Po Cedar

[skynimrod]

Come on tell us more about your trip, post some pics
We were worried about you
Any close calls?

 

[LA man]

YEP, I CANT WAIT EITHER

 

[PO Cedar]

I pretty well summed up my experience this year on the other post. I posted the pics website over there. Definitely a different kind of hunt this year.Food poisoning for a week, warm,dry weather,increased hunter pressure, and interruptions from persons disobeying the law made for a totally different hunt this year compared to last season in that hunting unit. I was so glad the couple I had invited to change hunting units to my spot decided to stick it out in their usual unit. Because my unit was messed up this go-around. They didn't connect but had several opportunities and the bulls were bugling normally in their usual spot. I'm not complaining-the weather there sure beat what I left here in Franklin in August. But as good as the area was last year,I was counting on good things happening there this year. I am trying to get excited about whitetail hunting here but until the weather finally broke a few days ago I was wishing I was still out West. I've printed off info on the Montana bighorn sheep areas and plan on poring over those in my tree stand during the off-hours.

 

[skynimrod]

10-4
"Big Horn" Now there is one solid mass of muscle
I jumped a full curled ram once real close wile elk hunting up in the rocks. One of the most memorable hunting experiences I have had
Very Very well built
Keep us posted

 

[PO Cedar]

It looks like I'm going to have to order more Montana maps. The area I want is sheep hunt in is about the only maps of Montana's National Forests I DON'T have. If anyone is hunting Colorado,Montana, or Idaho I may be able to help with maps.

 

[skynimrod]

Have you hunted the Selway Bitteroots?
Thats some rough country
Big Bulls though
Pack train country

 

[PO Cedar]

No, I was looking at hunting that area in 2005. I backed out and hunted my familiar place in Colorado since Colorado had a good green-up with plenty of precip that season. I was looking at the Idaho side that year.

 

[skynimrod]

10-4

 

[Marlin308]

PO Cedar - I'm here in Franklin too and would like to pick your brain sometime about archery elk hunting in Colorado. Me and a buddy were supposed to go this year, but couldn't because his wife had a baby and didn't want him to be gone for over a week. We are now looking at the 2008 season. We're both serious about it and want to make the best of our time while out there.

We are interested in DIY hunts only, but need to get comfortable with what options are available in terms of packing in our camping equipment, packing out the elk (if successful), etc. I read your other post and we were also looking at SW Colorado (I have an aunt/uncle who live in Del Norte), but are flexible to go anywhere an OTC tag is available. I have another buddy who hunts in Walden every year, and they always seem to get opportunities up there.

Any advice you can offer will be appreciated. BTW, nice pics of your last trip. That is some beautiful, but rough country.

 

[4onaside]

PO Cedar - I'm here in Franklin too and would like to pick your brain sometime about archery elk hunting in Colorado. Me and a buddy were supposed to go this year, but couldn't because his wife had a baby and didn't want him to be gone for over a week. We are now looking at the 2008 season. We're both serious about it and want to make the best of our time while out there.

We are interested in DIY hunts only, but need to get comfortable with what options are available in terms of packing in our camping equipment, packing out the elk (if successful), etc. I read your other post and we were also looking at SW Colorado (I have an aunt/uncle who live in Del Norte), but are flexible to go anywhere an OTC tag is available. I have another buddy who hunts in Walden every year, and they always seem to get opportunities up there.

Any advice you can offer will be appreciated. BTW, nice pics of your last trip. That is some beautiful, but rough country.

Obviously, I ain't Cedar, but I've been through Del Norte several times on my way to Southfork, which is not very far to the West on hwy 160(also). I'm sure that your aunt/uncle can tell you all that you want to know about the elk adjacent to them since they live there, but it is on the boundary between units 79 and 80, neither of which I consider amongst the prime units in Colorado. However, a unit becomes the absolute best unit, when a legal elk is in range of YOU!, and both units have decent populations. LOL We have primarily rifle hunted in unit 79(when we can't get drawn for 76, which is most of the time(79), so, I know it fairly well. 80(on the South side) draws many more hunters than does 79, with corresponding success, but crowded at times. I really don't know a lot about 80, only having driven up into the unit looking around several times, although my buddies rifle hunted there last year, and did not give it very high reviews. If you want to know any more specifics about 79 that you cannot determine for yourself, give me a holler and I will be glad to tell you what I know.

 

[megalomaniac]

Great info 4onaside!

wwwmonstermuleys.com is a good place for info on the net, but it is more focused toward draw units.

Best way to start:

Pick a weapon and season (OTC- bow)... that'll determine where the elk are located. They migrate so far during the seasons, that elk could be 50 miles away by the end of rifle season from where they were just a few months before during summer season.

Once you pick a weapon, you next need to pick a unit. If you are hunting bow season, I prefer the units with higher elevation (say access to above 11,500 ft). The elk are very predicatable the opening week of bow season- they'll feed everynight in the alpine meadows above the treeline, then work their way back down into the timber as the sun comes up. Finding them is easy, but positioning yourself below them for a shot is the hard part. Pick your unit by determining access to these areas. If you've got horses or are willing to backpack in, the wildnerness units are hard to beat. If not, you need to plan on a unit you can either access the alpine meadows for day trips on foot or 4 wheeler.

This past year was my 3rd consecutive trip, and I've come so close on multiple occasions on connecting with a good bull, just haven't closed the deal. Its only a matter of time!

 

[Marlin308]

Thanks 4onaside and Mega for the information. Unit 79 was one of the units we were looking at before the trip was cancelled. My aunt told me there were some cabins in Southfork that hunters used quite a bit, but I never really looked into it. We were planning on setting up a base camp just inside the park and possibly spending a couple of nights in a bivy camp "in country" if necessary. The more I've researched, it seems you have to get in fairly deep to give yourself a decent chance.

Mega, I did not know that 4-wheelers were allowed in the parks. We don't have horses and that would really help with getting into the back country and also getting the meat out (if successful). Do you know if they are allowed only in certain places or can you drive them on all the roads inside the parks?

BTW, we would be going in the early season, archery only. We will consider any units that offer OTC tags since we've never been and don't have a "favorite" spot. After researching the CO website, I'm not sure the success rates can be counted on because it's my understanding that you don't have to check in animals in Colorado. The success rates are based on a random phone census - is that true?

 

[4onaside]

Yes on your random phone census question. I'm no math wiz, however, my son tells me that method is very accurate, perhaps close to as accurate as checking every hunter. The number of licenses issued is a known quantity, so checking a reasonable cross section of the license holders interpolated will get you very close to the actual kill numbers.

 

[Marlin308]

Yeah, I've heard that too from several experts, mainly in statistics courses I took in college way back when. If accurate, some of those units have very low success rates, so I guess we should stay away from them. But then everyone looks at the same statistics and will flock to the more successful units, so maybe we should focus on ones in the middle of the pack. Your advice on higher elevation units is also appreciated. I can tell there needs to be a lot more research done before this trip is hammered out.

 

[megalomaniac]

Most detailed maps will indicate which lands are 'wilderness' areas. These are the areas which do not allow any motorized vehicles. The other areas allow 4 wheelers, etc, but that does not guarantee you will be able to get to the tops.

On the '4 wheeler' road we used, it took us about an hour drive just to go 3 miles.

I'm with you on the idea of picking units with middle of the road success. Too many hunters will target the units with the highest success. Of course, it's very hard to find a unit OTC with archery that will approach 20% success.

I've been on 3 trips, taken 1 cow with a bow. My hunting buddy has been 12 consecutive years, only taken 1 cow and 1 6x6. We've been in elk, though, everyday except one. Last year we had a 300 class 6x6 at 17 yards and couldn't close the deal (he was quartering towards us, couldn't risk that shot on an elk)

 

[4onaside]

Also, in areas that aren't "wilderness areas", those that allow motorized vehicles,in some you can get very high in the vehicle that you drove on the interstate. We drove up to 11,600 in a Jeep Cherokee, and I walked out basically on the same elevation and killed a bull at dark. As Mega says however, that particular forest service "road" was more like a moonscape, boulders, etc. That evening we came out on a different road, up over the continental divide, on which I probably would have been terrified had it been daylight. But it can be done without either 4 wheelers or horses, if you own neither.