Colorado Elk Hunting - What gives? Are there lots of elk or not?

TheCougar

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I peruse lots of threads on RS to get a feel for other states and how guys are doing in general. I've never hunted CO for anything, but every year I consider going there for elk. I've even got a few points saved up - enough to get me out of an OTC unit, for no other reason than to have smaller crowds. What I can't figure out is this- does CO have good elk hunting or not? (I'm generally talking archery here). When I read RS threads, it seems like a LOT of guys come home empty handed. Not just empty handed, but with stories like "I got into a herd of elk on day 5, but couldn't seal the deal. Didn't see any other elk after that" or "Heard two bugles on day 6 but nothing else" or "saw lots of hunters, very few elk, no bugles"... I mean, CO is supposed to have more elk than anywhere else, so how are people not seeing elk EVERYDAY? I hunt in AZ in some average elk units, and I see elk everyday. I get that the hunting pressure is much lower, but I also presume that the density is lower. I see guys like Born N Raised going into CO and it seems like they are doing multiple stalks every day. The Gritty Bowmen guys say they go out and call and get into elk everyday. Are they in pockets? Are these just the honey holes? Are they in draw units? The more I read about CO, the more I wonder if it's really worth the effort to get away from the crowds (which sounds impossible nowadays) to chase elk.
 

5MilesBack

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When I read RS threads, it seems like a LOT of guys come home empty handed.

Given the ~10% success rates, that would mean 9 out of 10 are going to come home empty handed. Colorado gets hammered with pressure, and elk hunting isn't an easy endeavor especially for newcomers. I've seen this stat several times over the years, that it takes 7 years for the average bowhunter to kill their first elk. Add in the 10% success rate, and that means they go the next three years without another kill.

And the thing about most of those TV show hunters.......is that they are hunting private land.
 

SteveCNJ

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I peruse lots of threads on RS to get a feel for other states and how guys are doing in general. I've never hunted CO for anything, but every year I consider going there for elk. I've even got a few points saved up - enough to get me out of an OTC unit, for no other reason than to have smaller crowds. What I can't figure out is this- does CO have good elk hunting or not? (I'm generally talking archery here). When I read RS threads, it seems like a LOT of guys come home empty handed. Not just empty handed, but with stories like "I got into a herd of elk on day 5, but couldn't seal the deal. Didn't see any other elk after that" or "Heard two bugles on day 6 but nothing else" or "saw lots of hunters, very few elk, no bugles"... I mean, CO is supposed to have more elk than anywhere else, so how are people not seeing elk EVERYDAY? I hunt in AZ in some average elk units, and I see elk everyday. I get that the hunting pressure is much lower, but I also presume that the density is lower. I see guys like Born N Raised going into CO and it seems like they are doing multiple stalks every day. The Gritty Bowmen guys say they go out and call and get into elk everyday. Are they in pockets? Are these just the honey holes? Are they in draw units? The more I read about CO, the more I wonder if it's really worth the effort to get away from the crowds (which sounds impossible nowadays) to chase elk.
I'll know more soon. Heading to GMU 8 for the 4th rifle season. This will be my first elk hunt.

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I grew up in western CO hunting OTC units and now live in AZ. Comparing Colorado OTC or low draw to Arizona “average” units is like comparing apples to Lamborghinis. They’re just not even close to similar. Both AZ and CO post success rates available to the public and AZ units often have more than twice the percentage of successful hunters than CO, that should tell you something right there. Elk are in general much easier to find in AZ for a variety of reasons. AZ hunters as a whole are more of a lazy bunch than CO hunters, so getting away from people and finding unpressured elk I’ve found to be much much easier. A good percentage of the land in AZ is easier to get around in than CO, and it has less recreationalists pressuring the elk, too.

You’re also comparing guys posting on RS to some of the most experienced guys out there. A large percentage of the guys who post hunt recaps on RS are guys that aren’t local, and guys that are going for their first or second time to a new area. Doing that is tough. No experience with an area makes it hard to know where the people and the elk will be. The Born N Raised guys on that CO hunt you’re talking about were OTC, but they packed in miles and miles and had a bunch of dudes that are all excellent callers, and they were there for quite a while. Those guys are fit and hunt archery elk for many many days a year. They hunted for 50 days straight this past year I believe, which is like 6 years of experience for the majority of nonresident guys that can spend a week a year in CO. The Gritty guys this year were hunting a low draw unit nearish to Denver, but they’re also local and fit and good hunters. Aron’s a tank and he can get around in the mountains, and has been hunting these areas for a while. However you shake it, BRO and the Gritty guys are better hunters and more experienced than the majority of us. And have more time to do it on a given year.

I grew up hunting OTC in CO and honestly we saw elk close to every day. I did OTC archery last year in two different units in areas I had never hunted before, and I got into elk all 11 days. I never got closer than 100 yards from a bull, though, and went home empty handed.

So to answer your question, is it worth it? I guess you need to ask yourself what you want out of the experience. But you’ll have to put in some serious work and get pretty fortunate to have an experience that even decently compares to what you’ll get in AZ. Just my 2 cents.
 

svivian

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I hunt archery every year in an otc unit in Colorado. I'm lucky enough to live in an area surrounded by elk hunting less than an hour drive. I also scout and set up trail cams all summer and when I'm hunting I atleast see elk if not in them almost every time I go out. I've also only harvested two elk and lost a 3rd in the 5 years I've been archery elk hunting. I don't think elk numbers have anything to do with the success. Elk are smart critters and know when to shut up and where to hide when there is the amount of pressure around them. A great example is unit 61 and 62 which border eachother. In 62(otc unit) you can go the whole season and not hear a bugle but walk 500 yards into 61(a draw unit) across the road and they will scream all morning and evening.
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

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Skill and fitness are a factor I'd say. After a couple years of hunting hard/not smart in CO I've learned where/how I like to personally hunt. I can't speak to archery but this year 1st rifle was just fine for elk for me, the first 2 days delivered good encounters (same last year) and I tagged a fairly nice bull (that is 3 for 3 years, though last year was a small one). Then things died down as expected and you better be ready to find them and go into some shit holes to get them if needed. Many aren't ready for the latter task. A common thing I've heard from folks is "yeah we saw elk in X area but no way I'm going to shoot one there" well I'm a glutton for punishment and will go there and will shoot there (sometimes they are talking about an area I have shot something).

Me and my partner worked out damn hard this year and it allowed us the ability to perform longer/harder and that was a factor in our success in multiple ways (I had to close down a gap on the elk fast for my bull which included running up a stint of slope before they got out of the basin and then composing myself for the shot. Having the will/stamina to go back out again on deer and climb back into the mountains for the 3rd weekend in a row when I was drained and had a cold, etc. put me in a place to watch a nice buck step out and catch a ride on my pack home).

Long story short, I don't know AZ at all but I've found CO to treat me just fine in the areas/ways I hunt. If something stops working then I'll adapt.
 

mvmnts

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The rich get richer my man, you either know how to get it done or you don't. The stuff you see on Youtube is mostly bullshit. It's experts that have been doing this for a long, long time, and they have large networks of other people who know what they're doing and know where to go. Your results WILL vary. Watching that stuff to learn is hardly even useful either. The information you can reasonable action on as a beginner is so tiny anyway, all the howto info out there is just going to give you the wrong impression. Public land elk is hard. You don't really know that till you spend a season out there humping it and come home with nothing, not having seen anything all week.
 

Jbenson

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I've archery hunted Colorado OTC 9 years now I believe, sometimes making 2 trips a year. And I haven't released an arrow yet. Ive made a lot of mistakes but tried to keep learning. It can be discouraging as hell and a lot of those years I was ready to hang it up and head to Kansas and set up a treestand. The absolute best thing I can tell you is pick a unit and stay there and learn it. I've done a lot of jumping around because I get discouraged easily, and all that did was cost me a few more years of tag soup. Now we've been hunting the same area about 3 years, and I'm finally starting to feel like I can go and typically know where to find elk. But I still need all the other stars to align (TONS of hunters, stage of rut, silent and nocturnal elk, thermals, did I mention TONS of hunters?) Some people are lucky and stumble into a great honey hole the first time they go and it produces year after year. I'm not lucky. So I have to bust my ass every year and try to make something happen. And when it finally does, it'll be because I earned it the hard way not because I got lucky! And for the record, almost all of my hunting has been backcountry style a minimum of a mile from any road.
 

SteveCNJ

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I've archery hunted Colorado OTC 9 years now I believe, sometimes making 2 trips a year. And I haven't released an arrow yet. Ive made a lot of mistakes but tried to keep learning. It can be discouraging as hell and a lot of those years I was ready to hang it up and head to Kansas and set up a treestand. The absolute best thing I can tell you is pick a unit and stay there and learn it. I've done a lot of jumping around because I get discouraged easily, and all that did was cost me a few more years of tag soup. Now we've been hunting the same area about 3 years, and I'm finally starting to feel like I can go and typically know where to find elk. But I still need all the other stars to align (TONS of hunters, stage of rut, silent and nocturnal elk, thermals, did I mention TONS of hunters?) Some people are lucky and stumble into a great honey hole the first time they go and it produces year after year. I'm not lucky. So I have to bust my ass every year and try to make something happen. And when it finally does, it'll be because I earned it the hard way not because I got lucky! And for the record, almost all of my hunting has been backcountry style a minimum of a mile from any road.
I like your resolve and philosophy on this.

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I’ve heard guys say if you can kill a bull 1 out of every 3 years in Colorado you’re doing really good.


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Osprey

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Being a Non resident who lives outside of elk country with no prior experience and having hunted Elk in CO I can tell you what makes Elk hunting REALLY HARD is all the non res that come from areas that are not Elk areas, with no prior elk hunting experience, don't know anyone to help or steer them in the right direction that already either lives in elk country or has prior experience, putting a hunt together that brings you 800+ miles from home one way to hunt a species you never hunted nor live near is very very hard. Sure Elk hunting is hard for everyone but for a resident in Elk country that lives inside 6 hrs of the unit its not the same especially since most residents have several friends or a small network group that they can get information from which helps out a TON. Plus being able to take a long weekend to scout or get lay of the unit even via driving roads.

For a traveling non res your learning the REAL HARD way and you get a small window to learn and get it done. I will add I've hunted Elk in CO 2 times and got 1 nice 5x5 and come from Indiana. I was on a Muley hunt this past 2nd rifle didn't have an elk tag since I wanted to focus on getting an older age class mule deer and saw a 5x5 bull, heard 9 bugles from 2 other bulls that were inside 200 yds, and saw about 9 cows, also heard cows in another area I never saw I found Elk in 3 places and never spent more than a day in any of those areas too and they were all around 1/2 mi from a road in a OTC area just in areas ppl over looked. Elk are where you find them is an anoying statement to a beginner but as you learn you realize how true it is and where you find them is where hunters are not. I've now been in Elk all 3 trips to CO even though 1 trip i was looking for deer.
 
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Grant K

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I think it's largely a lack of experience on the part of people coming to CO, I've hunted a lot of different places inside CO as well as a handful of other states, CO has by far the largest number of elk, even in OTC units generally you will see far more elk than other states.. But also by far the largest number of people coming to find out what elk hunting is all about without having any idea what they are getting into... because of that and also I think because of the relatively recent "Extreme Hunting Fitness" craze there are now many people who are fit enough to really screw things up because their elk hunting experience and smarts lag well behind their ability to get into all the backcountry areas that until recently saw few people. CO elk are getting PHD's in hunter avoidance... I know a ton of spots that used to be pretty much a sure thing that now may go a year without an elk setting foot there, but on the other side there are still the same number of elk, some new spots are just as hot, being flexible and spending time looking for how elk are avoiding the pressure pays off.
 
OP
TheCougar

TheCougar

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The rich get richer my man, you either know how to get it done or you don't. The stuff you see on Youtube is mostly bullshit. It's experts that have been doing this for a long, long time, and they have large networks of other people who know what they're doing and know where to go. Your results WILL vary. Watching that stuff to learn is hardly even useful either. The information you can reasonable action on as a beginner is so tiny anyway, all the howto info out there is just going to give you the wrong impression. Public land elk is hard. You don't really know that till you spend a season out there humping it and come home with nothing, not having seen anything all week.

I definitely believe this- “the rich get richer”... I know a lot of the guys on YouTube are “going to areas they have never hunted”, but I’m also pretty damn sure that someone gave them some tips on places to go. I’m not sure why anyone would do that, but I know it happens (I’ve heard several hosts mention it).

That being said, my buddies and I are okay elk hunters and in good shape. We’ve gone 4 for 4 on elk so far this year. Every elk was in a public land unit that we had never set foot in, BUT they were all draw units in NM and AZ. I’d like to think that no matter where we go, we can get into elk... but I really wonder if that is a function of the draw units, rather than any progress we have made as a hunters. Reading RS posts, I think I would get punched in the mouth if I threw a dart at a map of CO and picked up my bow for an OTC hunt. There are a lot more accomplished hunters on RS who have been skunked in CO, which makes me second guess whether I want to battle it out there! It just blows my mind how CO can have so many elk and hunters afield, yet success rates that are so low.
 

mvmnts

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I've archery hunted Colorado OTC 9 years now I believe, sometimes making 2 trips a year. And I haven't released an arrow yet. Ive made a lot of mistakes but tried to keep learning. It can be discouraging as hell and a lot of those years I was ready to hang it up and head to Kansas and set up a treestand. The absolute best thing I can tell you is pick a unit and stay there and learn it. I've done a lot of jumping around because I get discouraged easily, and all that did was cost me a few more years of tag soup. Now we've been hunting the same area about 3 years, and I'm finally starting to feel like I can go and typically know where to find elk. But I still need all the other stars to align (TONS of hunters, stage of rut, silent and nocturnal elk, thermals, did I mention TONS of hunters?) Some people are lucky and stumble into a great honey hole the first time they go and it produces year after year. I'm not lucky. So I have to bust my ass every year and try to make something happen. And when it finally does, it'll be because I earned it the hard way not because I got lucky! And for the record, almost all of my hunting has been backcountry style a minimum of a mile from any road.

Much respect. Got skunked my first year and I'm anxious to go back. I don't know if I can take your 'stay put' advice to heart though. I feel like the area I was in was bad, no sign etc. I'm going to try somewhere new and hopefully it doesn't take me 9 years to get it done, but even if it does I hope I'm still out there improving and getting after it like you are.
 
Joined
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Much respect. Got skunked my first year and I'm anxious to go back. I don't know if I can take your 'stay put' advice to heart though. I feel like the area I was in was bad, no sign etc. I'm going to try somewhere new and hopefully it doesn't take me 9 years to get it done, but even if it does I hope I'm still out there improving and getting after it like you are.

I haven't been hunting CO, but I have stayed in the same unit the last three years and it has paid off. You figure out where elk like to go at certain times of the season. Where they will hang out midweek, where they will hang out on the weekends, where they like to go when pressured, etc. I only saw elk three out of my twelve days this last September, but it only takes one bull willing to play for everything to come together and this year it did.
 

zrodwyo

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I'm a resident in CO and starting next year I'm gonna focus on elk hunting out of state. There are only so many raghorns a guy can kill.


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SteveCNJ

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Being a Non resident who lives outside of elk country with no prior experience and having hunted Elk in CO I can tell you what makes Elk hunting REALLY HARD is all the non res that come from areas that are not Elk areas, with no prior elk hunting experience, don't know anyone to help or steer them in the right direction that already either lives in elk country or has prior experience, putting a hunt together that brings you 800+ miles from home one way to hunt a species you never hunted nor live near is very very hard. Sure Elk hunting is hard for everyone but for a resident in Elk country that lives inside 6 hrs of the unit its not the same especially since most residents have several friends or a small network group that they can get information from which helps out a TON. Plus being able to take a long weekend to scout or get lay of the unit even via driving roads.

For a traveling non res your learning the REAL HARD way and you get a small window to learn and get it done. I will add I've hunted Elk in CO 2 times and got 1 nice 5x5 and come from Indiana. I was on a Muley hunt this past 2nd rifle didn't have an elk tag since I wanted to focus on getting an older age class mule deer and saw a 5x5 bull, heard 9 bugles from 2 other bulls that were inside 200 yds, and saw about 9 cows, also heard cows in another area I never saw I found Elk in 3 places and never spent more than a day in any of those areas too and they were all around 1/2 mi from a road in a OTC area just in areas ppl over looked. Elk are where you find them is an anoying statement to a beginner but as you learn you realize how true it is and where you find them is where hunters are not. I've now been in Elk all 3 trips to CO even though 1 trip i was looking for deer.
I'm driving 1600+ miles to hunt Colorado. Getting there a few days early to scout. I do have a friend to lend some guidance.

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5MilesBack

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I'm a resident in CO and starting next year I'm gonna focus on elk hunting out of state. There are only so many raghorns a guy can kill.

Well, if you shoot the first raghorn that pops into view, you'll never kill a bigger one no matter where you hunt. I have become addicted to hunting mature bulls (just a totally different ball game), and I don't think I can ever go back to shooting a raghorn. I've eaten a few tags because of that, but I have a blast every season and I've hunted 5 different units in the last 6 years. That's another challenge that I've grown accustomed to......hunting a new unit every year. Just adds a new dimension to it. But the common theme is........there's always elk there. Being able to hunt the entire season is also a big advantage.
 

njdoxie

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I'm a nonres CO hunter and after a few elkless trips on my own many moons ago, learning oh so slowly, I had a resident take me with him 4 years in a row, killed a bull 4 years in a row in crowded areas, I was shocked, I thought he walked on water....and I really learned to hunt elk. All otc areas. I can't thank my friend enough, I'm forever grateful and I let him know every time I see him, he really accelerated my learning. I mean this guy knows how to hunt elk and he passed it on to me. Now, hunting solo, I either get a bull or pass on a bull every year, raghorns, all otc areas and I'm not some great hunter, far from it. I take the 1st legal bull I see, I'm not good enough/tough enough to trophy hunt. If I didn't have a topnotch mentor though, I'd probably have given up elk hunting, as I was super frustrated and elk seemed out of reach.

To your point, there are just too many variables to say whether it's worth it for you. To some folks CO has good elk hunting, for others it's no good, just depends, there is no one correct answer. It can get crowded though, I've seen roads lined with camps. Oh and I don't see elk every day either, just most days.
 
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big44a4

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Jul 4, 2017
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I’m 0-1 if you can call it that. A 9 day trip turned into 4 so I was lucky to have the one encounter that I did have this season. Considering sticking in the same unit for next season but I don’t know for sure yet. Found old sign from what I saw over the summer. Just need to find them in September after they’ve been pressured.

In those 4 days I covered a lot of ground, but had the encounter <2 miles from a road. Only heard bugles one other morning as well. The learning curve is more steep than the mountains.


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