Elk Hunting Colorado-Archery 2011

DJ Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Adventure Information

Species: Elk
Type of Hunting: Archery
Location of Adventure: Colorado,
Guide/Outfitter: Self-Guided
Lodging: Sportsman's Campground
Would you recommend it?

I would recommend this experience

Adventure Review

This review is from an archery elk hunt we took in mid-September of 2011. I began my research to find a replacement area to hunt elk in the fall of 2010. In the past we had always hunted unit 6 in northern Colorado. My first priority was looking for a draw area that would produce good shot opportunities and had a consistent track record. Knowing that we would not be drawn for the draw area of our choice for a few years, I knew that I needed to find a hunting unit where we could buy over-the-counter tags for the years while we were earning our preference points. So, I looked at the maps, studied the statistics, looked at herd sizes, bull/cow ratios and much more. All that being said, I narrowed the choices down to a unit in southern Colorado. This was a do-it-yourself hunt. We did all the map study, scouting, and hunting ourselves. As you can guess, this does place the burden of success on our shoulders. Over the years, we have done mostly do-it-yourself hunts to save money. For those of you who have hunted elk as a Non-Resident you know what I mean when you dish out well over $500 for an elk tag. Here is what we discovered about our new hunting area. We spent many of the first few days scouting for fresh signs and locating elk hangouts. On the first day we split up into two hunting groups. Our first group was able to get within 60 yards of a cow elk but we were unable to get the chance for a shot. The other group was able to get near a heard of cows and a 5×5 bull. They were only 50 yards from the bull, but no shot was available on the elk. We were all excited from the results of our first day hunting and decided that this area definitely holds a good number of elk. However, just like any public hunting area, you have to do your share of the work to get into good elk areas. The next 5 days of our hunt it rained consistently and we discovered that in areas that were easy to access the elk were call shy. I don’t feel like the coinciding Muzzleloader season was too much of a factor for our hunt, and we don’t feel like the area was crowded with hunters. There were plenty of areas where we could go without being near other hunters. The elk during the first part of our week were not bugling as we had hoped. The bulls were a bit quiet for most of the week in our opinions. As the week progressed our scouting time paid off as we found some really hot signs. We found some fresh scat, beds, rubs, and wallows. We hunted near this fresh sign for the last couple of days and had a couple of bulls come to within 100 yards but we did not get any shot opportunities from these efforts. Overall, we had a great time spending time in God’s wonderful creation. We were all thankful to be able to have the time and resources to take such a trip. We will be returning to this area to hunt again. During our week here, we also saw turkey, deer, and grouse. Check out the attached pictures to get a feel for what this area looks like and a glimpse of some of the wildlife.