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Old October 27, 2015, 07:56 AM   #1
mapsjanhere
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Hunting on the interstate

It was supposed to be a hunting trip for the ages. An elk tag in the best public area of New Mexico, a free condo to stay in right in the area, and a secret spot from a guy who has the trophies on the wall from there.
Making my way up the mountain the first thing I noticed was the quality of the road, much better then I was let to expect (and had invested 1k for new truck tires for). The second hint that not all was well was the signed post to the secret spot, complete with new road, and a half dozen cars camped there already. So I found myself a nice meadow about 300x300 yards, with a good spot downwind, and started waiting. Alas, a car came by about once every 5 min, most undisturbed by the fact that the area clearly already had all the attention it needed. 10 h and 100 cars later, no animals, and worse, not a single shot fired anywhere in the area. Next day no different, so I finally decided to hit the road myself, up a pass across the mountains that no reasonable guy should drive with an SUV. Met 7 other hunters driving the pass, and went home in disgust.
From all I could tell, the reason it's the richest elk area in the state is the utter lack of accessible roads, meaning that anybody with horses gets a fantastic hunt, and the 150 other tag holders are limited to about 3 valley roads with 30 miles of steep canyons you can't get out, especially this time of year with snow on the passes.
That's why it's called hunting I guess, not shooting.
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Old October 27, 2015, 10:32 PM   #2
FrankenMauser
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Quote:
From all I could tell, the reason it's the richest elk area in the state is the utter lack of accessible roads, meaning that anybody with horses gets a fantastic hunt, and the 150 other tag holders are limited to about 3 valley roads with 30 miles of steep canyons you can't get out, especially this time of year with snow on the passes.
That's why it's called hunting I guess, not shooting.
That's how public land Elk units work, pretty much anywhere.

The areas that are easily hunted are chewed to pieces every year, and the only animals dumb enough to go back are typically genetically inferior, or recently got their butt kicked by a big bull and are just passing through.
And if they animals aren't genetically inferior, then they're usually smart enough to stay hidden during the day.

The good Elk are always the hardest to get. No roads (not just difficult access, but NO roads). Harsh terrain. Steep canyons. Nasty boulder fields. Blown-down timber. Marshes. Cliffs. Dark timber where visibility is 20-30 yards, at best.
....All of these things are characteristics of where you are more likely to find the 'good' Elk, in my neck of the woods (including portions of Utah and Wyoming).

Put some miles on those legs of yours, and your chances of success will increase greatly.


I did the math just a few days ago:
My brothers and I average 38-40 hunting days per public land, general season (non-limited entry) Elk tag filled, including cow tags. That does include bad weather days, and days spent trying to fill Utah's stupid "Spike-Only" tags (~20-30% of hunts).
That works out to 228-240 miles hiked per elk, at the low end (6 mile per day average). But, some years, we've averaged 10+ miles per day (in nasty terrain). So the actually mileage covered could be considerably more.


There are better places to hunt, but many of them force you to become a slave to random chance (draw), land owners (trespass fees), or insane nonresident license fees.
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Old October 28, 2015, 07:02 AM   #3
Mobuck
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Many years back a friend and I went to Montana to hunt elk with a friend who was in grad school in Bozeman. The local guy had done some scouting and figured we could totally slaughter them as they crossed the buffer zone out of Jellystone Park. Great idea. It was a 3 mile walk through knee deep snow to get to a nice little open area with plenty of room to shoot.
UNFORTUNATELY, everyone in 40 miles had the same idea. It wasn't the guys who got there and set up that caused problems. It was the guys on horses who were constantly moving around looking for a "better spot" and the hunters who got cold and left about the time the elk were starting to move. We'd get to our stands 1/2 hour before daylight only to see a constant stream of flashlights following the trail right through our shooting zone. My friend from Illinois did manage to scratch down a spike that was desperately trying to re-enter the buffer zone but I didn't even see a shootable elk.
It was a challenge with temps in the -teens every night and barely above zero during the day. We all remember that hunt to this day and that's what it's all about.
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Old October 28, 2015, 08:10 AM   #4
kcub
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The good Elk are always the hardest to get. No roads (not just difficult access, but NO roads). Harsh terrain. Steep canyons. Nasty boulder fields. Blown-down timber. Marshes. Cliffs. Dark timber where visibility is 20-30 yards, at best.
....All of these things are characteristics of where you are more likely to find the 'good' Elk, in my neck of the woods (including portions of Utah and Wyoming).
I've heard elk were a plains animal before the white man came. If you think about it this is just the logical progression thereof. If you were an elk what would you do? What's getting harvested is the dumb and dumberer elk, just Darwin at work.
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Old October 28, 2015, 08:55 AM   #5
crashdummy
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All I have ever been able to afford have been the very limited public areas here in Texas. Takes $$$$ to get on private land now days, even for hogs, the new "cash crop".
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Old October 28, 2015, 09:34 AM   #6
mapsjanhere
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Frankenmauser, I was prepared to hike, I was surprised about the presence of decent roads. What I wasn't prepared for was the steepness of the terrain, I got two elk in adjacent sections just northeast of there, and the roads were worse but allowed people to spread out better. And hiking into the neighboring valleys wouldn't have mattered; I'm no longer physically in the shape to carry an elk over several 1000 ft ridges so I don't shoot where I can't harvest.
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Old October 28, 2015, 09:53 AM   #7
MarkCO
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I have shot 3 elk where I could drive right up to them and put them in the back of my truck...all on private land. I did get an elk in the truck whole by myself, after a 1 mile drag many years ago, but it was a gently sloping iced over field and about 10F.

After hunting in CO for 35 years and killing that many elk, 32 of them have been on public land. The majority of them have been 1/2 mile or more from a road. All of them with 6 points or more have been 2 miles or more from a road. My dad and his friends could not understand why I walked into the holes, box canyons, etc. that I did, but I filled more tags than they did. Yes, I have been skunked a few times, but several years I have had two tags.

My Dad is 75 now, and one of the hardest things I had to do was tell him he should not (and I would not go with him if he did) hunt elk anymore. Deer and Pronghorn, sure. I still tell people from out of state, get a guide and or put in for a Ranching for Wildlife tag. Just too much $ to get skunked, and unless you have a lot of time into scouting the area and are in great shape, a CO elk hunt is likely just a vacation.

I won't hunt CO in the 1st-3rd elk seasons. Too many people, too many idiots have ruined my hunts over the years. Muzzle-loader or a later season is all I have done for the last 20 years. If I could find someone to let me hunt plains elk (tags unlimited and over 10K head East of Denver) I would. I have seen them and some are monsters. Corn fed elk is awesome.
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Old October 28, 2015, 10:39 AM   #8
taylorce1
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Mark if you're telling out of State hunters to put in for Ranching for Wildlife (RFW) tags, you're giving very bad information. RFW tags are for Colorado residents only, and very few buck & bull tags are given.

Quote:
Ranching for Wildlife (RFW) started as a pilot program in 1986 with the intent to improve public hunting access to private land and to form a wildlife management partnership with participating landowners.​

The program ​provides Colorado residents a unique opportunity to hunt on priva​te ranch land normally closed to the public. Participating ranches provide public hunting recreation access to their land free of charge to those who draw licenses.
I've hunted RFW properties a couple of times and it's a great hunt to have kids cut their teeth on, and a great opportunity for a 75 year old father to have an elk hunt with his son (so take your dad elk hunting). The properties usually have easy access and the elk are patterned well by the ranch staff who are usually happy to help. Some of the properties allow use of ATV and Horses though most do not. The last cow I shot on a RFW property the ranch employees were nice enough to drag my cow down to my truck with an ATV.
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Old October 30, 2015, 07:12 PM   #9
Tinbucket
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Hunting on the Interstates

The over crowding, during hunting seasons and and any other purposes is why I have lobbied for more public lands.
Our National Forest, here, in the east are being turned into for profit operations for ATVs , fast water rafting, canoeing operators, mining and timbering. In summer you can't get down many roads or even begin to fish from the noise of amusement ride operators and the congestion.
Many access roads have bars on them, off limits except to forest management and timber cutters.
Hard to find a friendly ear in Washington or States about the subject.
We have too many people and too few resources. Only those with huge amounts of available cash have access to many areas, soon to be most areas, as in Texas yet Hunting licenses and taxes on ammo and firearms and fishing tackle and boats pays for stocking, and management of deer elk, buffalo and other game.
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Old November 2, 2015, 08:42 AM   #10
Redneckrepairs
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We have too many people and too few resources. Only those with huge amounts of available cash have access to many areas, soon to be most areas, as in Texas yet Hunting licenses and taxes on ammo and firearms and fishing tackle and boats pays for stocking, and management of deer elk, buffalo and other game.
Texas is as it is in regards to fee hunting because it is virtually all private property . Surely you are not trying to say that everyone should have trespass rights on private property just because they bought a hunting license ?
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