CO Unit 1 2021 Harvest Success
Contributors to this thread:Elk
From: BigJobsRBig
04-Mar-23
Does anyone have a clue as to why the harvest success on bull elk was so low for Colorado unit 1 in 2021? My friend is about to drop his points on an early rifle tag there, but according to the CPW the success rate was 0% in 2021. I also saw they reported that neither of the 2 archery tags for 2021 were filled.
From: WV Mountaineer
04-Mar-23
2 bow hunters not killing anything wouldn’t be unusual.
From: RK
04-Mar-23
The most logical answer would be that the elk and hunters were not in the same place at the same time.
Change that up a little and it would be an awesome unit
From: Glunt@work
04-Mar-23
It's a unit many will hold out for a big bull. That comes with the risk of eating a tag. No idea if that's the case.
From: 400 Elk @Home
06-Mar-23
I hunted the unit with a friend last year. He had a muzzleloader cow tag and I went with him just to be out west again. Anyway…we talked with the Game Warden and he said 2021 was a terrible year out there. There was an extreme drought and all the elk moved into Ut Diamond Mt and Dinosaur National Monument before the hunt. I have always thought that would be a good hunt but it is a really limited area with a few spots that actually hold elk. The fields down by the river get blown every year by somebody driving right up to them and pushing the elk into Dinosaur National Monument.
On the Hunt there were a ton of guys on side by sides running everywhere. The were checking the area for elk in case they drew next year and pushing the elk out of the unit. It was a bit maddening. There are big elk there and we got into great elk but worked our butts off for them.
Hope that helps?
From: Sawdust
08-Mar-23
My good friend is one of the bow hunters from 2021. Unit 1 is a tuff unit to hunt, the elk spend a lot of time on the private as well as the monument. He did have a few opportunities at decent bulls but nothing big. He missed a bull that was probably a 315” bull coming from the private. He hunted almost every day of the season too.
From: Grey Ghost
09-Mar-23
What is your buddy's reason for selecting unit 1? It's a pretty tiny unit that get's hammered by ATV and UTV traffic. If he's got the points, I'd look at unit 2 or 10 instead.
Matt
From: Sawdust
10-Mar-23
He drew it with 17 points I believe. He was tired of building points as well. Not sure why he chose unit 1. I do know there are some large bulls in there, I have spent a fair amount time in there fighting Wildland fires. We have picked up some large deadheads. However the unit does get a lot of atv traffic like you said. I know a lot of those elk spend a lot of time on the river and on private.
