I'm trying to figure out exactly what you mean about guns going off and hunters stomping through the woods?
That's what you'll be experiencing here in Colorado. You can's use your handgun until the rifle seasons start. By then the bow hunters, muzzleloader hunters, bear hunters, and some deer hunters would be done hunting, and have alerted all game that it's hunting season, and you will be out during the most crowded season.
I killed mine by hiking a half day into a wilderness area but not so far that I was in with the horse camps. I hiked in the first day and hunted that evening. I siwashed in a bivy bag overnight and hunted the next morning, then hiked out to the truck to spend the night and refuel the body. I repeated this routine for the next four days. On the morning of the last day, a group of hunters pushed a small band of cows and calves along with three small bulls up toward me. There was a well-defined trail up through the rocks below a bench and that was where I ambushed the bull that I killed.
On the private ranch where I now hunt in Colorado, I could kill a bull pretty easily with a pistol. As I mentioned, I have shot some at pretty close range, working the aspen thickets. However, I have hunted that ranch for over ten years and I know where the elk go and where they hang out during the rifle hunts. Doing it on a public land hunt would take a lot of scouting an familiarizing oneself with the country.
