Colorado archery vs muzzy

[CMF]

One thing I’d be curious to compare is success rate vs days hunted. My hypothesis is guys put in more time to a 15pt tag then a 5pt and due to effort are more successful not necessarily because it’s a better hunt.


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also, some lower 0 to 2 point units may be people picking up a tag just as an opportunity. I've spent a couple points on a deer tag just to have in pocket while chasing elk.

 

[tracker12]

was hunting 62 this year, as I've done for many years OTC NR.
From my past experiences, I went, set up camp prior to the start of muzzie, even though I'm strictly archery. The past experience being rut timing around the Equinox. Can peak usually end of muzzie season or days after muzzie closes.

This year unusual as bull elk rut seriously started last 4 days of muzzie and peaked 2-3 days after muzzie closed. 2 years ago, it started last day of muzzie.
Last 4 days of archery were dead silent for elk bugling, elk talk. The inclement weather, afternoon-evening thunderstorms, rain squalls and blustery, swirling winds morning>evening for last 5 days didn't help either.

The 8 ML hunters, two camps, near me in the area tagged 5 very nice bulls, two 6x6 and a 5x5, *5x4.
The 5th bull tagged was very odd looking, 4 points on one side and the other side 3, but that antler bent weird to the side.
4 bulls were shot at yardages of 80-110 yards. Bull #5 the hunter claimed his shot was 200 yards!

*The 5x4 was a bull that I called in, 80 yards from my position. Hoping the bull would continue down the ridgeline, to an opening closer for a shot opportunity. However, a szzz-boom rang out, and the 5x4 bull dropped. At the sound of the shot, I nearly jumped outta my boots!
ML Hunter had closed in on my position, not knowing it was a hunter (me). He & partner thought there were 2 bulls calling and thought if they got between them, might get a shot....which they did @100 yards and made it count. Well at least my bugles must have sounded good .


I wore a blaze orange vest during muzzie season this year when out archery hunting, as I was shot at 5 years ago.
After muzzie closed, I called in 4 good bulls, but 3 hung up on me at 90-100 yards. Had it been muzzie season and I was equipped so, those were dead bulls. The 4th bull was 35 yards but no shot due to brush obstruction. The bull just turned and walked slowly off.

Wow you had a great hunt in that Unit. Always heard it was a zoo there during the Muzzy/archery hunt.,

 

[va_to_co]

One thing I’d be curious to compare is success rate vs days hunted. My hypothesis is guys put in more time to a 15pt tag then a 5pt and due to effort are more successful not necessarily because it’s a better hunt.


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I'd like to see this data as well. On an episode of Wired to Hunt recently, Mark was interviewing Dr. Grant Woods (growingdeer.tv) and he mentioned a processor who took tallies of number of deer processed per day during the season, for many years. The point he made was that those numbers show hunter effort, not deer movement. Perhaps hunters are more inclined to be in the field during certain times of year based off of previous information they've gathered, but kills don't directly indicate movement patterns.

 

[Dos Perros]

The point he made was that those numbers show hunter effort, not deer movement.

I don't think you could know which variable is leading because they are mixed. Kansas publishes date of harvest data. You can see little blips during weekends (effort) but the longer trends (movement) show up too. One thing that always contaminates the data is once a hunter kills they are done and not contributing the the data...so the count of active hunters declines as the season progresses.

 

[va_to_co]

One thing that always contaminates the data is once a hunter kills they are done and not contributing the the data...so the count of active hunters declines as the season progresses.

Perhaps (this is totally unnecessary but I'm curious to see the data) they could show it as a % of hunters with active tags vs filled. Sure, in many (generally eastern) states a license grants you multiple tags, but it would still be neat to see. Maybe you could divide into "haven't filled any tags" and "have filled at least one tag" in the case of multiple tags per license...

Would that help with the number decline as the season continues? Just thinking out loud.

 

[mavinwa2]

Wow you had a great hunt in that Unit. Always heard it was a zoo there during the Muzzy/archery hunt.,

it was a bit of a zoo but always is. Getting a mile+ in from any road, atv trail helps. This was a better year than most, unusual for this unit.

This season threw me a curveball of a challenge. As my main #1 choice of area was closed due to USFS road washout.
My 2nd choice of area had a huge outfitter, Western Colorado Outfitters, working the ridgelines, canyons and creek bottoms.

Thankfully my 3rd choice area, having water, feed, cover, held a good herd of elk. This was an area that I never hunted in the previous 9 years but always looked good on a map....even looked better on Google Earth.

 

[Hnthrdr]

You guys are sort of hinting at what I was getting to next. I've been almost exclusively an archery elk hunter. And out of my 11 archery elk hunts I've killed 4 bulls, and I think if I had been hunting with a muzzy instead the number would be 9. So, are the muzzy hunters rifle hunters that want to hunt in September, or are they archery hunters that want to improve their odds of success? Obviously there isn't one answer, it's a mix, but I'm starting to think it's mostly the former, otherwise the success rate delta would be much higher (mine would go from 36% to 82%, for example). Therefore I think a muzzleloader in my hands would be pretty damn deadly, assuming I could get the damn thing to work.

Muzzy hunters are 80% Fudds that want to hunt in Sept, 5% frustrated archery guys that gave up and 13% generalists that hunt because that’s what works for them this year and 2% are the hardcore muzzy dudes who wished they lived with Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith and wear loin cloths and shoot rifles they made in their garage.

* these are made up numbers

 

[Hnthrdr]

It's the first one, for the most part. I archery hunt Colorado almost every year, and the muzzy hunters I run into seem like they have no idea how to hunt elk in the rut.

One year, I was Hiking through the timber about 100 yards from a well traveled trail, and walked right past a couple of muzzy hunters sitting under a big pine with camo painted faces, long sleeve camo, camo gloves, camo guns, etc.....
I said "Oh sorry, didn't know you guys were here, sorry for walking through your spot and blowing it up with human scent. How's the hunting?"

They shushed me and waved me off. About 10 hours later, on my way back to camp, I walked past the tree again thinking that surely they had moved. They were still there. I waved and kept going. Next morning, same story.

I finally decided to take a different route to and from camp, but for all I know they sat under the same pine, 100 yards off the trail for the entire hunt.

Dude I have guys that muzzy hunt regularly by me and all they do is spot camp haha I’m sure it’s worked some but there are some days when I want to go check a wallow and they will sit on it morning till night for 7 days straight, not a care in the world about wind or anything else

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Dude I have guys that muzzy hunt regularly by me and all they do is spot camp haha I’m sure it’s worked some but there are some days when I want to go check a wallow and they will sit on it morning till night for 7 days straight, not a care in the world about wind or anything else

At least they are hunting! Most muzzy guys I see are either sleeping in/cooking breakfast or riding in SxS all day.
My favorite though happened last year. I was camped kind of at the dead end of a trail, not a trail head or anything just an out of the way spot. Two trucks full of muzzy hunters parked about 300 yards away from my camp and hunted this meadow every day for 5 days. I finally crossed paths with them and asked if they’d been having any luck. Turns out, they were hunting the meadow because it was full of elk poop and smelt like elk, but no they hadn’t seen anything. I then let them know it wasn’t elk, the week prior a sheep herder had been making his night camp there, it was all sheep crap. At first they didn’t believe me, then it started to sink in. Wasn’t a low point tag either, double digit tag for muzzy. They were some depressed looking dudes when I left!

 

[tracker12]

Dude I have guys that muzzy hunt regularly by me and all they do is spot camp haha I’m sure it’s worked some but there are some days when I want to go check a wallow and they will sit on it morning till night for 7 days straight, not a care in the world about wind or anything else

To be honest this is the case for 75% of the hunters no matter what the weapon. But if they're having fun good for them.

 

[stalkingwolf]

I love how guys crap on muzzy hunters. I stack bodies with that thing. Honestly 90% of guys are lazy no matter the weapon. I guess that's why the old saying 10% of guys kill 90% of the elk came about.

 

[Hnthrdr]

To be honest this is the case for 75% of the hunters no matter what the weapon. But if they're having fun good for them.

I totally agree man! I have an older neighbor he is early 70’s and an animal! His son and my brother in law are squarely in the 75% of guys which he is kind of bummed about, but I remind him, there wouldn’t be any animals left if everyone was a hunting obsessed nut!

 

[Dos Perros]

I love how guys crap on muzzy hunters. I stack bodies with that thing. Honestly 90% of guys are lazy no matter the weapon. I guess that's why the old saying 10% of guys kill 90% of the elk came about.

I think I was just suspecting that a dude who knows how to hunt elk will be a lot more effective with a muzzleloader vs a bow.