shaynew1 said:

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I get out and suffer as much as I can in the heat under some weight during July and august. I'll still be sucking wind at elevation but it's not quite as bad.

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Speaking of a real elk killer... this mofo right here gets it done more often than he changes his underwear.

shaynew1 said:

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I get out and suffer as much as I can in the heat under some weight during July and august. I'll still be sucking wind at elevation but it's not quite as bad.

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Any sort of regiment? Or just get out and bust ass.

TwoMarksHand said:

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Rucked 3.25 miles in 1 hour today. 40lbs pack plus my chest rig.

I have a feeling that no matter how strong and in shape I get, I'm going to get smoked by altitude.

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Heat is the only thing that has been shown to help prepare you for altitude.

I lift and run all year but in July and August I stop lifting heavy to prevent injury and start rucking hills and running in the middle of the day a couple times a week. I also do a ton of single leg work i.e. step ups, lunges, single leg squat, and bulgarian split squats.

IMO physical prep is important but it is just a part of the puzzle.

Get calories in on the mountain and get good sleep.

Mental toughness is also incredibly important, probably most important. Elk hunting is a grind.

If you are DIY then hunt plan and confidence in that plan are key as well.

3 hard days in and not finding elk and all those things add up quick. People easily find a reason to quit.

100% this.

So I think I want a guided hunt since I've not hunted elk before and I'm not in the kind of shape to do a overnight backpacking trip. I am not a bow hunter so it would need to be a rifle hunt. Not afraid to do some hiking. Y'all have A lot of great ideas.

Sounds like a good plan.

Something to consider. Muzzle loaders are somewhere in between and generally have better draw odds and closer to the rut.

AgEng don't know what he's talking about.

The only metric I keep up with is one of the loops at Cameron Park in Waco for time and improving that. Other than that just try to make it suck. Side hilling and climbing around on different things is as important as stairs.

But by far the most important thing is being able to get out of the sack at 4am on day four when you haven't seen a thing on day one, two, and three. I still struggle and I've seen first hand multiple times how everything can change in one second.

I think guided is great and if I was rich I would go guided somewhere new every year. Every area has a learning curve for each part of the season, and you are just expediating the process with some local knowledge. If you show up fit, with the right attitude and hunt expectations, whoever you are hunting with is going to be extra fired up to get you on something. Just ask our guys here.

Ol Jock 99 said:

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Biggest thing that killed me was the slope. I trained with a ruck. I did a million stairs. My muscles were ready for the work. But my joints...my joints weren't happy about being at a ~45 degree angle all day.

Find the steepest hill you can. Up, down, and sideways.

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training knees over toes would be my suggestion…

lots of sledding and then buy some 45 degree footings for stationary work

shaynew1 said:

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AgEng don't know what he's talking about.

The only metric I keep up with is one of the loops at Cameron Park in Waco for time and improving that. Other than that just try to make it suck. Side hilling and climbing around on different things is as important as stairs.

But by far the most important thing is being able to get out of the sack at 4am on day four when you haven't seen a thing on day one, two, and three. I still struggle and I've seen first hand multiple times how everything can change in one second.

I think guided is great and if I was rich I would go guided somewhere new every year. Every area has a learning curve for each part of the season, and you are just expediating the process with some local knowledge. If you show up fit, with the right attitude and hunt expectations, whoever you are hunting with is going to be extra fired up to get you on something. Just ask our guys here.

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SSSOOO much truth in this post right here!

Just get out and make it suck. Mantra to live by for elk hunters.

Just come hunt with me. Hunt in 90 degree weather, cover 60 miles a week and finally shoot on last day. Lol. 2 years ago was like hunting on the sun until October.

Quote:

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Hunt in 90 degree weather

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I thought you moved to Colorado from Texas?

AgLA06 said:

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Sounds like a good plan.

Something to consider. Muzzle loaders are somewhere in between and generally have better draw odds and closer to the rut.

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I do like my muzzleloader. However it's a 50 cal. Traditional ball ammunition open sight rifle.

I did. 2021 archery was BRUTAL

Not a single bugal 2022 colorado archery

Yeah last year was tough

I'll share my experience this last fall. Booked an elk hunt in western Colorado, private land, comfy lodge. Then we get there and the "lodge" is some guys basement 2 hours from our section we drawed. The hunt we booked turned out to be public land and really tough terrain with lots of hunting pressure. Took us about half a day to figure out we were duped. We asked our guides why we weren't hunting the private land we paid for and they flipped out. Turns out same thing happened the year before. This outfitter has a really nice private land lease they advertise on their website, but have a few public land hunts they sell that they don't advertise. I don't think it was malicious just the owner of the outfitter was unorganized. We *****ed at the owner and got all our money back on day 3 out of 5 and left, which sucked but it was kind of the principle of the whole thing. Tipped our guides well and called it. I have a baby on the way due this summer so this fall is out, but damn am I hooked.

OTC elk hiking, I mean hunting, is hard.

That is all I have to say about that.

Gotta be in shape and gotta be dedicated. It takes a lot.

MosesHallEnforcer said:

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I'll share my experience this last fall. Booked an elk hunt in western Colorado, private land, comfy lodge. Then we get there and the "lodge" is some guys basement 2 hours from our section we drawed. The hunt we booked turned out to be public land and really tough terrain with lots of hunting pressure. Took us about half a day to figure out we were duped. We asked our guides why we weren't hunting the private land we paid for and they flipped out. Turns out same thing happened the year before. This outfitter has a really nice private land lease they advertise on their website, but have a few public land hunts they sell that they don't advertise. I don't think it was malicious just the owner of the outfitter was unorganized. We *****ed at the owner and got all our money back on day 3 out of 5 and left, which sucked but it was kind of the principle of the whole thing. Tipped our guides well and called it. I have a baby on the way due this summer so this fall is out, but damn am I hooked.

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In this instance, you should name the outfitter. Sounds fishy to me.

Yeah, that was no "disorganized accident".

Gotta be lucky too.

OTC elk hunting is full of in shape, dedicated dudes.

The success rates are in single digits for a reason…

I absolutely love it

I start training in January for my colorado public land elk bow hunts... this is my 3rd year in a row. My guide is a freakin beast. I just tell him to take me where he thinks our best chances are....its a complete mental and physical beating.

Silver Spur outfitters. The original owner sold the business to one of his hunters two years ago and the buyer has run it into the ground. The head of ops is some rich guy that has terminal cancer and doesn't give a eff. That was the guys basement we stayed in Night one. The new owner Chris is either a shady liar or an idiot.

Our contract had listed the private ranch and lodge that we paid for but when we got there we stayed in the guys basement night one and they wanted us to stay in a tent at the public draw.

No big deal, but we paid for a private land lodge hunt but jut got dumped on a public section in a tent which we didn't prepare for. Got our money back so no big deal, but there's some shady operators out there.

Oh. Guided. Well yeah. That's a diff game. Maybe still OTC but you have someone who knows the country and its animals and how they move.

Not saying that's not hard, but it's not DIY OTC

That's sad to hear. My buddy hunted with them in like 2016 and he said it was one of the coolest experiences he had done. They were on our list to try out but then I saw some reviews that made them look super sketch. Now with your experience... that's def not happening. Thanks for the headsup

With any luck, I hope OTC goes away. There are way too many hunters and the state needs to come up with a better plan on controlling the crowds. Probably not a popular opinion, but I see it each year and think it needs some culling.

I like the idea for zero pt draw in otc units

Disagree. it is more full of people road hunting and causing more harm than good. There are more guys getting into the 'away from roads and people' game, but it is far outnumbered by road hunters rolling up and down trails on ATVs.

Yeah, it was pretty disappointing for a first elk hunt. Bought a bunch of new gear and a new gun. Lots of build up, range time etc.

The food was terrible as well. I have kept up with my guide after the hunt and apparently the hunt after ours at that North camp turned out a disaster as well.

They booked 11 hunters for that camp which is mind blowing to me. One of the new guides got drunk and tried to fight the owner and the ops manager. So he and the other guide on our hunt got fired. My guide had a Husband and wife hunters that were screaming at each other the entire hunt. Absolute **** show. When they told us that had 11 hunters for that camp the following week, my BIL and I just laughed and laughed.

This is what gives me nightmares about booking with an outfitter that I know nothing about… only had to do this on dove hunts so far - cannot imagine an elk hunt

Sadly, there are a lot of outfitters that are more focused on quantity than quality, and a lot of them cannot tell the truth of what they are offering. The big trend now are 'booking agents' that are taking a cut of the hunt total to find hunters for properties. They are not licensed outfitters and have no liability really. I worked for an outfitter a few years ago that loaded each property up to the brim each season and it exhausted the land by 3rd rifle. When our 4th and cow hunters came up to hunt, we had to work 20x harder to find animals. It made for a miserable experience as the guide and worse for the hunters. When you research an outfitter, ask lots of questions. how many hunters they run in an area, success rates, opportunity rates, years of experience for the guides, etc.

If you are thinking about an outfitter (which I'd recommend), call Kevin Slaughter at Family Expeditions. He and his wife are booking agents focused on the outdoors and are the best. They hooked me up with Flying B Ranch for Elk and planned our Namibian trip. Both were excellent.

Ol Jock 99 said:

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If you are thinking about an outfitter (which I'd recommend), call Kevin Slaughter at Family Expeditions. He and his wife are booking agents focused on the outdoors and are the best. They hooked me up with Flying B Ranch for Elk and planned our Namibian trip. Both were excellent.

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Thanks!

Wodanaz said:

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They're talmbout the Mescalero Apache Reservation for those wondering.

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I hunted Unit 34 Muzzleloader 2 years ago. We hiked back in on public land that borders the Res. Walked along the fence line for grins one day. There's some big boys back in there.

There was an area we were hunting and hoping to catch a straggler on the wrong area. We'd get to our spot well before sunrise and you could hear herd bulls bugling like crazy out on a section of private land around a water source.

And I kid you not, you'd hear the bugling making its way back on to the Res before daylight. Tried it one evening and they didn't leave the Res until after dark. Smart critters

Any trip reports from this season? Looking to book a hunt for 2024.