Southern Colorado Elk Hunt Advice and General Elk Hunting - GMU 77, 78, or 751

[joseq]

Hey Guys,


I have a few general hunting questions while also looking for a little advice on a few GMUs I'm trying to decide on for Archery this year. From the advice I have been given, I understand that these units will have a lot of pressure (we totally expect that and are good with it). We've also been told to get high and away from trails and roads, which we all grew up backpacking in the mountains so that won't be a problem. I have backpacked in GMU 751 but not while focusing on finding elk.


Question 1.
When I look at GoHunt and the data the success rates are very similar, but vary in the number of hunters.
So is it better to hunt a unit like 751 and 77 with less hunters but same success rates or do you go with a gmu like 78 with a lot more hunters but higher success rate?


Question 2.
If anyone has experience in these units. Why does unit 751 see less hunters? Did the west fork fire in unit 78 change the way the elk use the northern part of 78 during the pre-rut / rut?


Questions 3.
Is it true you will have better odds if you go deep and find the nastiest darkest drainages to hunt?


Any feedback would be much appreciated! looking to learn from more experienced hunters in here!


Thank you so much!

 

[cohunter14]

Welcome to the site joseq!  :welcome:


In regards to questions 1 and 2, I would take all of those numbers with a grain of salt. Success numbers as well as hunter numbers in OTC units are basically just a guessing game by the CPW. They don't do a mandatory survey so there's no real way for them to know these numbers.


In regards to question 3, the answer is possibly. You need to get away from other hunters, but that doesn't always mean you have to be multiple miles deep to do that.

 

[BuckyHunter13]

Without looking at the units re: questions 1&2, could it be more due to the amount of public land in each unit? Not sure exactly which numbers you?re looking at (or what?s on gohunt) to arrive at hunter density estimates. I?d also agree with/defer to cohunter on these two issues.


For question 3... in my (limited - 3 early season archery hunts, 35ish days total) experience, the elk are where the hunters aren?t. With everyone looking to hunt the edges of the 2 yr old burns, hunters are stacked up on the darkest greenest draws and a nighttime bugle is liable to draw 5 bugle tubes by morning. On the flip side, we?ve had opportunities within 200 yards of the truck. One particular situation was a very steep draw with a few scree chutes where the rim passed within 40 yards of the road. Instead of camping out up top by a historical bedding area, we circled around the bottom and came up behind the elk. Unintentionally. We were  within 30 yards before bumping two bulls, one definite shooter (didn?t know they were there, we were heading back and not hunting smart.) The point being, no one else was aggressive enough to flip the strategy on the head and go 1.5 miles out of their way to arrive within 300-400 yards from the road from the opposite direction, with the wind in our favor. Those elk were there because they had the advantage from below and from the road and it was steep. The elk are where it?s hard to kill them, whether deep or steep. Think of the hardest spots to get in position on an elk with the thermals in his face on the way up and rising once he?s there. Wind from the likeliest hunter pressure also helps. Then do what it takes to avoid bumping him and keeping the wind/thermals/sound to your advantage. Sorry for the book and any redundancy.

 

[joseq]

Thank you so much cohunter14 and BuckyHunter13 for the input and advice! It helps more than you know. This helps me feel more confident to just choose a place based off by criteria and go have fun. I?ll keep you posted on how it all turns out. Best of luck this year guys!