I shot my first elk in northwest Montana in the fall of 1989, on a borrowed horse a friend named Ray loaned me when I was a young Wisconsin DNR officer burning two weeks of vacation. I have been back west eleven times since, most recently in 2024 with my middle grandson Caleb on a Colorado second-rifle tag. Five decades on, the animal has not gotten any easier and the country has not gotten any smaller. What follows is what I would tell a sixty-plus hunter sitting across the table from me at the diner in Hayward, asking how to plan an honest elk hunt.
Decide what kind of hunt you actually want
The first decision is not where. It is whether you go guided, semi-guided, or on your own. There is no wrong answer, but there is a wrong answer for you.
- Fully guided. An outfitter handles the camp, the horses, the meat care, and most of the scouting. You bring yourself, your weapon, and your tag. For a hunter in his late sixties or seventies who is not in elk shape, this is the most honest option. Expect $6,000 to $10,000 for a quality rifle hunt in Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana in 2026, more for trophy units. Archery runs higher because the season is longer and the success rates are lower.
- Semi-guided or drop camp. An outfitter packs you in, sets you up, comes back to check on you, and packs the elk out if you connect. You do the hunting. Costs land in the $2,500 to $4,500 range. This is what I do now. It splits the difference honestly and keeps a backup plan in place.
- DIY public land. Cheapest on paper, most expensive in everything else. You need to be physically able to do the work, and the work includes getting a 500-pound animal off a mountain. If you are over sixty-five and have not done it before, do not start with a solo wilderness hunt. Start with a guide or a younger partner who can carry the load.
An old friend of mine in his seventies still drops in alone and packs out on his own horses. He has been doing it since Nixon. That is not a beginner template.
The draw is the real season now
The biggest change in elk hunting since I started has not been the rifles or the optics. It has been the licensing. Western states have largely shifted away from over-the-counter elk tags. You have to plan a year ahead at minimum.
- Colorado. Starting in 2025, most non-resident archery elk west of I-25 went from over-the-counter to limited license only. A handful of OTC options still exist in parts of eastern Colorado. The 2026 primary draw runs March 1 through April 7. Mandatory CWD test sample submission is now required for elk harvested during rifle seasons in specific hunt codes.
- Wyoming. Non-resident general elk applicants now have to pick one of three regions, not the whole state. The non-resident elk application deadline closes February 2 for 2026. The special draw elk license has climbed to $1,965. The regular non-resident elk tag still runs around $692. Preference points cost $52 a year.
- Montana. Elk rule comments closed earlier this year and the non-resident draw deadline is April 1, 2026.
- Wisconsin. Yes, we have elk now. The Clam Lake and Black River herds (rebranded the Northern and Central Elk Management Zones) ran the 2025 season with four bull tags for state hunters at Clam Lake and four bulls plus five antlerless at Black River. Over 26,000 applications came in for nine state tags. The application fee is $10 and the once-in-a-lifetime payoff sits a few hours from your kitchen. Worth a stamp every year.
If you have not started building points in two or three western states, the time to start was twenty years ago and the second-best time is this April. I bought Caleb a Wyoming point the week he turned twelve.
Weapon choice, plainly
Bow or rifle is a question of season, country, and what your shoulders and eyes still do well.
Rifle. A bull elk carries a lot of bone and a lot of will to keep moving. I have shot them with everything from a .270 Winchester to a .300 Win Mag. For most older hunters I would point at a .308 or a 6.5 PRC with a controlled-expansion bullet in the 150 to 165 grain range. Recoil is manageable, the cartridges shoot flat enough for the distances you should be taking, and either will put a bull down cleanly with a lung shot. The 6.5 PRC and the 7mm PRC have both earned their keep in the last five years.
A scope matters more than the cartridge above a certain point. A clean 3-15x or 4-16x in the second focal plane, with a turret you trust and a reticle that does not look like a city map, will cover almost any elk shot you should be taking. The Vortex Razor HD LHT, the Trijicon Credo HX, and the Leupold VX-5HD have all earned reviews from people I trust. Spend the money on glass before you spend it on a custom stock.
Bow. Elk archery is a different animal, literally. You need a setup you can hold at full draw for thirty seconds while a bull walks the wrong way. Most hunters over sixty do better dropping to 55 or 60 pounds of draw and tuning a heavier, slower arrow that punches deep. A three-pin sight with second and third-axis adjustment handles the steep angles. Practice from a kneel or a tree stand seat, not from a flat lane at the indoor range.
Gear that earns its weight
Elk country punishes anything you do not need and rewards anything you do.
- Boots. The most important item. Eight to ten inches, stiff enough for sidehilling, broken in for a month before the trip. Cheap boots end hunts.
- Binoculars and rangefinder. A 10x42 binocular is the standard for a reason. The Leica Geovid combines glass and a ballistic rangefinder in one unit; for older eyes, carrying less is real.
- An e-scouting app. OnX Hunt and Gohunt show land ownership, public access, and historical draw odds. For a first western hunt, an annual onX subscription is the cheapest insurance you will buy.
- Meat care. Game bags, a sharp knife, and a plan for getting quarters into shade. The animal is not yours until it is in the truck.
The ethical part
Fifty years in conservation taught me that the hunters who pass on shots are the ones who go home with elk. Know your effective range and stay inside it. Wait for broadside or quartering-away. Verify your target in low light. Pack the meat out before the trophy. Follow the carcass-transport rules from the harvest state. If you tag a bull, you owe him a quick clean kill and you owe yourself the discipline to walk away from a bad shot.
Elk are here in numbers because hunters paid for the habitat through license dollars and Pittman-Robertson excise taxes for the better part of a century. Honor that ledger every time you go.
One practical takeaway
If you are sixty-plus and want to hunt elk before your knees vote no, start this winter. Apply for points in two western states, book a semi-guided hunt for 2027 or 2028, and use the next two seasons to get your boots broken in and your rifle sighted at 300 yards. Then go. Linda will tell you the same thing she told me before my 1989 trip: the elk will not come to you. You have to go to them.