Before you settle on a hunting area, make sure you know how you’re going to get there. Backpacking five miles into the high country isn’t for everyone.
As  the old saying goes, “Success is in the details,” and nothing could be more applicable than planning an out-of-state elk hunt.

So much of successful elk hunting is based on legwork — certainly mile upon mile of it hiking high-mountain ridges and steep, timbered slopes — but it’s the legwork you do at home that will convert all that physical labor into productive encounters with bulls. If you end up hunting where elk numbers are low, shot opportunities will be scarce. If you’ve chosen a game-rich area but don’t know the basics of hunting elk, only a happy accident will result in a downed bull.

One thing’s for sure: Given how many details go into pinpointing an area and working out the logistics of hunting there, you’d better leave as little to chance as possible.

Where to Begin?

Choosing a state, let alone a specific game unit or trailhead, can be a daunting exercise. Your best sources for information are going to be word of mouth, sporting-goods stores, hunting magazines and the Internet, with Google being an awesome research tool. Type in the states you want, then “game department,” and you’ll find all the info you need on season and application dates, game-unit maps, regulations and key biologist contacts.

State biologists are invaluable resources for determining the best areas to hunt based on game numbers, hunting pressure and success, and public accessibility. They’ll often direct you to specific drainages and trailheads. It’s part of their job to assist you, so don’t squander the chance to get sound advice from these local experts.

What state you choose might depend on your trophy requirements. Arizona and New Mexico, as well as trophy-managed units within many other states, hold huge bulls, but to draw a tag might take six-plus years of building preference points. If, like most hunters, you’re looking for a quality hunting experience with a chance of seeing big bulls, but will gladly settle for anything from a legal bull to a true trophy, then your choices and time frame expand exponentially.


This bull, shot by David Draper on a very accessible public land in Montana, is proof positive that you can kill a big bull without having to apply for trophy units.
For sheer numbers of elk and the convenience of over-the-counter archery and certain rifle tags, no state beats Colorado. It’s great as a primary destination or as a fall-back if you don’t draw a tag elsewhere. But on easily accessible public land — and there’s lots in Colorado — expect to see other hunters and to hunt primarily raghorns and small 5-points. Idaho has tags available on a first-come, first-served basis that also can give you excellent hunting opportunities on a more flexible schedule. For other states, plan on application deadlines anywhere from January through April.

You may not have the budget for a guided hunt, but outfitters can be a wealth of information and provide sound advice about backcountry hunting logistics. Packing gear into elk country is no small feat, and this factor alone might determine where you hunt. If you’re content to road camp and hike a few miles to and from good elk country, and you don’t mind seeing other hunters, concentrate on areas easily accessible by Forest Service roads. If you want the alone-in-unspoiled-wilderness experience, however, count on backpacking in three to 10 miles or arranging for horseback transportation.

Considerably cheaper than a fully guided hunt, many outfitters offer drop-camp packages where they pack you into a fully equipped camp. They’ll familiarize you with the lay of the land, point out where to look for game, plus pack out meat if you fill a tag. Otherwise you’re on your own. Renting horses is another option if you don’t mind taking care of them.

Pinpointing Where To Hunt And Camp

Topo maps are the elk hunter’s best tool for finding great hunting and for general navigation. Never go into the backcountry without one.
After you’ve picked a general area, it’s time to develop a site-specific plan. National Forest maps and USGS topo maps supply important information, including what land is public, pack trails and trailheads, water sources, timbered areas and open parks, and the lay of the land — all key to finding elk. A great tool is MapTech’s Terrain Navigator Pro, which enables you to look at topos in different scales and to print out your own custom maps. Maptech also provides a Web service where you can order customized maps if you don’t want to buy Terrain Navigator. Microsoft’s Virtual Earth also is a neat tool for scouting country away from home.

If you’re hunting in September or October, the trick to locating elk is to think cool. Elk are big animals with heavy hides, and when it’s warm they hang out in the coolest black timber they can find: north-facing slopes with narrow benches, small, shaded bowls with springs or creeks, and finger ridges exposed to cool winds. Add some meadows nearby where they can feed late in the evening through early morning, and that’s prime elk habitat for much of the Rocky Mountain West. And there’s no easier way to locate these features than by studying topo maps.

The more relief to the country, the more pockets of elk activity you’ll likely find within a limited area. Small draws offer fresh calling opportunities each time you crest a ridge, yet you might hike only a short distance to reach a number of them. If you plan to pack in, try to camp within easy hiking of multiple drainages and near a clean water source for convenience. If bulls aren’t talking or there’s little fresh sign in one drainage, you can hunt another without pulling up stakes. Car campers also should have backup areas in reserve. Never leave home without Plans B and C as options.

Home Preparation For The Field

Elk country is steep, and no amount of exercise will fully prepare anyone east of the Mississippi for hiking up 8,500-foot mountains. But the better shape you’re in, the less detrimental the effects, and the more country you can cover — critical to getting into lots of elk. When you finally do have a bull broadside and in range, the last thing you want is to be so out of breath you can’t draw your bow or steady your rifle. Work out regularly before hunting season and you’ll have a more enjoyable experience. Take a judicious supply of calcium and potassium pills, plus ibuprofen, and you’ll fare better yet.


The better shape you’re in, and the more you practiced practical field shooting positions back home, the steadier you’ll be when you finally get a shot at a bull.

You don’t need a 70-plus-pound bow to kill an elk. A 60-pound draw weight with sharp broadheads is sufficient, but you should be able to hold it at full draw for at least 45 seconds and still get off an accurate shot. Practice a lot from a kneeling position as well as standing position (kneeling will lower your profile when calling in bulls), and shoot uphill and downhill, in the woods and in the open, and under low-light conditions.

While you’re at it, work on your distance-ranging skills during practice sessions, even if you have a rangefinder. You’ll tend to overestimate distances in low or mottled light and underestimate them in open, brightly lit areas. To avoid high lung hits, which 90 percent of the time will result in lost bulls, practice aiming one-third up from the belly line of your 3D targets, not halfway up. That’s the true center of an elk’s kill zone.

Rifle hunters should practice off-the-bench shooting positions, and, just like bows, you don’t need to go overboard with power. Your favorite deer rifle with premium ammo should be fine. A .270 shooting 150-grain bullets, for instance, is perfectly adequate provided you take responsible lung shots.

At the risk of your spouse divorcing you, practice calling at home, not in the mountains. Elk calls come in many designs, and you should become proficient with a few different models. Be sure to learn how to use a diaphragm for cow calling and bugling. Diaphragms, requiring no hands, are indispensable when you’re at full draw and need to stop a bull as he walks into a shooting lane.

Watching hunting videos is one way to learn, but frankly, some feature a lot of really bad calling. To sound like real elk, and different ones at that, nothing beats recordings of the real McCoys. The more sounds you can master, and the more varied you can make them in tone and pitch, the less you’ll sound like a broken record.

Entire books and magazine articles are devoted to hunting tactics. Suffice it to say, the more you read, the better your chances of knowing what the heck to do the first time you encounter a bull. Hunting videos also can be instructive, but watch them with a critical eye. Lots of videos are filmed on exclusive ranches with little hunting pressure, so when you see a huge bull walk within bow range of a hunter standing in the open, don’t think you can get away with that on public land.

Finally, don’t hunt elk without knowing first how to field-quarter big game. A mature bull elk weighs anywhere from 550 to 800 pounds. It’s not a whitetail, so gutting one and dragging it several miles isn’t an option. Cooling meat fast is absolutely essential, and that means skinning and quartering it. Always carry four game bags in your hunting pack to protect the quarters from dirt and flies, and make cooling and keeping the meat clean priority number-one after a bull is down. Every elk hunter should plan well in advance how to pack out the meat, safely store it and transport it home.