The novice elk hunter in me has a question regarding a group of units in Colorado. Background, I've never had what most would consider to be even a decent elk tag in my pocket. Finally built up a small handful of points I'd like to burn in CO on a first rifle draw next year. I've done a ton of numbers research on overall (bull + cow) success rates, bull only success rates, objectives, draw reports, etc. Really don't want to mess this one up. Have a few months to figure it out.
My question- In a group of units that I'm considering I see the overall bull success rate took a pretty significant hit in '24 (~15%) from the four years prior (~30-40%). What's interesting is the objectives for these units are nearly twice as high now as they were just a few years ago. Looks like the CPW only allowed bull harvest there from 2019-2022. I'm sure it depends on a million different things and there's not just one right answer. But hypothesizing that at least apart of the reason of the drop is because guys are content with shooting cows, hence filling their tag and being "unsuccessful" in the final bull tally? Anything else in particular I should be looking into before applying to that region?
My question- In a group of units that I'm considering I see the overall bull success rate took a pretty significant hit in '24 (~15%) from the four years prior (~30-40%). What's interesting is the objectives for these units are nearly twice as high now as they were just a few years ago. Looks like the CPW only allowed bull harvest there from 2019-2022. I'm sure it depends on a million different things and there's not just one right answer. But hypothesizing that at least apart of the reason of the drop is because guys are content with shooting cows, hence filling their tag and being "unsuccessful" in the final bull tally? Anything else in particular I should be looking into before applying to that region?
