A buddy I plan on trying our luck in Colorado this year due to not drawing in our home state of nm. We are planning on hunting unit 81 becuase my buddy has hunted it once and that's the only info we know about Colorado. In the past he hunted the beggining of the hunt from Aug 25th - the Sept 2.he felt that he was way to low( he hunted around fox creek) and to early. My questions are in that part of Colorado when does the rut start? How much hunting pressure should I expect and if we waitied to hunt during the rut will the muzzloader hunters add a huge amount of pressure. We are also open to back packing in to get away from the pressure. The maps I have been looking at seem to have areas to pack in away from roads. I just not sure about atvs or atv trails taking away from that idea. Due travel expenses and distance I won't be scouting as I normally due. I plan on gathering whatever info I can and make a plan and start hunting. It has been a long time since I have hunted an area I don't know very well and spent a lot of time per season scounting. The area sw of fox creek seems to have water everywhere and makes me wonder if hunting water holes would be a waste of time. The year my buddy hunted he found a few water holes a couple miles off the beaten path that looked awsomeandheneversaw a elk. Any input from anybody with info would be awesome. I will be glad to help out with any nm info if needed.
Unit 81 general questions
- Thread starter bowelk
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JRABQ
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Some general responses:
In my experience you won't see much rutting activity (bulls herding cows, bugling) until mid-september, and often later than that (and some years almost no bugling). Having said that you can have a good hunt pre-rut.
Hunting pressure from bowhunters and muzzleloaders can be pretty high, but it varies from year-to-year, spot-to-spot. Most muzzy guys will be gone by 2nd weekend.
I tend to see more elk up high that time of year, especially if it's been dry. Of course I haven't looked in lower country much in a long time. Even in dry years however, I haven't had much luck hunting water, there's just too much of it around. If you find a fresh wallow, obviously that's different.
Packing in can work, but in some of the wilderness areas there will be a LOT of outfitters, so you can't count on getting away from the crowd this way.
They (cowboys) round up and move cattle alot this time of year, and this can sometime affect elk numbers in specific spots. If they just moved a bunch of cattle out of one area, they might have blown all of the elk out of there too. Sometimes the elk will come back in a few days, sometimes not. I backpacked into one of my favorite spots a few years ago, and this had just happened, place was like a desert.
There is a lot of AWESOME country up there, without elk, at any give time. My best advice is to be mobile, if you are not seeing elk (or very fresh sign) in 1-2 days, move. Try to locate at least 3 or 4 places to hunt before you get there. I got some good/decent advice a long time ago by calling the game warden in that area. Sure, the places he mentioned all had people hunting there, but that's because they were good areas.
Good luck!
JR
In my experience you won't see much rutting activity (bulls herding cows, bugling) until mid-september, and often later than that (and some years almost no bugling). Having said that you can have a good hunt pre-rut.
Hunting pressure from bowhunters and muzzleloaders can be pretty high, but it varies from year-to-year, spot-to-spot. Most muzzy guys will be gone by 2nd weekend.
I tend to see more elk up high that time of year, especially if it's been dry. Of course I haven't looked in lower country much in a long time. Even in dry years however, I haven't had much luck hunting water, there's just too much of it around. If you find a fresh wallow, obviously that's different.
Packing in can work, but in some of the wilderness areas there will be a LOT of outfitters, so you can't count on getting away from the crowd this way.
They (cowboys) round up and move cattle alot this time of year, and this can sometime affect elk numbers in specific spots. If they just moved a bunch of cattle out of one area, they might have blown all of the elk out of there too. Sometimes the elk will come back in a few days, sometimes not. I backpacked into one of my favorite spots a few years ago, and this had just happened, place was like a desert.
There is a lot of AWESOME country up there, without elk, at any give time. My best advice is to be mobile, if you are not seeing elk (or very fresh sign) in 1-2 days, move. Try to locate at least 3 or 4 places to hunt before you get there. I got some good/decent advice a long time ago by calling the game warden in that area. Sure, the places he mentioned all had people hunting there, but that's because they were good areas.
Good luck!
JR
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