I have a few questions for you guys who go archery elk hunting out west.
What state are you headed to?
Private or public?
DIY or Outfitter?
What is something you do or know that you wish someone had told you before you first went out west?

I have applied with a few buddies to hunt New Mexico. But if we don’t make the cut we’re going to otc in Colorado.
All public.
DIY.
My advice is to go to church out there & meet some locals. Ask lots of questions & get good intel on the elk herd.

Pretty sure you can go out there and go to church with them but most hardcore elk hunters look at that kind of thing has a handout and believe you should learn your own elk herd intel "boots on the ground". As far as scouting, don't think for a minute that the easy access spots with elk in July will have elk come day 2 of the season. Most have already took cover due to all the people scouting and practicing their bugling lol.

If it were me, I'd figure out the state I wanted to hunt. Next I'd find the forums for the area and just do searches so ya don't get a lot of BS. I would find FB groups as well. Then I'd look at hunter success rates and amount of public lands. If a lot of private land nearby you can bet the elk will run for those places for safety since there's 99% less pressure. Once I picked an area I'd call the fish and game guys and see what they would give up.
I would personally avoid Colorado because everyone I hear new to the game wants to go there. If I was BIG money, I'd skip the States and I'd go hunt Roosies in B.C. they have MONSTERS there! Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, and Montana peak my interest but, I'm on the Coast range here and it's an OTC tag so, I stay local. I think it'll change in the next few years. Roosies on the Oregon Coast don't get a lot of out of staters attention because of the Rocky Mt elk in states closer to the Non-res people homes. I like that lol

I left out Wyoming haha but I've looked into that place too

Thanks man! You make me wanna check out Roosies in Oregon!

A guy that I worked with in the Coast Guard hunted here while stationed here. He's in Michigan now and hunted colorado last year and he's coming back to Oregon. He's going Eastern Oregon for Rockys though. The difference between the 2 breeds are the Roosevelts outweigh the Rockys by as much as 250+ pounds on mature bulls and the Rockys have the bigger antlers. Northern Ca has some BIG bulls too but I haven't really checked into it

Colorado unit 53 this year semi guided drop camp otc either sex elk, and black bear and hoping to get drawn on mule deer
Get your ass and all the rest of you in shape I mean in real shape.
Good boots are a must and a good well fitted pack either of those can and will make a trip miserable.

In 2015, myself and 3 friends loaded our happy tails up and went to Colorado and hunted an OTC area. 2 of us researched for months prepping, calling park rangers, game wardens, etc.....

After was all said and done we all had about $1500-$2000 in a hiking trip that lasted a week. Problem with living in Alabama and trying to public land hunt somewhere out west is your lack of ability to scout. I public land hunt Illinois. Every year a buddy and I drive up in September and spend a weekend scouting our spots that we have located over the years. Being able to drive up for a long weekend and several years of hunting makes the scouting pretty easy now. That is impossible to do with a hunt out west, unless you have a ton of sky mile points and you don't mind burning a couple of weekends to do it.

If you can't find someone that has already done several public land hunts and knows where the elk are, then you would be better off to save your money and use an outfitter. Otherwise you're gonna spend money and years figuring things out. By the time you get on them and know how to do it, you could have already used an outfitter and done some damage. One of my friends on the Colorado trip went to church with guy that did a public land hunt in Colorado every year for 18 years. He was skunked the first 3 years. After that, he bagged an elk every year, sometimes it was only a cow, but he never came back empty handed. His wife was in bad health and couldn't make the trip with us.

Bottom line, you're either gonna pay an outfitter and do it, or you're gonna pay learning how to do it.

I agree with you.

Last year I went with my buddy who had gone the year before. We located elk by the 3rd day, but getting close enough to put an arrow in one was a problem. We applied for NM this year, but if that doesn't work out we'll go back to Colorado OTC.

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/-RWFrgQshKY[/video]

[img]<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/oCfl2Rl"><a href="//imgur.com/oCfl2Rl">Elk Bugle 12 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>[/img]

IF and when you finally kill something. You have to get it out of the woods and back to the truck. At the very least find a local outfitter, cowboy, etc. with a pack horse. That will be the best money ever spent.

Gotta pack it out so ya earn it lol. We do pack everything but a horse or alpaca is a legit way to go if ya don’t have a good pack

I'd do some scouting for you all for a bit of cost... Mostly my fuel. Nothing about an Elk hunt is easy unless you luck into a Buck.

Jicarilla or Mescalero Apache.