2017 CO GMU 74 success?

[big44a4]

Anyone hunt unit 74 for elk this year and have any success?

I went 3rd week archery with 9 days to hunt but it was cut short to 4. Didn’t hear much and had one encounter on the 4th day. Saw a lot of mule deer. Seems like you can always find what you don’t have a tag for...

Saw a lot hunters on the roads, ran into two while we were hunting, and spotted a couple others in the distance through glass.

What was your experience this elk season?


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[durangobrad]

I hunted it a little bit durring elk season, but was mostly in unit 75. All my encounters with elk were in 73 or 75. Mind shooting me a pm where you saw the deer? Im going to be hunting for mulies 3rd season.

 

[big44a4]

I hunted it a little bit durring elk season, but was mostly in unit 75. All my encounters with elk were in 73 or 75. Mind shooting me a pm where you saw the deer? Im going to be hunting for mulies 3rd season.

PM sent


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[Poser]

I grouse and small game a couple of weekends in 74. I never saw any elk, but I smelled some. I saw a couple of Mulies. Last weekend, I road my bike 20+ miles along the Colorado Trail from Molas Pass down to Cascade TH. I saw 2 groups of hunters. The guys afoot were giving up and heading elsewhere after an hour of daylight glassing and two other guys were on horseback who didn't see anything. There was an outfitter camp up at White's Creek, past Engineer, but I didn't talk to anyone. It doesn't seem like they elk are out in the open during daylight hours at all. If it were me, I'd be cruising treeline with the thermals trying to catch a whiff of them in the timber.


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[big44a4]

I grouse and small game a couple of weekends in 74. I never saw any elk, but I smelled some. I saw a couple of Mulies. Last weekend, I road my bike 20+ miles along the Colorado Trail from Molas Pass down to Cascade TH. I saw 2 groups of hunters. The guys afoot were giving up and heading elsewhere after an hour of daylight glassing and two other guys were on horseback who didn't see anything. There was an outfitter camp up at White's Creek, past Engineer, but I didn't talk to anyone. It doesn't seem like they elk are out in the open during daylight hours at all. If it were me, I'd be cruising treeline with the thermals trying to catch a whiff of them in the timber.


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Thanks for your input. Yeah I never saw any in the open. Did see a lot of grouse and wish I had gotten a small game license when I was there.


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[Poser]

I saw a few but not near as many as I would if I had not been hunting them.


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[justinspicher]

I had a buddy shoot a nice cow off cascade creek trail. I don’t know the specifics, but it only took him a few days to get into them.

 

[8Crow]

I hunted 1st Rifle in the Purgatory area and came home with yet another tag sandwich. The first couple days we went about halfway down the Hermosa from the trailhead back behind Purgatory and saw/heard nothing but a mountain lion. The last 3 days we spent daypack hunting from the truck all around the Purgatory area. Jumped one bull out of his bed up around 11,000 ft on Monday and Wednesday morning my hunting partner and I were hunting a couple miles apart down around 9,500 ft and both came across warm beds. Apparently we're good at near-misses. Called most of the time but never heard a single bugle.

 

[big44a4]

I hunted 1st Rifle in the Purgatory area and came home with yet another tag sandwich. The first couple days we went about halfway down the Hermosa from the trailhead back behind Purgatory and saw/heard nothing but a mountain lion. The last 3 days we spent daypack hunting from the truck all around the Purgatory area. Jumped one bull out of his bed up around 11,000 ft on Monday and Wednesday morning my hunting partner and I were hunting a couple miles apart down around 9,500 ft and both came across warm beds. Apparently we're good at near-misses. Called most of the time but never heard a single bugle.

Yeah I packed in for 2 days where I had found them over the summer just to find exactly that, old sign. Then ended up hunting from truck and putting the miles in rest of the trip. Stayed high as that’s where I thought they’d be that early.

How many times have you hunted that area before?


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[nunyacreek]

Hunted up there for muzzleloader deer and elk and came close one day but couldn't seal the deal. Chased a herd up high in the timber right at tree line with a nice bull bugling most of the afternoon, but he kept pushing his cows further down and around the mountain. I came back the next few days and they were nowhere to be found.
Brings a question to mind: I didn't spook the the herd but they were obviously not in the same area the next couple days (roughly 2 square miles). How far would/do they normally travel?

 

[5MilesBack]

Brings a question to mind: I didn't spook the the herd but they were obviously not in the same area the next couple days (roughly 2 square miles). How far would/do they normally travel?

That depends. They may have still been in that area and you just never saw them. A few years ago I was 3.5 hours into an area and hadn't seen a single track or any other sign that anything was anywhere near that area. I didn't get a response until I was within 150 yards of a herd up there. I know the herd bull heard me well before that, but he never replied until I was a perceived threat and inside his zone.....and then he came unglued. I also believe it totally depends what kind of calls you're sending out.

If I hadn't gotten the response I did when I did, I was ready to dump off the side into a different basin than they were in and hunt the opposite direction and never would have even known they were there. I fully believe that a lot of hunters pass right by many elk while they are hunting. Lots of silent elk out there.

 

[8Crow]

Yeah I packed in for 2 days where I had found them over the summer just to find exactly that, old sign. Then ended up hunting from truck and putting the miles in rest of the trip. Stayed high as that’s where I thought they’d be that early.

How many times have you hunted that area before?


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Yep, that's pretty much what we did this time. That was our 3rd time in there and we had focused all our efforts down the Hermosa before. We started thinking about the adage about "insanity" and decided to give something else a try. It was better, for sure, we came a lot closer. My hunting partner had been in some that were really vocal in the past, though, so he was pretty bummed about hunting silent elk and the tactics that would entail vs. calling them in.

 

[big44a4]

Yep, that's pretty much what we did this time. That was our 3rd time in there and we had focused all our efforts down the Hermosa before. We started thinking about the adage about "insanity" and decided to give something else a try. It was better, for sure, we came a lot closer. My hunting partner had been in some that were really vocal in the past, though, so he was pretty bummed about hunting silent elk and the tactics that would entail vs. calling them in.

Saw a lot of trucks and people camping and hunting off the hermosa TH. But elk were quiet all around that area (at least where I was at) so it was pretty challenging.


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[GarryOwen19d]

I'm headed down to 74 for fourth rifle; hoping the weather turns around as it has been very dry down there until just recently...

 

[Poser]

I'm headed down to 74 for fourth rifle; hoping the weather turns around as it has been very dry down there until just recently...

We got 10 inches earlier this week and another 12+ on the way tonight. I just finished the Tour de Engineer trail on my bike about an hour ago and I got into a herd of elk as soon as I dropped off the treeline.
I only saw one hunter accessing The Pass Trail this morning but there is an outfitter running horses to the engine/white creek area.

 

[GarryOwen19d]

Any updates on elk movement, weather? Looking forward to heading down there on Tuesday...

Thanks,

 

[PF_JM]

Hunted mule deer in there the entire 2nd season. It was really warm and nothing was moving but I did see several bulls at the trailhead on the northside of the Hermosa wilderness. I was hunting in the wilderness area and talked to a few other hunters and none of us had seen any elk in there down the Salt Creek trail.

 

[Poser]

Any updates on elk movement, weather? Looking forward to heading down there on Tuesday...

Thanks,

I'll be back up there tomorrow morning.

 

[Poser]

I was disappointed in the amount of melt off, but still decent snow above 11,000 feet and you'll have no problem cutting tracks. There's. It so much snow that it's limiting feeding in the alpine meadows so I'd look for fresh tracks into the treeline and use the thermals to find them with my nose. If you come across fatbike tracks, they are almost certainly mine -there is NOBODY in the Backcountry right now.

 

[GarryOwen19d]

That's good news; heading down in the morning and looking forward to hopefully getting on them pretty quick. I appreciate the update and will do my best to post my progress throughout the hunt...