I am moving to colorado in the next 3 months and I am looking to plan an elk hunt for my dad and myself next year. I'm looking for a guilded wilderness hunt, not really interested in a truck hunt. I would like private land due to hoping for some nice 6×6 bulls that are not too pressured. Not sure if that is available in colorado, if not I would be willing to travel to maybe Montana, wyoming or idaho.

quote:

Originally posted by steel:
I am moving to colorado in the next 3 months and I am looking to plan an elk hunt for my dad and myself next year. I'm looking for a guilded wilderness hunt, not really interested in a truck hunt. I would like private land due to hoping for some nice 6×6 bulls that are not too pressured. Not sure if that is available in colorado, if not I would be willing to travel to maybe Montana, wyoming or idaho.

Wilderness, but definition, is not private land. I don't know of many private ranches that are not accessed via truck (as opposed to requiring horses and wall tents).

I would get with Aaron Nielson.

That's to bad. I remember looking into mile high outfitters in idaho that did wilderness hunts on private land in idaho on horseback. I guess Colorado is set up a little different.

Perhaps you should describe what you mean by a "wilderness hunt."

One type of a wilderness hunt would be one that actually takes place in a wilderness, i.e. designated by name such as the Weminuche Wilderness area in Colorado. In these areas, there is NO private land.

Another type would be a hunt in a wilderness type setting, such as in a national forest or on a large expanse of private land that encompasses the same type of hunting one would do in a designated wilderness area. That could include using horses.

“Private land hunt”...I am not 100% sure how that works in the West. Here in the Northeast I can tell you that a guiding outfit could deceptively advertise “remote, private land hunts”. Thing is, almost all hunting here takes place on private land. The industrial forests, millions of acres, are about 99% accessible to any hunter that is so inclined to go there. Very nice of JD Irving, Weyerhauser, Plum Creek, and many other large landowners to extend this privilege to all.

By wilderness, I mean not a road hunt. I have heard that these type of hunt are not too exciting. And I would prefer private land if possible to hopefully have a better opportunity at a nice bull. My job requires a lot of my time so when I am able to go out I would like to make the most of it. Plus I might not be out west for long so I dont have the luxury of spending years in the woods unfortunately.

You could probably find some "back-country" hunts on private land replete with horses and wall tents.

I can assure you that any hunt for WILD elk is exciting whether accessed with horses, foot or truck.

Best of luck and enjoy the hunt.

Zeke

quote:

Originally posted by groundtender:
“Private land hunt”...I am not 100% sure how that works in the West. Here in the Northeast I can tell you that a guiding outfit could deceptively advertise “remote, private land hunts”. Thing is, almost all hunting here takes place on private land. The industrial forests, millions of acres, are about 99% accessible to any hunter that is so inclined to go there. Very nice of JD Irving, Weyerhauser, Plum Creek, and many other large landowners to extend this privilege to all.

Not to steal the thread, but...

The tax breaks given to these companies make it compelling for them to do this.

Another point to remember: make it too difficult to be a forest owner and watch what they do with their forests: sell them off. St. Joe's Paper is a perfect example: they decided the value of their timber land would be increased if they stopped making paper and started developing their forests, ie building houses.

Paper companies get a bad rap from environmentalists, but they are often our best friend. I will be hunting on private and public forest in a little over a month in northern MN.

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:
You could probably find some "back-country" hunts on private land replete with horses and wall tents.

I can assure you that any hunt for WILD elk is exciting whether accessed with horses, foot or truck.

Best of luck and enjoy the hunt.

Zeke

My best elk hunt was in AZ - saw six bys morning and night. Passed on a big one on day 4 (7 day hunt) holding out for a monster (should have shot that bull, because the one I shot was much smaller). Passed on a small 6 on day 6 (go to 3:30 in video below). Should have held out for day 7 but shot this guy instead (go to 6 min) on evening of day 6:

AZ elk

AZ does have wilderness areas, but elk are near roads too!

steel:

Take a look at: Mineral Mountain Outfitters.
New owners, but, been in business 65 yrs or so
as "Wright's Ranch".

You'll see an old pot bellied cowboy in some of their pictures. John Martin ran it for years. Owners died, he got the place and just recently sold it.

We hunted the ranch in the valley right behind their new cabins. I have no idea about them.

Mineral Creek Wilderness area, is HUGE!

We used to fill up just about every season there and hunted within 8 miles of the house.

A few things you need to know about CO hunting. Pick the longest season and go a few days ahead of time. Major trouble here is, most season's have been shortened to 5 days. There's a later one I believe of 9 days or so in Nov. I haven't been able to go the 8 years so I'm not up to date on things. Read the regs!
Should be lots of good hunting around Ft Collins. Though you'll be contending with thousands from the Denver area. A closer guy that's deep into it, young and active that's been having some fine luck is Cooperjd. He's much more up to date on things than I am.
Best wishes.

Where you moving to? Denver???

George

PM: me and I can tell you how to hunt the first 5 miles from the house and have a real good chance at getting your elk. All on foot though, I'd bet you could hire this outfitter to pack it out, or John Martin and jr, or crew.

Fort collins

What is your budget and preferred weapon?

What are your realistic trophy expectations?

Would you prefer to be based from a lodge or wall tents/horseback style hunt? Based out of a lodge does not mean truck hunt, but you will not be "roughing it" usually for bed and meals.

Wilderness, as has been stated, is a specific designation of public land out here. Foot/animal traffic only allowed in wilderness areas. By definition, "wilderness" means public. If you're looking for "not a truck hunt", there are lots of those.

There are several booking agents on here that can help you, I can point you to a hunt I did last year with my Pops (archery/muzzleloader) that was awesome, but big 6 points are not common.

You can certainly find private land hunts with big bulls, but that usually also comes with a premium price tag.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:
You could probably find some "back-country" hunts on private land replete with horses and wall tents.

I can assure you that any hunt for WILD elk is exciting whether accessed with horses, foot or truck.

Best of luck and enjoy the hunt.

Zeke

My best elk hunt was in AZ - saw six bys morning and night. Passed on a big one on day 4 (7 day hunt) holding out for a monster (should have shot that bull, because the one I shot was much smaller). Passed on a small 6 on day 6 (go to 3:30 in video below). Should have held out for day 7 but shot this guy instead (go to 6 min) on evening of day 6:

AZ elk

AZ does have wilderness areas, but elk are near roads too!

Fine trophy bull elk!
Zeke

I would not classify the following as 'wilderness', or even exciting elk hunting;

I just finished the Colorado muzzleloader season in Unit 11. I was able to watch well over 148 elk (I stopped counting at 148), bugling and moving in and out of Russian Olive thickets on the private land to the North.

I did see several 'duck' blinds in and around the pastures of this thicket.

In past years, I have watched elk being shot from these 'duck' blinds on opening morning.

No doubt, that private landowner charges a pretty penny to sit in a 'duck' blind and wait until an elk walks by.

It is effective, but not my type of elk hunting.

You can find just about any kind of elk hunting you want in Colorado.

If you want to go into wilderness areas via pack train you can do that, but there is no guarantee you will even see, much less kill a 6 pointer.

Hunting private land with a reputable outfitter should increase your chance of killing a nice bull elk, but it is likely to be ranch land with fences that border Wilderness areas.

You need to decide what is most important; being way up in pristine Wilderness where you may or may not get a chance at a 6 pointer, or hunting private land where the outfitter or landowner has a pretty good idea of which bulls are using his land.

It is possible to go on a pack train hunt that starts out on private land to access wilderness areas that are difficult to reach from public roads.

Make sure you fully describe what type hunt you want before booking with an outfitter.

Good luck.

BH63

Elk go from about $5000 for a Bob Marshall adventure where you might find a bull and will probably see a lot of wolves and bears. Will be a true wilderness adventure, but odds are pretty good you will not take an elk.

To a $25,000 private land (Ted Turner) or Indian reservation elk hunt. Where the odds are very high that you will shoot a bull in the 360-380 class (think 8-10 year old bull).

Lots of private land elk hunts in the west for $8000-15,000.

Lots of true wilderness horseback; Bob Marshall Wilderness, Frank Church Wilderness, Grosse Ventre, Buffalo Thorofare, Tetons whatever you want for $5000-10,000. These hunts are also available in British Columbia and Alberta for similar prices. Where you will see bears, wolves and in some of the better units you will see big bulls.

You can go to a guide school in Montana for about $3000 if you want to know how to pack horses for a month.

There are lots of elk and lots of places to hunt elk.

there are a number of such private land ranches that would suit most, and they are horseback and some of their country is without roads as its too steep..We have some in Idaho and I know of one ranch in Colorado that is 80,000 acres adm its vase, but its walk and pickup to the walking part, The problem is its hills and no montains...Idaho has many wilderness elk hunts and they are all horseback..

My late hunting partner hunted with the following outfit for years and thoroughly enjoyed it.

TBarM Outfitters
T. Mike & Danny Murphy
Durango, Co.
970 259 5469

Best of luck to you.