Agree with alpine crick...I went for the 76 early rather than the northwest units and I am very happy that I did. I got the early season with 17 points. The whole thing was great: looking at maps and google earth after the draw, planning, backpacking the drainages in August and September, hanging out in Creede, then packing in that last glorious week of September. I love the high alpine. I love the desert too but for an elk hunt I’ll take the alpine.
My recollection is that CPW started the early season in 61 in 2016, but they have been doing it in 76 for about 10 years.
AlpineC, why the opposition to the early seasons?
We don't need more folks in there pushing elk into "refuges" (mostly private land). CPW is doing this primarily to burn off PP's for folks like KC with excessive points. We already have 6 seasons from Sept to almost end of Nov. Now that the regular rifle seasons are starting a week later, it gives the critters two weeks to settle down, even move off private land in some cases. Sticking an extra rifle season in there runs counter to CPW single biggest management challenge--private land refuges.
In 76, the early-early season does make a bit more sense because 1) it gives the rifle hunter the opportunity to hunt high when there are more elk up there still (with the seasons starting a week later it has made one of my high altitude "hotspots" untenable because the elk are out of there after the first 10 days of October. 2) The private land around 76 is mostly a long ways away and it takes a while for the elk to work their way down there (where they run a gauntlet of OTC units which is why the bulls tend not make it past a certain age)
61 is an entirely different story. The lower reaches are private (which means the only way to get yourself or an elk out is UP--I hate walking UP to camp or the truck in the afternoon when I'm tired and trying to figure where the hell the truck has parked itself), the southern 20% is private. That early-early season serves to move elk out of areas they would otherwise be.
And in both cases it's practically 1st degree murder--it's almost like carrying a rifle during archery season (watch now everybody is going to be applying for those seasons.........)
Having said all that, it's only like 20 licenses in each unit and if I was sitting on 17+ PP's I would apply in a heartbeat.
But I am not about to wait 20 years to draw a unit, there are lots of work-arounds in the limited entry hunts that still give me a decent chance to chase mature bulls.
Although it's become tougher--there has been a fair jump in preference point creep the last two years. At some point CPW is going to have to change the system, even though we hunters demanded limited entry deer/elk units and PP system 25-35 years ago, it's no longer workable for the average hunter.
