First CO Elk Hunt for a Hoosier

[HoosierHunter]

Hello All! Long time reader, first few times poster here. Good stuff in this forum and appreciate you all.

Little background: 37 years young, been hunting since I was 12 or so. Been hunting whitetail my whole life, chasing turkeys and big in predator hunting. Me and a life long buddy are planning a trip for 2nd rifle season hunt in CO. I have done some out of state public land whitetail hunts in the past, by myself. Have been to Colorado and Montana for family trips, but not hunting related. I'm not interested in guided hunts or not looking for what trail you guys want me to walk down to find an elk. I want the grind of doing the research myself, studying maps, reading topos and waiting for that feeling of hoping I can get one to answer me back, being post rut or late rut. That said, I do have some general questions.

1. I have an EXO Mountain Gear K3 4800 pack and working on knocking off other gear needed for the trip that I have had on my list for a while. Would you guys recommend just doing a basecamp somewhere close around my truck and coming back every night or just keeping everything on my back and setting up camp wherever needed? Used to do this in the Army so I am good with whatever makes most sense. Easiest is having one location setup, but easiest doesn't give best results....all the time.

2. Late season, last week of October, I have been studying past/prior temp swings. What should I expect temp wise, on average? I have Sitka Gear, although it is EVII (whitetail stuff) I think it will be fine out there. Just wanting a little more input on temps, winds, etc. that I might expect.

I think that is it for now, but I am sure I will have more questions.

Thank you all!

 

[Wapiti1]

1: Hard to say until you pick a unit and start the process of determining how to hunt it. Some units work better with a basecamp, others may be better hunted from a backcountry camp. My preference in a new unit is to basecamp and allow for more mobility. You have no idea what areas see more pressure, or what that road really looks like until you get there. Some glassing spots turn out to be awesome, and others are not what you were hoping for.

2: Temps could be anywhere. Layer up. If you hike, leave the truck cold and carry warm stuff for when you get to a spot you will stop at for a while. I take the normal layering kit of t-shirt, baselayer longsleeve, fleece mid-layer, puffy, and hard shell. Then mix and match as needed. For pants, I wear mid-weight soft shell pants that breath well, and usually don't wear longies unless it is really cold out. One tip is to take a sitting pad everywhere you go. It is amazing how much warmer you stay if you have a foam pad to sit on.

Just my 2 cents.

Jeremy

 

[ramsdude47]

Too much variability based on where you end up. Even the forecast a week out at higher elevations tends to be pretty inaccurate.

Be prepared for it to be extremely cold and shitty the whole time. Think wind chills around 0. The reality is it will probably be pretty nice for at least 2/3 of your trip. That is of course unless you go to Gunnison lol that place is freezing - or up North.

 

[Indian Summer]

Camp at the truck. Committing to invest the time and effort to pack all of your gear into an area you’ve never hunted is comparable to asking if you should marry your first girlfriend. Lol

Once you find elk you can decide if overcoming obstacles like distance or elevation gain each morning is worth giving up a better level of comfort. Sometimes it is... sometimes it isn’t. You might find elk close enough to base camp to stick with that. Also why pack elk out further than you need to?

As far as clothes.... you plan for the worst days of your hunt not the best.

 

[lyingflatlander]

I’ll take this one... Be prepared for everything temperature wise. Historically it can be 70 and hot, or -12 with deep snow. As far as your style, you can make that judgement on the weather and what you can tolerate. As far as where will the elk be? Go deep rockslider, go deep.

 

[Indian Summer]

As far as where will the elk be? Go deep rockslider, go deep.

Nah! Only if you have to. My last 8 were only 1-3 miles in. I use horses too so no limits to where or how far I can hunt. I let the bulls decide and apparently nobody has told them to go deep.

 

[HoosierHunter]

Camp at the truck. Committing to invest the time and effort to pack all of your gear into an area you’ve never hunted is comparable to asking if you should marry your first girlfriend. Lol

Once you find elk you can decide if overcoming obstacles like distance or elevation gain each morning is worth giving up a better level of comfort. Sometimes it is... sometimes it isn’t. You might find elk close enough to base camp to stick with that. Also why pack elk out further than you need to?

As far as clothes.... you plan for the worst days of your hunt not the best.

I like this idea. This is how we are going to start out and makes most sense to me.