Western Elk Hunt advice

[Goshen Valley Boy]

Anyone have any info on a western elk hunt where a guy could have a chance at a decent bull with a rifle without breaking the bank? I would like to spend less than $2,500 (license included).

 

[jb3]

Wish I could help. The only guide I know (located in NM) is $5200 no guide and $6200 guide. You can drop down in price for during archery season (3500/4500). Good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.elkoutfitters.com/

Try this guy he offers a few different types of hunts. You might get something in your price range

 

[megalomaniac]

Nope, not me. Chance at a decent bull (300") with a rifle either requires $5000 and private land hunt OR 10 years of preference points and do-it-yourself for $1000 on public land.

There is one exception... you have a 0.5- 1% chance of drawing a good elk tag in New Mexico for public land the first year applying. The hunt would then cost you $750 for the state license + $500 in transportation out there + $500 for lodging + $250 for food + $250 for misc expenses... or around what you're looking to spend in total.

In other words, pick your poison... fork out the dough to go on a good hunt for a decent bull or go on the cheap (Colorado can be done for around $1200) on public land where your odds of killing ANY elk, much less a decent bull are around 10-20%. Personally, I have a blast hunting on the cheap. I know I won't likely kill an elk, much less a monster, but I see elk virtually every day I hunt and make a ton of memories.

Last option- marry some rich rancher's daughter and hunt for the cost of the tag only

 

[DaveB]

You will have to hunt BLM land between Meeker and Craig and/or national forest land. You will not get a guide or even access to private land plus tags for the amount you mentioned. In 1987 it cost me 1,000.00 before I left the house in Los Angeles. You will need a 4-wheel drive if the weather turns on you, which it can. You need a 300 win mag shooting high quality factory with accubonds or partitions or Barnes if you don't handload. Be able to make 300 yard shots on walking animals. I towed out to COlorado for 7 consecutive years. The hide on an elk is over 1/2 thick, you need serious thump. Get a Mule deer tag. You have to be out EARLY and pray the weather in the mountains is so bad the elk and mulies have to leave. Really bad weather drives lots of hunters indoors because brother it can get and stay brutally cold-froze beer INSIDE the cooler. Get topo maps, best you can afford when you decide where to hunt, remember everyone else is also looking at harvest numbers and locations. Carry a GPS because you can definitely get turned around (I Know) and these forests are THICK. You must have decent binocs. And the season is miserably short.

And to top it off, it was the most fun hunting I have ever had. I was young, in shape, I knocked down a perfect symmetrical 5x5 elk, a 5x5 muley, a MONSTER 4x4 muley, and a raggy 4x2 muley and I got pictures and antlers to this day. I loved it and is what I miss most about Tennessee, too far to go.

 

[trealtree]

I am building points in Wyoming. Good luck.

 

[sneakboxer]

Its not your normal western elk hunt but there are big bodied elk here in OR and WA. Tags run $650 for a NR. There is a lot of ground open to hunting be it BLM, open private timber lands and state and fed land. Its worth a look. I have only been here a few months so i don't know much.
Best of luck, the west is different but OK so far.

 

[Locksley]

You will have to hunt BLM land between Meeker and Craig and/or national forest land. You will not get a guide or even access to private land plus tags for the amount you mentioned. In 1987 it cost me 1,000.00 before I left the house in Los Angeles. You will need a 4-wheel drive if the weather turns on you, which it can. You need a 300 win mag shooting high quality factory with accubonds or partitions or Barnes if you don't handload. Be able to make 300 yard shots on walking animals. I towed out to COlorado for 7 consecutive years. The hide on an elk is over 1/2 thick, you need serious thump. Get a Mule deer tag. You have to be out EARLY and pray the weather in the mountains is so bad the elk and mulies have to leave. Really bad weather drives lots of hunters indoors because brother it can get and stay brutally cold-froze beer INSIDE the cooler. Get topo maps, best you can afford when you decide where to hunt, remember everyone else is also looking at harvest numbers and locations. Carry a GPS because you can definitely get turned around (I Know) and these forests are THICK. You must have decent binocs. And the season is miserably short.

And to top it off, it was the most fun hunting I have ever had. I was young, in shape, I knocked down a perfect symmetrical 5x5 elk, a 5x5 muley, a MONSTER 4x4 muley, and a raggy 4x2 muley and I got pictures and antlers to this day. I loved it and is what I miss most about Tennessee, too far to go.

Nope, not me. Chance at a decent bull (300") with a rifle either requires $5000 and private land hunt OR 10 years of preference points and do-it-yourself for $1000 on public land.

There is one exception... you have a 0.5- 1% chance of drawing a good elk tag in New Mexico for public land the first year applying. The hunt would then cost you $750 for the state license + $500 in transportation out there + $500 for lodging + $250 for food + $250 for misc expenses... or around what you're looking to spend in total.

In other words, pick your poison... fork out the dough to go on a good hunt for a decent bull or go on the cheap (Colorado can be done for around $1200) on public land where your odds of killing ANY elk, much less a decent bull are around 10-20%. Personally, I have a blast hunting on the cheap. I know I won't likely kill an elk, much less a monster, but I see elk virtually every day I hunt and make a ton of memories.

Last option- marry some rich rancher's daughter and hunt for the cost of the tag only

do-it-yourself for $1000 on public land.

 

[Locksley]

You will have to hunt BLM land between Meeker and Craig and/or national forest land. You will not get a guide or even access to private land plus tags for the amount you mentioned. In 1987 it cost me 1,000.00 before I left the house in Los Angeles. You will need a 4-wheel drive if the weather turns on you, which it can. You need a 300 win mag shooting high quality factory with accubonds or partitions or Barnes if you don't handload. Be able to make 300 yard shots on walking animals. I towed out to COlorado for 7 consecutive years. The hide on an elk is over 1/2 thick, you need serious thump. Get a Mule deer tag. You have to be out EARLY and pray the weather in the mountains is so bad the elk and mulies have to leave. Really bad weather drives lots of hunters indoors because brother it can get and stay brutally cold-froze beer INSIDE the cooler. Get topo maps, best you can afford when you decide where to hunt, remember everyone else is also looking at harvest numbers and locations. Carry a GPS because you can definitely get turned around (I Know) and these forests are THICK. You must have decent binocs. And the season is miserably short.

And to top it off, it was the most fun hunting I have ever had. I was young, in shape, I knocked down a perfect symmetrical 5x5 elk, a 5x5 muley, a MONSTER 4x4 muley, and a raggy 4x2 muley and I got pictures and antlers to this day. I loved it and is what I miss most about Tennessee, too far to go.

WISE WISE WISE words spoken by this gent. Trophy elk hunting with any reliable chance better than "hope for a poke in the eye and a strike by lighting" is best paid for on private land or with an outfitter in the better Nat. For. areas of places like the Gila in NM, essentially any areas of AZ and the trophy regions of UT, MT, WY etc... Like it or not 300+ inch bulls are HIGHLY $OUGHT after commodities and the people who either own the land they reside on or can put you in front of them already know that and depend on their income for that!

My father-in-law and a group of his buds did the CO thing for many years. Spent a ton of money, came home with cows, mulies and some raghorns but never a true toad. Now they are no longer in physical condition or age to go out and enjoy a true trophy elk hunt on places like I named above. They admit now they wish they would've saved their money and gone on one kickazz hunt for a bull of a lifetime. Sure the DIY hunts spawn great memories and are enjoyable as well but if you REALLY want a true shot at a bull you'll have on the wall for your whole life, like I said, "Come off the pocket!"

I did just that, I waited, saved and finally the time came and we got hooked up with one of the best in the Gila area. Was it EVER worth it!!! My stepbrother came home with a nice 280" 6x6 and I came home with the biggest bull in camp that week, a 368" 6x6 "Gilamonster" that is what you think of when you talk elk hunting. That was a muzzleload hunt in 1998 and I STILL talk about and enjoy the memories of that hard week of hunting. (I was paired with a 20 year old indian guide who ran my azz ragged that week BUT it paid off! ) The head I have has hung in a local sporting goods store since since 1999 (I had it mounted in AZ since those guys do and see ALOT more elk than anyone back here in TN!) and I'm proud to say I'm about to start a retreat home on my farm in Haywood county and the centerpiece of great room will be my Gilamonster and even the architect WANTS it done that way!

Sorry for the ramblings but IMHO the elk is just such an amazing animal and if you are going to do it, do it right! I've hunted deer in ALOT of places and even mulies and antelope but NONE of them IMHO are in the same league as a grand ol mountain monster wapiti. There's just something majestic about them. I think only a bighorn or dall would rival them IMHO and I know I'll never be in shape again to tackle the sheep "properly" like I'd want to.

Hell, make the ol lady get a night shift at Walmart for a couple of years. It'll be WORTH it!!!
HL

YEA IT SURE WAS FUN GOING TO COLORADO .

 

[megalomaniac]

Hatchieluvr...

price that same hunt in today's dollars...

1-2% chance of drawing a unit 16 tag... so you'll have to buy the tag... around $5000 in the past few years for a landowner unit wide tag.

Then add the cost of the outfitter/guide... another $3000.

Buy your tag/license for $750. Don't forget transportation... another $500. Another $500 for misc- tips, etc, and you're up to around $10,000 total out of pocket cost for a guaranteed tag hunt in the Gila.

I love to hunt elk... but not enough to spend that kind of dough.

The cost of elk hunting has almost tripled in the past decade. Total shame, since it basically forced me to go to Argentina instead and spend my hard-earned money there instead of the states back in 2004. I had saved around $4000 to go on a top-of-the-line elk hunt back in the mid '90's, but life wouldn't let me go until the mid 2000's... by that time the price of the hunts had doubled out west.

No sweat though... I managed to go on a private land red stag hunt (60,000 acres) in La Pampa, Argentina for 9 days all included for $2950- all the food, wine, beer I could eat/drink plus $300 tips, plus $100 firearm import fee, plus $100 local transportation, (no airfare- enough frequent flyer miles)... or around $3500. Or around $390/day including tag fees. Saw/ passed on hundreds of stags that trip, and killed a gagger for the area. Of course, the prices in Argentina have gone up 50% as well since then, with the recovery of the Argentine peso.

Bottom line, there are no good hunts for elk out west for $2500 anymore with a reasonable shot at a 300 class bull, UNLESS you are willing to go DIY and wait the years required to draw a premium tag.