Elk Hunters Who Don't Live In Elk Country - Backup Plans

[bklotthor]

For those of you who have to travel out of state to hunt elk I am curious to get your thoughts and opinions on a few items. Do you have an OTC elk hunt that you always use as your backup plan? Or do some of you hunt deer, antelope, or cow elk in the years when a limited entry elk hunt is not an option? My initial thinking is that it would be beneficial to have a unit to call your 'home' so to speak. After having a few 10 day hunts under your belt in a given area over a period of a couple years do you typically feel more confident each time you return to the area?

Most information available on public forums such as this one paint the experience in OTC units pretty bleak (CO in particular). That's understandable given that I would also be hesitant to share the knowledge I'd built up over a period of years on a given area. For those that do hunt OTC often do you notice the supposed higher pressure or do you feel confident that you know how to find elk even with the high pressure? I don't care about trophy potential at all at this point, I'm more concerned with building experience and finding a place to enjoy chasing elk for a week. I've applied in New Mexico for archery elk hunts this coming fall, if unsuccessful I think I am going to give the CO OTC archery season a try. In coming years I will apply in WY each year as well, heavily leaning towards applying for the general elk tag each and every year. After reading other threads and speaking with some people I know that elk hunt I am leaning towards the bulk of my future trips being during the archery season due to more milder weather, the rut, longer seasons that may spread out pressure, etc.

Thanks for sharing any thoughts or opinions you may have.

 

[LCH]

I'm really just as happy to hunt cow elk, any species of deer, pronghorn, or bears as I am a bull elk. I actually have yet to draw a bull tag, despite doing 2-3 trips per year since 2012.

I keep a spreadsheet organized by state/species/points/draw dates, and keep going through the list until I draw enough tags to round out my season. If there are any gaps, I have a long list of OTC and leftover options I want to do. I'm to the point now that I've done some hunts multiple times, and it really does help to roll into a spot knowing where you're going to camp, places that typically hold critters, nearest tire shop, where to get the best burger, etc.

If hunting bulls is all you're interested in, I do think an OTC or near 100% draw tag you can do year after year is probably your best bet, with the lucky draw sprinkled in here and there.

 

[NYyotekiller]

Interested in this as well.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

I do. I think you are setting yourself up for failure on the LE tag if you don't chase bulls most other years. Elk hunting is hard when you haven't grown up around them, and it takes alot of reps to build up the skill. I would hate to build points for 5-6 years, and try and hunt that tag with little to no experience chasing bulls. It doesn't mean you can't chase some other stuff, but it you want to get good at hunting elk, you need to hunt them, and just because it is a LE unit, doesn't mean the elk hunting is going to be easy.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I live in CO but there is a decent chance I will move out of elk country in the next year or so for my wife's work so this is a question I have thought a bunch about...

You definitely benefit skill wise from hunting OTC units, what you learn then helps you be more successful when you hunter "better" units so I definitely would advocate for trying to hunt every year. As an out of state hunter you are pretty much only going to go on 1 elk trip a year, probably for not longer than 9 days. Therefore season length for NR doesn't really matter, the shortest seasons are 5 days which once you factor in scouting days and travel is pretty much all the time you have anyway. MT v. ID. v. CO for your every year hunt is a trade off I think you can easily argue for any of them. I think the other thing to note is that most people complaining about CO OTC didn't have success because they didn't know what they were doing. You won't either your first couple of years and if you hunted a 15 point unit tag might still have a hard time getting on elk. You could have given me a unit 10 CO rifle tag my first 2 seasons and I definitely wouldn't have killed anything, the first year I probably wouldn't have gotten eyes on an elk.

As far as CO OTC archery, I would avoid it if your goal is to be alone in the woods... archery is the fastest growing season in terms of popularity. I see 10 times as many hunters in the field as any other time, it's an easy time to be in the woods since it's warm and social media has made it the cool thing to do.

Case in point
Subjective: Hunted an OTC unit for archery (buddy was hunting I was calling) we saw 21 hunters in 3 days most were backpacking in we never got away from other people, came back during rifle season saw 5 hunters I was the only one backpacking and easily got away from them after the first morning.
Objective:
If you look at the hunting stats for unit 53 (just picking a unit) there were 406 hunters in 2005 for archery in 2018 there were 841 a 207% increase. For second rifle there were 530 OTC hunters in 2005 and 427 in 2018 so only 80% of the pressure there was 13 years ago. You also have to add in that muzzy season runs concurrently with archery so that is another 132 hunters for that unit and then you have to add in limited bear hunters. There is a concurrent rifle bear with caps season during second, but those hunters have to hold a elk or deer tag so there are no bear only hunters in the field.

I understand that archery season is long so in theory it should break up the pressure but I've found most residents hunt every weekend till they get something and that NRs seem to concentrate peak rut, last weekend, and the first weekend. Your experience may very but if you are willing to hunt in the snow and especially backpack hunt I think that you will have a much better experience during the rifle seasons than archery.