Novice Elk hunter questions

[wm5l]

That's a drop in the bucket if you truly want to play on the world class stage, a single drop. Guy just paid $225'000 for a PA BULL tag....and he drilled a monster...one man's roof is someone else's floor as they say !!

I'm bot paying that. That's stupid IMO. 1/4 Mil for any animal is a waste or money.

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

I'm bot paying that. That's stupid IMO. 1/4 Mil for any animal is a waste or money.

All depends on your view of things and your capitol gains %...obviously to play at that level money would mean very little to you, just like you and I buy a $20 gun ticket..lol. And the best thing most of it goes to do something good for the elk and viewing center...

 

[171farm]

Plenty of units in Colorado are easy to draw without points and some even offer OTC after all the draws are complete (at least this was the case when we drew 2017 without any points). All 3 of us drew Colorado without any points. We were told near 100% draw rates...not sure if we lucked out or not but we hunted nonetheless.

Montana is where we are going this year and it too seems to be fairly easy to draw. We knew we were going last year so we bought a preference point last year and bought another this year and applied. They allow you to buy a point and apply for the draw in the same year...basically we had 3 points going into the draw doing this. If you apply as a group supposedly your odds are better too...again is that true I dont know but it worked for us. The way I understand the combo elk/deer tag in Montana is that you are not awarded based off the number of points you have, just simply the more you have the better the chance. Anyways not sure if we needed to do this but all 3 of us drew without issue. A small amount to pay for added guarantee of getting the tag.*

Im not sure about other states but Id assume most are like this and probably pretty much any you could get a random cow tag if you wanted to just do a meat hunt. The higher the likelihood of having greater opportunity at a bigger bull the more points you will need to have so if you want to eventually hunt a trophy, no harm in starting to build those points now. Some can take upwards of 10+ to get a shot.

*Disclaimer, the guide we are going with employees a lady to do all the tag work for their hunters. All statements about Montana were based off memory of what our guide/tag buyer said since we physically didnt apply on our own so I could have misspoke

 

[the blur]

You can draw unit 70 in CO, but it's over run with orange army.

 

[rwbowser]

You can draw unit 70 in CO, but it's over run with orange army.

I'm relatively new to hunting and have been amazed by how much goes into planning/applying/drawing tags. I'm about ready to hire one of those services that handles it for you. I've been lucky enough to draw elk tags 2 years in a row in MT and then get get one of their returned tags one year but that was a nail biter since the guys I was hunting with drew their tags and I would have missed out.

 

[Bucklowery]

Plenty of units in Colorado are easy to draw without points and some even offer OTC after all the draws are complete (at least this was the case when we drew 2017 without any points). All 3 of us drew Colorado without any points. We were told near 100% draw rates...not sure if we lucked out or not but we hunted nonetheless.

Montana is where we are going this year and it too seems to be fairly easy to draw. We knew we were going last year so we bought a preference point last year and bought another this year and applied. They allow you to buy a point and apply for the draw in the same year...basically we had 3 points going into the draw doing this. If you apply as a group supposedly your odds are better too...again is that true I dont know but it worked for us. The way I understand the combo elk/deer tag in Montana is that you are not awarded based off the number of points you have, just simply the more you have the better the chance. Anyways not sure if we needed to do this but all 3 of us drew without issue. A small amount to pay for added guarantee of getting the tag.*

Im not sure about other states but Id assume most are like this and probably pretty much any you could get a random cow tag if you wanted to just do a meat hunt. The higher the likelihood of having greater opportunity at a bigger bull the more points you will need to have so if you want to eventually hunt a trophy, no harm in starting to build those points now. Some can take upwards of 10+ to get a shot.

*Disclaimer, the guide we are going with employees a lady to do all the tag work for their hunters. All statements about Montana were based off memory of what our guide/tag buyer said since we physically didnt apply on our own so I could have misspoke

Which outfitter did you go with?

 

[171farm]

Which outfitter did you go with?

For Colorado we went with Bryce Outfitting but they have since closed due to health issues. In Montana we are with Elk Creek Outfitting

 

[Bucklowery]

For Colorado we went with Bryce Outfitting but they have since closed due to health issues. In Montana we are with Elk Creek Outfitting

I will be west of great falls my the first week of rifle


Thanks

Buck

 

[Ace Quackhunter]

Where is the easiest plact to hunt Elk as in draw/buy a tag. Id be happy with a fat Cow at this point. Dosent have to be a big wall hanger Bull. Basically a meat hunt out of a pickup would be fine to start with haha. Im not picky. I have shot one before (canned hunt and it was lame). Getting tired of sitting in a blind watching a stupid deer feeder every morning and night in West Texas for Schnauzer size deer and Javelinas

Check with Ute Mt. Indian Reservation they offered a late season cow hunt at one time for $600.00
Ace