Use Outfitter or Not?

Use an outfitter?

  • Pay the money and go with an outfitter

    Votes: 28 28.6%
  • Keep going DIY and pray for lots of effort leading to meat in the freezer

    Votes: 70 71.4%

  • Total voters
    98
Looking for advice from the experienced folks out there. I’m trying to figure out if I should use some money I’m coming into to pay for an elk hunt outfitter. I’m an adult onset hunter. I’ll post an article I wrote that showed up in a magazine about our story getting into hunting, but it all started 6 whitetail seasons ago here in IL. After 6 seasons hunting whitetail, I have a fork buck, 2 does, and a bunch of great as well as frustrating times to show for it. I went on a guided red stag hunt in Scotland during 2017 (cheaper than a whitetail hunt in my own state of IL including the airplane tix) and loved my time there. I started listening to/watching Big Fin, Corey Jacobsen, Born and Raised Outdoors, Jay Scott, and Hush about 15 months ago. I went on my first western (elk) hunt on a CO leftover tag in the Flat Tops with about 3000 other hunters, saw elk 3 out of 5 days, never took a shot, but had a great time. I’ve read a ton of material from the ~2000 page book Big Fin recommended, went through the UEH course multiple times, read the biology reports online for the area, and watched every elk hunting video from BF on YouTube. I’m applying in WY, AZ, NM, and CO this year, but am only expecting to get a tag through the leftovers in CO. I’m 41 years old and not sure I can take a learning curve of 10 years (based on 10% probability of success overall) with paying $600-$1200 for a tag/tags per year... What would you recommend?
Maybe consider getting a drop camp, this way you should be in elk country where you can spend your time elk hunting as opposed to trying to get to elk country. Also if/when you kill an elk they will pack it out for you. Just a thought, maybe worth what it cost you.
 
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