Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Colorado elk # way DOWN !!

Considering an elk hunt to Colorado this year. Think it over. CPW state herd #'s way down. Article in a local paper that a very low birth rate for at least the last three years. CPW scratching their head as to why. They just don't know. As a resident I have absolutely experienced this decline in the field. What has been a area for years that has produced elk for me has this last season come up dry. Not a single set of tracks or any droppings. Hunting friends that hunted archery, muzzle loader & rifle seasons told me the same story. Nothing. If your planning a hunt to Colorado this next season give it considerable thought. It will be tough.

I thought, according to the article I read, that the herds affected were in the SW portion of Colorado. After I read the article, I called an outfitter friend of mine in NW Colorado and was told that the herd up that way has not been affected, but CPW is watching it closely. Over in the NW they are more concerned with the fact that there are now wolves living there that will affect the elk herds in the coming years.

You are correct. The herd decline is mainly in the SW where I live. But Have talked to some other locals well north of me that have noticed significant declines . Also well east of me like 75 to 100 miles. I did get my elk on Dec 28th when a small herd ( 5 total ) came thru my place. Also a few after that in groups of 1 to 3 came thru. . I am used to seeing herds of 100+ at one time come thru. This to me is some indication of the low #'s. This decline includes all of the San Juan national forest & then some. .A sad situation for sure.
A problem with the NW is that it is predominantly private land & more costly to hunt for those who want to hunt on their own.

The decline is just not in SW Colorado. It's all of southern Colorado. Anything south of I-70 is in decline.

The Vail valley and the entire surrounding area have reduced elk herds too.When you shoot too many elk, and they lose their wintering grounds that is what happens.Then CPW can blame it on other things. 47% of the income for CPW is spent administration ( salaries ,etc)

The Gunnison elk herd was cut from about 6500 elk to about 3500 a few years ago because CPW decided there were too many elk there.Now they are scrambling to build it back up. Ditto on the eastern side of the Flat Tops even further back in time.You will see the same thing will be happening in the western side of the Flat Tops unless they quit issue those thousands of cow tags every year.

CPW needs to either cut archery season out of prime rut, or divide the season up into three even seasons like they do rifle seasons and then make archers chose what season they want instead of hunting the entire month of September.You can't keep disrupting breeding seasons and not expect elk herds to decline.

CPW is in the money making business, not elk herd management business. If you believe they are managing the elk herds for the benefit of the elk you are mistaken

BTW, NW Colorado has a lot National Forest and BLM land.

NW Colorado sucks. Only rag horns and cows, now wolves! I suggest looking at Wyoming or Montana

Amen my friend. Also need to cut back on the unlimited OTC tags.

Yes, please do.

I meant to say the NE is predominately private. The NW is predominately public & much of it like zones 1,2 , & 3 require a draw to hunt. Can be tough to do taking many years. This area has very limited amount of tags available. Zones like 1 & 2 can have like only 30 or so tags total taking 16 to 17 or more preference points. For those who think the grass is greener in another state, go for it.

Took me 21 points to draw in 201 in 2007

It's those damn wolves.

Saw over 300 elk 2 years ago while hunting. Saw zero last year in same area.
That's elk hunting.

These declining elk numbers in CO. are definitely the results of climate change. The animals cannot adapt fast enough to the warming climate. Reason enough to support Bernie and put the fossil fuel industry on a pathway to bankruptcy.

I hope this is sarcasm

That Durango area is in a bad way as far as elk go. I hired an outfitter during muzzleloader to take me way back in. I didn’t see another hunter but I only saw 3 elk going up and over a mountain on day 1. 6 days later I was out of there without so much as a single interaction with an elk. A guy I know went back east of Durango during 2nd rifle and in 7 days only saw 1 elk. He said everyone he talked to including game wardens all had the same story. Pretty sad!

Exactly my experience. Those who wish to come here to hunt this season need to save their money & consider another state to hunt. The elk hunting here has become truly desperate.

I'd be interested in what Colorado's elk population is estimated to be now.
I have pretty good access to various elk habitat and enjoy following them year round in various ways, and I can't think of any instance where I've seen an increase in elk. My trail cams don't pick up what they used to, I no longer find fresh sheds, I do a couple of hunts each year and see fewer in the same places, I scout and photograph in off season but am consistently finding fewer elk.

Our deer are at around 10% of where they were when the "count" said 12-13K Yet we are at 16-18K and climbing, increasing over all herd numbers way over objective on B/D ratios. Those pro's at the DOW are masters of finding animals to count, the more we shoot the more we get, I think they should quit counting them and just machine gun them from the helicopter, in just a year or two we would be so swamped with animals we could eliminate the draw and give out bonus tags, we could call them "class B"...

On the elk side I used to see herds of 500+ nose to tail cruising the winter range for chow, now we have twice the number yet I cannot find a group of over 100, most are at <25. At some point the music will stop and a lot of people with cushy pensions are going to waltz off stage left without a chair or a care while the people who bought into the "pro's " managing their wildlife are left with the blame for the near extinction of the animals.

Who would have thought that unlimited OTC tags with modern equipment was unsustainable, except as a business model.

We've been hunting an area just NW of Durango for 16 years now. The elk numbers over the last few years have been noticeably lower. The last two years, we felt lucky to even see one. It's also been pretty warm lately when we go (early September archery), so I had been chalking it up to weather. Certainly sounds like it's more than that.

I archery hunted 200 yards from the New Mexico in south central Colo this past mid Sept. it was private land, 9000 acres, guided. I saw three bulls in four days, no cows. Killed a nice 5x5 on day four. Three other hunters in camp. One killed a big six, one missed two, and the other, no shots. We did not see a lot of elk at all.