I'm doing a guided Colorado hunt this year through Winterhawk outfitters. If you saw the film "The Trembling Giant", it's them that is featured in the movie. This will be my first guided hunt, so I really don't have a lot of feedback to give you. If this is your first elk hunt, approach it as a chance to learn as much as it is a hunt.
Have'nt seen it I dont think, but I will have to check it out. Yeah pretty much I am just expecting to take away the experience from the hunt and try to gain knowledge off of it. If we end up tagging one thats just a bonus
I figured I'd get this thread going again, get some more advice as the season is getting close. Here's a little update. First, I got into a pretty good rhythm of shooting in the late winter, early spring. Then baseball season got here. I ended up coaching 4 different teams, which took all of my time. So, I literally went weeks without shooting. However, I kept working on the cardio by running. I ran into a problem, where I had strained a calf muscle and it really bothered me for quite awhile, it prevented me from running as much/often as I would've liked to. I finally healed up and I run about 6 miles a week now. (Which is absolutely shocking to me) I started going back to the club shooting a couple of weeks ago, and fell right back into the groove, so that's nice. I was starting to get worried after such a layoff. Nick and I are going to REI tomorrow at 8am to pick up some remaining gear that we need. ( REI has garage sales once per month. Deeply discounted prices on products that have been brought back to the store for one reason or another) Hopefully I'll be bringing home a nice selection of goodies tomorrow. I still have questions about clothing...I'm really leaning toward a ASAT pattern. However, I still have questions about what's needed. From what I've been reading, there are some really big temperature fluctuations throughout the day. So that still needs to be dealt with. I've got a respectable cow call going, and I'm pretty confident with my locator bugle, and my aggressive bugle. I'll continue to work on them. (I drive around with my cow call in my car, and just practice all day while I'm driving) I've called the CDOW and they were helpful, but I'll make another call at the beginning of the week with some additional questions. So there's still a lot to do, but we're getting close, and I'm getting excited/nervous. To top it off, I have a family vacation planned for next week in TN. So not much is going to get done on my end between Aug. 15-20th If anybody has any camo recommendations, that aren't Sitka or First lite, I'm listening. (I'd love to have Sitka or First Lite, they're simply not in the budget)
So here's an update on the REI experience today. It turned out to be a nice score for both of us. I picked up a Big Agnes Fly Creek U1 tent regularly $329 for $114. A sleeping bag pad, an ultralight hammock, and a GoPro 2 for $100. Nick had the biggest score. Go Pro 2 for $50. Also picked up a nice Mermot tent for less than 1/2 of retail. All in all, we spent a couple of bucks, but we ended up scoring some really nice gear that we wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise. If others are thinking of a hunt like this, I highly recommend keeping an eye on the Garage sales at REI. If we would've went to a few more, I think we could've saved a boat load of money, but it's just a crapshoot as to what they have available.
REI Garage Sales are fantastic.... super cheap way to stock up on amazing quality gear usually only 1-2 years old from the gear fanatic hipsters that have to trade in every year (as many guys do with their bows in the hunting world). I leave in 13 days. I'm beyond anxious to get started.
That's the understatement of the year! Nick and I are going to get together this week sometime and go over some of the final details, and we're not far behind you. How long is your trip? Do you have any other trips this year? I also owe you a big thank you. Your Alaska DIY thread is the thing that got all of this in the works.
