbled by the experience and grateful we can get guaranteed WT tags at home.

I took my oldest daughter on a DIY cow hunt in WY last fall. She didn’t kill an elk, but hunting 8 days straight from dark to dark, hiking 6-10 or more miles a day, and not showering the entire time changed her. She woke up every day with a smile on her face and ready for more. She came home from that trip completely changed, and it’s had a tremendous impact on her life and decisions since then. Her future will take her somewhere out West so she can try and recapture the experience and feelings from that first elk hunt. I just hope she invites me to come along.

It may be just a flat lander thing, but elk hunting to us is just as much spiritual as it is anything else.

 

[Sled]

Lol dude I live in Colorado. I love elk hunting, I’m simply stating I don’t see the appeal of the time/effort/money involved to drive across the county for the quality of the hunt and experience of hunts like CO otc or the Utah anybull hunts.

I guess what I’m saying is I can hunt 12 minutes from my house for a very low investment of time or money, but if I lived across the country I can’t say I would take 2 weeks off work and drive 1000 miles for that same experience.

It’s interesting the pedestal elk are put on.

Ok, then I did take the bait you laid out. So, you're bummed at the transients that show up ever September and shoot your bowhunters. I get it. It's still a long shot to compare whitetail in any way shape or form to elk hunting, imo.

All that said, I wish I could have seen Colorado before Denver became what it is today.

 

[barehandlineman]

Can do the same with a black bear, brown bear, mountain lion, etc. when predator calling. The difference is one is coming to fight (elk) and the others are coming to kill.

If you want a real rush, hunt boar with a knife like the Pacific Islanders do.

Ive done it in Hawaii i dont think its as fun or as much of a rush as elk hunting. Done a shit ton of bear hunting and cat hunting. I prefer elk hunting. Bears and cats come in to kill but not prepared for something that kills back.

 

[nphunter]

Kinda an odd question and it’s hard to put in writing exactly what I mean. I’m not talking about good quality tags, limited units anything like that.

I’m talking Colorado OTC, public land, success of 10% type hunts. How are people lining up by the thousands to pay 760.00 plus time off work, fuel, food, gear etc for this type of experience?

I guess I just don’t get it. There are far more challenging animals to hunt than raghorn bulls, IMO a big mature whitetail is far more challenging to kill.

From the woods with way to many hunters, non hunting outdoor rec, small, quiet bulls that don’t really even act like elk etc. Are people genuinely happy with this type of experience or is it just kinda a novelty that is something new to try?

Hunting whitetail takes sitting on your ass in a stand for long enough to get lucky! All the scouting in the world doesn’t do you a bit of good if you only have a 80 acre lot to hunt, you have to be lucky enough to have a big buck cross into your ground.

All that garbage in your last paragraph are excused for poor hunting ability. Every OTC unit has mature herd bulls and plenty of space for guys to kill them if they put in the work. Bulls don’t get quiet when they are smelling a hot cow they just move, a bull is not smart enough to be like hey buddy, there’s dudes around, let’s just impress this cow quietly and since there’s people around we won’t fight over this cow, let’s just talk it out while whispering! Elk scream and fight to impress cows and earn the right to bred them, they move there cows away from other bulls and try to kick those bulls ass if they get too close.

OTC Elk hunting for mature herd bulls is one of the most challenging and physical demanding hunts there is. The talk about killing rag horns is stupid, that’s like saying whitetail hunting is easy, i shot a spike on the way to my stand on opening day!

When it comes to archery elk hunting most people don’t have what it takes to be successful, some get lucky now and then buy most fail and give up. Those people sit down and start listing excuses on the web, it was too crowded, too many people hiking, elk were quiet, wolves moved in, it was too hot, it was raining too much, the moon was full, blah blah blah. all are a bunch of cry baby excuses that we have all made at some point. That’s why success rates are sub 10% not because of elk numbers or overcrowding, it’s because it’s hard and people don’t like hard.

You want a challenge, go find a herd bull in an OTC unit, put in the effort to put yourself in bow range while playing the wind, knowing escape routes, keep your composure when that bull starts screaming and trashing trees all around you. Listen to him scream in your face and when you get that huge adrenaline dump and you start shaking, calm your nerves, think about what the bull is going to do next, put yourself in the right spot to have a clear shooting lane in the right spot. Most of the time all of this happens in a matter of seconds. Now make that shot you’ve been training for all year, after the shot use your tracking skills to track that bull into the bottom of the nastiest blow down shit hole on the mountain. Now cut that elk up with the knife that’s in your 30lb pack you’ve been dragging around all season, break down that entire 800lb animal and pack him piece by piece out of that shit box, through waist high dead fall, through multiple creek crossings. You feel dead by the time you finally make it back to the trail head, like you can’t take another step. Now dump that load and go do it again 4 more times, only the last time you will have antlers catching on every branch or sapling along the way. By the time the month of Sept. is over your down 20lbs or more even though you ate as much as you could pack every single day!

After all of that, turn around and do it again the following year, and then the year after that, easy peasy. No where near as challenging as sitting in that whitetail stand in your body warmer suit playing candy Crush!!

Real Archery Elk hunting is a month long suck fest every single year and many of us can’t get enough of it and think about it from Oct 1st - Aug 31st every year!


Yes I’ve hunted mature whitetail, lol

 

[Coveyleader]

It sounds like OP takes what he has for granted. Your standards for ‘quality hunt’ sound high, which is great for you! Many people would kill for a better OTC opportunity but that’s clearly not possible. Any elk hunt is better than no elk hunt for most. And I’d venture to say the OTC crowd is made up of 3 types of hunters. Those who are there to be with friends and just want to be out - probably not hunting very hard, maybe drinking so quality doesn’t matter much to them. Those who are the die hards and fall into the 10% of successful hunters, and those who are new to elk hunting. OP also seems to be focused on NR OTC hunters - does anyone know the split of R vs. NR OTC tags sold in CO?

No, but by the amount of out of state plates vs. CO plates in my area, it has to be 10-1 NR to R. I see very few guys from CO in the areas I hunt (which is good) As of late a few more CO guys, but it's night and day.

 

[St.CroixArcher]

I think people generally enjoy doing new and challenging things so for us guys that grew up in tree stands and box blinds staring at nothing for hours and days we want the challenge and scenery that the mountains of the west hold along with the chance to chase an animal that we don’t get to see often or ever while people that grew up looking out their windows at the mountains and herds of elk see pictures and videos of guys taking big whitetails in country and locations that are completely foreign to them and want that experience.

 

[Coveyleader]

Hunting whitetail takes sitting on your ass in a stand for long enough to get lucky! All the scouting in the world doesn’t do you a bit of good if you only have a 80 acre lot to hunt, you have to be lucky enough to have a big buck cross into your ground.

All that garbage in your last paragraph are excused for poor hunting ability. Every OTC unit has mature herd bulls and plenty of space for guys to kill them if they put in the work. Bulls don’t get quiet when they are smelling a hot cow they just move, a bull is not smart enough to be like hey buddy, there’s dudes around, let’s just impress this cow quietly and since there’s people around we won’t fight over this cow, let’s just talk it out while whispering! Elk scream and fight to impress cows and earn the right to bred them, they move there cows away from other bulls and try to kick those bulls ass if they get too close.

OTC Elk hunting for mature herd bulls is one of the most challenging and physical demanding hunts there is. The talk about killing rag horns is stupid, that’s like saying whitetail hunting is easy, i shot a spike on the way to may stand on opening day!

When it comes to archery elk hunting most people don’t have what it takes to be successful, some get lucky now and then buy most fail and give up. Those people sit down and start listing excuses on the web, it was too crowded, too many people hiking, elk were quiet, wolves moved in, it was too hot, it was raining too much, the moon was full, blah blah blah. all are a bunch of cry baby excuses that we have all made at some point. That’s why success rates are sub 10% not because of elk numbers or overcrowding, it’s because it’s hard and people don’t like hard.

You want a challenge, go find a herd bull in an OTC unit, put in the effort to put yourself in bow range while playing the wind, knowing escape routes, keep your composure when that bull starts screaming and trashing trees all around you. Listen to him scream in your face and when you get that huge adrenaline dump and you start shaking, calm your nerves, think about what the bull is going to do next, put yourself in the right spot to have a clear shooting lane in the right spot. Most of the time all of this happens in a matter of seconds. Now make that shot you’ve been training for all year, after the shot use your tracking skills to track that bull into the bottom of the nastiest blow down shot hole on the mountain. Now cut that elk up with the knife in your pack, break down that entire 800lb animal and pack him piece by piece out of that shit box, through waist high dead fall, through multiple creek crossings. You feel dead by the time you finally make it back to the trail head, like you can’t take another step. Now dump that load and go do it again 4 more times, only the last time you will have antlers catching on every branch or sapling along the way. By the time the month of Sept. is over your down 20lbs or more even though you ate as much as you could pack every single day!

After all of that, turn around and do it again the following year, and then the year after that, easy peasy. No where near as challenging as sitting in that stand in your body warmer suit playing candy Crush!!

Real Archery Elk hunting is a month long suck fest every single year and many of us can’t get enough of it and think about it from Oct 1st - Aug 31st every year!


Yes I’ve hunted mature whitetail, lol
View attachment 543332

Alot of truth in that thread! Alot!