First time elk hunt help

[JaxonLincoln]

Me and a couple close friends are trying to prepare for this years up and coming season and simply want to have a good and fun trip. With that being said I want to enlist you guys for help, we were planning on going to Colorado but unsure specifically we are traveling from Texas. I would appreciate so much for beginner pointers, breaking down how the tag system works and also where should we go? We are willing to go wherever we can have a somewhat cheap and fun experience without being crowded by other hunters and a legit chance at a cow or bull elk. Our personal budget is about 2000 per person but honestly don’t want to do a guided triphttps://usd.cnv.to/chf/45.99

[444Marlin]

Best of luck on your first elk hunt.

Check out the goHunt Insider to get a solid overview on the tag situation and a unit by unit review.  I understand that you don't want to be overrun with hunters, but Colorado is very popular as a destination hunt, and even the locals have a difficult time getting away from the crowds.

[elkchaser54]

So you are from texas ? Post on a hunt Washington forum about elk hunting in Colorado. 

https://www.rokslide.com/forums/forums/elk.50/

This website will have 1000 topics on colorado to read over. I'd start there

[Stein]

I too am have been looking for many years for a cheap hunt with little pressure and good chances of success.

There are many resources available, my experience is that people are much more willing to help if I have done my homework, have a strategy and am asking focused questions.

If I was coming from Texas to a western state to hunt big game, I would likely plan on the first 1-2 years being expensive camping trips where I learn a bunch.  I would find someplace that has reasonably easy tags to draw and country I liked to be in and then keep going back to the same place at the same time and learning until I started to get the area figured out.  For me, that takes a minimum of 2 years and sometimes I'm a much slower learner unfortunately.  My current deer and antelope hotspot took me 6 years to figure out.  My other antelope spot I had figured out by the end of the first year, but I pretty much expect a bust the first year I am in a new area.  I've been after elk for 10 years now and still don't have a reliable spot, partly because I just keep moving around or end up in areas where the opportunity isn't great.

Elk are a funny thing, there can be thousands of them around but finding them on huntable ground can be incredibly challenging.  Even good elk hunters have trouble sometimes moving to a new area as the elk can do crazy things or be in strange places as a result of pressure, food or some other localized condition that people have a hard time seeing like the elk do.

[follow maggie]

GoHunt will be the best $150 sent on your adventure. Stein is right, the best way to learn is by being on the ground and getting to know the area and the critters that live there. GoHUnt is a good tool for choosing those areas to try out.

[The Big Game Hunter]

GoHunt will be the best $150 sent on your adventure. Stein is right, the best way to learn is by being on the ground and getting to know the area and the critters that live there. GoHUnt is a good tool for choosing those areas to try out.

100% right. My only regret is that I didn't join goHunt a couple years earlier. I would have saved some serious money applying for hunts I had no chance of drawing and put that money to better use applying for other, more realistic, hunting goals.

[follow maggie]

GoHunt will be the best $150 sent on your adventure. Stein is right, the best way to learn is by being on the ground and getting to know the area and the critters that live there. GoHUnt is a good tool for choosing those areas to try out.

100% right. My only regret is that I didn't join goHunt a couple years earlier. I would have saved some serious money applying for hunts I had no chance of drawing and put that money to better use applying for other, more realistic, hunting goals.

Me too. This is my first year using it. I’m using to plan my Idaho bear hunting and love it. The areas I was looking at before would not have been productive, most likely. I would have burned more than $150 in gas to learn thus, not to mention the time.  5ey even sent me a hat & a hand written thank you note when I signed up.