WeekendWarrior
Well-Known Member
I'll give you a straight answer and all the details shy of the exact coordinates where I hunt.
I live in the state, I don't hunt the units you propose. Those units are on the i-70 corridor right where Beaver Creek and Vail ski resorts are located. There are a lot of summer backpackers and hikers in the area. The success rates are considerably lower as well. If you have a honey hole in the area, by all means do your thing, but otherwise I don't think you will be happy hunting. Lots of great food and bars as well as world class lodging right there, so it could make for a plush trip.
The biggest and easiest herds to hunt are usually the units around 1) steamboat springs, specifically unit 14 and 4 early season, elk start to move down to private by second rifle reason pretty reliably although unit 3 becomes pretty good by third rifle, and the deer and pronghorn in unit 3 are great too; 2) Mesa flat top wilderness units 12 and 24; and 3) units 64/65/66 down by the black canyon and Montrose. These areas also have the most applicants, the most hunters, and the most elk taken every year. Take a look at the harvest stats for these units going back a couple years, data here:
2019 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2019StatewideElkHarvest.pdf
2018 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2018StatewideElkHarvest.pdf
2017 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2017StatewideElkHarvest.pdf
The page you want to look at to see all the data is here, scroll down to see the table of pdfs: https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics-Elk.aspx
These places feel like zoos during the season. Your best bet is to get there a few days early, get to the back of these units, and let the hunters push everything your way as the elk try to escape to private. And do expect company because many people have figured this tactic out. Open the PDFs above and onX and look at where the success rates spike in the surrounding units, this tells you the direction the elk run away from hunters in the early season and thus relocate in later seasons, and thus where you want to be setup. You will not be getting a trophy bull in these units, though a few do, but you will get opportunity at elk but do not expect many opportunities. It feels weird being in the woods with literally 500+ other hunters in your same unit, all competing to get an elk. The young hunters seems to chase, the old hunters lie in wait along private. Shoot a four point if you see one, five points will be harder to find, and you likely won't see a six point or larger. The biggest bulls are taken in archery season in these units, prior to rifle season.
The other part that sucks about hunting these units is dealing with stupid people. Elk have very sensitive noses, and you have to travel with thermals in mind to deal with this. The number of times southern and mid-west hunters with no experience in the mountains ruin a hunt is countless. For example, air moves down mountain when it's cold, and then the thermals switch to moving up hill once the sun comes out for about 30min or so. This means you need to move up hill when it's dark and down hill when it's day light, and position your camp accordingly. If you are a deer-blind hunter who knows nothing about thermals and you leave camp at 3:30am and start hiking down hill, every elk below you will smell you and run. Then the locals will give you mean looks and say passive-aggressive things. This is why if I hunt these areas, I get there early, park at the other side of the unit from where all the camps are usually setup, and relax on the edge of private, usually focusing on the edge of private with fields of alphalpha, and I let the other hunters push all the elk to me.
Trophy bulls are mainly located on the boarder with Utah, in the pinion and juniper, semi-dessert units with lots of agriculture, and private land in the foothills of the rockies. You will need a **** load of points for these units. Unit 201 and 2 are the infamous 360+ units in our state. You will need about 20 preference points though and phenomenal glass.
The way you want to plan your hunt is to open onX and look at the units I mentioned above, as well as the surrounding units. Open the harvest stats I listed above, and map out where the elk go through the hunting seasons by tracking total elk taken and success rates in surrounding units. Note that wilderness areas have a huge drop in success because no one wants to walk that far and you can't use quads or side by sides. This means if you have unit where the success rates drop but doesn't rise in surrounding units, the elk either moved in to a wilderness area or are sitting on private usually along side an alphalpha field. Once you have your units ans timing figured out, open the big game catalog for 2021, here: https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/RulesRegs/Brochure/BigGame/biggame.pdf, page 35 is elk, elk hunt codes start on page 40 and rifle starts on page 45; get a list of the hunt codes you like based on the units you want to hunt and the times you want to hunt them. Then search the draw odds and pick the units you will actually be able to draw based on your residency status and points, you will have to ctrl+f the exact hunt code you want because the draw odds table is about 1000 pages long. And finally, pick your units apply, and get after it.
Draw odds:
2020 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2020ElkDrawRecap.pdf
2019 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2019ElkDrawRecap.pdf
2018 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2018ElkDrawRecap.pdf
To find where to hunt exactly, look at google maps or satellite imagery, focus on aspen groves with adjacent dark timber. Wilderness abutting private agriculture with few roads is your best bet to find herds in later seasons. Anything above 9000ft close the continental divide or in ranges with 14k peaks will be covered in snow by third rifle, and the elk will be moving down due to weather if hunting pressure hasn't already caused them to move, so 7-8k eleveation on the boarder of private is where you start to see a lot of elk by the end of second rifle. The western slope will stay warm into later seasons though, and elk will stay higher longer; focusing on these areas with the combination of cliff bands and tight canyons with water and some green vegetation are where our trophies hide.
Have fun.
My honest recommendation for someone who is out of state and probably not ready for the insanity that is Colorado elk season, is do not hunt Colorado for elk. Wyoming, Idaho, northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and Utah offer better bulls for less points with less hunters. I am starting to build points in these states in hopes of getting a trophy bull eventually, and I live in Colorado, so that should tell you something. If you don't mind the rat-race and crowded units to have an opportunity, or trying to hunt units with seemingly no elk what-so-ever in hopes of trying to find someone's honey hole, then Colorado is fine. Get on Youtube and look up Hushin and elk 101 channels. These guys hunt elk in Utah and Idaho a lot and take big six points all day, and you see them passing on five points or smaller six points routinely. Compare their bulls to the four point and five point bulls you see Newberg or Born and Raised Outdoors take in Colorado, or other Colorado hunts you see people posting - for the tags you can draw with zero to a couple points in Colorado, the bulls are way smaller, and we have CWD, and we have way more people. A lot of the rifle opportunities for big bulls are gone in Colorado.
I live in the state, I don't hunt the units you propose. Those units are on the i-70 corridor right where Beaver Creek and Vail ski resorts are located. There are a lot of summer backpackers and hikers in the area. The success rates are considerably lower as well. If you have a honey hole in the area, by all means do your thing, but otherwise I don't think you will be happy hunting. Lots of great food and bars as well as world class lodging right there, so it could make for a plush trip.
The biggest and easiest herds to hunt are usually the units around 1) steamboat springs, specifically unit 14 and 4 early season, elk start to move down to private by second rifle reason pretty reliably although unit 3 becomes pretty good by third rifle, and the deer and pronghorn in unit 3 are great too; 2) Mesa flat top wilderness units 12 and 24; and 3) units 64/65/66 down by the black canyon and Montrose. These areas also have the most applicants, the most hunters, and the most elk taken every year. Take a look at the harvest stats for these units going back a couple years, data here:
2019 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2019StatewideElkHarvest.pdf
2018 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2018StatewideElkHarvest.pdf
2017 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2017StatewideElkHarvest.pdf
The page you want to look at to see all the data is here, scroll down to see the table of pdfs: https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics-Elk.aspx
These places feel like zoos during the season. Your best bet is to get there a few days early, get to the back of these units, and let the hunters push everything your way as the elk try to escape to private. And do expect company because many people have figured this tactic out. Open the PDFs above and onX and look at where the success rates spike in the surrounding units, this tells you the direction the elk run away from hunters in the early season and thus relocate in later seasons, and thus where you want to be setup. You will not be getting a trophy bull in these units, though a few do, but you will get opportunity at elk but do not expect many opportunities. It feels weird being in the woods with literally 500+ other hunters in your same unit, all competing to get an elk. The young hunters seems to chase, the old hunters lie in wait along private. Shoot a four point if you see one, five points will be harder to find, and you likely won't see a six point or larger. The biggest bulls are taken in archery season in these units, prior to rifle season.
The other part that sucks about hunting these units is dealing with stupid people. Elk have very sensitive noses, and you have to travel with thermals in mind to deal with this. The number of times southern and mid-west hunters with no experience in the mountains ruin a hunt is countless. For example, air moves down mountain when it's cold, and then the thermals switch to moving up hill once the sun comes out for about 30min or so. This means you need to move up hill when it's dark and down hill when it's day light, and position your camp accordingly. If you are a deer-blind hunter who knows nothing about thermals and you leave camp at 3:30am and start hiking down hill, every elk below you will smell you and run. Then the locals will give you mean looks and say passive-aggressive things. This is why if I hunt these areas, I get there early, park at the other side of the unit from where all the camps are usually setup, and relax on the edge of private, usually focusing on the edge of private with fields of alphalpha, and I let the other hunters push all the elk to me.
Trophy bulls are mainly located on the boarder with Utah, in the pinion and juniper, semi-dessert units with lots of agriculture, and private land in the foothills of the rockies. You will need a **** load of points for these units. Unit 201 and 2 are the infamous 360+ units in our state. You will need about 20 preference points though and phenomenal glass.
The way you want to plan your hunt is to open onX and look at the units I mentioned above, as well as the surrounding units. Open the harvest stats I listed above, and map out where the elk go through the hunting seasons by tracking total elk taken and success rates in surrounding units. Note that wilderness areas have a huge drop in success because no one wants to walk that far and you can't use quads or side by sides. This means if you have unit where the success rates drop but doesn't rise in surrounding units, the elk either moved in to a wilderness area or are sitting on private usually along side an alphalpha field. Once you have your units ans timing figured out, open the big game catalog for 2021, here: https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/RulesRegs/Brochure/BigGame/biggame.pdf, page 35 is elk, elk hunt codes start on page 40 and rifle starts on page 45; get a list of the hunt codes you like based on the units you want to hunt and the times you want to hunt them. Then search the draw odds and pick the units you will actually be able to draw based on your residency status and points, you will have to ctrl+f the exact hunt code you want because the draw odds table is about 1000 pages long. And finally, pick your units apply, and get after it.
Draw odds:
2020 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2020ElkDrawRecap.pdf
2019 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2019ElkDrawRecap.pdf
2018 - https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Elk/2018ElkDrawRecap.pdf
To find where to hunt exactly, look at google maps or satellite imagery, focus on aspen groves with adjacent dark timber. Wilderness abutting private agriculture with few roads is your best bet to find herds in later seasons. Anything above 9000ft close the continental divide or in ranges with 14k peaks will be covered in snow by third rifle, and the elk will be moving down due to weather if hunting pressure hasn't already caused them to move, so 7-8k eleveation on the boarder of private is where you start to see a lot of elk by the end of second rifle. The western slope will stay warm into later seasons though, and elk will stay higher longer; focusing on these areas with the combination of cliff bands and tight canyons with water and some green vegetation are where our trophies hide.
Have fun.
My honest recommendation for someone who is out of state and probably not ready for the insanity that is Colorado elk season, is do not hunt Colorado for elk. Wyoming, Idaho, northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and Utah offer better bulls for less points with less hunters. I am starting to build points in these states in hopes of getting a trophy bull eventually, and I live in Colorado, so that should tell you something. If you don't mind the rat-race and crowded units to have an opportunity, or trying to hunt units with seemingly no elk what-so-ever in hopes of trying to find someone's honey hole, then Colorado is fine. Get on Youtube and look up Hushin and elk 101 channels. These guys hunt elk in Utah and Idaho a lot and take big six points all day, and you see them passing on five points or smaller six points routinely. Compare their bulls to the four point and five point bulls you see Newberg or Born and Raised Outdoors take in Colorado, or other Colorado hunts you see people posting - for the tags you can draw with zero to a couple points in Colorado, the bulls are way smaller, and we have CWD, and we have way more people. A lot of the rifle opportunities for big bulls are gone in Colorado.
