Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting ML season snowed out!

The EARLY snow fall here in CO has ruined our muzzle loader season! Talked to an outfitter friend that hunts in the same area we planned to be and there is 12-15 inches of wet heavy snow at 10,000ft.

They have wall tents collapsed with guides and clients stranded and are trying to get to them. Muddy as hell and no way we could have gotten our 28' camper into the area!

We thought about trying to get there later in the week but my hunting partner is a home inspector and has scheduled work and can't put it off. Grrrrr.
I guess we will have to wait until next year to make the smokepole bark!

Luckily I have a buck antelope tag for early Oct and daughter #2 has a late doe deer tag!

Elk Country

Better than fire.

Use a tarp shelter of heavy canvas and log frame instead of a luxury recreational RV trailer. As long as you could get close to the unit I dont see why its not a go.

I believe you may be ruining a hunt of a lifetime. Am sorry about your outfitter friend and his misfortune, but I have never seen a properly pitched wall tent collapse from snow, not in any of our camps!

For twenty years, I setup a big base camp, for our third season Colorado Elk hunt, at 10,800' elev. We used a 15'x20' wall tent and several canvas gable tents with tarps. Over the years we had some pretty heavy snows, at least 2 feet. One year the snow was so deep that it topped the hood of the truck on the road into camp. Never had a tent collapse.

One snow will not ruin a hunting season. No way properly set up wall tents should collapse in that snow, ours held up just fine.
Sounds like a bunch of NR couldn't take the cold and snow.

Sounds to me like your mind wasn't in it to begin with. And you let a little snow and some BS from an outfitter reaffirm your decision to be soft. I have a hard fuggin' time believing that anybody is "stranded" on a mountain with a foot of snow on it.

Sounds like good conditions...

Sorry circumstances ruined the timing of your hunt. I had several years where work or hunting partner commitments blew perfect chances to chase elk. Sometimes we still got it done. Sadly, if you could get up there, the snow would have them moving out of the high thick stuff.

The tents are not the heavy duty wall tents you guys have used. I agree they are much more hearty, however for archery/muzzle loader season, Jay uses 6 man tents. Their camps are at 10,500 ft. and they tried to get out and got stuck so yes they were stranded for about a day.

I am not hunting with the outfitter. We are on our own and can't get my 28' camp trailer about 3 miles back to our camping spot thru 12" of snow and mud. NOT gonna happen!

Elk Country

So camp lower or don't use your giant camper? Sounds like you just didn't want to deal with the conditions or you didn't want to hunt that bad.

That was my initial, and only thought.

Living conditions be damned, I'd figure out a different way to camp and enjoy the hell out of the gift of snow given to me. It'll help with finding the elk, and keep other hunters out. 4 wheeler into camp if the road's a mess or hike in if you can get the camper even relatively close. I've slept in the front seat of my pickup for the last several elk seasons because I don't like setting up tents or getting up in the cold, so not having a luxery camp trailer seems like an absolute non issue to me.

I'd see this as a gift, not a curse.

It sounds like the OP is more interested in a camping trip than a hunt. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'd sure have my priorities aligned differently.

I also have never had a tent collapse from snow or even wind. I would go to the Snotel web site and make sure they actually got that much snow. Besides, the temps are warming up now. If I wanted to hunt I would go. That said from someone that hunts third season every year.

You cannot get into the high country right now with a trailer. More than a foot of wet heavy snow with mud underneath it , it’s a recipe for disaster. We got 5” here at the house which is now gone but 4000 ft higher on shaded roads it’s pretty damn bad. I may sneak off to hunt the last week of archery and am hoping things are dried up by then. On a side note, we had a lot of broken trees from the weight of the heavy wet snow around the state at lower elevations, if them boys weren’t diligent about knocking the snow off their tents I can see them being badly damaged.

AlaskaCub,

That's pretty much what Jay is telling me. These guys may not understand just how bad and suddenly the southern part of CO got hit by these storms!

6" of muddy roads with 12" of wet snow on top is asking for trouble that I'm not going/willing to deal with! Been there, done that and it isn't my kind of "fun"!

If other guys are willing to, good for them, I'm not.

Elk Country

This^^!

Regretting not able to predict the weather 4 months in advance. Wish I had an archery tag right now. By Monday the bulls will be fired up and quiet stalking in the timber.........

I am now in cheeseheadville and it sucks and most of these yahoos have never hunted the high country and if and when they do , some of them will die because they are dumb asses ! And back then I was also on a mountain SAR team and if they died we put them in a body bag and kept them on ice till we were done hunting! :)That being said , in all the years I spent in the high country working for outfitters, not once did I loose sleep over the weather, the moon phase or whatever. We were not car camping and we had been living in the elements since the middle of August and every single day , weather be damned was a blessing ! There is no freaking way, some girly man freaking storm or buddies work schedule was going to keep me from chasing elk and putting meat in the freezer! Rant over!

And yet in the next TOPIC Post, someone wants to use a 2 wheel drive on the third hunt..

So I understand your concerns. I packed into a spot at 11,500 feet two weeks ago and the elk were going crazy. Now, I’m not sure I can get my goats in there and if I can, I’m not sure I can pack in enough feed if they aren’t going to be able to forage as well. I damn sure ain’t giving up though, there’s 10 other places I’ll consider, some I’ve been to, some I haven’t. One of the concessions to the weather is I delayed packing in by a day, it’s sunny today and will be for the next week. I’m preparing for 10 days back there and it looks good so far. We will have to hunt our way in. Should be at the trailhead by noon tomorrow and setting up camp before dark if all goes well. If not, then it’s a scramble