Unit 54 success

[fuzzyvelvet]

Curious how anyone is doing in unit 54 while hunting deer or elk? Have the deer herds rebounded? Any success photos to share? How about the elk? Has the cap on the OTC elk tags helped? Please post some stories and photos. Thanks.
Fuzzy

 

[DoeNob]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-09-11 AT 10:11AM (MST)[p]Here's my report from a 2nd season elk hunt there:

"We got beat up by the weather, high's of 70 degrees for the first 3 days had them holed up. Then it rained, then we finally saw a good bull. We went after him the next day, then got stuck in a blizzard and had to back out. The last day we hunted a big park covered in 6 inches of snow, I think all the elk moved down by that time. First DIY OTC hunt in Colorado. If you want to punch tags there you have to get away from the orange army. We covered 93 miles on the ATV's and 23 on foot in 6 days and ran into other hunters every where we went. "

So no I don't think the cap has done much still way too many hunters. We got back into the wilderness a few times and ran into people coming out from WAY back and said outfitters have drop camps all over the place. Camps in coffeepot, 4 on haystack, camps in the pie, camps everywhere. We saw one guy in town with a 6x6 in the back of his truck and one guy drove out of the wilderness the last day with a nice 6x6. Other than that we saw one deer carcass next to a wall tent that was unoccupied. We saw several small deer and one deer I would consider a shooter, but the residents said no way and passed on him.

Maybe some people punched a bunch of tags the 2nd weekend after the snow was on the ground, we only got to hunt one day after the weather then had to leave.

I would not hunt this unit again without a horse team or guided with horses. I'd be willing to hike in 10 miles and spike out, but I'd have to get a fork if I shot one back in there.

We went to a LOT of places, you can PM me if you have a question about a specific area and I'll tell you what I know about it.

 

[Coloradoboy]

We had a pretty good season this year. 3 bulls and cow muzzy season, 2 archery, 5 first rifle season and 4 bulls 2 cows second rifle season. Drop camps killed 3 bulls and a cow muzzy season, two cows archery, 3 bulls and a cow first rifle season and 2 bulls and a cow second rifle season.

Coloradoboy
Tenderfoot Outfitters

 

[huntindad4]

Hunted the whole second season and saw (and killed) one good buck. We ate 3 tags but that's okay we passed small deer early.

Hunted it in 06 and it is not even a shadow of what it was then IMO but that's okay all good things, right?

Bill

Look out Forkie, FTW is watching us!

 

[bschnoor]

I hunted 3rd season deer in 54. Only saw three small bucks and a handful of does. Pretty tuff deer hunt in my opionion. Brian

 

[huntindad4]

Ouch bschnoor! What areas did you hunt?

Bill

Look out Forkie, FTW is watching us!

 

[Darktimber]

>I hunted 3rd season deer in
>54. Only saw three
>small bucks and a handful
>of does. Pretty tuff
>deer hunt in my opionion.
> Brian


Are you sure you were in 54 Colorado?

 

[BeanMan]

Haystack is in 53.