I'm looking for a trophy elk hunt in 2019 for 1 or maybe 2 hunters.

If anyone has ideas, let me know.

Thanks for the help!!!

TBD

What size elk do you consider to be a trophy, and if you are willing to tell us, what is your price range? Also, do you have points in any state or will you need a tag included?

I would look at a CWMU tag in Utah.

You will not need “points” and there are many options.

I am not an outfitter but know some units. Glad to pass on
some info, just send me a PM

Lots of landowner permits in New Mexico. Check with Milligan Brand in Chama & Beaverhead Lodge Outfitters in the Gila. Not cheap, but excellent elk hunting.

https://www.turnerranchoutfitt.../vermejo-park-ranch/


TBD,

Went with my husband on three trophy bull elk hunts and we took my father-in-law there for fishing as a birthday gift to Vermejo.

Really incredible place to hunt and visit. Unbelievable accomodations and food.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1yo8lK4qL8


Video of Vermejo.

I’m assuming you are looking for a rifle hunt?

Alex

Kathi, I'm due for another trophy elk. So are these 350 plus bulls on the trophy hunt? I've gotten two 350 plus bulls on public land and should soon in Utah with 23 points. I would be willing to pay the price for big bulls.

I just returned from Montana on a cow elk hunt as a client with Tony who is Hntnhrd here on AR. I don't want to tell off too much but he does have high quality trophy bulls there too. You have to draw a tag though as there are no land owner tags to buy there.

I can recommend you talk to him too. He is both a straight shooter and a very good guide. His rib cooking aint all bad either for that matter.


Tony Piscopo (MT outfitter lic #12664)
Continental Divide Outfitters
1216 Nordheim Lane
Corvallis MT
59828
406-207-1344
cdo@mail.com

It is cheaper to go to Namibia and hunt 6 big animals than a trophy (350” +) elk hunt.
More fun too.
Except Vermejo Park. But you can Namibia and Botswana for what you would spend at Vermejo.

Dogcat, I think he was asking about elk not Africa I don’t see the correlation? You get that sheep hunt posted yet?

[quote]I would look at a CWMU tag in Utah.[quote]

+1 on this, the rut hunts are a totally different experience than a post rut hunt, and to be able to use a rifle makes it that much better.

quote:

Originally posted by Webster:
[quote]I would look at a CWMU tag in Utah.[quote]

+1 on this, the rut hunts are a totally different experience than a post rut hunt, and to be able to use a rifle makes it that much better.

This is what I'd do. It'll cost nearly 15K but that's the easiest path to an elk of tha caliber.

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:
It is cheaper to go to Namibia and hunt 6 big animals than a trophy (350” +) elk hunt.
More fun too.
Except Verdejo Park. But you can Namibia and Botswana for what you would spend at Vermejo.

I don't know about more fun...unless you are going for a big ele, a leopard, or a lion, or maybe targeting a huge buff, there is a lot to be said for quality NA hunts.

I am still waiting for my leopard CITIES permit from a June hunt; was supposed to be issued two weeks ago but with Trump's stupid gov't shutdown, who knows when that will happen. Prior to Cecil, they came out pretty quick...

I get a bigger thrill from one quality animal than I do shooting a bunch of plains game.

TBD do you have any bonus points in AZ?

I loved hunting NA. I have collected 21 different NA species. But, it was the cost of Elk hunting that sent me to Africa. That being said a big bull elk (350 or better) is a fantastic trophy and no I never got an elk anywhere near that big. I talked to the Vermejo folks at DSC and they told me their bulls run 300-320, awesome bulls for sure but not what I was looking for. If I had money to burn I would definitely like to hunt the Vermejo just because I know it is a first class hunt with a magnificent herd of elk. I would probably look at private land hunts in the Gila for a 350 though.

Just my 2 cents.

Since elk hunting is one of my greatest hunting interests, I’ll weigh in.

Utah - has lots of CWMU options for 340 or better bulls, but that’s the only realistic way to go unless you have over 20 NR points. A good CWMU is expensive.

New Mexico - there are drawing tag options as well as landowner tag options. If a 300-330” bull will be good enough, most places produce those. However, if you want something north of 340, then I’d suggest units 15, the 16’s, ,34 or 36. There are some others like 13 that produce giants (I killed my best bull, a 386”er here), but success isn’t nearly as high. Another great option would be to book with either theMescalero Apache Reservation or the Pueblo of Acoma. Both have very high success rates on big bulls. Acoma usually has better top end bulls but both routinely produce 350-370 class bulls and Acoma puts out occasional bulls that gross around 400”.

Now my 2 favorite states for big bulls...

Arizona - if you can draw a tag you’ll have a great chance to kill a very big bull. The best big bull units are well known. I’m sitting on 20 points here and holding out for a unit 9 tag to hunt for a giant. The Apache reservations; Whie Mtn/Fort Apache, San Carlos, Hualalapai and Havasupai are probably the surest bets of anywhere to reliably kill big bulls, but at a steep price.

Nevada - very tough to draw but you can buy a landowner tag. Nevada has a huge percentage of older age class bulls. If you buy a rifle landowner tag, you basically get a month to hunt with it. If a guy just has to have a 370”+ bull, Nevada might be the best place to achieve it. I had the heartbreak of losing the biggest bull I’ve ever had a shot opportunity at, in this state. It was considerably bigger than my 386” New Mexico bull. And that was non-guided public land.

Montana, Wyoming and Colorado all have some great options but I consider the 4 states I elaborated on as the best, most reliable for killing a big bull.

Come to Mongolia and you'll get your elk

I am a very avid Elk hunter myself and point builder.
There are some very good responses here for you to digest but the post by DLS breaks it down very well by state.
I didn't catch if you defined what a trophy to you is? I personally, think that any Elk taken fair chase is a trophy especially if you have done it on your own. Pack out and all.

Plenty of good ideas here on how to get your dream bull. New mexico is my favorite place and you have a chance to draw a tag and hunt good areas and keep cost down.

Yu can do the landowner tag and cost will go up for sure. Many units there can offer that size bull in archery season but if you want a rifle hunt then it is a much harder goal.

Unit 12 has many private ranches that can get you what you want but you will pay over 10,000.00 but get a rifle rut hunt.


Utah, Nv and even Co have private tags you can get if you want to pay that will get you a chance at a 350 plus bull but needs to be in right area.

Rhetorical question...

What score (if you want to use score) defines a big bull? The number 350 gets thrown around a lot, but how many guys have had the good fortune to take a true 350” or bigger bull? The answer is damned few. How many really know how big a legit 350” class bull really is? Not as many as people believe.

Most guys that haven’t done a lot of elk hunting would quickly shoot the first 330” class bull they could (and they should). I’m betting that fewer than 25% of all elk hunters in the USA ever kill a bull over 325” (a damn nice bull) in their lifetime. I suspect that the percentage of guys who’ve ever killed a true 350” bull is in the single digits.

So, perhaps we should be talking about big bulls a bit differently. I think that 90% of guys who want to kill a big bull would be perfectly happy with any bull scoring north of 325”. Anecdotal example- I once had the good fortune to hunt on New Mexico’s Baca Ranch before it was sold and turned into the Valles Caldera National Monument. There were 10 or 12 elk hunters for the 1st rifle hunt in early October, prime rut. Everyone took bulls, in fact I was the last hunter to tag out. My guide won the pool for biggest bull, which was based on net B&C score. The winning net score was 331”. My bull grossed 338” and there were a number of bulls with higher gross scores, some as high as 350-355”, but none of those bulls netted in the 330’s. Point being... an early rifle rut hunt on perhaps the best private ranch in one of the very best elk states and the biggest bull taken on net score barely got above 330”.

The point I’m trying to make is that, for the vast majority of elk hunters, any bull scoring in the 320’s or higher is a damned good bull. Unless the OP has already taken one or two that grossed in the 330’s-340’s; I wouldn’t be looking for a 350 class bull because it’s probably not a realistic goal.

Well New Mexico has a bunch of good elk.
That's where I would start.
There are a bunch of private ranches ranging from any bull starting about $7500 to big stuff North of $10,000 some in the $20,000 catagory.
The Jicarilla Reservation offers a hunt in September and you can use rifle and it's over the counter tag. Must buy early January like $8100 plus guides about $1500 room and food on you they stay at the casino. They score every bull this hunt has over a 330" average.
They have 40 tags over 10 weeks I believe.
Good luck.
They have a web site you can go to for more info.

I don't normally do a lot of posting but Elk is one of my passions. I have been doing it for 20 plus years. I got lucky last year and drew a Utah tag that was Limited Entry and a CWMU unit.
I killed the biggest bull I've ever killed and it was gross 346. I was in NM last year also w/landowner tag and killed a 5x5 that if you scored would be around 280? I went to NM again this year and killed his brother and then a couple weeks later killed pretty much a carbon copy in WY. I had a chance at a 300 plus bull when I killed the 5x5 but he was moving and missed. It was day 5 of a 6 day hunt and I had cashed my double digit points in and did not want to zero out. Again, I don't know DLS but he has given you some very good info from the states to "What is a Trophy Bull"? I'll give an example; I had a guy go with first time and when I first met him all he could talk about was "I want a 320-350 bull". Well we went to NM and opening morning we found 6 or 7 Elk and before I knew it he shot a just legal bull. All he could say was, he couldn't believe how big it was. Obviously, he talking body size. We quartered it and got the pack frames and carried it out about 1.7 miles. The 320-350 bull went out the window but he will never forget it and it was a trophy to him. My question is this. 1.Are you willing to put the time in training and the money anywhere from 8-18k to go hunt for a 330-350 bull and come up empty. You are hunting. So, wanting to hunt a trophy Elk or anything else is an broad statement.
Last but not least, I love to eat the meat and eat it year round.

what you will find is plenty of big bulls get killed but those guys are smart enough not to talk about it much. I think any bull of 330 is a great bull.

Who care about what the final score is after all if it grows it then it should count in my mind. I am a total score kind of guy even though I would never even think of entering any in the books.

Elk hunting is one of the only things I enjoy more the hunting Africa anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by AR MAN:
Dogcat, I think he was asking about elk not Africa I don’t see the correlation? You get that sheep hunt posted yet?

PM sent

To begin 2019, I have several hunting mags that I need to save, purge. In the Feb 18 American Hunter there is an article "We Are Trophy Hunters" and there is a quote by Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter 1952. "The value of a trophy is computed directly in terms of personal investment in its acquisition". So based on this quote by one of the great hunters. It's a personal thing.

I’d say Idaho, because there used to be a member here who killed a 350+ elk every year in Idaho and he was only meat hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:
It is cheaper to go to Namibia and hunt 6 big animals than a trophy (350” +) elk hunt.
More fun too.
Except Vermejo Park. But you can Namibia and Botswana for what you would spend at Vermejo.

Ha ha.... more fun for you...

Take a look to my offer for red stag ...and look over the reviews please

Any interest in a high fence hunt right now ?