Whats a cow elk how to#
Whats a cow elk portable#

The odds are 1-in-2.9 for nonresidents applying for cow tags. Utahĭraw success for limited-entry bulls is notoriously difficult in the Beehive State the odds are 1-in-60 for nonresidents. Once you draw that, you can then research and apply for cow tags in limited-entry units. Nonresidents must first enter a drawing for a deer and elk combination license, which is $1,045 and allows you to hunt general entry units. Read Next: The Top 10 DIY Western Hunts Top States for Cow Elk Montana But if you prepare for a cow hunt the way you do for a bull, you’ll have success, and you’ll have earned a great trophy. You have to work to get them, and you often have to work to pack them out. “A cow hunt is no different from a trophy-bull hunt. “A lot of people road-hunt for cows, but I don’t think that gives enough credit,” Harrison says. But he warns that cow hunting isn’t a slam-dunk. Harrison says that hunting access for cow-elk hunters is generally good, even on private land, in areas with elk herds that have exceeded population objectives. They’re filling cows tags on public-land hunts, butchering the meat in camp, and driving home with those freezers full.

Whats a cow elk portable#

These hunters are gathering buddies and traveling west with generators powering portable freezers. And if you can learn the country and the critter by hunting cows, then you will have an advantage if you ever draw a bull tag.”Ī growing number of nonresident hunters has figured out that the Meat Highway leads to places like Riggins, Idaho Craig, Colorado Dillon, Montana and Rawlins, Wyoming. The meat is phenomenal, and there’s a lot of it.

Whats a cow elk how to#

“The smartest animal in these hills is a lead cow, and if you can figure out how to fool her, you’ve done something. “Cow elk build a hunter’s skill set,” says Dan Harrison, longtime backcountry elk guide and owner of Harrison’s Hunting in Grand Junction, Colorado. In Montana, the already liberal general rifle season has been extended in many districts through mid-January for cow-elk hunters, who can hunt private land that may not have been open for bulls earlier in the fall. Most of Wyoming’s antlerless units have 100 percent drawing success, and the $288 nonresident cow tag is less than half the price of an either-sex tag. Idaho and Washington both offer over-the-counter cow tags. Access is generally better for cow hunters than it is for bull hunters, and harvest rates for cows in many Western-and even some Midwestern-states are double that for bull elk. There have never been as many antlerless elk permits available as states will issue this year. Specifically cows.Īcross the West, elk herds are booming, and the best tool wildlife managers have to keep wapiti in check with habitat is cow tags. Doe/fawn tags were abundant as antelope herds flourished on public land, and it was a good bet that everybody in a hunting party would at least get a shot and would probably make meat.īut over the last decade, pronghorn tags have been harder to draw as populations have declined in most states. Still, there are several key differences that hunters can see to identify between the two.A generation ago, the gateway to the West for a big-game hunter ran through pronghorn country. Moose and elk often share the same habitats, leading to confusion. While it may be more common to see them at higher elevation areas around Creede and Silverton, they are sometimes found at lower elevations.” “From Pagosa Springs and west to the Mancos area, we see more moose, specifically younger bulls. “There is really good potential for seeing moose in our area,” said CPW Area Wildlife Manager Adrian Archuleta, who oversees the Durango office. In recent years, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff have seen more young moose on the landscape, leading to some elk hunters mistakenly shooting a moose. But since the reintroduction of roughly 100 Shiras moose to the Creede area along the upper Rio Grande drainage in 19, the population has grown and spread throughout the region. It wasn’t long ago that it was incredibly rare to see a moose in Colorado, especially in the southwest portion of the state.