Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Alabama boy taking ATV to Colorado hunting

Pretty sure the OP isn't 80.

Obviously you've never had the joy of getting up at 4:00 am, hiking a mile or more to an early morning spot on a rim before dawn and then at first light, some [bleep] from out of state rolls up on the other side on his noisy ATV, oblivious to the fact that he just pushed all the elk out of the drainage.

I have.

Colorado does allow you to drive 100 yards off trail to retrieve game.

I took my unjetted Kawasaki 650 up there in '09 to around 7000 feet and was thankful for every cc. It felt like I was driving a 500.

Last I checked they don't close public land to other forums of recreation during hunting seasons. I say, as long as you follow the rules, run them trails to your harts content. If the locals don't like it they can hunt somewhere else. They don't have to pay the ridiculously inflated nonresident tag prices.

This...

The horse and pack in crowd will get old and crippled someday. I hope they remember their intolerance for those who are now.

I hunt with a good friend from Helena who has had 11 back surgeries, just to keep him walking now. He was strong as an ox and tough as nails before his back injury.

We use 2 ATVs to hunt in more limited ways than the horsey riders. Without the ATV, my friend would be shut out of the sport he has loved for 50 of his 58 years, and he can't ride a horse. We don't go off trail or roads, but we use the machines to whatever advantage we can to gain elevation. One gets parked where we plan to come out at the bottom, and one takes us as high as roads or trails allow, then we ease down the mountain and hunt it out as much as possible. I used mine on my antelope hunt last year. I stopped at the end of an ATV trail where no truck would make it, then I walked 5 miles on out to the antelope spot, shot one, dressed it out to pack, and carried it 5 miles back. It was darned hard to do with a previously broken back, and I couldn't do it again anymore.

So, bristle and bellyache all you want about ATVs. I sure join you when I see them off roads and trails, but they have their place.

All you younger mountain men will eventually get to a point where a little help is necessary...or just choose to give it up.

7k feet........TFF

I'm as much of a motorhead as anyone, but ATV's are strictly for game retrieval during hunting season. Period.

You kind of described me, use to run with the big dogs up and down mts. Now being in my late 60's, bad back where it hurts sometimes to walk across a parking lot, bad leg, and my buddies are in the same condition due to all kinds of reasons, vietnam, acidents and so on. We use A.T.V.'s. My brother in laws are in their 70's and have hunted up by meeker for probably 30 years.
those atv's are a heck of a lot better in the mud/conditions around where they go just to get around. Typically they drive up some place on a road, park it, then take off a ways. But they are a lifesaver. By the way, they have horses to, but don't haul them up there. Not everybody can support a hayburner year round.
my buddy has had a quadruple bypass, diabetes, neuropathy, and other issues. In his 70's and still likes to hunt. He remembers his early days, different now, but still likes to hunt.
He will ride in to some tank, and park his butt, and he is perfectly happy with that. Also shot a nice cow last year doing that.

Colorado does allow you to drive 100 yards off trail to retrieve game.

I took my unjetted Kawasaki 650 up there in '09 to around 7000 feet and was thankful for every cc. It felt like I was driving a 500.

Last I checked they don't close public land to other forums of recreation during hunting seasons. I say, as long as you follow the rules, run them trails to your harts content. If the locals don't like it they can hunt somewhere else. They don't have to pay the ridiculously inflated nonresident tag prices.

1. Not true.
2. Hot damn! 7k feet?! How'd you do it?
3. If you don't like the tag prices, don't pay them.

Texans are a funny bunch.