Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Suggestions for Over the Counter Colorado GMUs for any elk

Morning Fellow Elk Hunters,
Looking for some suggestions on Colorado Units for a cow or maybe a bull. I am heading in out of state to either the second or third rifle season and looking to buy an over the counter bull and/or cow tag. I have only hunted elk one other time in the Idaho wolf country now (aka Selway Bitteroot Wilderness).

All of my research in Colorado has narrowed down to GMU's 12,23,24,74, and 371,which according to the State allow over the counter purchases. Plan on backing in and putting the time in. I have back packing experience and will work for any elk. I will be happy with a cow. Any suggestion's on a unit to focus on? I also plan touching base with Colorado DOW to find out there suggestion also so I can start ordering topo maps and studying. Your suggestions are much appreciated.

Good luck on getting anyones favorite area. Since you are packing in a wilderness area would be my choice.
Obama created a new Widerness area that might get you into a herd, especially in the second or third season.
Dominguez Canyon Wilderness area South of Grand Junction.
It stretches from Dominguez Canyon campground all the way to the river. Highway 141 out of Whitewater on Highway 50 heads South. About 14-15 miles go left towards Dominguez. When you reach the top you will make another left towards the campground.
There are other roads that allow you to approach the area from three different sides. Just be aware that many roads that were accessible by vehicle are now blocked.
You can get a recent map from Grand Junction B.L.M. office of maybe the Colorado Divivion of Wildlife.
May be too late to get a cow tag.Be prepared for possible deep snow and muddy roads that require heavy chains.
Dominguez gets deeper and rougher the farther away from the campground you get towards the river.I would expect the elk to be on either side of that rough canyon or in the very bottom where there is plenty of cover and running water full of small trout.
I hope you are not going alone. Tough to pack out unless you are young and in good shape. Horses or mules would be a big help if you score. Be aware that if you leave your kill overnight that a bear or cougar may claim it before you return.
Best to quarter it, boneless, bag it and take that day or hang it very high. The unit is 62. Lots of hunters on vehicles. Being a new Wilderness area may catch many unprepared. Check your map for access. Take some small flares to start a fire if it gets too nasty away from camp, the kind sold in boat stores for signals when a boater is in distress. I have a tendancy to offer too much information on occasion but I see you are new here and I have hunted there and all along divide road for 41 years. Iam developing a load for a new 300 WBY for elk this year. Last year Ihad a buck tag and used my 264 Win. Mag. Just not enough for an bull if he is too far or doesen't offer a good broadside shot.
Use a premium bullet and put the first shot in the shoulder to break him down. I have shot spooked bulls behind the shoulder and have him act like they were never hit. One of my buddies is bringing a 270. He was going to use his old standby 130 grain Core Lokt. I went to the gun store and bought him 60 rounds of 150 grain Nosler Partition Ammo. My treat. Seen too many good hits with standard ammo fail on elk. Seen some fall over dead right there with standard ammo also. But when you are spending over a thousand dollars to come from out of state, why chance it for an extre $100 on ammo. Any way I can help just ask.
Good luck!

I am not familiar with the units about which you have inquired. If I did know something useful about those units, I probably would not divulge it on open forum. Most people won't tell where their honey holes are located. So be careful about what you are told. They may be sending you into an area so that you will chase animals into an area where they are hunting. The only time that I give advice about an area is when it doesn't conflict with my hunting.

But there's lots of info on the DOW web site and if you do your home work, you might be able to find a good place to start.

Get a copy of a road map of Colorado that indicates which land is public. Compare that to the map of game management units in the Colorado Big Game Hunting brochure. Look for units with lots of public land.

Next, look on the CO DOW big game web page for the recap of preference points required to get a license in limited draw units. There are more licenses offered than there are applicants in those units that require zero points. Those are places where game populations are at or above management objectives. Look for units which require zero points and have lots of public land.

Finally, you should buy a copy of the CO DOW Big Game CD. It contains maps of winter ranges, calving areas and summer ranges in each GMU. With all that info, you ought to be able to pick an area where there are lots of elk and lots of public land. And then you should be able to determine where they are in summer, where their winter range is, the most likely routes that they use to get from one area to the other, and therefore where they are most likely to be during hunting season,,

Here�s a link to the on-line store where you can purchase the CD.

http://wildlife.state.co.us/wildlifestore

I hope this helps. Good luck and safe hunting.

KC Keen

Like sues said, you'll have a hard time getting a cow tag at this time, but you might want to check the leftover lists. The Flat Tops units 12,23,24 are justifiably popular due to the elk numbers and success rates, but it is ridiculously overcrowded, even in the wilderness, although 24 is better than the other two in that regard. 74 is the unit I would lean towards most of the ones you mentioned. It has the lowest hunter density and has reasonable success rates, plus a ton of public land. 371 has similar success the past 5 years, but is mostly red timber(black timber with a not so healthy dose of beetle kill). It is much smaller but has a similar number of hunters per square mile of public land. There is just a fraction of additional elk and bulls per hunter in 371 vs 74. Both of which are much higher than those Flat Tops Units due to the number of hunters hunting there.

Units 25 and 26 have unlimited capped cow tags. A great variety of units have unlimited bull tags. I think any of the units north of Rifle have a lot of elk. I personally prefer to hunt northern part of the state, not quite as many Denver hunters who tend to go west on I-70.
Try to hook up with a Colorado hunter who knows an area, it may take a while just to get into a likely elk areas if you just come in and start scouting at the beginning of the season. Public land is fine, I would not stress over getting on private land; if you can great but if not its ok.

The 25/26 cow licenses are not unlimited, but there are currently 402 available (as of 2:38 pm MST). Either sex licenses are limited, but there are a handful left for that too. Units 18/181 4th season have 264 left, also units 43 (4th season) and 54 (3rd season) have a handful of either sex tags. For cow elk, the Flat Tops units have tags available for every season but 1st. So you could combine an OTC bull tag and a cow tag. Unit 15 is a good unit that has cow tags left also. 74 has no cow tags available, other than private land tags, but 371 has 1st, 3rd and 4th.

I meant to say, cow tags in 25/26 are Over the Counter, not by drawing. I stand corrected.
Nonetheless, they are available.

PS. Combining OTC bull and cow is very expensive for a non-resident though.

Well you all have giving me plenty to chew on. To answer a few of sues questions and others; I will be on my own the first year and will be satisfied with just a good experience in the back country again. A cow would make the trip even better, so this year may be a great learning experience of the area I am hunting. I will be using a 300 Remington ultra with 180 grain accubonds hand loads. I put this load together and have great success with them on deer in Missouri and Tennessee and a mule deer I harvested in Idaho.

I do understand the most folks will not give up there hunting spots and would not expect them too nor myself, however you all have provided me with some info regarding which units may look better than others. I did talk to a biologist today with DOW. They are pushing units 74 and 371 because of the number of cows. I appreciate everyone's input and look to regularly return to this forum for updates and hopefully to contribute.

On a side note, we have had a record year in Tennessee and Missouri on corn crops. I have not seen so many healthy whitetails in my time. I am looking forward to a great whitetail season as well in both of these states.

Happy Hunting and good luok.

Missouri Farmer

missourifarmer, I talked to a man yesterday on the phone at Colorado Division of Wildlife. I called with a question. I told him where I hunted and asked about any over the counter cow licenses. He said he will hunt area 25/26 because there are so many elk. He is going for a cow for meat.
By the way, I won't be anywhere near The new wilderness area, that I mentioned. I am 71 with two new knees, so I will be hunting near a road on the other end of the plateau. Probably about 40 miles away with an over the counter bull tag. If I was 40 , I WOULD BE THERE.
I found a honey hole supreme last season with some heavy horned bucks but unfortunately I had already taken a lesser buck. If you had drawn a buck tag I would have sent you a personal message with the exact spot.

Obvioulsy that DOW has not hunted 25 or 26 becasue there are not alot of elk there. I have hunted it since 76 or so and numbers have diminished significantly.

He sounded sincere, thats why I posted my reply. I will be in unit 62 where all the Texans and Californians go to come home empty handed most of the time. Only area I have hunted for 41 years, but I love the country. Lots of memories.

saddlesores, unit 62 had a big drop in deer population before they made it a draw area. The bigger bucks are slowly coming back. The elk population is anybodys guess since they have blocked so many access roads, old timers like me can't get to them.

Sweetsues. Know what you mean about getting around.Most of my hunting is now confined to areas where I can pull astock trailer into and camp,then ride in and hunt. 62 and those far western units are a might far for me to get to.This Area 201 hunt I have in a few weeks is 350 miles from home. About the furthest I cango in CO without leaving the state.

DOW is interested in selling those 25/26 tags, so I would take their advice with a grain of salt. There is a reason there are so many tags available for those units.
I wouldn't think there is no elk there at all, just would not expect to walk into an elk gold mine.

Last year in 25, we saw 19 elk in 10 days, and they were a mile away. There were no elk killed in a 10 mile radius in 2nd sesaon.There were two bulls and a cow killed in 1st season. Both outfitters in the locale we hunt had no kills.
This is an area that I killed 8 bulls in 8 yrs several yrs ago.

Yet the DOW is stil pushing the Sept Cow Rifle Hunt and it is a two cow area with OTC cow tags

Maybe they are trying to get the population down because of the Chronic Wasting Disease in and near those areas. 25&26 Units.

Sweetsues.If the population gets any lower, we will have to take our own elk up there to shoot

This is an interesting thread along with some of the older ones I am looking through. Our group of 2,3, or 4 people may end up with a Drop-Camp hunt in Colorado in 2010/2011, not sure which year yet, not sure which outfitter, or which area. Not to take away from the original thread here, but any suggestions would be appreciated. You can PM me if you like.

I'd check into the Gunnison Country Guide Service. They have camps in the West Elk Wilderness. From the few I know that have gone with them they run a top notch operation. Just my opinion though.

Tenderfoot Outfitters out of Gunnison run good camp