New to the elk world!

Hey guys, I love the site so far! Ive been looking around and there are some lucky ### people on here! Only elk i have ever seen was on the outdoor channel, hope that changes soon! Anyways, I am trying to plan an elk hunt for my dad and me for 2011. I know little to nothing about elk hunting or even where to get started. I was hoping i could get some guidence from some of the real elk hunters here on what states/or areas you can buy an otc tag. Im not asking where you hunt or where your honey holes are btw, as a hunter, I know that is not sportsmanlike. We would like to earn our elk as much as we can. We are looking at rifle hunting for our first time, then maybe after getting a feel for it switching to bows in the following years. My plan is to go on public land and maybe hire a guide for a couple days so we can learn what to do. Please let me know if this is a good idea. I really would like for my dad to get a good elk this year, hes done alot for me with whitetail and turkey hunting. Hes and exceptional shot with a rifle, we go to the range and shoot 600yrds consistent with our rifles, so we dont have to be right on top of them even though that would be more exciting. We are both avid whitetail and turkey hunters and elk hunting seems like a sweet mix! Im sure i am rambling, just excited to be a part of the forum and get started planning this hunt! thanks in advance guys!!
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Welcome! BTW we aren't lucky, it takes lots of hard work to be sucessful. You'll soon find that out. Start getting into shape right now. Some sort of stairstepper and weight training will be helpful. The easiest state to hunt is Colorado, lots of OTC units. The biggest herds are in the northwest portion of the state. You could do a drop camp hunt and have horses available to pack out your kill. Get into rock hard shape. Use the best equipment you can afford, you may be betting your life on it, the weather here is brutal at times. Good luck.
Mark

P.S. Did I mention get into good physical condition?
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Thanks for the reply Gardner! I meant lucky in the sense that ya'll have hunted the animals before! It looks soo exciting on tv. I myself have been weight training for the past :-k 7 years, I'll definatly up the cardio though! But, my dad however has pretty bad knees from working construction all his life. I am hoping to find a guide or an outfitter to help us get closer to the animals, within a mile or so. If anyone knows the best way to go about this, feel free to post. Im trying to keep the budget as low as possible, -$7000.
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fatrooster
As Gardner said, Colorado is your best bet. I don't usually give this advise, but I suggest getting a subscription to the "Huntin' Fool". Several years ago this subscription was $100.00 and it might be higher now. But you get a regularly monthly or maybe bi-monthly magazine, which is more like a book, that breaks down a different state in each issue and tells you all about the units, where the best trophy potential areas are, the best oppurtunity areas, how much it cost for licenses and tags for each species of big game, etc., etc. In addition, you get an on the telephone referral service where the Carters, who are the owners of this service, answer all of your questions and really try to help you out. So why don't I usually give this advise? Because I'm a cheap ace and prefer to learn the hard way. But for somebody doing it for the first time from out of state I feel like this service is priceless. I bought it for one year and learned quite a bit from it even though I don't hunt out of my state. Good luck, hope this helps.
By the way, I am not affiliated with these people, never met them, never used the phone service, don't really like guides, but I feel that it is a great tool. fatrooster.
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Sounds great! I will have to get that. Thank you for the referrel fatrooster. That sounds like exactly what I need.
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