Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Yamaha Grizzly or Rhino for Elk Unit 67 Colorado?

We will be hunting first rifle season unit 67 ELK out of Gunnison. I am driving a Jeep Liberty diesel and towing a 5x10 Trailer. I only have room for one utility vehicle so I'm trying to decide what to bring. I have never hunted this area so I looking for some advice on which would be better for THIS AREA. We plan to use the vehicle to get from base camp to the start of our hikes in. depending on where we may shoot our animal we will use it to recover the animal as well.

2007 Yamaha Grizzly 700 FI. with winch

This is smaller and will fit on 50" or smaller trails, has a winch and is fuel injected which will not need re jetting for the altitude.

2006 Yamaha Rhino 660 no winch

Much more comfortable for two hunters but needs to be rejeted and not legal on all roads.

Thanks for any help!

John

Leave 'em home........

For elk I like something big and slow over small and fast, more frontal mass and greater weight retention when you hit them. Go with the rhino.

Which one is loudest? The louder they are, the more soothing to elk.

If I had a jeep, I wouldn't be pulling an atv...

Never dropped one where I could legally take an atv. My old 4Runner always got me to trailheads just fine as I am sure your jeep would. Good luck.

Or, when the Jeep breaks down, the ATV can tow it.

Rent a couple horses.

Most trails in colorado are ATV and Jeep so the width doesn't matter I like the UTV myself. I have a kawasaki mule 4 seater I use it for camp chores and fishing, I usually hike directly from camp. When it comes to getting the animal from the trailhead back to camp I would rather have the mule than an atv any day.

My Vote Rhino.

So, no unit specific info... but this might be of some help:

In years past, we've flown to Denver and rented a Jeep Liberty or Kia 4x4... they're tiny little things. We took them up many of the trailheads that were Jeep legal, and it was white-knuckled all the way. Thank goodness we never met another jeep coming the other direction. We usually averaged around 1 mile of trail for 20 minutes driving, so it wasn't much faster than walking, but did save the legs for the final push to the top. LOTS of scraping/banging the underside of the vehicle on rocks, and I was really nervous about it since it was a rental vehicle.

Last year, we drove from MS and towed a rhino. It was WONDERFUL!!! We were able to go at least a half mile- mile further before parking, and had plenty of room for the bows/backpacks/ etc. We had a few places where trees fell and obstructed the road and the fellows on 4 wheelers had cut them back just enough to fit through, but still too narrow for us and we had to carry a saw for those areas. Plenty of room on the back of the rhino for a quartered up elk as well!

This year, we're towing the rhino again and loading up a 4 wheeler as well in the back of the truck. That'll give us a little more manuverability/ option to hunt different areas.

Thanks for the help! Like everyone my mind is full of thoughts about the upcoming hunting season. I appreciate the humor as well as advice... pictures are always great! Got a new Leupold VX_L this weekend and went to the range...got the wall tent out and measure it for a new fly awning tarp. I really need to get off my butt and get to the gym or the only big dead meat coming out this year will be me! ...How do you post pictures?

John

Ok...I think I can post pictures...This is why i dont use my Jeep liberty hunting...It can get messy!

John, you're a good sport with the humor, it was just the way you worded the title. I could hunt with a guy that can take some teasing anytime. Sounds like you have a great setup, good luck.

Kent

cool pic!! I can see that now... not that a mess in the jeep would bother me in the least, but I was thinking along the lines of why waste the fuel to pull a trailer when what you have works fine..

I drove my 4 door Powerstroke F350 to the wilderness trailhead in CO 2 years ago down what was labled on the map a jeep trail and I"d do it again to save pulling a trailer, but some family hunting issues came up plus the wife didn't like the truck going that deep..... and her sister wants to camp with other folks where they can BS and cook real food etc....

SO I'll be right there with you, a trailer full of 4 wheelers...

Jeff

I getting over 20 mpg towing with the jeep...its a diesel...any bears near Gunnison?

Classic, very funny, I almost didn't read the sign.

Kent

Make sure your on a motor vehicle legal road otherwise ya might get a special invitation to participate in the legal system. The forest rangers have no problem writing tickets to ATV/cycle users in the NF; I've heard a lot of em' complaining about getting stopped.

bring the loudest one so you can chase the elk to me

I"m glad they are doing their job!

Or at least leave them in camp until there's actually a dead elk on the ground........

And it would be good for him to remember, the new state law says it's up to the motor vehicle operator to know if the road/trail is open to motorized vehicles........


Casey