Scouting For Colorado Elk Trip

[Letemgrowitllshow]

So my brother and I are planning our first Elk Hunting trip for 2019 or 2020 (hopefully we can go both years) but I'm stumped on what to use to scout online. I've looked at Google earth, but that doesn't give property lines, and I have HuntStand, but its difficult to know where the specific units start/stop. Just curious to know what any of you guys are using for scouting and if there are any tips you can give me as far as narrowing down areas.

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[IkemanTX]

For an Elk year, though it will be a few years, I’m going to go with OnX
It seems to be the best around for parcel information and public land overlays.
Also, whenever I get the go-ahead for an elk trip, I WILL be doing Corey Jackobsen’s Elk 101 course online.

My father and I tried to wing it last year and learned that elk are a totally different animal than anything else we have ever hunted. We didn’t stand a chance. I will spend months learning next time I get to go.


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[Letemgrowitllshow]

For an Elk year, though it will be a few years, I’m going to go with OnX
It seems to be the best around for parcel information and public land overlays.
Also, whenever I get the go-ahead for an elk trip, I WILL be doing Corey Jackobsen’s Elk 101 course online.

My father and I tried to wing it last year and learned that elk are a totally different animal than anything else we have ever hunted. We didn’t stand a chance. I will spend months learning next time I get to go.


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I'll have to give onX a try.

What unit were you hunting? I think we'll try unit 161. So many it's hard to narrow it down. Just kinda picked one and going with it.

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[elk yinzer]

Cal Topo has some pretty good property management layers. CPW might even have something. It's been 5 years since I was in Colorado, don't specifically remember a ton. There are also .kmz files you can find and upload into GE but I recall those taking some searching. For one-stop shopping without looking at ten different resources, something like OnX or whatever it's called now would probably be best.

 

[IkemanTX]

I'll have to give onX a try.

What unit were you hunting? I think we'll try unit 161. So many it's hard to narrow it down. Just kinda picked one and going with it.

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We hunted units 80/81 over the counter.
It is one of the most heavily hit units in the state, but we vacation there every year so we hoped our familiarity with the area would help.... it didn’t, haha.
We really scheduled the hunt about a week too early. The bulls were JUST starting to respond to calls, and only super early in the morning at that.

I would recommend calling a wildlife biologist or warden in the unit y’all pick for best times and areas. (after this season is over, so they aren’t too busy to talk)

Also, the website gohunt has a lot of good resources for picking units. Draw percentages, percentage of public land vs private, harvest stats, state rules and regs, etc...
A single year subscription to OnX, gohunt, and Elk101 are a fairly small expense (in comparison to the trip overall) and I regret not paying for them. The tools available between the three are enormous, and there’s always some podcast or website with promo codes for them.

What little I learned from our failure is that hunting elk is a LOT like hunting turkeys, but they have a nose as good as a whitetail. Learning how to call, and when, is extremely important.


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[Letemgrowitllshow]

We hunted units 80/81 over the counter.
It is one of the most heavily hit units in the state, but we vacation there every year so we hoped our familiarity with the area would help.... it didn’t, haha.
We really scheduled the hunt about a week too early. The bulls were JUST starting to respond to calls, and only super early in the morning at that.

I would recommend calling a wildlife biologist or warden in the unit y’all pick for best times and areas. (after this season is over, so they aren’t too busy to talk)

Also, the website gohunt has a lot of good resources for picking units. Draw percentages, percentage of public land vs private, harvest stats, state rules and regs, etc...
A single year subscription to OnX, gohunt, and Elk101 are a fairly small expense (in comparison to the trip overall) and I regret not paying for them. The tools available between the three are enormous, and there’s always some podcast or website with promo codes for them.

What little I learned from our failure is that hunting elk is a LOT like hunting turkeys, but they have a nose as good as a whitetail. Learning how to call, and when, is extremely important.


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Good stuff. A lot to look into. Good thing I have about a year or so to figure some of this out! I'll definitely give a warden a call in the off season.

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[IkemanTX]

@Letemgrowitllshow
Here is a podcast “Elk Talk” that just started up in the last month or so with Randy Newburg and Corey Jacobsen (both elk hunting legends) all about making it easier to hunt elk. I recently started listening to it and think it will help my future hunts.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/elk-talk/id1402903701?mt=2

EDIT: just saw your on android... don’t know the non-iTunes link, but it should be easy to look up.

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[Letemgrowitllshow]

@Letemgrowitllshow
Here is a podcast “Elk Talk” that just started up in the last month or so with Randy Newburg and Corey Jacobsen (both elk hunting legends) all about making it easier to hunt elk. I recently started listening to it and think it will help my future hunts.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/elk-talk/id1402903701?mt=2

EDIT: just saw your on android... don’t know the non-iTunes link, but it should be easy to look up.

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Thanks! I'll find it and give it a listen

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[Inconel710]

I hunted for a couple of years in Colorado when I lived there. Colorado's Parks & Wildlife site has literally a ton of information on it. Unit maps, hunter success rates by season and species, wildlife biologist reports on the herds, as well training on what to expect. Out of state tags are big business and they know it! Just keep clicking around the site.

http://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/Maps.aspx

Colorado State University also has an amazing hunting atlas. You will spend hours playing with it. It has layers for hunting units, topography, roads, herd locations, migration routes, and on and on. Public land is laid out pretty well. I wish every state had something like it. OnXHunt will be better for

https://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/index.html?app=HuntingAtlas

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is another good resource. I bought custom paper maps from them for the areas I wanted to hunt. Good to have a backup for the GPS.

Hunting public land in Colorado is very doable. There's tons of it. The trick is getting off the beaten path. I never hunted during archery season, so it may be different. But during firearms season, I had to get way back there to find elk. The further you get from the Front Range (Denver/Colorado Springs) the better it gets. I really liked Unit 521 when I hunted it. Just be aware, you'll need a Spot or inReach to stay in touch there. There was zero cell reception when I went there in 2012!

The hardest part is understanding Colorado's tag system. It's broken down into seasons for archery, muzzleloader, and four rifle seasons. There's different draw odds for each. Tags are single species. Tags can be for antlered, antlerless, or either. There's so many possible combinations.

Good luck!