Colorado OTC Archery Elk

[Hnthrdr]

I love hunting bears, but killing one during an elk hunt is way down the list. I’ve passed tons of them over the years as I simply don’t want to deal with them.

I keep my food in my tent, or in the shade next to it. I’ve never had an issue.

I agree which is why it’s hard to want to hunt bears during Sept… although I might burn my 8 bear points and focus on them this year… I have never done it and it could be fun…

 

[westonhoma]

Pay to play is already here, so over the next 5 - 10 it will just get worse.
20 years from now, between further wussification of society and habitat fragmentation, there won't be hunting on public land in the lower 48. Govt will cull as needed without including public. Hunting will 100% be reserved for people with private land, and people who are either friends of landowners or people with $$......$50K for a ranch elk hunt.

Hard to argue this.. Gonna start inventing the next billion dollar gadget then now. I also start scoping out that ranch in Wyoming on zilllow as we speak. Ill give fellow roksliders a discount on landowner tags dont worry

 

[tracker12]

I don’t like it that I am old but grateful that I was able to hunt Colorado OTC for many years in the 80s, 90’s and early 2000’s.

 

[DeerCatcherUT/CO]

Why is OTC hunting dead? Because it isn’t as easy as it used to be for locals?

I keep reading this and find it hard to believe after my only Colorado DIY OTC archery hunt in 2019.

My son and I drove 36 hours straight from the NJ shore. We left home the Wednesday before the 2019 opener and got to our camp the next afternoon about 4:30. Within 15 minutes of getting there we had 3 bulls bugling on the next ridge from us. I had never elk hunted before but that was my first spot picked to check and we didn’t even have to scout it to know there were elk.

The next day we bought our licenses and found a route to get us where the elk were the night before. We had to drop 1000 feet in less than 1/3 a mile into a drainage and found an elk trail working up the other side of the stream to where we heard the elk. We backed out and checked out my number 2-4 spots and found sign in two of them.

The opener we dropped into the drainage we had the elk calling the previous two days but didn’t leave camp until the sun was starting to come up do to the fact there was a ton of blow downs and head high and taller ferns with a 20-40 foot cliff along the way we needed to get to the bottom. As we were climbing down we heard a bugle farther down the drainage and we followed it instead of going where we planned. We ended up getting cliffed out turned back and at the original creek crossing we stopped to have lunch.

While eating we see a successful hunter with a quarter of a cow on his back. He sees us and when he gets close he says” Oh shit your not my friends”. I congratulate him and we started talking. He then tells me he has hunted this drainage for 10 years and never seen another person there other than his buddies he was waiting on. He then asks where else we planned on hunting since they will be packing out his elk from where we planned on going. I show him the top 5 places I planned on a topo map and he told me “ if any out of towners deserve to get an elk it’s the two of you”. He then told me he had killed elk in 4 of the five spots I showed him. He showed me easier access areas to get to two of the spots. We congratulated him again, thanked him for the info and left when his buddies got there.

That afternoon we went to my number two spot and found fresh sign but no Elk. The next day we checked out my third spot in the morning and saw no sign so left early and went to another spot. There we ran into 3 guys from Michigan in the parking pull off. One had been coming for 5 years and the other two for 3. In that time they said they had never seen or heard an elk. We went to where the guy we met on the opener said would be an easier access to an area I showed him on the map. We found sign and made plans to come back in the morning.

The next morning as I am putting on my pack I throw my back out and need my son to get the pack off me. We drive into town and get some breakfast. While eating I feel my back loosen up and feel we can hunt that afternoon. We end up going to an area that is less steep than we had been with a big park and multiple water holes on the other side. We find one that clearly has had elk coming to it and we sit covering two fingers of timber about 50 yards apart coming from the ridge top to the water. About 11:45 we hear a cow call and a rock rolling down the hill. Then about 30 seconds later we have a cow up the hill about 80 yards. Unfortunately the steady wind that has blown parallel to the base of the ridge swirled and blew uphill to the elk. She takes off over the ridge. We work our way down wind and go up the mountain and find a ton of well used trails a couple hundred yards from the top. We don’t see or hear anything so decide to go back to the watering hole for the last two hours of light. We jump two big mulies about 80 yards from where we sat earlier and saw another in the other side of the meadow but no more elk.

The next day we planned on going back to where the guy was successful. Unfortunately I couldn’t wake my son. I was mad and almost left him. I am glad I didn’t. He woke up with altitude sickness. We went down to town 2000 feet lower. I made him drink two quarts of Gatorade and tried to get him to eat but he wouldn’t. After 4 hours he wasn’t feeling any better so I made the decision of cutting the hunt 5 days short.

My son was upset he “ruined my hunt”. I told he we accomplished everything we could have except actually killing an elk in 3 days. We had elk bugle, we had elk respond to my calling, we were price that my plan could have been successful by the local getting his cow exactly where we originally planned and then almost having an opportunity. That’s something most never accomplish in there first hunt and we did that essentially in a long weekend. I am confident given more time and a little luck we can be successful in what I have read here is some of the most heavily hunted units in Colorado.

Here is a pic of my son 15 minutes after getting there pointing to the next ridge when we first heard the elk bugling.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cool story bro. Should have divided into chapters

 

[Hnthrdr]

Cool story bro. Should have divided into chapters

Didn’t read… so he did or didn’t tag out?

 

[DeerCatcherUT/CO]

Didn’t read… so he did or didn’t tag out?

I don’t think so. I quit reading after the 9th paragraph (chapter 6)