Op out during ML rifle season?
Colorado
How many of you Colorado resident archery elk hunters do one or more of the following:
1. Do not bow hunt elk during the ML rifle elk season for those 9 days?
2. Do not bow hunt elk for the first week end ,or both weekends of the ML elk season, thus giving up 2- 4 days of your archery elk season?
3. Do not bow hunt elk for the first 4-5 days of the ML rifle elk season?
4. Bow hunt during the total ML rifle elk season?
5. Other possibilities, to hunt or not to hunt during the 9 day, ML rifle elk season
I don't avoid it if I have a chance to hunt, but if I have a full week to hunt, I choose a different week. Usually after and maybe share the last weekend of ML. A lot of muzzleloaders are already gone by then. Odd having it overlap week 2 instead of week 3 with the new structure. Week 3 should be fun.
I hunt opening day of ML, then skip the next 4-6 days.
I pretty much mirror Glunt on this one. In addition I incorporate more Blaze Orange for sure and am much more careful with decoys.
I hunt everyday of the season. When ml comes in, I just adjust my tactics.
Bow season is short enough as it is. So, spend every moment you can and enjoy it.
What I have noticed, at least in my part of the state, is the ML hunters usually show up on Friday before the season opener. They set up camp and hunt all day on Saturday. Then they hunt Sunday morning and break camp and head back to Denver or Boulder on Sunday evening. Some of them may show up the following weekend but usually not all that many of them. This hold true for about 80% of the ML hunters that I have noticed in past years, at least in the units I hunt.
So why would you want to give up any of your valuable hunting time just because of ML season. I can put up with them for a day and a half. And there are very few of them to worry about for the remainder of the ML season.
I agree with stix, but I take breaks based on the weather, not so much what other hunters are doing.
"I hunt everyday of the season. " What if you kill something?
I hunted this weekend, saw no orange, heard no shots.
MLs in my areas road hunt. Or they give it hell the first couple days, then road hunt.
My friend hunting over the hill yesterday had five vehicles.of MLs drive past him between 6:30-7:15 am while he was watching a good bull hanging around a little waterhole meadow 100 yards from the road, trying to decide which way to move.
Peco2, then I hunt plo deer and elk 9/1 to 1/31
ML season has no effect on when or where I hunt.
I do #1. No hunting for those 9 days. Just that many more hunters in the woods.
Have first and third week off as usual. We’ll hunt muzzy opening weekend, just more careful near trails and road edge meadows where they hang out:) a lot of guys in our area muzzy opener this year! Took a.m. off because brother was heading home. We went into town for coffee before packing his stuff up. 15 minutes after daylight and several orange clad hunters still in gas station! For every 1 or 2 that get serious about it, there’s 8 or 9 that won’t be bothering any elk:)
ML does play into my decision to hunt. If I have a chance to hunt, I hunt. That would be like I'm not going to hunt because bear season is open.
I'm not sure a lot of guys are aware, over 23,000 bear licenses are sold for the Sept season. I think about 8,000 of those are sold to bowhunters as concurrent licenses. That said, if you do the math rifle bear hunters outnumber muzzleloaders by a 2 or 3,000 and they have the whole month of Sept. Muzzloader elk was about 13k if I recall.
If archery and muzzleloader were separate, I don't think any one would feel less "crowded", or more solitude.
I hunt regardless. I put blaze orange on when on the move, take it off in the stand/ ambush hunting. And occassionaly grumble to myself that they should put muzzleloader at the end of archery and before 1st rifle.
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Never muzzleloader hunted or even shot one but what's the point? From light reading they are accurate up to 200 yards. Soooooo worse than a regular rifle but better than a slug shotgun. I dont see it as being "more of a challenge"? I find them akin to a x crossbow. Am I just uneducated in the matter? Is hand loading a single shot that much fun? I've only ever needed a single shot from a gun to take game so "only one shot" seems irrelevant
The point is hunting during peak rut with the ability to shoot a long ways.
That said, I shoot a patched round ball when I ML hunt from a Hawken style rifle I built. Still gets out to around 125 but not as capable or reliable as a modern rifle
I hunt straight through ml. Often I hunt ML. Like glunt, I hunt with round balls and sidelock. The capabilities of the "modern" ml guns is way over hyped by the manufacturers and their shills. Given the sight and projectile requirements of our regs any real advantages are left by the wayside. I of course wear orange while hunting ml because it's the law. If it weren't the law I wouldn't bother. Rifle licenses are never leaving September. Our bowhunting sport is definitely not getting September back the way it was in the past. So, before you let yourself fall into the cult of "safety first", think about the solutions that will be foisted on you.
I’ll archery hunt otc the last few days of ML season, and continue til the end of Sept. I’ll also have a rifle bear tag in my pocket for the entire month of Sept.
If you don’t have a bear tag (archery or rifle) in your pocket you’re part of the over population bear problem.
