Hello fellow Hunt Talkers,
My name is Dave and I am headed to Colorado this year on my first rifle DIY elk hunt. I have been working my rear end off for two years to get my legs and lungs ready to handle this trip. I have just about everything I need to make the trip with the intention of going in and setting up a spike camp and Moving around until I find them. I have two major areas that I have been staring at maps for over a year and I have a good idea of where I will be going (few tips from family/friends).
I do have a few pending questions however that I am having a difficult time finding a straight answer for. One of the areas is up in the flat tops area. As I understand it, there are a lot of outfitters in the area. Since they have to register to outfit in the area are there maps available with their outfit camp locations? Last thing I want to do is find that golden place on the maps and get there to find out that i am smack dab in the middle of their area with wall tents on every point.
The second area I'm looking has a bit of checkerboard to it, public vs. private. One of my plans for this area is to try and find some travel areas where they maybe crossing back and forth and pick one off before getting back to their safety zones on private. With that in mind, what has been your experience with pressure along these borders on both the public and private sides. A lot the public land I hunt here in Illinois is bordered by private land and many of the borders are hunted by the landowners. Making the trek back into there almost unworthy.
Word of mouth makes public land a tough deal here, if one guy takes a big buck and word gets out I can plan on being over run within a week. After seeing Randy's show in the gunnison area I have been really intrigued to try this area myself.
I am planning on two days of scouting/packing in before season and staying there til a tag is filled or I run out of time. How is the pressure in these otc areas during the week? Does it taper off and then ramp back up late week?
Thanks in advance for any insight
My name is Dave and I am headed to Colorado this year on my first rifle DIY elk hunt. I have been working my rear end off for two years to get my legs and lungs ready to handle this trip. I have just about everything I need to make the trip with the intention of going in and setting up a spike camp and Moving around until I find them. I have two major areas that I have been staring at maps for over a year and I have a good idea of where I will be going (few tips from family/friends).
I do have a few pending questions however that I am having a difficult time finding a straight answer for. One of the areas is up in the flat tops area. As I understand it, there are a lot of outfitters in the area. Since they have to register to outfit in the area are there maps available with their outfit camp locations? Last thing I want to do is find that golden place on the maps and get there to find out that i am smack dab in the middle of their area with wall tents on every point.
The second area I'm looking has a bit of checkerboard to it, public vs. private. One of my plans for this area is to try and find some travel areas where they maybe crossing back and forth and pick one off before getting back to their safety zones on private. With that in mind, what has been your experience with pressure along these borders on both the public and private sides. A lot the public land I hunt here in Illinois is bordered by private land and many of the borders are hunted by the landowners. Making the trek back into there almost unworthy.
Word of mouth makes public land a tough deal here, if one guy takes a big buck and word gets out I can plan on being over run within a week. After seeing Randy's show in the gunnison area I have been really intrigued to try this area myself.
I am planning on two days of scouting/packing in before season and staying there til a tag is filled or I run out of time. How is the pressure in these otc areas during the week? Does it taper off and then ramp back up late week?
Thanks in advance for any insight