BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[Elkchaser]

Hey fellow hunters,

We need a little assistance.

Our hunting party of 4 consist of a small group of wastewater plant operators and construction workers. Three of our party are Volunteer Hunter Education Instructors. We always seem short on the major "coin" it takes to travel across country purchase lic. and hire a guide.


Due to our very limited budget we have never been able to hire a guide or been horse packed into an area. I have hunted the public lands around the Alamosa/LaJara Reservoir area of Colorado 3 times over the past 10 years with very limited sucess. The area is heavily hunted and ATV's everywhere in the mountains.

I am interested in a 2003 season hunt and searching for any pointers on good access to Public Land for elk hunting. Our small hunting party does not own ATV's but we do have 4 wheel drive trucks. We wouldn't mind finding a good area that we could be taken in on horse back if the cost of the horses are reasonable.

Thought I would start early and maybe find a unit where there are good elk populations and past experiences from other hunters in the units.

If anyone has or knows of areas or if you know of anyone that would pack a small group into an area and bring out game, please let me know.

Feel free to email me direct if you don't want the whole world to know. Email at shenandoahenv@hotmail.com Due to scheduling we will need to look at the first or second rifle seasons.

We would appreciate any assistance.

[moderator]

Hello Elkchaser,

We have quite a few Colorado guides listed here:

http://www.biggamehunt.net/colorado.html

Many of which offer drop camp services. We also ran an article on Do It Yourself Drop Camps last year that you may find useful.

While the elk harvest was respectable for last year, the word is that it wasn't enough to meet DOW targets. The winter here has been on the average to below-average side thus far, so winter kill will probably be low to none. What that means is the 2003 should be another great year for elk hunting in Colorado: lots of elk, lots of tags.

When picking a good unit, you may want to review last years harvest stats for elk.

http://wildlife.state.co.us/huntrecap/index.asp

It is a good way to figure out which units have lower pressure and more elk relative to other units.

Good Luck!

[ult-predator]

Well elkchaser your in some good country for elk. I know some areas of idaho that are not too bad and some in washington too. I would bet you have better hunting in your home state though. What kind of hunting do you like...terrain etc. how hard do you foks hunt, like hiking distance etc. It would help to choose an area.


http://www.hunting-pictures.co.....index.html

[bitmasher]

A lot of the northwest colorado units have high elk densities with lots of public land. Some of the units take quite a few points to draw out in though...