Exploring Western Colorado, Found Some Nice Animals

Now if you are talking about hunting on a private ranch where elk are eating hay you can pretty much step out of your vehicle and shoot one, like one would shoot a buffalo coming down from Yellowstone.
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Nah, it doesn't require feed and bait for an easy Elk hunt. If they're on a piece of good land (public or private) where they don't get any pressure, and the few humans around never bother them, you get some ridiculously easy shots.

For example, there is a Trust that owns more than 800,000 mostly-contiguous acres in Utah, spread across 7+ historic ranches. (They also own more than 3 million acres spread across Utah, Idaho, Florida, Texas, Wyoming, New York, Missouri, and South Dakota; but that's a different discussion.) Although they do allow public hunts and public access, it is strictly controlled. On most parts of the ranch, the wildlife only see humans as a truck that drives through every couple of weeks, or a ranger that does head counts on horseback.

They manage their land for natural resources (ranging from wood, to deer, to elk, to grouse, and more), and don't augment any of the animals' feed - what grows naturally is what they get. Yet, the hunting experience there is almost like going to Yellowstone. You drive as close as you can get on a road, close the distance on foot (if needed), and make your easy shot.

Elk don't naturally see humans as predators. It is a learned behavior that can be bred into, or out of, them in a few generations.
 
splatman said:
Hunters who claim they could have killed
an elk with a muzzle loader every year for
20 years is hog wash. Now I'm talking about
hunting on public land. Now if you are
talking about hunting on a private ranch where
elk are eating hay you can pretty much step
out of your vehicle and shoot one, like one
would shoot a buffalo coming down from
Yellowstone. But if you are hunting public
lands don't be surprised if it takes you
a few years to bag one.
Click to expand...

He's near the top of the list of most honest people I've ever known. If he said he could, he could. He hunts all public land and camps there, at least a mile from the closest roads and walks farther in for the hunt. He also stays for at least 2 weeks, sometimes the entire month of September.
 
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Found these guys yesterday...

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Hunters who claim they could have killed
an elk with a muzzle loader every year for
20 years is hog wash. Now I'm talking about
hunting on public land. Now if you are
talking about hunting on a private ranch where
elk are eating hay you can pretty much step
out of your vehicle and shoot one, like one
would shoot a buffalo coming down from
Yellowstone. But if you are hunting public
lands don't be surprised if it takes you
a few years to bag one.
Click to expand...

Plenty of people are good enough to do that. I've filled every elk tag I've ever had, something like 13-15 I think? I don't consider my skill level to be above average at all. Put the time in, and it's pretty doable.

There are guys here in AZ that kill coues bucks every single year and most of them BIG. They post pics on the forums. Year after year. That's a way bigger feat than killing 20 elk in a row, in my neck of the woods and especially if we're counting cows.
 
Nice animals. I would love to go elk or mule deer hunting but like Jimbob, I will be boycotting Colorado until they repeal those ridiculous Bloomberg gun laws they passed.
 
Boycotts of this nature are silly and ineffective. You're not hurting the people who caused the problem and they couldn't care less. They don't even know you're doing it, if they did care, but they don't care anyway.
If anyone is getting hurt, it's the individual businesses that support the hunting community, almost all of whom certainly oppose the laws you're supposedly boycotting.
The other person getting hurt is you. You obviously want to go there, you can't boycott a place you wouldn't go to anyway.
You don't go, the politicians don't know or care, you miss a chance to hunt where you want to hunt and you cost the very people and businesses that are on your side.
 
I am getting the impression that some of you think not bagging an animal makes for less of a hunt????
I have hunted in Colorado for a long time and the only times I have had a bad hunt is when interactions With other hunters goes bad. It has only happened a couple of times thankfully.
Most years the freeze went home Empty but the experience was outstanding!
Of course, YMMV !!
 
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