re: Elk hunting question

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The price of Colorado tags had me researching what the fine was for getting caught without a tag…. In all the years that I’ve been, I’ve never seen a warden.

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My tag got lost in the mail this year, never recieved it. When I called to get a new one they said i'd have to pick it up in person b/c it was too close to the beginning of the season to ship it out. It was like 3 weeks before opening day, and i had called before asking when i should recieve it by and they had told me to wait until whenever it was I called to say i hadn't recieved it.
Anyways, they said i'd have to go to Durango to get my tag, and we hunt in Pagosa Springs. I told them that's stupid and i'm not doing that and wasting all that time to go get the tag. If I kill an elk, then i'll go get the tag. We've been hunting for 7 years now and have never seen a warden, until this year. One came out as we were actually packing out from my buddy's kill, but he didn't even bother to check with us as he looked pissed off and was heading out into the woods for something. Don't konw what he was going check on but he didn't look happy, and there was only one other group of hunters that were in the area, and they had just gotten there. We saw them as we were walking out, so they had only been there for maybe an hour before we saw the game warden. We were the only people hunting out there for the 5 days we were there.


We've talked about going out there with just 1 or 2 tags instead of all 4 of us having one, but I honestly don't mind donating to Colorado Wildlife and don't want to be a cheap arse about it, even though i'm a cheap arse about just about everything.
When i was talking to them about going hunting without the tag on my person they said i can't do that and i told them i don't care. If you want to come find me and give me a fine for this, then i'll just go hunt in New Mexico or Wyoming in the future. I've paid my dues to your state and I've offered to pay for you to expedite ship my tag to me, 3 weeks before the season opens, and you refused and are being ridiculous about getting my tag to me.

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Pro tip: go camping without a tag and just see if you can put eyes on an elk before you spend the money on a tag. I would have saved myself a good chunk of money not buying a tag until I figured out how to camp, how to stay alive, and how to find an elk.

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THIS is the best advice for someone who may need to save money for a few years to be able to have the elk experience.

The self guided camping and scouting is 90% of the experience. Don't even bring a rifle unless you just want to pop a whitetail or something. I drew a tag in Colorado years ago. Trekked MILES to camp, scouted for a couple days, we saw so many elk the day before the hunt we figured it would be like shopping at the grocery store. Quite literally elk close enough to hit with a slingshot.

Morning of opening day... Nothing. Not an elk within a hundred miles. So cold that our stove fuel was useless. It was miserable, painful, disheartening... and I'd do it again.

We've talked about that trip a hundred times since then.

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It was miserable, painful, disheartening... and I'd do it again.

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I almost died the first time I went, which was 4 or 5 trips ago. Legitimate serious stuff, hypothermia, altitude sickness, cerebral edema, the works. You can seriously frick yourself up out there.

We aren't going this year and we're all big league butthurt about it.

Take my advice - if you cant fathom the idea of going without a tag, don't bother going. It's rough out there for a man without an open checkbook. Be ready for major suck. The sucess rate for otc rifle in colorado is something like 3%, and 99.9999% of those kills are probably residents who have killed before. You're almost certainly going to be eating tag soup.

An OTC DIY Rifle bull elk in Colorado for an eastern non resident post-covid is unexplainably difficult to accomplish.

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he’s zero for five on elk

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Same.

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were very close to a very bad outcome

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Same. Although I didn't get lucky, I went in with some dudes who were better than me and got me out. Ruined their trip to get my stupid arse out of there. Thousands of dollars and weeks of vacation down the drain for everyone because I thought I was tough enough to do it.

Its different out there. You take for granted here that you really can't get more than a mile away from a way out, and you wont freeze to death. Out there, you lose service before you leave the blacktop, drive 15-20 miles further than that, walk 6-10 miles past that, maybe over some ridges and creeks, and then you start hunting.

That inreach SOS button might make you feel good, but I've been ready to press it before and the reality is that it's just going to make your body easier to locate.

Ironically, I ended up on a SAR team in colorado in November on a later trip. I was teamed up with a buddy and a local wildlife agent. He very plainly stated to us that when a person from Texas or east of the Mississippi is the lost person on a sub zero night at 9k+ feet, it's high likelihood of being a recovery rather than a rescue.

Go, but take it seriously. Just go one winter and camp near a trailhead at the truck, and see if you can handle that before investing in a tag and all the gear to actually hunt hard.

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lots of locals who don’t kill very often. Don’t flatter yourself.

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Good advise here as well.

When we went the first time, I was about 90% confident leaving the house that we would sling lead at an elk. We're tough, we ain't lazy, we're really good at killing shite, etc.

End result was i almost died. You get on a slope in arse deep snow at 10k ft with 70 pounds of shite on your back and you find out quick you ain't shite.

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You get on a slope in arse deep snow at 10k ft with 70 pounds of shite on your back and you find out quick you ain't shite.

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I’ve got elk 20 min from my house. These locals aren’t packing anything.

It’s a tough game. Elk aren’t easy.

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take it seriously. Just go one winter and camp near a trailhead at the truck, and see if you can handle that before investing in a tag and all the gear to actually hunt hard.

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I think this is good advice. My fist serious shot at elk hunting we went 3rd rifle colorado and it didn't get above freezing for 6 or 7 straight days. lows in the upper negatives, highs in the 20s. I used to be a CO resident and was into backcountry skiing, mountaineering, winter camping, etc. so I had the experience and equipment to deal with that and teach my buddy how to not die but I bet it was downright frightening if you weren't prepared for it.

For that matter, make a DIY antelope hunt as an intro to Western hunting.

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Is it because of rednecks and coonasses that would go over there and kill them all

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Nah, they all use 6.5 cripple mores. Plenty of survivors.

Wait… last name start with M??