Guys -- great to hear all the positive anticipation, which is so much of the fun of it all. Those of you coming to CO -- indeed, it's a troubling conflict that perhaps the best week of elk season is also black powder week (9 days, with two weekends. Give them credit for good political lobbying. Earlier it often rains, at least down here in the SW corner of the state, and the elk aren't always bugling a lot. Later, they've become acutely aware they're being hunted, and the herds have formed, and there's plenty of bugling away from the roads and motorized trails but they most often run away if you bugle, and even cow calling rarely works. The biggest problem with the black powder folks is that they tend to come in big groups and they love ATVs, which elk absolutely hate. I don't care what any outfitter says, if you hunt within hearing (and elk hear a lot farther than we do!) of motors and/or lots of hunters bugling (and the two definitely go together), you'll be enjoying far inferior hunting. If I had only a week to hunt, it would be the week before black powder opens, second week of the CO season, first week of Sept. Leave your trail cams at home. Elk are not whitetails. Even if you're lucky enough to get elk photos, that doesn't mean they'll be there in the day. Or the next night. When undisturbed, they loaf unpredictably around a huge territory on about an 8-day cycle. So where there were no elk yesterday and several days before, there suddenly may be many for a few days, then gone again. To the brother hunting the Weminuche Wilderness--you lucky dog! But unless you've been there before and know what you're up to and precisely where, and what to expect, don't go in from Poison Park above Pagosa Springs, as half the outfitters and horse folks in the world use that way in. And any access from the Rio Grande side is sure to be plagued and ruined by heavy ATV traffic.
In review, to offer my most heartfelt and honest advice no matter if others disagree, I suggest to plan your hunt as far as possible from areas open to ATV use (there are still places where legal forest roads run alongside wilderness or roadless areas, with no legal ATV trails nearby, and you can road camp and walk a mile or more in and find solitude and undisturbed game, though such places are going fast; join
www.backcountryhunters.com to help save them!), And rather than spending $50 or whatever a bugle costs these days, spend it on good booze for the campfire time or a new pair of boots, and look to the overall experience as the goal, with any elk taken an unexpected bonus.
Last year, I robbed myself of more than half of elk season here in CO to hunt moose in AK. I'll never leave the Rockies again in Sept., as there is no better life experience to have than a true backcountry elk hunt during the rut, if you leave all the store-bought, motorized, electronic, video-hyped crap behind and hunt traditionally and honestly, like our grandfathers did. If I were God, every other month would be September. Go get 'em, guys! I'll be out there with you, somewhere, but you'll neither see nor hear me. Dave
Topic: Who's hunting Elk? (Read 926 times)
