Tradgangers,
I'll be going on my first Elk hunt this September (NW Colorado). I just about can't stand it. So, please share a little about your Elk plans, past results, etc. so that I may live vicariously through you until September 9th rolls around. Thanks and good hunting.
Going a week later than you to Colorado. This will also be my first trip. I drew a deer tag too. We will be hunting private and public land. A trip to a new location and for new critters is a double dose of excitement. I am having a lot of fun learning what I do not know about elk.
I am planning a couple of horseback trips for elk this fall. Opening week in Colorado I am packing into the Weminuche Wilderness about 12 miles with my supershrew and a flyrod. September 15 will find me on another trip into the Bighorns in Wyoming. I would like to go right now but I still have a lot to do to get everything ready and it will be time to leave before you know it. Sometimes you get lucky and get an elk other times you feel lucky just to be able to go. I hope you both have a good hunt. If you are like me you will be hooked deep and have to go back again and again.
I am going on a backpacking trip, with my bow, with broadhead-tipped arrows, with an elk tag, all during elk season. It remains to be seen if I am really elk hunting. :help:
You going on public or private? Bow or black powder. That is the weekend it opens, thats why I ask. I will be coming home that weekend.
Bow (Recurve) a little private, but mainly public in the middle of nowhere. I am a little concerned about muzzle loader opening on the 10th, but outfitter (Peters Hunting Service) has assured me that the plus' outweigh the negatives (cooler weather, more bugling, more activity). This guy seems straight up and I had my choice of the 5th or the 10th. From everyting I've studied and looked at, I chose the 10th. Will take a cow or small bull. Not hunting horns on this trip, Just happy to see the west with my bow in hand.
New Mexico draw results are scheduled out on Wednesday :pray: :pray: :pray:
If that doesn't work out I will be on the phone looking for a landowner tag somewhere or maybe a drop camp in an over the counter unit. One way or another, I plan to be hunting elk in September.
Doing a drop camp in the Eagle Cap Wilderness in NE Oregon for 10 days. And the best thing about it is: NO ATVS!
I'm looking forward to getting back to the high country--leaving here the first of August and stay thru archery season in CO. I miss those quakies!!
(http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e24/wapiteee/QuakiesinCabinCreekdrainage.jpg)
Me and my new knees are headed to Colorado.Will be first time for My Son to hunt there. I'll be the only trad shooter but I'm used to that. It will be a great time with friends and family.
We'll be hunting public ground but with a local so I'm excited to have a scout. Good luck everyone, hope to see lots of success pics. in September
I will be hunting CO for Elk too....anxious to use my trail cam this year for some mech needed scouting. Good luck to all
jake
Yes but my hunt will be cut short by a trip to Alaska. ;)
Man its to bad you have to leave for AK Plumbob!! Thats sounds great, I get to go to Alaska in July going to try some fishing. Can't wait but don't have to much choice.
I moved to the west slope of Colorado just for the hunting and all the rest this beautiful state has to offer. Been running up in the hills every weekend to try and find a good looking spot. I'm sure I will have company but hey we are all trying to accomplish the same thing. Peace in a high place with all the anticipation of seeing the elk, the trees, the smells and on and on. Good hunting all, shoot straight!
I am if I draw. Last year wasn't real good, a big chunk of the area we had was burned. Should be good this year. :thumbsup:
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 (http://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
Anyone have any experience in CO. units 521 and 421?
Dave,
good to see your advice here.I enjoy reading
your logic and opinions. I have been hunting
your part of Co. for 13 years. Absolutly some
of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I consider it my home away from home!Also we
share a mutual friend in Milt @ Wiltcat Canyon.
A wonderful arrowsmith and even better person.
Paul
That link got me to a retail store? Is that right?
I think Dave meant:
www.backcountryhunters.org (http://www.backcountryhunters.org)
I will go on my second elk hunt this year. Last year I hunting in Idaho and I will be back to the same area for at least two weeks in Sept. and maybe even longer. I'll be hunting with two of my buddies who have hunted this same area for several years. I will be hunting with a self bow I built and taking an other one I built as a back up.
Oh yes, I got hooked last year.
Good hunting everyone.
Plumbob -- sorry! It must have been happy hour when I wrote that. Try www.backcountryhunters.org. (http://www.backcountryhunters.org.) I always have a hard time with the com/org/net trio. dave
Once again I will be chasing the elusive waptit in the backcountry of Idaho. Seven miles off the road, 3,000 feet elevation differential, no ATVs, no other hunters the last five years running. Solo, bivouac, me and my newly made bow, some freshly tuned arrows, razor sharp broadheads, minimal equipment, my journal and camera.... what could be better? Filling my soul's cup every Sepetember rut is what I LIVE for all year long. I am actually going to be starting my elk journal thread here soon, scouting pictures, thoughts, gear lists... similar to the "heading west" thread last year and the "sheep journal" from this year.
I never used an ATV to hunt off of or get to my hunting spot. But do have one. The gripe of ATVs on public / national forest lands should be over. They are not allowed except on specific trails of which there are FEW. And if you decide to hunt near one thats your problem / mistake. We use mine as an extra vehicle should someone want to go opposite ways from camp, on a road you could drive your truck down. All this legally. I know they were abused for hunting national forest land in the past, but there is next to no legal use of them now on national forest. I hunt wilderness and national forest next to wilderness. I see elk within 1/2 mile from the road regularly, and know they cross the local roads regularly almost like deer on a nightly basis. One of the oldtimers camps is right next to a meadow by a road, he gets elk visits in the middle of the night regularly. Talk of them running from the sound of an engine like a mad animal is greatly over exagerated. Maybe in areas where they were hunted that way, private land?? In 6 years of hunting the area I have seen no one operate one illegally, or in a way that it was messing up my hunting. :saywhat: I believe much of this is like the cell phone complaints. Yeah there are idiots out there who can't drive and talk. But its no different than the soda and hamburger you are eating while driving, or music, or???
Yep - I'm an ATV driver, cell phoner, and tradional hunter.
Woah there bow, nobody was accusing you of atv abuse. I think the elk in Wisconsin are different than the elk here... probably the atv drivers too... abuse IS rampant here, there is so much land that it just can't be patrolled properly, ATVs have prolifereated to the point that, litterally, every third truck on my drive to the mountains (all summer AND during the hunting season) has at least one atv. If my poor hearing can hear an ATV buzzing from a couple miles away, I know the elk can too. I HAVE seen elk spooked by ATVs.... last year I was stalking a satelite bull and suddenly the whole heard spooked and blew into Timbuktoo...no big deal, I know it wasn't the steady wind in my face, nor my movement becasue I wasn't moving, but not less than two minutes later, I can hear an ATV coming up my way. No road, he was just looking for elk. Good luck bud. There are A LOT of fellas who never use an ATV unless they are pulling an elk out of a God forsaken draw, but they are outnumbered by those out "hunting" from the saddle. I am NOT angry at you for using an ATV, just like I am NOT angry at someone for using a compund bow. Different means for the same end, but I firmly believe, for me, the enjoyment is the journey and ATVs (mine or hopefully otheres) are not part of my journey.
Mike
And I don't FULLY agree with your cell phone/ soda/ burger analogy. One is an added danger on the road, the other is disruptive of something else entirely. Both blown out of proportion? Possible.
Wish atv use wasn't abused in Wyoming... it's still a problem here.
ELK!!!! I'm planning my 2008 hunt already It's not if I'm going, It's how long can I go for
I'll be out there too. Only 11 weeks to go and hopefully they'll go by pretty fast. I'm pretty lucky in that I live real close to where I hunt so I get out quite a bit to scout. I think if I had just one week to hunt it would be the last. The bulls will be more vocal. Like Dave I don't call much but prefer to sneak in on vocal bulls or sit at an ambush point.
In our part of Colorado ATV abuse is pretty bad so I try to hunt in areas they aren't. Sometimes elk will live very close to major roadways and get used to the traffic. It's when a motorized vehicle gets off those roadways and into the elk comfort zone that moves the animals further away.One national forest road I know of has a bunch of old logging roads that are gated off with signs saying no motorized vehicles. There are illegal ATV trails around every gate.I know it's a few bad apples that ruin it for everyone but the main problem here is just not enough law enforcement and not harsh enough penalties. Another reason I hunt in roadless areas is because I really don't like hearing the things. For that reason I joined Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.
I hope all you guys have a great hunt.
Well said "Ninj"
Bowdude you are more than welcome to take a trip with me and I will show you ATV abuse. :banghead:
New Mexico draw results are supposed to be posted today. My credit card limit just dropped by the cost of a high demand tag.
Coincidence? :confused:
If my math is right I'll be in the mountains of northern New Mexico Sept. 15-22.
Yee Haaa!!!! :jumper: :jumper: :jumper:
i'll be hunting elk just like i always do in northern idaho.... long way from the road/gate and hopefully the logging will be done so that the gate is closed and the ATVs are once again no longer allowed in.
i agree with elk ninga...... ATV abuse is rampant up here..... and yeah i am also an ATV owner but look for areas to hunt where they are not allowed.
Congrats, Whip! I'd say you got you an Elk tag. :clapper:
To everyone else who posted, thanks...I needed that. Looks like many of us will be sharing a mountainside (in spirit anyway) chasing Elk with our recurves/longbows in tow. Good luck and good hunting.
QuoteOriginally posted by Whip:
New Mexico draw results are supposed to be posted today. My credit card limit just dropped by the cost of a high demand tag.
Coincidence? :confused:
If my math is right I'll be in the mountains of northern New Mexico Sept. 15-22.
Yee Haaa!!!! :jumper: :jumper: :jumper:
Being a Banker, I should hope your math is correct, and if it is I'm going too!!!!! :jumper:
Woah I wasn't saying anyone was getting on me, didn't mean to give that impression. I was talking about elk hunting colorado. The main reason we use an atv is the extra vehicle, old man walking down hill strategy. Take the atv to the road downhill side, park it, drive the road to the top of a ridge, walk/hunt the drainage back to the atv, go get the truck. There are a lot of drainages that you can do that on if you look for em.
If everyone used ATV's like that I doubt anyone would have an issue with them. I have used them myself quite a bit on a ranch I have hunted in Colorado. They are simply used as an extra vehicle to get to that starting spots, and then walk from there. It just works so much better than everyone climbing in one pickup and getting dropped off at different spots around the mountain. The ATV's are never taken where you wouldn't be driving otherwise with a truck. The cabin we stay in is just too far away from the hunting grounds to walk, so you have to drive something to get there one way or another. Don't see any problem with that.
I've gone with and without a 4 legged atv and have to say, I like em. :thumbsup:
I'm hoping to do my first elk hunt this fall. Heading to WA state (in laws live there). Probably going solo. Don't know which bow yet, but it'll be a stickbow.
Good luck to all of you!
-Ben
Dave I like the way you think!! And write. I'm excited about being out there somewhere in the golden light and the smells of the high country!!
Its cool Bowdude. Its just that there is severe ATV abuse in places and some of us are thin skinned about it. :cool:
I always elk hunt here at home. I keep trying for some states though. I haven't been able to get on N.M. site to check.
I can't imagine missing a year of the high country, majestic elk, and the peace of no city noises and lights. Just the millions of stars. Smell of evergreens and cow-in-heat scent...well maybe not that.
Here's my Idaho Elk Hunt from last year.
Idaho Elk Hunt (http://residents.bowhunting.net/sticknstring/2006elkhunt1.html)
I hunted near Meeker CO a couple times in the Flattops. Very nice country. Lots of elk. Have fun. I'm skipping this year but will likely be back in Idaho next year.
Hey John I read your thread when you 1st posted it but it was fun to go back and reread it today! Kind of like a nice 20 minute transport into elk camp!!!
Dan
Yea, John! Awesome story and pics. I was already fired up from the thread and then youi had to put those photos on there, too. Really amazing pics.
Who's hunting elk?
ME, ME, ME, ME, ME :bigsmyl:
Finally got on to the NM site. Going back to the Gila.
Playing around with a slide/negative scanner and scanned these old pics of my 2nd archery elk hunt. Unit #76 in Creede,CO back in 1982. Elevation was 12,007 ft. I've found a place with a little more oxygen to hunt elk in now!! (http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e24/wapiteee/img059.jpg)
Ya'll quit bragging.....
Yeah I'll be hunting elk. One of my favorite things to do. Wished I would have drawn a big bull tag, spikes and cows again. On the subject of ATV abuse, just come to UT. You won't believe the abuse. Plus there are so many roads, you can't get awat from them. Will also be going to CO or ID this year, try to get a bigger than spike, bull. Good luck to everyone. Steadman