unit 171 Colorado

southmountain · Apr 10, 2008

Anyone care to share your thoughts on this wilderness unit? We plan on packing in a good ways. Not looking for a honey hole (ya have to say that on forums ) but numbers of elk and if they act different than elk in roaded areas?

wapitihunter338 · Apr 10, 2008

Southmountain

My wife and I hunted moose in 171 three years ago. The unit only has a small area of wilderness in its southeast corner. It was in the wilderness area that my wife shot her bull. The rest of the unit is regular national and state forest ground and as such has many trails or roads.

We saw one nice bull elk while hunting moose but elk were few and far between. The outfitters told us that the place crawls with deer and elk hunters during the seasons. While hunting, we saw many meat poles from hunters who return every year to hunt elk.

Unless you are just looking for the elk hunting experience, In my opinion unit 171 is a poor trophy unit.

Hope this helps.

southmountain · Apr 11, 2008

LAST EDITED ON Apr-11-08 AT 07:00PM (MST)[p]Crap!!! Not exactly what I wanted to hear. thanks for the reply . What unit does the Never Summer range sit in for the most part then. Not trophy hunting my son will be huntn Im gonna be his goat. Overall sounds like elk numbers not great huh. We will be toting a muzzle loader . Should have a couple private ranches to hunt but dont know what unit exactly they are in. They are in that general area though.

wapitihunter338 · Apr 11, 2008

LAST EDITED ON Apr-11-08 AT 08:19PM (MST)[p]I looked over my hunting maps for that area. It appears that most of the Never Summer Wilderness lies in unit 18. I know for a fact that the portion in 171 looks more like sheep country than elk country. We knew that a herd of sheep lived just up the valley from where we were hunting moose.

There are some private ranches in 171 but most of them lie on the edge of the forest. You might call the ranchers and see where they are located.

If I were to hunt that unit for elk, I would concentrate my efforts around Owl Mountain. There are several clear cuts and many springs for wallows. This is the only area in the unit that we saw or heard elk. There is one caveat though. Many of the trees are dying from pine beetle infestation.

Hopefully this info will help you with your decision.

HiMtnHntr · Apr 11, 2008

Elk numbers are fine in that area. Once the seasons start though, the elk wise up quick. The area is mostly timber and it takes a lot of effort to kill elk in that environment. To take elk there consistently it will pay to know a few good spots inside and out and spend a lot of time carefully hunting them. If you are hunting during the rut, don't expect to hear a lot of talking and be prepared to feel like there isn't an elk within a hundred miles. Rely upon sign, use the wind, and have a lot of patience.

southmountain · Apr 12, 2008

thanks guys

Bowtecher · Apr 12, 2008

LAST EDITED ON Apr-12-08 AT 06:07PM (MST)[p]The elk numbers are great up in unit 171 I've been hunting it for years now and I can't remember a year when I haven't seen at least a 100 elk in a season. Except when I did kill an elk early.
Hunt early and you'll find elk. 90% of the hunters up there will get in the woods the first weekend or so then turn to road hunting that's why they aren't successful.
Maybe I just hunt harder than most up there and that's why I have had success year in and year out.
I've taken 6 elk our of this unit in 7 seasons.
But there aren't elk up there.

wapitihunter338 · Apr 12, 2008

Southmountain

I just got off the the CDOW website. According to the 2007 statistics, 1221 hunters harvested 171 elk in 171 for 14% success. That was for all of the seasons.

Maybe you can PM Bowtecher and find out some other areas in the unit to find elk.

By the way Bowtecher, has the pine beetle infestation gotten worse up there? It has been three years since we have been there and it was starting to get bad then. At that time we talked to a state forester who was checking the extent of the destruction. He told us that within 5 years, the destruction would be unbelievable. Maybe next year, I'll apply second choice for a cow moose tag for 171. This year I moved to 7 for my bull moose app.

Bowtecher · Apr 13, 2008

wapitihunter
The pine beetle has taken over and even though it's about 10 years to late they are logging the forests again. I've heard owl mountain logging plans are in the making and logging up around the Illinois Pass area too. Better late then never.

southmountain · Jul 3, 2008

Crazy4Elk · Jul 6, 2008

We hunted there for years and my dad took a nice 6x6 years back and a cow. have bnot hunted there in 6 years...we used to see alot of elk and then twe stopped seeing them and more and more moose. So we moved out and went to another spot. We hunted the Owl Mountain area towards the top. Would like to go back and hunt someday...always did like the area but it does get hunted very hard.