Best OTC hunts?

Sergio4195 · Sep 12, 2017

I have never hunted bull elk in my life and I want to start next year, I hunt with a rifle and im leaning towards colorado otc. Any of you hunted colorado otc? How was it and what do you guys recommend?

Bumpy · Sep 13, 2017

Yes. Colorado is a fantastic place to hunt OTC bull elk. Expect plenty of company though. More during rifle than archery. Set your criteria, do your research, choose an area to hunt, put in the effort and have at it! It's not easy but sure beats waiting years to draw a limited tag. I would rather hunt every year than wait for some "pie in the sky" tag. If you do it right you can still apply for limited tags to accumulate points and still hunt OTC. There are decent bulls in nearly all GMU's. Just pick an area and learn it for a few years. You might get lucky right away but you will find the elk eventually. Elk meat is delicious!

Westernhuntingresources · Sep 28, 2017

The CO OTC is the way to go to hunt every year. You can find lots of access to public but beware on your first year - that great spot you see on the map may be either covered in orange vests or under 4 feet of snow when you get there. If you've never been to CO you might consider hiring an outfitter on your first go 'round as it will greatly increase your chance at success, depending on your budget and the outfitter. You can shoot me an email with your contact info and I might be able to help you out. If not I can at least point you in the right direction as there are plenty of great resources out there to help in choosing units/location.

Clint Bagwell
Western Hunting Resources
[email protected]

txhunter58 · Sep 28, 2017

The best rifle season is the 1st rifle season. All OTC units are LIMITED for the first rifle. However, many units can be drawn with 0 to 1 point, so I recommend you do your research and put in for 0-1 point unit. If you don't draw it this year, you will next year and will have the point you need.

This season does 2 things: limits elk tags and there are no deer hunters. Both of these things make for a better experience.

So look at some promising areas, look at the draw stats for those units and the success rates. Anything close to 20% success is about average to decent rates. That is right, 4 out of 5 elk hunters go home without an elk. Good luck

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

sticksender · Sep 28, 2017

Colorado OTC can be ok hunting esp if you're willing to accept barely-legal raghorn type bulls. For some, that might grow old after a while. Luckily there are options in several other states, where you could rotate through and hunt a different state yearly, in their lower-demand limited draw areas, that will at least hold a few older bulls.

270Whatelse · Sep 29, 2017

+1 on the 1st season advice. Also the elk have not been hunted in 2-3 weeks so you can really catch them in natural movement patterns.....well at least the first morning!