Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Durango scouting trip results

So I traveled to Durango and scouted 5 days. Seen ton of elk and deer in high country. Highest elk we spotted was above 12000 feet. Most were 10500 to 11300. Deer were around 9000 to 10000 feet. First time hunting Durango area. I hiked 14 miles one day and 8 miles two days later other hikes were less than 5 miles to vantage points. Seen a few nice bulls and quite a few rag horns. 150 cows. we seen 30 mule deer only 3 bucks. I have never hunted scrubs oaks at high elevation but that is where the elk seemed to be bedded down. Will they stick to this behavior when pressured and go high? All my elk hunting is lower elevation thick stuff.

Depends on when you hunt and how many people are pushing them around once the season starts. I hunt SW CO mostly in September and they are still at those elevations then. I'd imagine they're still there until the snow piles up enough to push 'em down. Also depends on how far in you go, where the hunting pressure comes from, and where other people hike in and set up. Where I hunt, even in the archery and ML seasons the hunting is much better once you get 2+ miles in, 3 or 4 is better. I can recall scouting pre-season and finding a basin loaded with elk of all shapes and sizes. Problem was, it was only a couple miles in and for some reason some hunters decided to set up a tent city right in the middle of the basin instead of camping close by and hiking in. Come hunting season, no elk to be seen there.

I guess what I'm saying is, pre-season scouting will point you to good areas in general, but until you get in during hunting season, get the lay of the land, and figure out where other people hunt, it'll be a crapshoot. But once you figure it out it can be a blessing, and concentrate the animals where others don't go.

PS, good on you for getting down there early and poking around, IMO that's one of the most fun parts of hunting.

The place I am looking at is 4 miles from trailhead. around 11000 feet. Its not a big area 1 mile by .75 miles But it has a few small ponds scrub oaks and some heavy cover. its a mile off any hiking trail. just hoping its overlooked where it lays

A lot will change during the Sept rut. Harems will be formed and after that, multiple harems will start to bunch for the winter. Bachelor bull herds will scatter. This is a good time to learn the lay of the land but don't count on the elk being where you see them now.

I don't see much scrub oak up around 11,000......

What all these guys say is true. I have a place in Bayfield., 20 miles east of Durango. All of your scouting you just did is now only good for getting to know the lay of the land. God willing you may end up with a micro parcel of undisturbed land. Good luck with that. SW CO gets hammered very hard with out of area hunters. I got my areas. Walk in a few miles. Ido get a few 6x6 and lots of 5x5 elk, but its really known for monster mule deer. Depending on your unit I would try the Peadra(spelling prob off) River drainage valleys east of Durango towards Pagossa Springs. Mule Deer galore. Also towards Durango, north of Bayfield up by Vallecieto Reservoir. That will get you way up high. Now here is the pisser, lots...LOTS of outfitters with horses and their drop camps plague all of this area. I hunt the 3rd and 4th seasons. By then the weather has gotten cold, snow has usually fallen, and all the pussies that don't know how to chain up a truck or drive in snow have gone back to Missouri, Texas or wherever. It truly is a great area with good hunting. Those first couple of seasons(rifle,muzzle) are congested. Always a bummer to hike in to a pristine looking valley only to see 4 blaze orange vests dotting the hillside.

And don't even try to bugle up a bull. What will happen is you will have a bugleoff with another hunter. Funny stuff. I've seen and heard it many times. Cow call your way closer.

So true. You can instantly discern hunters new to elk hunting by all the bugling they do. If they'd stop blowing all the contraptions they fell for on Cabela's shelves, they'd see more elk. Geez, and I'd see more elk too since they'd stop scaring them away.

I was thinking the same, maybe it's not oak.

I'd disagree with this, depending on when and where he hunts. During the rut I've had bulls not respond to a cow call, but if I could get in close and bugle, sometimes it agitated them enough to come looking for me. Assuming you're in an out-of-the-way place where people haven't been bugling at them for weeks. Which is tough to peg on your first trip out.

I wouldn't use the bugle first, but sometimes it's the only thing that works.

In unit 74 I always enjoy hearing hunters bugle in response to the steam whistle from the Durango Silverton railroad steam locomotive.

Ok well the scrubs that are up there the elk were quite at home in.

Sling,

Elk typically spend their summers in the high country. Away from flies, cooler etc. The alpine grass grows slow and high in protein and makes great forage, but by the time rut is over it's pretty well ate up or burned up. I think this is a bigger factor than snow getting them lower.

Last year it was very dry in Colorado, I was scouting during the rut and the elk were up high. I saw at least 300 total in several bunches.

One week before the 1st rifle season packed back up there. It looked as though a 1000 sheep had grazed. No grass everything brown, no elk.

Saw plenty of them down low on private land.;-(



Lefty C

I am trying to learn where elk go when pressured. I am trying to distance myself from rest of people.. Hoping 74 doesn't have the hunters Gunnison did.

Where we hunt, pressured elk don't go far...about 2000' straight up. It's nasty steep country. Often you can see them up there with good binocs but getting at them is a real chore.
I got one like that about 5 years ago. My hike was about 1.5 miles with a 2000' gain in elevation. It took me 2 hrs to climb it. I was in plain sight of about 80 elk the whole time but they were so confident of where they were that they never saw me. I took off any thing brightly colored and was careful to keep moving slowly straight at them with no sideways movement. I got to within 350 yards before I decided I was pushing my luck and shot one.

The key to success in that unit is to maintain the ability to move if needed.
There are good drainages and mountains from one end of the unit to the other but any of them can and do get heavily pressured.
Have a backup location in mind and another and another.
Small herds will move quickly out of pressured areas there. They will also return quickly.

If you kick elk out of a bedding area, they're gone. They won't be back until they get pressured elsewhere. That's one big problem with hunting black timber. If you find elk, you get 1 shot at it. You get one or you go elsewhere.

I used bugle calls and had 4 or 5 other hunters show up. I switched to cow calls and had a black bear show up. Just be careful when using calls.

Anymore, that's half the fun of bugling and cow calling!


Casey

I have had excellent luck calling in the Blaze Orange army in Colorado. One of the best places for it. Elk not so much.