I'm Going Elk Hunting in CO - Help Me With Gear Recommendations! (Video)

[Antlers86]

All I got is Good Luck! Man this is going to be fun to follow. Dream hunt!

[Rtree1]

One word ... No two ... "Good shoes"

[Michael]

x2 keep it as simple as possible, try to acclimate for a day or two, if you go over 10,000 ft the first day there is a chance of getting alt sick.calling in a bull is a lot like turkey hunting, learn elk speak, have fun .I hunted in CO for 25 yrs enjoyed all of them except the first one when I got alt sick.

As luck would have it, I have a couple of meetings in Denver next week for work. Since my bride won't be in town for the weekend, anyway, I'm probably going to stay over until Memorial Day and go hike and scout our hunting area for a couple of days! I'm pretty excited about that! I may even get Courtney to come up for the weekend and hike with me.

I'm also going to try to drop by Kifaru's shop and visit with Aron Snyder about packs. Should be a fun trip!


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[Texans42]

As luck would have it, I have a couple of meetings in Denver next week for work. Since my bride won't be in town for the weekend, anyway, I'm probably going to stay over until Memorial Day and go hike and scout our hunting area for a couple of days! I'm pretty excited about that! I may even get Courtney to come up for the weekend and hike with me.

I'm also going to try to drop by Kifaru's shop and visit with Aron Snyder about packs. Should be a fun trip!


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He has tents and sleeping bags also.

I’ve been running the TUT now for two years, roughly 21 nights in it from Idaho, CO, and NM.

I don’t run thier sleeping bag as I run an EE quilt, and get I also Mountain hardware at cost(have three bags from them) but the kifaru long zipper and ability to build a wide is very nice.

[Bubba]

Trade those old legs and back in for a pair 20 years younger

Right!!!
Don't overload yourself carrying to much crap.Second day I unloaded half my pack,Third day unloaded half of that. And the rest of the week a fanny pack and water bladder.
Should of listen to Glen the first day....

DON'T Play Around with Altitude Sickness
Never thought about it much until a buddy went on a DYI pack in trip a few years ago.Guy in his group didn't make it back down the mountain.He said symptoms came on quick. They couldn't get him down to a safe altitude quick enough.

[Texans42]

Right!!!
Don't overload yourself carrying to much crap.Second day I unloaded half my pack,Third day unloaded half of that. And the rest of the week a fanny pack and water bladder.
Should of listen to Glen the first day....

DON'T Play Around with Altitude Sickness
Never thought about it much until a buddy went on a DYI pack in trip a few years ago.Guy in his group didn't make it back down the mountain.He said symptoms came on quick. They couldn't get him down to a safe altitude quick enough.

Diamox (ive used) And I hear cialis works well too

[critter69]

In my opinion the most important two items when hunting OTC Public land in Colorado are.........

#1 Whiskey.. No matter if your celebrating a successful hunt or tipping back the bottle because your on day 8 and have yet to see an elk.. Getting whiskey drunk on the side of a mountain is always a good time.. (in my Colorado experience it will be because you havent seen anything in 8 days )

#2 a fishing pole.. Because when you havent seen a elk in 8 days fishing goes great with Whiskey..

This man is very true, I have been there soooooo many times. And a fishing pole may be your only entertainment.( other then the whiskey). Walk stadium stairs as much as you possibly can. If your hunting out of a truck type camp, your normal hunting acc. will work( gps Is very important) . If your back packing it gets much harder, walk the the stadium stairs daily.( because whiskey is going to heavy to pack enough to pass the time) why again the fishing pole is important.

[basschump]

As luck would have it, I have a couple of meetings in Denver next week for work. Since my bride won't be in town for the weekend, anyway, I'm probably going to stay over until Memorial Day and go hike and scout our hunting area for a couple of days! I'm pretty excited about that! I may even get Courtney to come up for the weekend and hike with me.

I'm also going to try to drop by Kifaru's shop and visit with Aron Snyder about packs. Should be a fun trip!


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Getting to spend time in the area you plan to hunt is incredibly helpful. Especially if you’ve not seen it before. Don’t forget your gps and take good notes.


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[Michael]

Getting to spend time in the area you plan to hunt is incredibly helpful. Especially if you’ve not seen it before. Don’t forget your gps and take good notes.


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Evaluating GPS units now. Is it better to run a dedicated GPS or use phone. I'm also interested in Inreach communications type devices. Garmin just announced a Inreach Mini. The others in my group are running Rhinos, but I think those can only communicate between other Rhino units.

[Jamesl]

Evaluating GPS units now. Is it better to run a dedicated GPS or use phone. I'm also interested in Inreach communications type devices. Garmin just announced a Inreach Mini. The others in my group are running Rhinos, but I think those can only communicate between other Rhino units.

I just use Gaia GPS app on my phone. One less thing to carry.

[GWHunter]

As luck would have it, I have a couple of meetings in Denver next week for work. Since my bride won't be in town for the weekend, anyway, I'm probably going to stay over until Memorial Day and go hike and scout our hunting area for a couple of days! I'm pretty excited about that! I may even get Courtney to come up for the weekend and hike with me.

I'm also going to try to drop by Kifaru's shop and visit with Aron Snyder about packs. Should be a fun trip!


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That would be awesome to get to talk to Aron, and pick his brain. I love listening to him on the Gritty Bowman, and Kifarucast podcasts. Guy has tons of knowledge of backpack, and elk hunting in general.

[Michael]

That would be awesome to get to talk to Aron, and pick his brain. I love listening to him on the Gritty Bowman, and Kifarucast podcasts. Guy has tons of knowledge of backpack, and elk hunting in general.

I've been soaking up podcasts the last few weeks. Aron definitely seems to have a lot of knowledge and opinions on all things elk. I enjoy listening to the GB and their guests.

Maybe I should ask if he's willing to be the first guest on TBH Podcast #1!


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[Texans42]

I've been soaking up podcasts the last few weeks. Aron definitely seems to have a lot of knowledge and opinions on all things elk. I enjoy listening to the GB and their guests.

Maybe I should ask if he's willing to be the first guest on TBH Podcast #1!


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Foreshadowing force is strong today.....



I have four reeds in my truck. I use to be a big Bugling bulls reed guy, but really like Phelps AMP Reed’s. The Blue BRO series Amp is my favorite all around. Try a bunch, example I can’t run a real tight stretch well.

To me 90% of my love of elk hunting is calling them in. Other 10% just bring in the mountains.

Start practicing now and you will have it down by sept.

[Michael]

I bought a few Packit Gourmet items for my weekend scouting trio as alternative to Mountain House.



I'm going to shoot a few review videos while I'm in the mountains, and I'll let you know how the Packit Gourmet tastes.


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[Still Hunter]

Just some comments to consider, this comes from trying to figure it all out in the field. In regards to the GPS vs phone. My phone had little to no signal back where we were hunting most of the time. I used the GPS to primarily mark specific locations like wallows, benches, heavily used trails, stand locations etc. The phone was really a great camera/video recorder. I thoroughly used google earth extensively to familiarize my hunting area before going. You can go into tools in Google Earth and adjust the terrain option to be much higher and it helps realize the differences in the topography of an area. You can also scroll back in dates on google earth as the photos over the years are taken at different times of the year. Late September photos and early October can really help define the aspen areas with the color change and then the bare Aspens after the loss of the leaves in an area. October and November photos do an excellent job of identifying where the Dark timber is as the Aspens are all bare. The elk like to bed in the dark timber. The also like to hang out and eat in the Aspens. Find Dark timber on northern slopes with water drainage's nearby and Aspens nearby and you have already increased your chances of seeing elk. Every trip is a learning experience. Hunting pressure pushes the elk onto private land pretty quickly. Again, wish you a awesome experience and hope you tag a good bull.