CO 1st rifle experience different than prior years

[Kyle Wheeler]

I am curious if others who hunted first rifle had a similar experience as us. We got a bull down but it was much tougher than years past.

Since 2019 we have found bulls with the herds and bugling during 1st rifle.

This year there was no bugling and cows were scattered. We did see 3 bulls with about 10 cows together opening morning but they scattered after that and we only found the smaller bull after that. It seemed like they were on the tail end of moving off the herd for sure and this was 10/12.

We killed a 4x4 on the last day with cows. We hunt same area which is why I was surprised.

Has anyone else noticed that this year or have we just been blessed with the extra rut activity in the years past since 2019?

Looks like next year season opens 10/15.. It has made me rethink first rifle for next year.

Hope everyone is having a great season!

 

[justin davis]

It was a hot weathered season. Bad moon. Elk activity seemed way down

 

[Kyle Wheeler]

It was a hot weathered season. Bad moon. Elk activity seemed way down

Yeah it just felt different but still tons of fun

 

[justinspicher]

Still better than working.

 

[Poser]

Seemed about typical for the area I hunt. Elk were responsive to bugling, saw one bull wallowing and thrashing, out feeding until as late as 11 AM and up and feeding again by 5 PM. Some years the herds are more consolidated if there is a particularly aggressive bull. Other years, like this one, each bull has a small herd of 8-10 cows and they’ll tend to be separated, but in proximity to one another. While seeing a big herd is cool and all, it easier to hunt smaller herds.

 

[Kyle Wheeler]

Still better than working.

100%

 

[Kyle Wheeler]

Seemed about typical for the area I hunt. Elk were responsive to bugling, saw one bull wallowing and thrashing, out feeding until as late as 11 AM and up and feeding again by 5 PM. Some years the herds are more consolidated if there is a particularly aggressive bull. Other years, like this one, each bull has a small herd of 8-10 cows and they’ll tend to be separated, but in proximity to one another. While seeing a big herd is cool and all, it easier to hunt smaller herds.

Very interesting! We have seen big herds since 2019 but I agree less cows allowed us to get closer. Thanks for the feedback

 

[Bobrobheimer]

We had the opposite experience. Typically we see some rutting behavior first rifle but not a ton. This year towards the end of the season we found an area where it was going off with bugles from a number of bulls throughout the day and night - despite shots being fired within this area. It was surprising to us.

 

[roymunson]

I had a buddy from church take me back into his spot. We saw 4 other hunters which was 4 more than he's seen in the last 1/2 dozen times hes been in there. Agreed that full moon and warm mid day supressed the movement.

I was lucky enough to shoot a small 4x4 on day 3. Was part of a herd of 30-40 elk, but there were not big herd bulls in it. First elk and I wasn't gonna be picky. It was a lotta fun. However, we hears about 3 bugles the whole week and it was kinda tough sledding.

 

[Kyle Wheeler]

I had a buddy from church take me back into his spot. We saw 4 other hunters which was 4 more than he's seen in the last 1/2 dozen times hes been in there. Agreed that full moon and warm mid day supressed the movement.

I was lucky enough to shoot a small 4x4 on day 3. Was part of a herd of 30-40 elk, but there were not big herd bulls in it. First elk and I wasn't gonna be picky. It was a lotta fun. However, we hears about 3 bugles the whole week and it was kinda tough sledding.

Congrats on the elk!! We had more pressure as well but it was doable. The elk patterns is what threw us off the most

 

[db3445]

A friend and I probably got lucky, but we ran into a herd opening day around 2pm. We did not see the herd, but we could hear them in the timber making a bunch of noise. We heard 5-6 different bulls bugling and the cows were mewing like crazy. I was able to call a nice 6x6 off the herd and my buddy was able to fill his tag. We listened to the herd for about 2 hours before we killed our bull around 4pm. Wonderful experience for only our 2nd ever elk hunt. The hard work paid off!!

 

[Neilbob]

We went first rifle to the same unit we’ve been the last couple years, and our experience was similar. Activity seemed way down, and we only saw elk the first and last half hour of light. Never saw a bull and only heard one bugle. Luckily we only had cow tags, and we were able to fill a tag on day three.

 

[5MilesBack]

This was the first time I hunted first rifle in quite some time. My daughter had an unused ML cow tag so we went first rifle. I expected some bugling given the weather, but I didn't get even one response even bugling at night. We only saw two other hunters the whole season, so pressure was almost nonexistent. So ya, I was surprised that there was no bugling. Heck, last year during third rifle I had two bulls bugling at us from 100 yards away, and it was -5 that morning.

 

[Poser]

Despite the emerging moon, the moonrise was in the afternoon with moonset around midnight on Friday night before the opener and bumping back an hour each night. That left a number of hours of darkness until sunrise. That seemed to encourage lots of feeding activity in the morning.

We ended up killing a bull at 11 AM on Tuesday while the weather was still warm and dry and had to deal with both flies and even some yellow jackets at 11,000 feet in October which is crazy. Neither were terrible like they can be in September, but that was a first for October.

Weather started moving in on us on Wednesday morning with rain, sleet, freezing rain and grappel throughout the day. Heavy rain in the late afternoon quickly turned into heavy, wet snow and moisture did not stop for the rest of the trip. We kept our camp up high so we could pack down fresh and then returned to high camp (fatigued) in the afternoon. What sucked was the snow line was around 9200-9500 feet so we spend portions of each day in the rain. We got our last load (camp) out on Friday afternoon. With constant moisture and heavy, damp air, pretty much everything was wet/damp by that point. What was the hottest year I've ever hunted quickly turned into the wettest 1st rifle where it would have been super nice to have had a stove to dry gear out.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Hunted a few different areas (archery&muzzy) in the state going on 10 years now, seems like every season is a little different, from weather, to hunter pressure, to moon phase, there are places where I will consistently get into elk but it might vary season to season three years ago the last week of September was on fire for the rut, the last two years the last week has been somewhat lackluster from hot spells, but there are still elk around and they are still rutting, periods of peak activity seem to shift early and late though. This is half the fun of hunting, adapting and adjusting and getting it done, or in my case this year shooting a branch instead of a herd bull at 10 yards haha

 

[cnelk]

These posts are a good reminder to keep a hunt journal of each year - weather/temps/moon/pressure/animal location/etc

 

[NickyD]

I had a very different experience this year. Couldn’t sleep the night before the opener because of elk bugling throughout the night. Opening morning I had a solid bull raking a tree pretty aggressively just out of sight. After a few gunshots in the area everything went quiet.

We’ve had some pretty early opening days but I don't think 3 days is going to be a difference maker in terms of rut activity

 

[Wellingtontx]

Hunted Colorado Second Rifle. Low low elk movement. Lots and lots of hunters driving around - constantly. Even with rain and snow Sunday through Tuesday, did not slow down the constant inflow of hunters.

Really took away from the experience of should have been an enjoyable hunt.

 

[roymunson]

Hunted Colorado Second Rifle. Low low elk movement. Lots and lots of hunters driving around - constantly. Even with rain and snow Sunday through Tuesday, did not slow down the constant inflow of hunters.

Really took away from the experience of should have been an enjoyable hunt.

So you were either in the wrong place, or you were one of those people to someone else.

 

[Dave0317]

So you were either in the wrong place, or you were one of those people to someone else.

Yep, that’s a perspective that is easily lost. Even I do it sometimes. Almost made me nervous to go hunt the first time because people would make posts about idiots walking through the drainage they wanted to glass, next post would be about the dumbass camped on the edge of a field he wanted to glass, cutting across the ridge the mule deer bedded on, etc.

So it’s like, I’d like to minimize my impact, but how do I know what someone else that I’ve never met, and may have a completely different hunting style than me, considers high value terrain? I’ve decided it’s just one of those perspective things that sometimes gets interpreted wrong and you can’t please everyone. So hunt your hunt, and when you see someone else in the area you thought the animals would be, look somewhere else.