Southern Colorado Hunting

Just read Jim Zumbo's article on elk hunting in Colorado (over the counter tags). Anyone here have any experience with elk in Colorado? Are there any strips you can fly into and hunt out of?

How about a Kansas Buffalo hunt? Mark

I know "Rancher" knows a good bit about the strips in SW Colorado. I'll be he knows some about elk hunting, too. Are you lurking out there Wayne?

Eric

Fly into Montrose and from there you can get permission from a few people depending on what area and what season you want to hunt. You can't fly the day of a hunt anyway.

I am up for any supercub trip with Elk&Whitetail bowhunting envolved,if I can afford it. Dont really matter much to me about the killing, I love the chase. Cubs and bowhunting are alot alike,if you want to get there fast there are better planes,and if you want to just kill somthing there are easier ways!

PA-18

Nice racks!

They are wonderful displays did you take those animals in Tx?

Cub_Driver

Those are some awesome mounts! Maybe we should start thinking Texas Whitetails instead of Colorado Elk. They've got to be a heck of a lot easier to put in the back of the Pacer.

One was from South Tx. the rest are from Old Mexico just across the border from Laredo. It is hard to find a place in tx any more to hunt,most of the tx ranches have breed bucks that originated from a frozen semen sample and lived its whole life in a holding pen. A few short years ago this was not the case,but know days people just want the biggest the fastest way. Now you have to go to another country where there are deer to hunt that people dont raise I have even heard that one of our tx universitys have cloned superior bucks,makes you wonder how much longer real hunting is going to last. Didnt mean to ramble but its a hot topic of mine. Anyone for going hunting,my cotton crop is about all in and Im ready to go someplace.(Have Cub Will Travel)

You should have seen the buck in my front yard yesterday. It would fit right in with any one of those. Went out in my driveway to get something, and it was chowing down on the peaches under the peach tree. Ran to get the camera, but when I came out the second time it ran into the woods.

The only other time I've seen one bigger than that was in closer towards NYC - where no one hunts.

I grew up hunting mulies, prairie goats, and elk in Wyoming. In fact, my family still derives a large part of their living up there from running a restaurant, motel, and game processing business that does about 75% of the annual revenue during hunting season. We've had 4 and 5 generations of families come back year after year, and on the other side, I've dealt with the folks that really had to scrape by to try a western hunt. Zumbo's article may show how it can be done, but the hunters I've known that did it that way were generally disappointed with the overall experience. Unfortunately, hunting just is not cheap anymore. I grew up with a pocket full of keys to the back gates of the ranchers and could go hunting anytime with just a courtesy call. But the rancher's grew older and didn't hunt anymore. I moved out-of-state and didn't feel comfortable just dropping in. And enterprising outfitters now pay the ranchers significant money for exclusive access for their clients. It is particularly angering when that outfitter "buys" the locks to block access to some vast strip of public ground just beyond the rancher's driveway, but that's another story. This new economy is what makes it feasible for a family to still run a ranch. I don't hunt my old grounds anymore. I hunted public lands for elk last year here in Colorado. Unsuccessfully. I'll keep trying places until I find something that works. I'm skipping this years elk chase to try the otherside -- my first guided big game hunt in AK. I hope it will be worth the cost of 5 Borer props!

One thing should have stayed the same: no "hunter" should feel any sense of accomplishment for taking a "pen-raised" animal. When I grew up in Wyoming, private ownership and/or holding of game species was illegal. The game belonged to the state. I've heard of "elk ranches" even here in Colorado, and the entire concept of the industry disgusts me. I was in a Cabela's store today, and there is a sickening amount of products sold that directly violate the spirit of the fair chase. Growth hormones, game feeders, motion-trigger video cameras, even range finders (as far as I'm concerned). Boots and eyes. That's what a real hunt depends on.

Oh... and I looked all over for the last couple years to figure a way to work my Cub into my elk hunting here in Colorado. It just isn't very practical. Elk terrain is not cub terrain. Better off bringing the pickup.

CubCouper said:

Oh... and I looked all over for the last couple years to figure a way to work my Cub into my elk hunting here in Colorado. It just isn't very practical. Elk terrain is not cub terrain. Better off bringing the pickup.

Click to expand...

And as always the best place to shoot an elk is in the bed of the truck.

Great post CubCouper.........
There is nothing more satisfying than "when a plan comes together" on a hunt. Sadly, we are becoming a nation of "shooters" instead of "hunters".

Good luck up in Alaska on your trip. Hold out for a good whatever you are hunting for,and let us know how you did.----I would like to think that somplace on public land in some state there is a old seep that holds water and has a number of old deer that use it and a place to land and camp that few know of. I know thats alot to ask for but its worth dreaming about. Just seems like you could access some of these areas no one can reach. I know down here in a populated region I am able to land on state land that everyone has trouble accessing and the wildlife is abundant. I have known kids here in Texas that have raised orphan fawns and I was one,that were told by game wardens of the state it was illegal to have a state animal in captivity and had to let them go,but the large ranchers are able to high fence these "state owned animals" and manipulate them as they see fit. Whenever one gets out and is hit buy a car it is always the states animal again. I would like to think they belonged to everyone but thats just not the case anymore. Did you know that 90% of all the whitetail hunting here in this state is done at bait stations called feeders. They are becoming very elaborate,some have protein for large antler development,some are monitored by infrared night cameras,some are now being monitored live on-line through satelite internet connections, corn has become the most important part of most texas hunters arsenal. I think the "hunt" part of hunting here in Texas has been lost. I guess some would call this progress,but I see it as the begining of the end for hunting. I wish my state was like all the western ones where baiting is not allowed.

PA-18.......Texas

Greetings from Dillingham Alaska, which is located 350 air-miles off the road system (bush) at the top of the Alaska Peninsula, right on Bristol Bay.

Kindly feel free to visit our website and then shoot me an email. Come up for a hunt with me, I'll give you a hunt the old fashion way.....

Fair chase hunting is STILL an honorable way to hunt, and as outdoorsmen in this day-in-age we have an ethical duty to pass our conservation lifestlye onto the younger generation.

By the way....GREAT comments about the farm-rasied, genetically altered critters that some folks kill (murder) and then call it "hunting".

Amen brother...you're preaching to the choir!!!

Good Hunting...>Byron Lamb