Colorado Archery OTC DIY Hunt

[AaronMColeman]

My biggest advices would be:

Make sure you have good glass (a 10x42 is about perfect. I like maven. Not sure if you covered this already).

Get in the best physical shape possible. Do a lot of plyometrics, jumping and stuff. Gets your legs used to the burn.

Practice shooting from wild positions and angles at all distances. You probably already do as a white tail guy.

Learn to bugle and cow call. I’d recommend mouth calls and diaphragms since you’ll be alone. They aren’t too hard, but they take practice. Learn close calling techniques.

Run through scenarios in your head then find out what to do. YouTube is great for tactics. How to set up, how to find them if their quiet, weather related tips etc.

Lastly, have you considered Wyoming? Less pressure and I think you can draw a general tag with no points. But I think application is during January only with results in May.




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[Felix40]

I cant see pushing a wheel barrel would have helped with any of the elk Ive packed out. I guess if you hunt on fairly flat trails it might but thats not usually where Im wanting help.

OP theres no secret spots so just pick a bunch that are fairly close to the road and go through the list until you find something good. One guy can pack an elk out but plan on 3 heavy trips for a bull or 2 heavy trips for a cow. Make sure you dont carry any more stuff than you absolutely need. Make sure your pack can handle 100# without rubbing you raw.

 

[Wrogers18]

My biggest advices would be:

Make sure you have good glass (a 10x42 is about perfect. I like maven. Not sure if you covered this already).

Get in the best physical shape possible. Do a lot of plyometrics, jumping and stuff. Gets your legs used to the burn.

Practice shooting from wild positions and angles at all distances. You probably already do as a white tail guy.

Learn to bugle and cow call. I’d recommend mouth calls and diaphragms since you’ll be alone. They aren’t too hard, but they take practice. Learn close calling techniques.

Run through scenarios in your head then find out what to do. YouTube is great for tactics. How to set up, how to find them if their quiet, weather related tips etc.

Lastly, have you considered Wyoming? Less pressure and I think you can draw a general tag with no points. But I think application is during January only with results in May.




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All great stuff. Most of the gear I already own(good pack, binos, boots etc) I have considered Wyoming I have 2 buddies headed there in unit 21 but with no points I believe its between 27-37% chance of drawing that unit. I am looking into it as you're not the first to try and talk me out of CO. Thanks for the tips!

 

[cnelk]

Sorry. No way anyone drawing Wyo Gen tag without any PPs - unless you get way lucky in the Random Draw

 

[fatlander]

Sorry. No way anyone drawing Wyo Gen tag without any PPs - unless you get way lucky in the Random Draw

Not necessarily true. Depends on how man points his friends have if they all were to apply together.


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[Beendare]

Everybody wants to hunt elk....and to be sure, it tells you what you are made of.

Personally I've hunted a bunch of units in CO and other OTC states and they are all about the same when it comes to elk. I don't think you will find one unit far superior to another. Yeah, some have a tad more elk...and elk utilize the topography different...but the guys that like a unit is mainly due to them getting to know it.

They know where the hunter pressure is- numero uno factor, BTW...and they know how the elk are using that country. 80% of the elk are in 20% of the country.....most new hunters don't spend enough time in that 20%...[or less] where the elk are.

The guys killing elk every year on OTC have spent a lot of time learning; Elk, the unit, calling, etc. I help a buddy guide rifle elk hunters in a unit and we talk to guys every year that never see an elk. We are typically 70% on those hunts. Its a worthy exercise as to the "Why" on that.....mostly outlined above.

Then there are the rookie mistakes NOT to do.

Be ready...this ain't target shooting where it doesn't move...and its in the wide open. Many times I see guys say, "I didn't have a shot"...Ugh, no.... you did, but you weren't ready.

Don't be spending time jn camp...get yourself a good headlamp

Don't think that blowing a call makes them run in to you, calling requires an all encompassing strategy. Note; that most of the vids of successful hunts have multiple callers for the 'celebrity' hunter.

Don't go 2 miles and say there are no elk there. The elk 101 guys regularly tell you on vid they are avging 12 miles a day [over rough country] Big clue here, you have to cover ground unless you already know the unit.

Many other traits of good elk hunters...but #1 is; They have put in their time

Yeah, there are some good calling strategies you can do to shorten the learning curve...and yeah, GE is a decent scouting tool...but there is no substitute for experience.

The good news is the Rockies in the fall is a great place to be while gaining that experience!


Now get out there....best of luck!

....

 

[Wrogers18]

Everybody wants to hunt elk....and to be sure, it tells you what you are made of.

Personally I've hunted a bunch of units in CO and other OTC states and they are all about the same when it comes to elk. I don't think you will find one unit far superior to another. Yeah, some have a tad more elk...and elk utilize the topography different...but the guys that like a unit is mainly due to them getting to know it.

They know where the hunter pressure is- numero uno factor, BTW...and they know how the elk are using that country. 80% of the elk are in 20% of the country.....most new hunters don't spend enough time in that 20%...[or less] where the elk are.

The guys killing elk every year on OTC have spent a lot of time learning; Elk, the unit, calling, etc. I help a buddy guide rifle elk hunters in a unit and we talk to guys every year that never see an elk. We are typically 70% on those hunts. Its a worthy exercise as to the "Why" on that.....mostly outlined above.

Then there are the rookie mistakes NOT to do.

Be ready...this ain't target shooting where it doesn't move...and its in the wide open. Many times I see guys say, "I didn't have a shot"...Ugh, no.... you did, but you weren't ready.

Don't be spending time jn camp...get yourself a good headlamp

Don't think that blowing a call makes them run in to you, calling requires an all encompassing strategy. Note; that most of the vids of successful hunts have multiple callers for the 'celebrity' hunter.

Don't go 2 miles and say there are no elk there. The elk 101 guys regularly tell you on vid they are avging 12 miles a day [over rough country] Big clue here, you have to cover ground unless you already know the unit.

Many other traits of good elk hunters...but #1 is; They have put in their time

Yeah, there are some good calling strategies you can do to shorten the learning curve...and yeah, GE is a decent scouting tool...but there is no substitute for experience.

The good news is the Rockies in the fall is a great place to be while gaining that experience!


Now get out there....best of luck!

....

This is seriously helpful. These are all things I am ready and willing to do. I dont plan on being at camp much. Never have been that kind of hunter. All of my public land Whitetail hunts are 2 hours before light in and about the same after the sun sets. Being out there is why i am willing to drive 25-30 hours not sitting back at camp. Thanks for your insight. Best of luck to you as well!

 

[cnelk]

Not necessarily true. Depends on how man points his friends have if they all were to apply together.

I was referring to ArronMColemans's staement above -

"Lastly, have you considered Wyoming? Less pressure and I think you can draw a general tag with no points. But I think application is during January only with results in May."

 

[Mn Sawtooth]

In this pic is a legal 4pt bull. See him? He is 22yds away from me.

My buddy is up ahead of me to the right and he is the shooter.
He can’t get a shot it’s so thick. I took a video of this elk for 7 minutes before he walked away.

This could be your only chance at an elk. Would you take the shot? Can you make the shot?

View attachment 144068

I had this happen to me on 5 different bulls this fall. Crazy blown down and in some cases the couldnt even get to me if he wanted to set up is important but some times easier said than done.

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

Competitive bass fishing isn't public land elk hunting. In bass fishing when you see an island on a map you have a really good idea of what it will look like when you get there. The topo and satellite shows it all in the east. That doesn't hold true in the Rockies. In public land elk hunting you will encounter:
1. miles of deadfall that only a squirrel can get through,
2. cliffs where the map showed a medium grade,
3. underbrush that grabs at you,

and numerous other surprises that can't be found on a map. Western topo maps don't have the level of detail that you are used to in the east.

I'm not trying to discourage you but all of the map reading skills in the world will only help halfway when you show up. The first thing you'll say is, "Shit, this climb is way steeper than I thought". Keep your hunting strategy loose and don't get too set in your plans. The elk will quickly change your plans for you.

This was exactly my experience this past September. Nothing you do can prepare you for how massive the country is an the lack of real perspective you get from looking at GE or a Topo map!

That being said within 10 minutes of pulling in to our campsite at my #1 hunting site we had elk bugling on the next ridge just like I imagined while E-scouting! It was steep and deep 900 ft drop in less than a 1/3 of a mile into the drainage. It took over an hour to get to the bottom due to the steepness, the blow downs that you couldn't see under the 4-7 foot ferns that grabbed at every step you took. Based upon what we heard that evening and the elk that responded to me in the dark the next day we planned on going upstream on the opener but we had an elk respond down stream and we followed the sound and got cliffed out by a 60 foot cliff that didn't show on the Topo. We turned around and as we went back towards where we originally planned we ran into a successful local packing out his cow. He was shocked to meet us as he had been hunting that drainage on the opening weekend and had never run into anyone else there in his 10 years of hunting this drainage. He had been successful 5 of the last 10 years with only that weekend to hunt due to work! I

We spoke for a while and he got the cow where we had originally panned to hunt! Comparing notes we discussed our top 5 places my son and I planned to check out and he told me that we really had done our homework because he had killed elk in 4 of the 5 spots!. He gave me some tips on how to get into some of those easier as we went back to camp since he and two friends would packing out his elk and we planned on giving it a rest for a couple days. On the third day we found a watering hole and had a cow come within 80 yards but the wind shifted and she took off. Unfortunately my son woke up with altitude sickness the 4th day and we had to cut our trip short by 5 days,

From what I have researched we hunted one of the most highly pressured units that has the second largest elk herds. We met 3 guys from Michigan as we were going in to the woods on day 2. One of them had been coming for the last 5 year and only seen on elk. The other two had been coming for the last 3 years and hadn't seen or heard any elk. From what I could tell talking to them they stayed very close to the hiking trails and were back to camp by dark.

With what I learned and experienced this past season I feel given enough time and a little luck we can build on our little wins and we can be successful.

 

[sndmn11]

I'll tell you what I wish someone told me before I went out there. I'm from the East Coast also and I over-thought and over-complicated my first trip out there. Just pick a spot, and go. Don't look too far from the roads, instead look for a lot of spots that are within 2 miles of roads. Stay mobile and go in and check a spot out for sign and then move on if it's not happening and keep going and going and going until you find fresh sign and get into elk. Hit a couple of spots a day or at least plan to, and learn how to call and be in awesome shape. Being in awesome shape really raises your ceiling - and akthough I consider myself in elite shape - I feel like my physical fitness is the most limiting factor in chasing elk. If i was in superman shape, I'd be knocking down giants every time out. Chasing bugles straight uphill through deadfall is tough and elk just move faster than i do.

The dates that you mentioned aren't my favorites, but if that's what you have to work with - know that some of those elk may not be bugling their heads off during the first part of your trip. Don't worry so much about which unit to go to and what you read about a unit, if it's on the internet it is probably all crazy talk anyways. I don't mind finding pressure where there is a lot of sign, because then you can usually take a minute and figure out where the elk would go given that pressure in their preferred area. I have found in OTC Colorado moreover than any other areas, that guys love walking by a good spot to go to an okay spot because the great spot is too close to a trailhead or a road.

In general, look for areas along the western edge of the continental divide if you're stuck on the "which unit" thing. It seems like elk have good densities along the entire continental divide, especially on the western side of it.

This should be all you need to read. Read your maps and hunt them like whitetail, the needs are identical

 

[Gatorgrizz27]

My #1 piece of advice would be don’t shoot one where you can’t get it out. 4 of us went in 2018 and packed in 5 miles, my buddy killed a bull another 2 miles in on the far side of a 10k’ ridge.

Getting it cut up, in game bags, down off the mountain to a cool place near camp and hung in trees took the majority of the day.

We tried getting a packer so the rest of us could continue hunting, even with a good local contact we weren’t able to, not to mention cell signal was very scarce.

The 4 of us each made one trip out, then the guy who shot it and one other made a second trip the next day. Temps were in the 80’s and we were starting to worry about meat spoilage.

If you’re going in 5 miles, you basically have until noon on you’re third to last day to kill one, or you’re not going to get it all out solo. This is less of an issue if you don’t have a hard deadline/flight back, but you still need to worry about temps.

 

[ColoradoV]

If you are looking at otc units only see the thread about more OTC archery unit’s becoming draw. I would concentrate on the nw part of the state if you are looking at otc as most of the sw of the state is going to be draw only starting in 2020.

 

[Beendare]

This is seriously helpful. These are all things I am ready and willing to do. ....

You can’t kill him if you’re not in the woods. I’ve had some lucky encounters in the middle of the day. Ive also had bedded bulls bugle once...thats it- but gave away their location...same with spotting cows wandering out of a tree patch and satellite bulls sniffing around thick bedding areas, etc. Gives you a clue to where these elk are for later.

The point is I never would’ve known they were there or had those encounters if I wasn’t in the woods.

I think a new guy can learn a lot by watching those YouTube videos and studying them reading between the lines.

Watch how many times Elk hang up when they’re coming in to the call. Makes sense, they are looking for you. If they have been called at by other hunters- typically it makes them more skeptical. Best if you have a strategy for that; Decoy or other. Study their habits.

It helps to practice shots where you have to squeeze an arrow between trees. Many opportunities are short, duration...I see guys at tourneys that take their time getting settled in...you will miss opportunities doing that.

Edit; cleaned this up from cell phone dictation

...

 

[El Ruso]

Identify multiple units and locations in each unit. Mobility will be your best friend. Finding elk will be the hardest part. Once you get into them work them and KILL the first one which presents itself.... cow, bull, spike. Etc. if you can identify some good glassing peaks use them. If the elk aren’t talking you’ll have to glass or hike to find them. If you can’t find them try driving around at night listening for bugles, if you can deal with no sleep and still function. You will be tried like no other hunt. Elk aren’t easy regardless of time of year, everything has to be perfect for a bow kill.

 

[durandja11]

Hey everyone, I am a first time elk hunter, Been hunting whitetail for 20 years. My plan is to tackle Colorado first and build from there. I am a member of GoHunt and am looking to narrow down some units. Gohunt is a great tool but doing this for the first time can be overwhelming. I know the odds are stacked against me headed there with archery equipment but I'm always up for the challenge.

My question is for anyone that has experience in Colorado with archery public land, can you help me narrow down some units. I will be driving there from Buffalo NY and I will be by myself. I am looking to take a legal bull but wouldn't pass up a cow toward the later part of my stay. I plan on getting there August 30th to do some scouting and plan on staying until Sept 12th. Other than that all my scouting will be done on the computer.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I am in the same exact boat as you. Thanks for starting this thread and all the great insight people have already responded with. I will keep an eye on this. If you ever looking for a partner, let me know.

 

[Dustin Nichols]

Last year was my first trip for Elk. Colorado OTC as well. Ill first share some things I learned and some things that I felt helped me a lot. Also a bit of what we experienced that I will definitely be taking into consideration next year.

Something I'm not seeing folks advising that helped a lot was reaching out to the CO's in any unit you're looking at. I have experienced nothing but welcome, open and honest real time info on what the folks that are in those mountains daily are seeing and hearing. Remember, everyone talks to those guys so they get a insane amount of second hand info and they all want to see people be successful.

Another thing I looked at to help us narrow down units was yearly precipitation data. Keep an eye on the how much snowfall and rainfall a unit gets. Last year, the unit we hunted got a ton of snow. So much so, that the local CO told us the snow didn't even melt in the drainage we hunted until the end of June. The area then had above average rainfall. It had thick veg, plenty of fresh water and lots of animals. The water factor was also huge for us as hunters to be able to replenish almost anywhere.

Keeping that in mind, we also had a plan B, C, etc. Our plan B ended up being our golden ticket. The first location we went to, was perfect, but for whatever reason no elk. We hunted it hard for a day and a half. After not even seeing fresh sign less than a week old we made a decisive move. Don't waste time if the sign isn't telling you are close. What we also learned was that we needed to be mobile at least until we spent a few seasons hunting out there. Had we packed way in, we'd have burned 3 days just to learn we were off the mark. Your scouting before the season will help eliminate that.

The one other thing we learned was very important. Everyone knows Colorado OTC's can be/are crowded. It doesn't take long for folks to zero in on elk. We got on really active animals the first day in our plan B area which was the 2nd day of our overall hunt. That same evening we found out a nice bull was shot and never recovered 4 miles up the drainage and another one was shot and packed out not far from where we encountered our first Bull. By the 4th day, The trail head we are on was full of people. All got word from someone that there was good action in that drainage. We had 4 days of vocal bulls and encounters. The 5th day we saw 3 different groups of hunters and passed a bivy camp smack dab in the middle of the drainage we had been hunting. So, word travels fast. Things change so fast, pressure, weather etc. I think it will be important for me to remind myself to not be afraid to be aggressive, but not reckless next year to make the most of the opportunities I do encounter.

Lastly, shoot the first legal animal you can. Like I said, it changes so fast. You could be on elk one day and all it takes in one camp to move in and push them 10 miles away into the next drainage.

Year 1 for me was a huge learning experience. I expect year 2 to be exactly the same. It never ends and its insanely addicting! You'll have a hard time thinking of much else and be prepared to get stricken with a bit of depression once you come back east, elk in hand or not! Good luck!

 

[Scooter90254]

These threads can sound so negative.

IF and that’s a big if you are a good high pressure public land deer hunter the adjustment really isn’t that tough.

Unit really doesn’t matter there’s a load of elk in almost all of them. Just pick one and go.

In my opinion a good deer hunter will have no problem finding elk. Just keep covering habitat until you find them. I did spend a lot of time learning the vegetation in the mountains. It’s actually a lot different than deer country.

For us the terrain was the toughest part. I’m in great shape and those mountains with packs kick my butt. Simple as that.

Worse case scenario you spend a week camping in some beautiful country.

 

[lowpressure]

Putting in for draws in both New Mexico and co. If I don’t get struck by lightning I’ll be otc in the Rockies somewhere! Following this thread.

 

[HunterJoeMI]

The most difficult and dangerous thing in front of you is the drive to Co and back. Be safe, be confident and be prepared to be successful. Always have your kill kit with you that has every thing you need to break down- bone out - bag- and hang in the shade. Then have a backpack you can hunt with, shoot with on, and use to take your first load out. Have two lights minimum on you so you can move in the dark with confidence and hopefully bone out an elk in the dark. One last word of advise - In Co try to never use a trail head. Go in off the road in places away from where everyone uses to access.