Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting first season gmu 54 colorado

Hey guys doing my winter planning/scouting and trying to decide on a rifle hunt for my wife next year. We both archery hunted unit 54 last year and although we didn't fill any tags we had several close encounters and saw elk every day. I will be returning this next season with the bow but we are thinking about coming back for first season rifle for her. I'm curious what the hunting pressure is like and if the elk tend to be at high elevations like they were for archery season (11,000' or so). We take horses and pack in for the entire season. We are not looking for any ones spots as that would take away from the adventure for us but any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Probably a lot more pressure than you use to.I have been hunting the 2nd season, with those OTC w/ cap tags. I know the trail head that I hunt out of has 30+ cars in it the 1st season. That drops dramatically for the 2nd because of those limited tags.

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I'm looking for a new area for 2017

I was hoping you would reply saddlesore, I have seen your name on many posts I've read about the unit. Are you looking for a new area due to pressure? We didntt encounter anyone elk hunting during archery but several deer hunters. It's seems like it may be unlikely to get away from people even packing in several miles? If your interested I know of a couple spots up north that have produced well for us.

The reason I am looking for a new area,is that on the east side of Unit 54. 2-3 days after opening of first rifle season and sometimes earlier, the entire elk herds of the area, migrate down to the Ohio Creek bottom lands. Castleton ranch to be exact. It is common to see 300-800 head of elk on those hay fields It is still a good archery/muzzle loader season location.

I was going to change this past season,but couldn't get a handle on where else to go.

I did send a young fellow for NB down there to an area I know for archery season.He got into a good many bulls ,but couldn't get the job done.

I always draw a tag for Muzzle Loader season in Unit 12 and that is a "B" tag. I'm looking for somewhere to go where I can camp at the truck and ride my mules in every day 4-6 miles.I don't need bull tags.Cows are fine.

I just got too old and gimpy to pack those big camps in anymore so I am down to one saddle mule and one pack mule.
I would appreciate any tips on where to.

Thanks

Saddlesore have you heard if they might bring back the either sex tag next year in 54 ?
We went with cow tags this year and saw 4 nice bulls. Any of the last 4 years and we would have been tagged out 7am opening morning. But that's hunting.

Very doubtful. The local WCO told me two years ago that the herd was down to the numbers that they wanted.Which is why they only had the bulls OTC w/ cap last year and they still had not found a way to push the elk off private land.My personal opinion is they are trying very hard.

I'm beginning to believe that they do not count those elk standing on Castleton ranch. Maybe a knock on the door is in order. Saw where that ranch sold about 10 years ago. That's when this problem started. Texans owned it before that. Used to see them coming up through a gate to hunt the Gunnison forest years ago. They didn't let anything hang around there for long back then. I just don't believe their number of 3000 head in that area with the low kill ratio because of the weather the last 3 years. And I bet this year will be around 9 or 10% success too. But I have hunted it since '88 and know it well and like the rough terrain.

No one lives there full time. You see people during haying season and when they are shipping cows.

Supposedly from what the WCO told me,the owners are in NY and are in the top 5 of the Fortune 500 companies. His words to me was the owners are afraid of liability if they left hunters on there.Which is a crock

I think someone does live there. Saw an employment add for a biologist or a degree person to live there and manage the wildlife on the ranch from 2010 on the internet. Might have to look him up and have a chat with him.

I hunted in unit 54 twenty times from 1990 to 2015. I usually had a cow tag and a bull tag an I killed 28 elk there. The drought that started in 2002 lasted for ten years and it really took a toll on the deer and elk herd. Like others have posted, the elk now seem to hang out on the Castleton Ranch and the Rock House Ranch. I've given up on the West Elk Wilderness and last year I hunted elsewhere.

I'll go back this summer and scout the high country in unit 54. I hope someday eventually the good times will return.

KC

You sure didn't miss anything this year KC

Castleton is owned by an uber rich Wall Street guy who hunts (bow specifically). He does not allow a lot of access. We tried to get permission for a Wounded Warrior hunt access a few years ago without reply.

By late August or so the feed begins to freeze and the large nursery tend to break into smaller groups and begin to move down into the timber where it hasn't frozen hard. That can vary by two weeks or so. In other words first rifle season you may find less elk in your archery areas, but likely there will still be elk. And the bulls will probably still be rutting the first season (after they're shot at a few times they often abandon the ladies pretty quick).

Start looking in your archery areas and then look down country. Hunting pressure can make them move back up country for a short time. If you can camp above the pressure and give it 24 hrs you may see elk moving back into your area.

Remember, 1st season is draw only, although I think cow tags are undersubscibed in that unit.

Casey