Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Colorado gmu 18 4th season rifle hunt

I will be heading to Colorado gmu 18 with an either sex tag for the 4th rifle hunt. I am from back east, will be hunting alone. I've hunted elk many times, but never solo or unguided. I do not know the area well. Any advice on best locations or other tips would be appreciated. I will be based in granby.

Just returned from 18. Private ranch closer to Grand Lake. Didn't see an animal. But it warmed up a little too much. We even drove into the park. No animals! We were hunting private ranch down low. Seemed to be the mantra of even the locals. No animals. Generally you can't swing a dead cat on the place without hitting an elk! All week total of 7 animals seen and that was early on. I didn't see a single animal!

However, by the time you get there the animals may be down. Good luck!!!!

Bob

I was just out the past two weekends deer hunting in 18. We ran across quite a few elk. 18 typically gets A LOT of hunting pressure. I'd be hunting some of the steepest country you can find. We often found elk out in the open but they were on very steep hillsides, typically a mile or two from any road. Expect that if there is a road, there will be a lot of traffic and very little elk sign. Or pray for a lot of snow to push them down!

KU. We saw lots of deer! Both whitetails and Mulies. Some nice ones. Did you fill your tag?

We did fill our tags. The wife had a doe tag and I had a buck tag. Filled both tags on this past saturday. Buck was nothing to brag about, small 3x4. The wife was very excited since it was her first deer. Saw lots of deer and passed on quite a few forkies and some does when things weren't quite right for taking shot.

But this year was by far the busiest I've ever seen it where we typically hunt. Had the wall tent set up in a nice small clearing in some aspens and friday night before the opener THREE trailers pulled into the same clearing during the night. Not real impressed with the new neighbors....

Show up early and put a lot of miles on your boots. There is simply no substitute for knowing an area. As a resident of VA, that's what I had to do for a couple years.

One of the things that has made our ranch so nice in the past is that when the elk start feeling all the pressure elsewhere, they tend to show up for A place to refuge. Not a whole lot of pressure on the place. My one cousin may hunt the first season. Then oldest son and I come out for second. We may skip a year on occasion.

Thanks for the reply.. I do plan to get in a couple of days early for scouting. I am planning to start from one of the access points off of rt 125, north of rt 40. Any suggestions on access points?