Anyone hunt early rifle?

[CoHntr82]

Curious if anyone has hunted the Sept early rifle season in Co in last few years. Just wondering what your overall thoughts are. How was the hunt quality, did you harvest, weather, would you hunt it again, blah blah.

I know there’s a few threads on the season but don’t really see any comments from people who’ve hunted it. Mostly just the differences from a later season.

I’m a resident with a few pts to burn and could get one of the central Co units with a giant wilderness or one of the northern units that is a little lower elevation. I’ve hunted the more popular unit once chasing bucks with my bow but was unsuccessful. Found a nice bowl with some decent bucks. Would love to go back with my rifle as I’m a pretty damn novice bow hunter.

 

[Shadowbuck]

Early season rifle tags can be a really good hunt, but in my experience, you need to approach them more like an early season archery hunt. It seems like archery hunters do will with this tag and late season rifle hunters struggle typically.

Scouting this time of year is key and when the rifle season is a lot of those bucks are shifting out of the alpine down into the tree line. So, if you have some bucks they will more than likely be in the same general area but much more difficult to find since they are in the trees.

The nice part is you get the first chance at bucks before they get to spooked. It's a great time of year to be in the high county but just be prepared it's not necessarily easy to find bucks. I think scouting is the key as with any early season hunt.

 

[FrankieP1988]

I did a couple seasons ago. I agree with the other comment that it is very similar to high country archery season except you get a huge advantage on shooting distance. I treated the tag just like an archery tag, scouting multiple times in the late summer ahead of season. I had a really nice buck found prior to season but couldn't turn him up. I was only able to hunt the two weekends of the season due to other obligations, but still ended up shooting a 170" buck at 80 yds lol.

 

[CoHntr82]

Ok great. I totally agree, best time to be in the woods. Ive been hunting the earlier seasons the past few years and boy i dont miss that cold weather. Burned my elk pts this year, scouted a bunch a took a decent bull on a solo wilderness muzzleloader hunt so this tag would be focus for next year. Most likely I’d have a buddy with me. I’d definitely plan on scouting a few different times. I know finding the bucks, patterning them, and getting to them before the timber up is the key. I’m always looking for the biggest buck out there but also not crazy picky. I’d be totally stoked on a 170