Mountain State Hunts????

I''m kinda getting a little excited as I am cleaning and checking gear and starting to pack for a Colorado elk bow hunt. Anybody else heading out of their home state to hunt.....deer, elk, whatever? I've made it another year !!! Gonna do an antelope bow hunt in NW Nebr..... probably stop at the Nebraska Fur Harvester's convention in North Platte on the way!

Good luck.
Where is your elk hunt

We'll be hunting in North Central Colorado. In an area most from Colorado Know as North Park. We've gotten elk there before, although with a bow we've had to watch many from a distance. Just could not get into range. A gun hunt would be so much easier... compared to bow hunting. Hope we have good luck .

Nothing out of state for me, 1 antelope tag and get to tag along on a desert sheep hunt.

Been hiking with about 45# in my pack almost daily, not as much as I’d like but as much as I can fit in! We’re headed on a muzzleloader elk hunt up around the Grand Mesa area in Colorado. 2017 was my first time out there and I knew NOTHING except what a couple friends I went with told me. We called in a nice rag horn on a cold calling setup but my buddy straight up missed. I’ve done so much reading and listening since then that I’m afraid I’m getting my hopes to high.

We’re taking off Labor Day so we can get out there Tuesday and have Wednesday through Friday to scout and acclimate. Plan to hunt the first 7 days of muzzleloader. We also bought rifle bear tags so we can bear hunt while scouting before muzzy hunting and then also while elk hunting if the right Opportunity presents itself. The Mesa creates a unique landscape and it seems to be heavily recreated with lots of trails so I’m trying to find those diamonds in the rough spots.

Last time we sat open hillside meadows morning and evening and came back to camp in the middle of the day quite a bit. I’m NOT going to be doing that this time. I hope to be out trying to find elk and hunting them during that midday bedding period. Always open to sitting a good spot, but I feel we squandered so much hunting time last trip I hope to make up for that yet still have fun.

On that note I think I’ll go outside and work on some calling practice for a few minutes and go through my couple bins of stuff I’ve been piling on in anticipation!

CatMan, you have any luck calling or hear any bugling? We heard ONE bugle the whole week we were out there last time.

Happy trapping! ScottW

Here’s a couple pictures of my pack training partners in crime! Evelyn wakes up by 5 almost every morning so I’ve been taking her on hikes to keep the house quiet…..sometimes she’s wide awake the whole time, sometimes she zonks out. Happy trapping! ScottW

I have been to Colorado many times. Hunted the Grand Mesa with a bunch my age a few years back. I have killed 2 cows , both at mid day. The others in my party have killed elk mid day also . Many times myself or my hunting buddies have set all day and seen elk moving mid day. I have heard elk bugling a lot during the nite. We camp in a wall tent out in the middle of nowhere. Really cool hearing elk . When I was on the mesa we camped south and west of that Powderhorn ski resort. On Lands End road a few miles east of the Lands End cabin.... some call it an observatory. My advice would be to leave the bugle calls in the truck. Get a couple cow calls and get good with them. I was tucked into a clump of scrub oak out in a big meadow once. I saw 2 hunters a long ways off come into the meadow. They would stop every 50 yards or so and let out a bunch of bugles, if you can call screeching bugles! After chuckling (laughing quietly) a little I threw out a couple cow calls. The two hunters jumped and started coming in to my hideout still trying to bugle every 25 feet or so. They came to within 25 yards of me ( I was in the shadows) and they never even knew I was sitting watching them. My only thought was "Rookies.... hope I wasn't that way when I was a rookie.... but I probably was. Once we camped in an area called Church Park up high just west of Frazer . We had several cows go right by our tent on both sides mewing and chirping about 1 A.M. Most bugles you hear on OTC public land are probably other hunters, We called in a really nice bull mid day once when we were on the Umcomphagre (spellings wrong) Plateau hunting unit 62 just east of the divide road. He came in from a long ways off and never made a peep. Got within 40 yards of me as I was doing the calling. My bow hunting buddy was 90 yards away. I killed a nice bull late after noon by a waterhole. I sat there all day. Next day my buddy killed a cow , same time , same place. Elk on public land are there, but pretty educated. I am gonna set by my water hole or a couple meadows where we saw elk in the past and let rookie hunters move the elk around. Maybe I'll get lucky.

Best advice I can give. Find the steepest, nastiest hillside not near a trailhead or camping spot, and head up. Most times you'll have that place to yourself, just you and the elk. Hunters are easy to pattern, especially those that go back to camp every day for lunch.

I drew a Montana antelope tag. Guess I'm heading west this year.

Nice bull CatMan! I have been working on cow calling and bugling, that said I'm MUCH more comfortable cow calling that bugling. I may be a rookie, but I know better than to call like it sounds like they were! lol If I heard a cow call that close I'd probably crap myself and sit down tight and not move for a couple minutes. My main hope for the bugle was to try a little night time/super early before light location bugling, especially before season on our 3 scouting days. When you say you camped SW of Powderhorn, do you mean up top by the Lands End place? Did you see many other folks camped up top or anywhere else? We ATV'd up about an hour from the truck to about 700' below the Mesa rim and camped and mainly walked from there. Came accross a handful of other vacant camps, probably locals mainly hunting the weekends we figured though we only saw 4 other hunters in our week. One thing I can say for certain is the elk bug is real bad with me right now! Happy trapping! ScottW

Headed to southern central Colorado in November for a third season rifle hunt for bull elk. Will be my first time with a bull tag. Killed a cow in the same area in 2019. Will probably be tough hunting and may not get anything but still beats not going to the mountains.

Got an AZ Bull Elk archery tag after 12 years of trying. Flagstaff area.

Awesome. Good luck.

Is Alaska a mountain state? Caribou open now, just a drive out the road. Maybe a wheeler trip off the road. Moose in Sept. Brown and black bear open the whole time.
Sheep if you want to spend the money and/or time.

Good luck! Don’t know if I’ll ever start trying for AZ, but I probably should sometime. Just so gosh dang expensive to do multiple states for a decade. Happy trapping! ScottW

Nothing out of state for me. Dad got his rifle elk tag this year will 19 points should be exciting. My 2 oldest kids got cow elk tags in WY. Going to be a great season!!! Deer and antelope tags hopefully here in SD also.

Better check if landowners will let you on with this dought

Good luck! Don’t know if I’ll ever start trying for AZ, but I probably should sometime. Just so gosh dang expensive to do multiple states for a decade. Happy trapping! ScottW


Thanks. Yup it does get costly. 200 plus each year just to apply. Plus a darn spendy lisc!!! Good luck to you too!!!

I drew a Kansas muzzleloader muley/whitetail tag for the SW corner. Will be driving down with a buddy and give it a go.

Dave