You have gotten some good advice; check the Colorado Wildlife and Parks website and especially try to identify areas away from roads (all roads, including ATV trails), and have one or more back up spots in mind.
I assume that you have a lot of white-tail hunting experience in Oklahoma. If so, forget some things that you may have learned. Elk are less habitual, and they cover a lot more ground, so:
1) avoid trail sitting or setting up any kind of blind;
2) don't sit on any water hole/wallow unless it is red hot, meaning that there is fresh mud running down the trunk of nearby trees from a visit this morning. Even then, expect to be disappointed.
Yes, I know that people kill elk from tree stands at wallows, etc. but this is generally not a good strategy except in very special cases.
Think turkey hunting instead (but at a larger scale). Walk ridges, look, and listen. Be mobile. An elk call (bugle or cow call) is a good locator. Don't slow down to still hunt unless you find very red-hot sign (e.g., green droppings with flies on them, very fresh tracks with an elk still standing in them). Hunt your area for two or three days. If your are finding nothing but older sign (e.g., dry summer droppings that may be several days or weeks old) then move to a new spot. Chances are that the elk in this spot have already move somewhere else.
Elk shift their areas of use during the archery season in September, even if they are not pressured by hunters. What typically happens is that after a hard frost, which occurs earlier at higher altitudes, and in open areas (such as alpine habitat), the elk will shift to more forested sites where the vegetation is still green and succulent. You will see sign in alpine areas, a few days old, but you may see no elk.
Be MOBILE, and if you're seeing no elk, then move.
Topic: CO OTC units for elk? (Read 329 times)
