Colorado GMU 065 3rd rifle season elk

[cscott925]

Hi everyone,
Well I’ve been obsessively planning out my first elk hunt in Colorado this year. I have been doing a deep dive into unit 65, and considering 3rd rifle season. Looking at the areas between silverjack campground and Uncompahgre peak, high Mesa, Cimarron rivers. My question is if there is a good snowstorm by that time, will the elk have already migrated below these areas and on to the private lands? Would 9000-12000’ be too high during that season? Thank you in advance!

 

[ScreamingPotato]

I can't answer your question with any authority and don't know your area. I'm only going to say that this last year we were covered in snow for 3rd rifle, it was THICK and had been snowing for quite some time. Got tired of running into Fudds everywhere we went and decided to get up and away from them so we went up way higher in elevation, no tire tracks and not much for animal tracks either, all the deer tracks were gone and moose and everything else we'd been consistently seeing there was just fresh snow and bunny/squirrel sets here and there. Went for a couple mile hike and came across a fresh trail of three sets of Elk track, looked like Bulls and we followed. Wife was in front of me quietly crossing over some deadfall when I saw a very good Bull stand up looking around about 60 yards away, tried everything I could to get the wife's attention but just couldn't get her to look up in time and he bolted. So moral of the story, we learned, yeah there's plenty of Elk and Elk hunters down low where they're supposed to be in the snow, but sometimes it's worth a look up higher because the Elk didn't necessarily get the memo that moving day has passed.

 

[NICKJ]

We hunted 65 third season last year for deer and couldn’t get up to high Mesa or silver jack without chains because of the snow. Then it started to melt and turned into a muddy mess. Forced everyone down low