Hunting Pressure

[MidMoElkNut]

What is the hunting pressure like early bow season vs late bow season in colorado?

Thanks

[powderhogg01]

its pretty heavy. Being one of the few states left with otc units it gets hit pretty heavy. But that is also a broad question and a broad answer.. where in the state.. when you thinking? its in my experience the entire season is heavy with people

[MidMoElkNut]

North central part and I've only hunted the first part of the season before muzzle loader season and plan on hunting after this year

[Elkduds]

http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Huntin ... arvest.pdf

Every unit, every season, who scored, who had tag soup, how many hunters spent how many days. Every other year avail as well on the CPW website, big game stats, elk.

[MidMoElkNut]

Thanks for the info and the link I will check it out!!!

[ak32]

after first weekend it's not nearly that bad. The season is a whole month long and during the week it can be pretty quiet. Rifle seasons have twice as many hunters in only a 1 week span.

[MidMoElkNut]

Thanks for the info I'm just worried about the elk being pushed out of the area because of all the hunting pressure since the hunt won't start until the 20th or so.... I just don't know what to expect since I've never hunted the last half of the season....

[Elkduds]

What units R U considering? The Flattops units are known for elk moving down to private ground fairly early in archery season due to hunting pressure.

[MidMoElkNut]

North central steamboat springs area..... it's mostly all public area but there are units that aren't otc that are draw

[js80138]

We may be in the same area. I will make my main camp at Wolford Reservoir in a travel trailer and spend the days hiking into the area I want, sleeping in the bush if needed. Schedule doesn't permit me to make it until Sept 21 but I will be there until the last hour on the 27th, unless of course I get to remove my "armed hiker" badge earlier. My experience is that there isn't much pressure in the area the final weekdays but it does pick up the final weekend but not crowded by any means.

[MidMoElkNut]

I hope no have you noticed if the elk are pushed into other areas while hunting later?

[ak32]

elk might get pushed around during muzzleloader season, but that is limited so there won't be a lot of hunters. During the rest of archery they aren't pressured enough like in rifle to really make a huge difference except for in a few select units. I think unit 62 had around 1,600 hunters last year which is a lot. They'll be full on rut and won't be thinking too much about people shooting arrows at them.

[MidMoElkNut]

I hope you are right and that makes me feel better too..... I at least hope they are bulging so I can find them even if they are moved out of the area....

[82ndreddevil]

I went OTC in Colorado twice, never thought pressure was bad. I worry more about hunter density here in NM than in CO. All I saw on OTC hunts were a few Texas, or Louisianna plates parked. They never hang out for very long though. I think that many out of staters (myself included) are initially naive about how hard OTC hunts can be.

[BRazz]

If you are creative and work hard there are definitely OTC areas with light pressure.

Be careful trusting the CPW statistics they extrapolate those data from a too-small (in my opinion) sample. That goes for success rate, hunter density/days, etc. The area I hunt looks pretty crappy on their statistics pages, but it isn't...

[Buck]

I hunted the Holy Cross Wilderness up the Cross creek trail during 1st rifle a few years ago and didn't see another man track all week. Had a group of 4 guys and we all got off a shot, came home with a cow and a nice 6x6. Not sure how far it is from Steamboat, but you should check it out of you have a few days. Oh and they were bugling in October up there.