I sure as hell don’t have any answers to this dilemma and I’m new to living in Colorado but I will say that what I experienced hunting Elk this past Sept was mind boggling. I spent a good bit of time scouting and camping in the unit I hunted well before season opened and never saw a single sole in there. What I encountered with the hordes of bow hunters when I arrived two days before muzzle loader season absolutely devastated me. Even being 4.5 mile in by backpack I was surrounded by other backpack hunters, horseback hunters and the guys that leave at 0300 to hike in there. What’s worse is some of these hunters had been in there for 8+ days when I arrived and hadn’t seen a single thing. I hiked high (10,800) I hiked low (8000) I never even saw an elk or even fresh sign. This was an area that I saw elk , heard elk and smelled elk the month before season. I had to quit attempting to call elk because all I called in were hunters. I found myself in a situation that seemed could not yield positive results and I was beyond frustrated. So 3 days in of complete horse chittt I relocated to another unit that my tag was good in and when I arrived it was even worse. I counted 16 camps, not hunters, camps . Some of these camps had 4-5 guys in them and not a single one had elk meat in it. Each day hiking out I would encounter no less than 6 hunters on the trails, I called in a bunch more hunters so I quit calling. It was not even about finding elk it was about trying to find a place there wasn’t any other hunters. I’ll add that so many of the bow hunters I met were from Texas,Oklahoma,Indiana pretty much non-res hunters. It was so pathetic that at one point all these bow hunters were just off a private ranch fence line that had all kinds of elk in it battling with each other in an attempt to draw a bull off the private so they could shoot it. It was retarded, there were guys that could bugle ok, guys who sounded like chit and guys cow calling all at the same time. I was like seriously....... Long story short I was disgusted with my elk hunt and have just had to tell myself that maybe it was just that unit, I don’t know because I returned from that hunt so disgusted that I felt like I’d not even hunt here in Colorado next year.
Like I said when I started this thread, I don’t have any answers but there damn sure seems to be a problem here!
