Hunting in the Flattops of Co.
Elk
I bet it's been asked many times before, but in the North Central part of the Flattops of Colorado, could the first week of the Season be productive? I have hunted Elk with a guide at Winterhawk Outfitters (3rd week), but that is all. I have never used a call and I may be hunting by myself or with people I may meet in camp. No guide. I would appreciate your thoughts!
You won't know unless you try. I shot a 5x5 on September 7th, the 3rd day of a diy hunt in that area. It was an area with a ton of pressure. Like they say "sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut." I have not been to the area in few years and was thinking maybe again trying again this year. You will never be younger than you are today, so go for it. If you don't score just mail in your tag to this number- OU812. Best of luck, Happy hunting.
If you are not in pro-athlete level of fitness I recommend hiring and outfitter to drop off/pick you up with horses, and even rent horses your self. I have watched extremely fit hard core woodsman reduced to tears in the flattops when they tried a walk in/pack out hunt.
It can get interesting, too.
Depends if you are going in the flattops wilderness or drive. Heavily hunted but a great place
Flat Tops is one of the easiest to hunt places I've ever elk hunted! Avoiding the domestic sheep is the hard part!
I have to agree with you guys. Easy to "think" you are in the shape you need to be in for something like this. I feel I feel I should be able to handle the hunt, but as said, packing out...well, i thinking it would get interesting even if the weather was great, etc. Probably need to go with a more experienced hunter and or group / guide as suggested. Thanks for all the responses. Any other areas, such as southern Co or somewhere it may be easier terrain with a decent amount of animals?
The first elk I killed in 1998 was in the center of the Flat Tops and 6.5 miles from the trail head. We back packed in for a 5 day hunt and killed the bull the last morning a 1/2 mile from camp and just up the valley.
My wife hiked out and contacted a predetermined guide/packer and they showed up with three horses and two mules just as I finished packing up camp and caping out and de-boning the elk.
It cost me $250 at that time. I bet close to $500 plus, plus today.
My best, Paul
Like Paul I killed my first elk in the Flat Tops in 1998. I was about 5 miles in and after I killed the bull we rented horses from an outfitter and packed the bull out.
I backpack hunted there a couple other years and one of those yeares I killed a cow in the same area and me and a buddy packed it out on our backs.
Since then I've hunted many units in several states throughout the west. I would say that the Flat Tops are about average as far as difficulty but then again I'm in pro-athlete shape... that is if you consider a professional bowler an athlete ;^)
My experience in the Flat Tops was that the bulls were pretty quiet early in the season. I also have some friends who hunt there the first week every year that they draw. They like to hunt wallows and water and they hear very little bugling, although I'm sure that can vary from year to year.
When I hunted there the bulls became more vocal after the 10th and whether you call or not, finding elk can be a lot easier if they are vocal...
If you can swing it, a mule deer tag would be nice to have too. Saw lots of 'em. And a few really nice bucks.
Pretty country.
I've killed elk in every week of the Season in the Flattops over the last 16 years.
Like everywhere else...the elk can be less vocal, but respond well to calling (they like to "sneak in").
One good thing about the early part of the Season, is the bulls will not be holed up in hard-to-reach places so much because of pressure (and the peak rut).
I would suggest you practice calling, starting right now!
Best of Luck, Jeff
Thanks again to all. The pics are great to get your blood going. Also,noticed Paul's recurve. That's the dream, although probably not practical.....I just got the 2014 remake of the Bear Kodiak 59(Sweet).
Funny looking recurve. :)
Looks Like an Oneida Eagle compound to me.
The remake '59 is awesome, did you get the Super Kodiak?
Looking to Elk hunt the Flattops in the near future for the first time myself, was able to take the First Moose ever in unit 24 two seasons ago.
Strange how rifle hunting is OTC but Archery tags are draw only.
Actually a Oregon Compound bow with recurve limbs.
Wrong kill date, is was 1989 not 98. There were only 20,000 bow hunters that hunted Colorado in 1990 compared with nearly 40,000 today.
"strange that rifle is OTC and bow is draw". The DOW determined that too many OTC bow hunters were pushing elk onto private properties as soon as the early season started. Thus the creation of the bow elk limited draw to reduce the bow hunter numbers. As far as I know there was never a back up study to prove their position or how many elk actually just migrated to private on their own.
My best, Paul
Yeah Paul you are correct. The limited bow season was supposed to prevent animals from leaving the high country prior to rifle hunts. I have never once found anything to support this claim and I am pretty certain that harvest data and success rates in the units remained the same.
It does really suck because there are many of us who would like to hunt in the area and who grew up in the area, but have too many points to draw and there are never any left over tags.
I don't know about the Flattops units, but in several other OTC units I hunted until a couple years ago, there was a massive migration onto private ranches from NF due to bowhunting pressure. Hundreds moving during the first week, sometimes in long strings across the open sage.
Didn't help that big camps of bowhunters hunted frantically that first week, all day in bad wind, even doing drives through bedding areas on one big mountain that housed around 500 before the season.
Exacerbating the problem was that some of the bigger ranches had very little or no bowhunting pressure, so they served as refuges.
A Billy Cruise bow... A great man that died way too soon. He made some great bows, not fast in the speed department, but extremely quiet and accurate. The foam limbs he designed and patented were some on the industries best.
The only way you'll ever know how good an area is is to hunt it yourself. Others did it and enjoyed success, and I'm sure others did it and hated it. Lots of elk are killed in the Flat Tops every year. I know a lot of bowhunters from the Grand Junction area that have killed some very impressive bulls there. Maybe you need to contact the local F&G guys and see what they have to say.
Can you still access the Flat Tops from the south by New castle? When I lived there in the late 1980's early 1990's, you could get in through a jeep trail by East Elk Creek.
X man yes you can access through a couple places to the south. There is the Clinetops roads which goes up canyon creek, you can also go up Main elk Creek or you can go up west elk creek which is the main Buford new Castle road. There is no road that goes up out of east elk creek, the road goes up the bottom and dead ends at a trail head in a steep nasty canyon. Once on top you can actually connect from there all the way towards sweet water.
Jaquomo, ever wondered how many of those "hunters" were actually pushing the elk onto private on purpose? Also the flat tops area is huge and a group of elk can move 10 miles and not end up on private.
Buglmin, I understand he and his son, while scouting for elk in their airplane, crashed and died.
The Oregon Bow Co. tired to keep it going but failed.
I killed the Colorado Big Eight with that bow and gave it away to a youth at a CBA banquet two years ago. Lots of good memories toting that bow. State of the art, 26 years ago.
My best, Paul
Little horse- First, you don't have to be in pro athlete shape to hunt the north central part, but you better be in half decent shape.
Where do you plan on going in from, if you don't mind me asking? I hunted that area in 2011 and will be there again in 2016 if everything goes as plan. There are a couple packers in the area that can get an elk out if needed while allowing you to do a diy hunt.
Hello everyone! I'm going to base camp out of sweatwater. Am going to go back in and hunt units 25&26 with my horse(a mustang) for 3or days at a time then come back to restock for a couple of days and then go back up. Am going to hunt the entire season or until I get an elk, which ever happens first. Anybody got any positive suggestions for the area??
P S: also hunting with the 1959 classic Bear Kodiak 55lb.
Regardless where one may hunt, the top priority is getting the meat out in a timely fashion. Harder with one, better with 2-3 buddies, and great with a pack horse or two. Personally I can not afford a packer so I usually solo hunt within two to three miles from my truck over travel- able country. One does not have to hunt in a Hell Hole to kill an elk and of the 7 bulls I encountered last year in an OTC unit, 4 were within a mile of a State HWy.
Another key is to have a plan A,B and C.and be mobile.
My best, Paul
To be honest, I am not sure. The one place I've looked is around highway 8 close to unit 231 I think. I'm not quite sure. I am just beginning to research and I live in Tn. Kind of tough figuring all of this out from here. I just met a gentleman in our traditional club that has been a few times in the last 5 years, so I plan to start asking him for some info. Interesting to read what coelker wrote about access points. Hey, maybe I need to hire one of you guys to get me to the right area,Ha! Paul, guess I didn't look close enough at the bow. Interesting. I did get the Kodiak 45#, not the Super Kodiak. If any of you guys have advice on where to go, I would appreciate any help like that. Understood that sharing YOUR hunting area is out of the question!:-) Thanks guys.
I can lead my horse out easy enough, he will pack for me, and then ride him back up for the remainder. As far as I can figure so far it looks like the units I,m going to try are over the counter. Wanted to get up to Crecent slake but don't think I can get the horse trailer in there, it says recommended high profile vehicles only. Better access but harder to get to with truck.
Wouldn't an elk skinned and quartered keep for up to three day hanging in cool shade. Arrows an antelope one time in August in 90+ degree weather and skinned and hung and the meet felt ice cold the next day when I cut it up.
" There is no road that goes up out of east elk creek, the road goes up the bottom and dead ends at a trail head in a steep nasty canyon. Once on top you can actually connect from there all the way towards sweet water. "
We used to go up there. About a mile or so before the dead end on East Elk Creek road there is/was a 4x4 trail that went up to the north and east. It wound around and back and forth before dead-ending itself at a small "turnaround". We camped at that small turnaround and walked up about a mile from there into the Flattops.
In fact we were camped up there during the rifle season while the Halloween Blizzard hit(I think 1993). We made it out in my Jeep, but a lot of hunters had to be air-lifted out that week. We went to sleep on Oct. 30th with no snow on the ground and a light steady rain. We woke at 4AM to 16" of snow on the ground. Luckily no wind on the western slope like there was in Denver and east from there, but we still had a difficult time getting back down that 4x4 trail. Thank God for chains, and tree roots for the chains to grab at the steepest switchback(the right rear was dangling in air, over the edge) . My brother got out and walked. He was certain I would fall to my death.
Will catch y'all I the morning. Got to get some shuteye to get up at 5:30a to unload this truck down by Debuque, Ia.
The days of the Chinese Wall and my llama pack string--
Memories---
Good luck, Robb
