CO 1st Rifle

[ncstatehunter]

Had a unit 41 tag, tagged out on a 6x6 opening evening. Only heard two other shots, one way off opening morning and one way off the last day while packing up my camper down low. No other shots whenever I was hunting or packing out the following two days. I know of only one other bull being taken after talking to the people I ran into, seemed to be slow from what the locals said. Lots of sign where I hunted, ran into bulls herded up with cows mid-morning and then right before end of legal shooting time (thinking it was the same group the more I think about it and compare my bull to the one I saw).

 

[tdhanses]

Well maybe people will start to realize there are no elk in CO and head north.

 

[AaronMColeman]

Well maybe people will start to realize there are no elk in CO and head north.

No way! No elk here either, keep moving north.


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[1GIG]

First time chasing elk for me. Covered 30-35 miles. I was in unit 24 and a day and a half in 12. Full moon, warm, lots of old sign but nothing fresh. Heard a couple shots on opening day in 24. Saw a group of three on horses in 12 packing out on day 4 and they were 3 for 3. I kicked up one bedded down on the last day in dark timber. Could even see it, no idea if a cow or a bull. Had a moose come within 10 yards at my spike camp. Saw a half dozen mule deer throughout the week, and a bear with cubs, but no elk.

 

[davsco]

i was in 12/24 also. i hiked up 1000+ vert feet only to have outfitters with horses go well past me. handful of distant shots opening morning, little to nothing that afternoon. 2nd day was pretty much dead. 3rd day i atv'd way up nearby and nothing was happening there. lots of discouraged hunters, even those on horseback. 2nd year elk hunting and 2nd year being skunked. last year at least saw some bulls pre-season on private land, and two cow eik walked by my one spot opening morning. this year zero elk sightings, but did see two moose crossing the road.

 

[bmf0713]

We hunted about 50 hours putting on probably 30-40 miles from 9500-12000ft in all different kinds of terrain, saw a few fresh tracks and a little sign the first couple days, had a cow barking ahead of us but never saw it. Got into a lot of fresh and old elk sign on the last day morning then a forest fire screwed it up, spent the middle of the day trying to find out what was on fire, went back out at night got circled by a rescue helicopter so we called it quits and came back to evacuation notices on tent and four wheeler. Coulda shot a nice black bear but passed it up because I thought we may be in a spot holding elk. Talked to a ton of people in my area and from other parts of the state, sounds like everyone was having trouble finding them. Met some really nice guys from the area and learned a lot, so in my opinion my hunt was a successful one!

 

[Short Track]

Most of the guys at camp shot their Bulls between 11am and 1pm when herd after herd of Elk finally made it over from the public land to the private land.

Most guides won't hunt between those hours. They claim no Elk moves, and you're only scenting up the mountain. Go back to camp for lunch....

 

[prm]

The bull I shot was screaming his head off at another bull and came to a water hole at 1:00. I shot him around 1:30.

 

[joes3]

Definitely no elk in CO (except for the ones I see/harvest)

Seemed like there were fewer camps around this year, almost nobody hunted the whole week. People seemed to either know where the elk were (and were packing out), or didn't (and got frustrated.

Was hot during the day, most "normal" watering holes were dry. That said, our group saw elk every day.

 

[Jbehredt]

Definitely no elk in CO (except for the ones I see/harvest)

Seemed like there were fewer camps around this year, almost nobody hunted the whole week. People seemed to either know where the elk were (and were packing out), or didn't (and got frustrated.

Was hot during the day, most "normal" watering holes were dry. That said, our group saw elk every day.

You’ll generally see fewer camps if you hunt the whole week during a 5 day season

 

[jkyotehtr]

Was able to get a shot off on this guy on the last day in unit 79.

 

[Thomas11]

To not see elk in 55 is unbelievable. Wow.

I hunted 55 and saw one elk in 7 days or hunting and scouting. And we were spiked out in multiple locations in wilderness areas where we usually find multiple bulls every yr

 

[Newt]

I hunted east of Meeker. I managed to get a small 5x5 the 4th day. 9 hunters in our camp, only one other guy got a 4x4 and that was opening morning.

It snowed on us setting up camp the 10th, and was bitterly cold the next morning but got gradually tolerable the rest of the time. I finally was able to pull off one pair of long johns the last two days.

The elk were there, but if it were not for the snow you would not have thought it. The snow gave us the knowledge that they were there(beds and tracks everywhere) and were ranging everywhere from 7200' up to 9000'(the highest we hunted).

The problem was two things I think. Full moon at night made it dang near possible to go hunt them at night, and there were a ton of hunters in the area. I had never seen that many before. The elk just knew where to go hide is all, and most guys were not willing to go into the places they were to get them.

I decided I would go to those places that 4th morning and shot my bull at 12 noon on the dot as he was side-hilling right above me on a north-facing slope in dark timber. I was in the right place at the right time is all.

He had been shot once or twice before. Had a bullet hole through one antler and a large hole right above his back hip between it and the backstrap. It was severely infected and I lost most of the meat on that one rear quarter along with the tenderloins(that is where the bulk of the infection was).

Other than that, not any other elk seen on the hoof really. They were there, but they for sure were not coming out in the open during daylight hours. I passed by a lot of beds when I was walking around that were very fresh with the ground still wet from bulls urinating. You could smell the beds from quite a ways away.

 

[cnelk]

The problem was two things I think. Full moon at night made it dang near possible to go hunt them at night, and there were a ton of hunters in the area.

Hunting at night is frowned upon...

 

[Poser]

I hunted east of Meeker. I managed to get a small 5x5 the 4th day. 9 hunters in our camp, only one other guy got a 4x4 and that was opening morning.

It snowed on us setting up camp the 10th, and was bitterly cold the next morning but got gradually tolerable the rest of the time. I finally was able to pull off one pair of long johns the last two days.

The elk were there, but if it were not for the snow you would not have thought it. The snow gave us the knowledge that they were there(beds and tracks everywhere) and were ranging everywhere from 7200' up to 9000'(the highest we hunted).

The problem was two things I think. Full moon at night made it dang near possible to go hunt them at night, and there were a ton of hunters in the area. I had never seen that many before. The elk just knew where to go hide is all, and most guys were not willing to go into the places they were to get them.

I decided I would go to those places that 4th morning and shot my bull at 12 noon on the dot as he was side-hilling right above me on a north-facing slope in dark timber. I was in the right place at the right time is all.

He had been shot once or twice before. Had a bullet hole through one antler and a large hole right above his back hip between it and the backstrap. It was severely infected and I lost most of the meat on that one rear quarter along with the tenderloins(that is where the bulk of the infection was).

Other than that, not any other elk seen on the hoof really. They were there, but they for sure were not coming out in the open during daylight hours. I passed by a lot of beds when I was walking around that were very fresh with the ground still wet from bulls urinating. You could smell the beds from quite a ways away.

9 people in camp? How do 9 people even hunt the same area? Also, hard to complain about “tons” of hunters in the area when you have a camp of 9 people.

 

[schnitzerphoto]

Same deal for me in Unit 15. The only animal I bumped was at about 8:30pm on a hike out.

 

[WTFJohn]

I helped my dad on a cow elk hunt during 1st rifle; the first day was spent finding fresh beds and feeding areas (and more mule deer than you could shake a stick at), the second day we saw over 200 elk within 300 yds of our shooting position, including a few small 5x5s that were still bugling. He notched his cow tag, but was the only one in camp to do so.

 

[AaronMColeman]

Are there other parts of CO that have more elk? I know the state has the most elk and the highest harvest, so why is nobody seeing anything?

 

[justinspicher]

Are there other parts of CO that have more elk? I know the state has the most elk and the highest harvest, so why is nobody seeing anything?

CPW is lying to everyone about the actually number of elk here to promote tag sales.

 

[SeanDC]

Are there other parts of CO that have more elk? I know the state has the most elk and the highest harvest, so why is nobody seeing anything?

Warm temps and full moon ruined it for most of us.

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