Colorado Overcrowding Elk Hunting

Magua

FNG
Joined
Mar 30, 2022
Messages
9
i have to say, last years elk hunt in Colorado was the final straw for me. I saw more people than I could have imagined. I had a productive spot on private land. When the sun came up, blaze orange surrounded the property as far as the eye could see. For the time off of work and the effort, Colorado isn't good anymore.

The Elk numbers are here but the access is totally gone. Case in point, Large ranches own most of the properties surrounding elk habitat such as rivers and waterways. They can also make the habitat so the elk will stay on their land while they rent out guided hunts for top dollar. The general public gets bottle necked onto sub prime plots of public land.

Im sure Colorado residents see this and become jaded. Me for example, I go out of state because I find it has way better options.
 

sylvest

FNG
Joined
Feb 17, 2023
Messages
30
I see this but you can still find huntable areas. I saw deer every day last year and elk 3 days also including 2 shootable 4/5pt bulls and a 6x6 herd bull. Saw people every day too unfortunately.
 

Huntin_GI

WKR
Joined
Apr 14, 2016
Messages
369
Location
N. Colorado

SirChooCH

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Sep 24, 2020
Messages
256

Dejhavu

FNG
Joined
Oct 8, 2021
Messages
84
Hunted from Steam Boat to Cortez, and have never been crowded. Do home work, use DOW Wildlife Atlas, and Google Earth. There are many places that hold elk in good numbers that aren't honey holes or hot spots.
 
Joined
Mar 29, 2023
Messages
14
have been looking into otc options for co but was wondering if pressure is still over abundant when you pack in a ways too?
 
Joined
Mar 29, 2023
Messages
14
yup. probably even more so than closer to the road these days, the whole backpack in elk hunt has been so romanticized that its what everyone does these days.
Understood. Will have to keep that in mind when looking, wouldn’t hurt my feelings to shoot a bull near the truck haha
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2022
Messages
490
Also, this is an example of making statistics say what you want them to say. Take this chart:
View attachment 434948

If you compare Utah to Colorado, Utah wins! More public land than Colorado! But this is a bogus comparison. You should be comparing land that it actually inhabited by elk, and total numbers of elk

In those categories, Colorado wins by a landslide. If you do that, I am sure Utahs number is much less than 305 acres/elk. That is because Colorado has much more actual elk habitat. Also, did you realize that Colorado has more land above 10,000 ft than all other states combined (excluding Alaska)

Are we overcrowded? Yep
Has quality of hunting gone down? Yep
Should NR numbers be reduced? Absolutely

But things are not as dire as some would make them seem. Colorado has enough elk to go around. If you make all tags limited with an 80/20 split, I feel sure all residents that want to hunt can hunt every year. And NRs should be able to hunt aprox ever other year. Seems reasonable to me. To make things so restrictive that NRs can only hunt every 4-5 years seems an overkill.
^^This^^
 
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