Colorado Elk pressure

[gabenzeke]

Trying to plan out my first elk hunt for archery season 2016. So far, unit 81 seems appealing. I'm wondering if anyone knows what the hunting pressure there is like compared to other units in the SW portion of the state?

 

[Dos Perros]

In 2014, unit 81 averaged 0.35 hunters per square mile of public land on a daily basis.

# of hunter recreation days / square miles of public land / 30 day season

That's below average for an OTC unit. Compared to the nearby and comparable SW units, unit 78 gets 0.25 hunters per square mile of public land on a daily basis, and unit 80 gets 0.42 hunters.

There are outfitters hunting this unit, drop camps, etc. It's on my list of things to do to contact the forest service and ask about camp locations and such. They won't have them for 2016 obviously but probably won't change much from 2015 unless there is fire or something.

 

[Laelkhunter]

I hunted 2nd Rifle in Unit 81 on a private ranch, which also included some of Unit 78. The ranch I hunted was on road 445 (access from Hwy 17 North of Chama, turning at the Rancho Del Oso Pardo gate). We drove past the public area camp ground going to our ranch, and it seemed to be pretty vacant. Several tents, and one or two camping trailers. I know your question was about Bow Season, but considering it was rifle season, we did not hear many shots being fired. Not sure if that is because of lack of hunters, or lack of game. Can't recommend any outfitters to use for that area, maybe someone else can.
There were, however lots of hunters staying in town (Chama about 10 miles South), and they could have possibly been hunting Units 78,81.

 

[xcutter]

How about hunter activity in Unit 14? Many hunters? Planning an archery trip there next year. Love to hear some feedback.

 

[gabenzeke]

Thanks for the responses. I'm planning on DIY backpacking, so no need for an outfitter. And also it's a long term plan. I'd like to pick a unit to learn over a few years. So it sounds like maybe I need to add 78 to the short list due to pressure. Thanks guys.

 

[Dos Perros]

How about hunter activity in Unit 14? Many hunters? Planning an archery trip there next year. Love to hear some feedback.

Just crunching the math like above, unit 14 gets 0.93 hunters per square mile of public land per day, so quite a bit more than the other units discussed. Average for a Colorado OTC unit is 0.48 hunters.

 

[Laelkhunter]

Is Unit 14 draw only?? Not familiar with bow hunting in these units, but 78 and 81 are OTC for 2nd and 3rd Rifle.

 

[JPD350]

I hunted 81 this year which was my first time hunting Colorado, I hunted by Platoro lake and surrounding areas, there were people everywhere, 2 of the 3 elk encounters I had were busted up by other hunters. I did find 2 carcasses that I believe were muzzle kills and whoever killed them left a tremendous amount of meat on the animals, they dam well didn't know WTF they were doing I actually couldn't believe what I saw! I know they were from the same hunting party because they raped the animal the same way! I also heard a muzzle shot as I was coming out of the back country and as I was driving out of the area I found the animal they killed, it was a Doe Deer that they left laying on the road. It is a beautiful unit but I think I will wait to draw something better and with a set number of tags. I also scouted another area in the same unit but it ended up having a outfitter camp in the area, it's a long story of why I decided not to screw with hunting there, lets just say I met the OF and he was a kind of a jerk!

So my first encounter with Colorado wasn't quite what I had hoped for.

 

[gabenzeke]

Wow, that's pretty discouraging. Do you think it was possible to find a way to escape the hunting pressure? If you prefer pm, that's fine. Just wondering if there is a way to get away from the people.

 

[CiK01]

Just crunching the math like above, unit 14 gets 0.93 hunters per square mile of public land per day, so quite a bit more than the other units discussed. Average for a Colorado OTC unit is 0.48 hunters.

Dos Perros, I have looked but can't find it.....where do you find the public square milage per GMU information?

 

[Dos Perros]

Dos Perros, I have looked but can't find it.....where do you find the public square milage per GMU information?

I'm using data I've poached off the goHunt INSIDER. I have looked for it elsewhere and couldn't find it either. I would guess Eastman's has some data, although not sure if it's published or not, they just draw their conclusions from it. I wouldn't be opposed to sharing it as I don't believe it to be proprietary data, PM me with email if you'd like.

 

[CiK01]

I'm using data I've poached off the goHunt INSIDER. I have looked for it elsewhere and couldn't find it either. I would guess Eastman's has some data, although not sure if it's published or not, they just draw their conclusions from it. I wouldn't be opposed to sharing it as I don't believe it to be proprietary data, PM me with email if you'd like.

Gotcha! I am kind of a data junky and I hadn't seen that info yet. I suppose I need to break down and look into INSIDER at some point. Appreciate the offer. PM sent.

 

[dotman]

Pretty much any of the OTC units in CO get heavy pressure, you will not get around that. Now that pressure can vary from year to year. I hunt 78 because I have family close and it is nice to see them some and because of that I have gotten to know the area well over the years. I haven't hunted during rifle but if it is the orange army in rifle it is the camo army in archery. Tons of archery hunters from roads, horse and back packing. So don't think you'll be getting away as I have ran into many guys 2 miles back all the way to 8 miles back.

Best suggestion is pick a unit and spend a few years figuring it out. After a few years you'll meet guys that have been hunting the area for 20+ years, no matter where you go there are a large number hat have hunted the area and know it inside out. This is just CO hunting.

The CO DOW has tons of good info, it is just in multiple tables that you have to go back and forth on.

 

[jwatts]

Wow, that's pretty discouraging. Do you think it was possible to find a way to escape the hunting pressure? If you prefer pm, that's fine. Just wondering if there is a way to get away from the people.

We packed into a wilderness area not too far from where JPD350 is talking about. We came back to camp one day to find someone camped not 100 yards from us. We had found a drop camp about a mile away. On the way out we discovered 4 other vehicles at one end of the trailhead, about the same on the drive out at the other. There may be areas of 81 that are low hunter density, but there are others that are covered up. This wasn't close to the road and wasn't an easy pack in. We camped about 3 miles in with over 1k feet of elevation gain just to lose about 500 on the other side.

 

[gabenzeke]

Anybody know if 78 is pretty similar? Could it be a timing thing?

 

[jwatts]

Anybody know if 78 is pretty similar? Could it be a timing thing?

We hunted the week leading up to blackpowder season. That may have contributed to the amount of pressure we ran into. We tried to time our hunt with the rut, which from our previous hunts up there had hit just before blackpowder season.

 

[bpctcb]

I've been hunting SW Colorado since 2009 and I've been during all 4 weeks of archery season. This year I was there third week. The pressure was incredible this year! Every place that could hold a pickup/camp had one. 2009 was like a ghost town compared to 2015. We were there for 11 days all together and I only know of 3 elk that were killed; we accounted for 2 of them.

BP

 

[dotman]

Anybody know if 78 is pretty similar? Could it be a timing thing?

I hunt 78 and it just depends, one year I didn't see anyone, the next had 6+ camps in a 6 mile area that is a 3 mile pack in. Last year I didn't go back there as the trail head had 7 vehicles. It just depends and you'll never know till you go.

 

[chindits]

My theory is hunting visitation in CO is just like any other recreation group visitation. When the economy is down, the number of people vacationing in CO is down. When the economy is up, visitation is up. Our visitation during all seasons has been increasing steady as the economy recovered from the recession. The summer crowd was crazy this year.

 

[Htachie Dawg]

Pick your hunt, crunch the harvest stats and make a top ten of the units available to you. Look for ascending and descending trends. Wilderness areas can decrease pressure. Use the CO hunting atlas to investigate your top 10. Look for areas where summer and winter range are not too far apart and if you can find resident heard overlap that is even better. Look at the migration patterns and for the migration corridors with overlap of any of the above even better, again. Then look for the nastiest, steepest areas in your "hotspots" and see if you can find a way in there.

No guarantee but it has worked.
HD