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I am planning a hunt in Co next fall as I have learned that as a non resident alien I can hunt there without a guide providing I can demonstrate that I have the equivalent to the Colorado hunter safety training. So where should I head? I am going with a local friend, who is suggesting the San Juan and Flat Tops areas for the moment, what other areas are there to look at? We are fit hunters and either going to backpack and bivvy or go with horses and light camps so we can be mobile. Working hard is not a problem, but for the trip to be worthwhile it needs to be in an area where there are big elk and where I can realistically expect to find one. I am also thinking about going in for a week of scouting in the week prior to the opening, then spending about 2 weeks or 10 days actually hunting. Anyone care to provide clues to good area where there is no vehicle access and that is known for big elk? Thanks in advance. | ||
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Asking on a Public Forumf or a good Elk spot is probably akin to asking a Fly Fisherman what his best Runs are in a River.You might get pointed in the General direction,but expect no specifics.I would be on the phone to Fish&Wildlife and try and get ahold of a Game Biologist.When you can get one on the line,most will share quite a bit of info with you.Maybe some kind soul here would invite you to Elk Camp.good luck,Huntz  | |||
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...I realize that no one is going to give away their secret spots, but for the moment I'm just after the general areas where the big elk are taken. I will spend quite a bit of time on the phone with the Co DOW and hopfully they will give me some good info too. Another question; can I get access to private land by approaching the landowners and offering to pay for the priveledge? | |||
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seasons aren't that long (2 weeks), but a good week of scouting will help you a lot. you have been pointed in some good places. there are elk all over the place here, while you might not find a magazine cover worthy bull, put in the time in the general right area and you can at least put one down. the biggest elk, will not be available to you, sorry. the units around RMNP take a good decade of point accumulation if not longer. you havent mentioned if you will be hunting archery, muzzle loader or rifle. remember the seasons change greatly every few weeks up here in the mountains, while archery hunters might be fiine in a long sleeve light t shirt and pants, a few weeks later the rifle hunters may need thermals, several layers and be hiking through a few feet of snow....or it might be 60 degrees lol. gotta love the rockies If you think every possible niche has been filled already, thank a wildcatter! | |||
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I initally wanted to hunt the last week of the archery season because it should be during teh peak of the rut and the weather should be better, then switch to the rifle if I didn't connect. But I have since learned that I can't have both options, so I will go for the rifle season. Tomorrow I will call DOW and find out more. There are so many things I need to find out, like; can I shoot small game like rabbits for meat while I'm hunting elk? Do I need to leave my rifle behind while I scout or can it be in some way "locked" away to demonstrate that it is not ready for use? Can I carry a handgun for bear protection? Are there bears to need protecting from? Do I need to take precautions when I set up my camps so that bears won't tear it up? Can you shoot wolves in Colorado? Will deer or bears be open to me while I am hunting the beginning of the elk season? I'd rather get these some of these answers here rather then ask an officer on the phone who could get suspiscous of my intnetions. The last thing I want to do it compromise my hunt because I break a law I didn't know about, so I need to find out what exactly I can and cant do while I am in Colorado. | |||
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I'd suggest the northwest corner of the state around Craig and Maybell. Lots of elk up there. Probably the biggest herds in the state. Pretty resonable for getting around. Not a lot of really high or rugged country. Rolling sagebrush and cedar points for the most part. The only drawback to that area is that it really isn't known for producing really big bulls. Lots of decent 5x5s and 6x6s are taken in game management units 3, 301, 4 etc..., but you probably won't kill a monster there. There are a lot of mulies there too and it is usually pretty easy to get a tag. Sometimes you can have a bonus cow elk tag as well. Which means you can hunt bull elk, cow elk, mule deer and small game all at the same time. And, I've never even seen a bear track in that area. The extreme corner of the state comprising game management areas 1,2,10 and 201 are strictly managed for trophy bulls and there are absolute monsters there. But all of those areas require more than 15 prference points. It is simply impossible for you to come on over and get a tag unless you are willing to pay for a landowner tag and I seriously doubt you can get one of those for less than $15,000. The game wardens really watch these areas, so it would be a really bad idea to try and sneak a big bull out of there. But, there is also nothing to stop the big bulls from crossing into one of the easier areas to get a tag for. Some guys hunt right along the river which is the border between unit 3 and unit 2 and try to get lucky. Don't know how often that actually works out though. | |||
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Thanks for the replies guys. I should point out that for me, a big part of these trips is just being there, on my own or with friends. However I, like anybody else like to bring home the bacon, especialy on a hunt overseas where you will probably not be able to go back the next year. But I don't want to go on a outfitted and guided hunt, because I have a friend in Colorado who is gracious enough to host and set up this trip. He is not likely to be familiar with the exact areas we will be hunting, but he will be more familiar than I am with the way things are done in the US, which is no small thing. One idea comes to mind, though I have no idea of the feasability of it; Can I hire a guide for a week of scouting, go into the area we plan to hunt ahead of opening, with one horse, bivy camp, optics and look for elk, the areas they use for bedding eating and transit. Also look for a good spot to set up a camp that will have feed and water for the horses nearby. I plan, and hope that by going 10 - 12 hours ride, or more into the wilderness that I should not find other hunters and undisturbed animals. Is that a realistic notion? If I can hire a local guide, and he would do the week of scouting with me, once I've been shown the country and the animals, I don't need a guide to come back and kill one. That to me, feels like a great idea, but then again I have no idea of what the guides in Colorado are prepared to do. Maybe it won’t be easy to find a man willing to go 3 days ride into the wilderness because there are elk closer to the roads? I remember I kept hearing from the guides and locals in Canada on a moose hunt(that was a total fraud) that there was no need to go back into the wilderness, and the moose could be found from the roads, because you can cover so much more country. Well, I learned(and showed them) that if you hike just a half mile from the road, there were moose superhighways, and I killed my moose after not having even seeing any in 10 days, just by hiking 1 mile from the road. So gentlemen, how does the idea of hiring a guide for a week of scouting sound? | |||
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One problem with hiring a guide to "scout" for you is the season structure in Colorado. From August to late November, the elk season is open. It begins with archery, goes straight to muzzle loader and then into 4 seperate rifle seasons. Most good guides will be working all the seasons and probably won't be able to just scout. And if they did, and found a good bull, there would probably be paying clients handy to take advantage of the situation. Drop camps have already been mentioned, and they are a viable alternative. You say you have a friend in Colorado that will help. Does he hunt an area that fits your requirements? You may be better hunting with him in an area he is familiar with. There isn't a shortage of elk anywhere in the state and being familiar with one area is better than trying to learn another in a short period of time. Elk are migratory as well. Just because you see them in one place this week, doesn't mean they'll be there next week. Weather will make them move and in Colorado, you never know when a storm is going to hit during elk season. If your friend is familiar with an area, he could probably predict how the herds move around. If I was you, I'd call the Colorado Division of Wildlife and get the contact info for the big game biologist for whichever area you decide on. These folks have a huge amount of info on their respective areas and have always been willing to share that info with me. They know how the herds move, which areas have good numbers of elk, which landowners are having problems etc... In short, they're pretty good sources of info and a couple bucks spent of phone calls beats the hell out of having to invest a couple hundred miles of walking and riding. Mac | |||
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Good point MAC, I had asked myself how the guide thing might work out with all the various seasons. I haven't been albo to find time to get on the phone with DOW yet, hopefully I will tonight after dinner. The DOW is going to be my main source of general info, I just need to narrow that info down over the next year. | |||
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MAC, after speaking with a very competent and friendly young bloke at the Colorado DOW, I learned that the 1st rifle season will come after a 20 day break in between the archery and rifle seasons, so there will be a lot of dead time in between in 2010. A guide might just appreciate the possibility to make some extra money. The other thing is that the actual hunting season is only 4 days long, so I think I will be spending much more time scouting than hunting. Each new piece of informaiton brings me to think of more and more questions, I have a direct line with CDOW now so I will take most of it up with them. | |||
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Last year due to the hot weather a friend of mine who was hunting at the 12000 foot area never saw any elk & didn't fill his tag they learned the elk were at much higher elevations over 14,000 feet.I hunted in Colorado from 1984 thru 1999 west of Meeker,CO in the Piceance Creek area, last year friends of ours who hunted in the 9 mile area north of Meeker shot a cow elk & 3 3x3 mule deer bucks. | |||
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A friend of mine arrived in CO w/o his hunter safety certificate so he had to take the Colorado Hunter Safety Course & another friend arrived too late to take a class so he couldn't hunt. http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hu...tion/InternetCourses It may be prudent for you to take the Colorado Hunter Safety Course to avoid any problems that could interfer with your hunting plans.I was a Calif Hunter Safety Instructor who advertised for several months about my classes,I finally gave it up because I'd receive calls the night before the season opener from people wanting me to give them quickie course so they could hunt,my class was 2 evenings and a range day where our club members gave a hands on firearms safety training session. | |||
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Hmmmm, there aren't many places at that elevation other than the 14K mountain tops in the state, and none of those have much suitable elk habitat that high. In fact, they are about devoid of any forage other than rocks. Mt. Elbert is the highest at 14,433 feet. I'm guessing something else was in play to keep your friend from seeing elk, especially at 12,000 feet. That's even above timberline and not likely an area where elk would hang out even in warm weather. I'd bet most of them were in the darkest timber on the northern slopes at the lower elevations. If I recall, there was something like 45,000 elk killed during the 2008 seasons, which was about 4,000 less than in 2007 because of fewer hunters. I doubt any of them were killed above 14,000 ft. unless the hunters had supplemental oxygen.  Tony Mandile - Author "How To Hunt Coues Deer" | |||
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Express, I'm doing a DIY archery hunt in the Flattops Wilderness area next year. It takes 2 preference points to hunt archery in that area. Which means I have been putting in for that area for a while now. There is a lodge (Trappers lake Lodge phone is 970-878-3336) in that area that will rent you a horse or supply a drop camp if you like. I don't know about rifle season but for archery it takes a couple years to draw a tag. After achery and Muzzleloader seasons most of the big bulls will be in the dark timber which is tough to hunt. Good luck. | |||
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Outdoor Writer, you are right about one thing, elk above 14,000 feet ain't happen in CO. However, I have seen and hunted thousands of elk, hundreds of times well above timberline. Often 500 - 1500 feet above timberline, sometimes more. To see elk at 12,000 feet would not be uncommon at all. I have seen that more times than I could count in this state, especially when the weather is and has been pleasant. Aaron Neilson Global Hunting Resources | |||
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Aaron, Yeah, that didn't come across exactly how I meant it to. I've also hunted them in the Weminuche above timberline -- which can range from 11,000 to 12,000 feet in CO. What I meant it to say was that even though they might get above timberline, their adsence most likely meant they were in the timber. And that would be especially true if there's any hunting pressure up high. IOW, that's why his friends didn't see elk at 12,000 feet. It sure didn't have anything to do with warm weather at that elevation. Tony Mandile - Author "How To Hunt Coues Deer" | |||
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Outdoor Writer - Ya, that makes alot more sense and I totally agree with you!! Aaron | |||
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I have two friends that own a lodge in CO. They might be able to help you out a bit. PM me if you would like their contact information. Best of luck on the hunt you choose! | |||
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As an aside, I once shared the summit of Horn Peak (13,450 feet) in the Colorado Sangre de Cristo's, with a raghorn bull elk. I guess he liked the view too.  Don't let so much reality into your life that there's no room left for dreaming. | |||
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