Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 7 months to go...

..until Colorado's 3rd Rifle season. Everyone in my group has their apps in for a Pref Point first choice and a cow tag second. Given where we put in for the cow tags (Units 12/23/24) we expect everyone will end up with a cow tag and an OTC bull tag. I'm getting itchy.

After the 2014 elk season I thought I might be done elk hunting due to a bad hip that was rapidly getting worse. In March of 2015 it was so bad that compensating for it screwed up my back as well and I was limping along like an old man, bent over at 45 degrees and supporting myself with a cane. A hip replacement followed in April and last fall I was able to guide Daughter #1 on her first elk hunt (albeit a short weekend event) followed by a week long hunt in which I got a 6x5 raghorn bull. A week back I turned 65 and have my one-year follow-up visit with my hip surgeon later this morning. These days I walk like normal and rarely think about my hip except to marvel at how the hip that used to dominate every waking moment now rarely enters my consciousness. I'm riding a bike, something I hadn't done in 30+ years and last Sunday my wife and I fast-hiked 4 miles. No pain. Now I'm thinking I might have another 10 years of elk hunting, although I don't expect I'll ever put in the miles that we did even a few years ago. Modern medicine is AWESOME.

My family has their apps in for Wyoming antelope as well, only 6 months away. While I only put in for one, I may put in for a second. This will be a first-time big game hunt for Daughter #3 and her boyfriend and I'm looking forward to helping them fill their tags. 6 months seems like a long time but the older I get the faster it goes.

Three aren't any new rifles in the safe but I need to work up a TTSX replacement for the .300WM/180g MRX, some SST practice loads for a couple different rifles and work up a load for my son-in-law's .30-06. With everything else that is coming up this summer I doubt I'll even get all that done.

Spring has just arrived and while I'm not wishing fall was here already I can't help thinking about it. If I was retired (probably a couple years out) I'd be heading to NM and WY to check out good hunting grounds...

Yep, it's about time to start wringing out rifles and loads--if only the damned wind would quit blowing!

Sounds good. I have only put in for sheep this year. Not likely to draw that. Antelope, special deer , and special elk will come along in May. Likely we will draw any tags we put in for. May try for a bull elk this year ,usually I only shoot cows, but one of my former students made me a great offer on a bull,so I might try that. Really except for the meat, elk are my least favorite big game animal . My wife keeps me at it because she and the kids love elk and they live out of state . So looks like elk hunting will be on the menu for the next few years. Lucky for me my elk loads were developed years ago. Never bother trying the monos as Accubonds, Partitions, Balistic Tips even Sierras have been killing elk for me for many years.

Really I prefer chasing deer, turkey and upland birds more than anything , since all my loads are developed, we will spend the spring and summer fishing and shooting varmints! Tough job but someone has to do it!

I put in for a cow tag in the same season/area and could kick myself for not going PP first choice cow 2nd.

I've got a couple of young guys joining us this year so wringing out more rifles and gear than usual - not a bad chore.

Already picked up a new frame backpack from Wilderness Specialties to replace the old meat hauler from Cabelas and new OR gaiters to replace the cheaper ones that leaked at the end of a long day last year. Young guy gets to use the older stuff.

After hunting elk long enough I don't really need new gear - just replaces stuff that wore out or didn't perform.

We never know how long we get to hunt elk - one of our guys had cancer surgery last year but was able to hunt after getting all good news. Modern medicine really is something - this guy is a Marine who had them find it on a flight physical. I'm fast approaching 60 and want to be elk hunting at 70 but you never know so you might as well enjoy the hunts you have left.

WOW, 65 and only thinking about ten more years of elk hunting.I will be 73 this summer, and I figured I'm good for another ten years, if I don't die first.

Planning on two elk hunts this year,a deer hunt and a late antelope hunt.

I quit putting in for sheep and goat.I have tagged one of each and figure after 20+ years of applying, CPW isn't going to give me another tag of either one. The younger guys can have crack at them

Saddlesore guys like you inspire people like me when I think I am thinking I might be getting too old soon to hunt the mountains.

I will be heading to Wyoming unit 7 for the first and probably the last time due to the long wait for a tag in that unit. It will also probably be the only time I pass on a legal bull to wait for a wall hanger.

Good luck to you RDD. I almost hung it up 3 years ago after a wreck on a mule that cracked a few ribs and bruised some internals. Hurts like hell hitting the ground at 35MPH. I put that witch on a pack string and bought a shorter/older mule. I
am back at it. Last year I did a moose hunt, two elk hunts a deer hunt, and an antelope hunt. Filled all but one of the elk tags .

Some people are just too ornery to quit

I will not make it to Colorado in 2016 so I put in for Mule Deer and Elk preference points again, in 2017 I will be back...

What area you in Coyote Hunter? We have been hunting 12/23/24 for 15 + years. We mainly hunt in East Beaver Creek and the Sleepy Cat area. It can get crowded at times so we hunt way off the main roads.

We will be in 12/23/24. We mostly hunt Sleepy Cat and parts north and west, but generally do some south of Buford as well.

I hear you! Had back surgery this fall and I'm starting to train now for my first elk hunt this fall. Got hooked up with a co worker that has access to private land. Planning stage is in full swing!

Wishg you good luck and an enjoyable hunt! Will be up on the mountain a little southwest of you.

Hope I can make it back this season. We've just about ate up last year's bull. I've been making fresh pan sausage out of the hamburger. Everyone seems to like it.

Need to stuff some more hulls with bullets and get to the pasture to do some shooting when it drys out a bit.

Only 4 months until RFW antelope. I replaced my old Sendero with a new one and expect to get blood on it.
From there Sept could (hopefully) be Sangre de Cristo bighorn ewe.

Gunnison area 1st season cow. I have 2 new hunters joining our group this year. They are not rookie hunters but even so, I hope to place them in the best possible position for success. Much of my own time will be served as ramrod, wrangler, and camp bitch. It's an odd karma but most times when I try to place newcomers on elk and sit back it ends up being me that tags them.

November I will hunt alone on an OTC bull tag wherever the conditions look good. In some ways I look forward to that hunt most of all. Success is against all odds which is just what I'm looking for. I like the cold and solitude.

Moose, mtn goat, deer, chances are like needles in a haystack for me. Even leftover CO deer is slim.
I may get a concurrent bear tag for one of my elk hunts.

$806 sent in for hunting licenses so far and I am nowhere near done yet.

Each year I have a little leave time and money available to hunt one of the surrounding states. This year it will be Oklahoma in December.

I'll be chasing antelope in 81 this year. Hope to be going back up to 63 for the 4th rifle deer hunt for the second year in a row. I had to turn my tag in the day before the hunt last year

81 is a serious antelope tag.
Good luck!

Thanks, that's good to hear. 81 was a compromise choice. I had been trying to draw the one NR tag in 79 for years, to no avail.