Hey guys! New guy here. A little background about me.
Lived in PA my whole life, only ever hunted in PA. Dad is 66 this year and always wanted to elk hunt, so I told him we just need to make it happen. So since the end of last year, I've been planning. We are going to pack in and do sort of a base camp set up, hunting from camp every day. Won't be terribly far from the road (hoping for about 3 miles) so if we are in a spot devoid of elk we can move if needed. (I have done a few backpack trips in the past, one was about 63 miles in 4 days, so I do have some experience with backpacking, but none in cold weather).
Public land has never been big on my radar since pretty much all the white tail hunting I've ever done is on private land. We DO have some state owned game lands here with decent access, but they are kind of a last resort. Different game out in the west!! I'm growing more appreciative of public lands by the day, and plan to utilize my local game lands as well in the future.
I knew (still know, really) next to nothing about elk or elk hunting, so I started listening to some of Randy's podcasts. Now, I never had TV with outdoor channels, so I hadn't ever watched his shows, knew nothing about him. (Recently started Fresh Tracks on amazon prime though, good stuff!!). Have learned a LOT from the podcasts, and now just turned to this forum.
Our plan is to go OTC in Colorado this year, since I was so limited on time between work and kids and house projects to do much research on drawing tags this year. Never applied for one before, but next year will be different after I listen to more of the podcasts. Right now I'm way more focused on HOW to hunt elk. Different ball game than walking 100 yard to the stand, or doing still hunt drives on 100 acre parcels.
I'm sure I'll have questions, right now just gleaning info and wanted to introduce myself, and say thanks for this awesome resource. I have basically nothing to contribute right now, but hope to change that very soon!
-Jonathan
Lived in PA my whole life, only ever hunted in PA. Dad is 66 this year and always wanted to elk hunt, so I told him we just need to make it happen. So since the end of last year, I've been planning. We are going to pack in and do sort of a base camp set up, hunting from camp every day. Won't be terribly far from the road (hoping for about 3 miles) so if we are in a spot devoid of elk we can move if needed. (I have done a few backpack trips in the past, one was about 63 miles in 4 days, so I do have some experience with backpacking, but none in cold weather).
Public land has never been big on my radar since pretty much all the white tail hunting I've ever done is on private land. We DO have some state owned game lands here with decent access, but they are kind of a last resort. Different game out in the west!! I'm growing more appreciative of public lands by the day, and plan to utilize my local game lands as well in the future.
I knew (still know, really) next to nothing about elk or elk hunting, so I started listening to some of Randy's podcasts. Now, I never had TV with outdoor channels, so I hadn't ever watched his shows, knew nothing about him. (Recently started Fresh Tracks on amazon prime though, good stuff!!). Have learned a LOT from the podcasts, and now just turned to this forum.
Our plan is to go OTC in Colorado this year, since I was so limited on time between work and kids and house projects to do much research on drawing tags this year. Never applied for one before, but next year will be different after I listen to more of the podcasts. Right now I'm way more focused on HOW to hunt elk. Different ball game than walking 100 yard to the stand, or doing still hunt drives on 100 acre parcels.
I'm sure I'll have questions, right now just gleaning info and wanted to introduce myself, and say thanks for this awesome resource. I have basically nothing to contribute right now, but hope to change that very soon!
-Jonathan
