I saw a couple hundred on private land less than 5 miles from our camp. But without access and the other hundred grazing the soccer fields in Crested Butte we didn't have any luck.
They were on the Castleton Ranch then.
Here is what I heard at the meeting the other night from a guy that was at the Gunnison meeting the week before.
Several years ago there were 7-8000 elk in Unit 54.The CPW said that was too many. So they issued those 500w/cap either sex tags for a few years that cut the number down to 3-4000 thousand so then they only issued those 500 w/cap bull tags for two years. Since there were fewer elk and the ones that were left ended up on the private ranch along Ohio creek hunters said screw it and went elsewhere.Locals complained saying they want 6000 or so and want the hunters back ( They didn't like losing that money I guess).
So this year CPW is selling OTC bull tags,unlimited. There are still only 3000 or so elk in the unit, and 800 or so get onto the private ranch pretty fast. The OTC ploy is to get more hunters back. So if you are planning on hunting Unit 54 this year,especially the eats side, don't expect to see more elk, but probably more hunters. Local businesses will like that though
