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Hunting partner for CO Elk hunt 2018

Jake_C

Junior Member
I'm looking for someone that might be interested in a Colorado archery elk hunt for next fall (10-12 days including travel). I've had two different friends agree to go in the last six months and have already bailed out on me. I'd like to do a back country type hunt where you backpack in and hunt from camp. I've never been on a western hunt so I'm a newbie. I would like to cover a lot of ground and see some nice scenery on top of trying to chase down an elk. I figure its just under a year out so that should give plenty of time to make sure we won't wind up wanting to kill one another in the mountains. If you're interested please let me know. specific dates don't matter to me as long as they are during the archery season i can get them off. The cost of license and either sex tag is around 644 plus 10 bucks for a habitat stamp as far as I can tell. fuel would be split 50-50.
 

teej89

Senior Member
2,288
48
NE PA
another place to look is to post this on onyourownadventures.com there's a lot of ohio guys on there and they have a section dedicated to just this.

Be sure to introduce yourself on the forum first tho.

We're cashing in points in WY next year or I'd be interested, also as a pointer I'd recommend camping at the trail head and hiking in each day compared to putting all your eggs in one basket and going into the back country and finding out altitude kicked your ass or the elk aren't there or you have drop camp outfitters already where you wanted to camp even just the money to backpack in, pack alone is gonna run you $600. For new people it's nice to be mobile and drive to a different trail head if things are dry where you're hunting currently.

Also colorado made this great map of migration and summer ranges, it'll help your scouting along with google earth and onxmaps

https://databasin.org/datasets/d20d677ff15440c2b02033fa3355517b

also order some of the dvds off elknut.com that'll give you a huge upper hand in the learning curve.

good luck to ya, get ready to be bit by the western hunting bug
 

Jake_C

Junior Member
another place to look is to post this on onyourownadventures.com there's a lot of ohio guys on there and they have a section dedicated to just this.

Be sure to introduce yourself on the forum first tho.

We're cashing in points in WY next year or I'd be interested, also as a pointer I'd recommend camping at the trail head and hiking in each day compared to putting all your eggs in one basket and going into the back country and finding out altitude kicked your ass or the elk aren't there or you have drop camp outfitters already where you wanted to camp even just the money to backpack in, pack alone is gonna run you $600. For new people it's nice to be mobile and drive to a different trail head if things are dry where you're hunting currently.

Also colorado made this great map of migration and summer ranges, it'll help your scouting along with google earth and onxmaps

https://databasin.org/datasets/d20d677ff15440c2b02033fa3355517b

also order some of the dvds off elknut.com that'll give you a huge upper hand in the learning curve.

good luck to ya, get ready to be bit by the western hunting bug

Thank you for the excellent advice. You make a great point about camping at the trail head. I've read a lot about all of the pressure on the OTC units in Colorado so it definitely makes sense to be able move along if I get crowded out or can't find any elk and to be honest I'd feel a little more easy about a solo mission if I was camping at a trail head. I did basically all of my backpacking solo but I have two kids and a wife to support now so that's always in the back of my mind.
I've been scouring the rockslide classifieds hoping to snag a nice used pack and avoid the 6-800 price tag of a new one. I was an avid backpacker in my teens and early twenties and still have most of the UL gear (tent, bag, ground pad, jet boil, water filter etc..) that I used then. I'm assuming the internal frame lightweight pack I used for that would be a poor choice for packing out quarters if it came to that.

I'll definitely look into the resources you listed.
Thanks again and good luck in WY!