CO GMU 15 Report

nmelktrout

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Joined
Jan 19, 2012
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257
Location
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
I grew up on a small ranch in this unit, killing my share of elk and deer on its public and private lands. Had the opportunity to burn a couple of preference points and decided that this would be the year to return to some of my favorite public land honey holes with a muzzleloader tag in hand. My expectations were reasonable in that I expected to pack in a few miles off the beaten path and see a mature bull or two over the course of the season. A significant beetlekill had ravaged the pines throughout the unit and I was expecting the worst in terms of blowdowns. I also knew that the forest service had clear cut a number of areas throughout the unit and that there would likely be some additional foot traffic via the new (and non-motorized) logging roads scattered throughout. What I hadn’t planned on was daily temperatures in the high 70s and nighttime temps in the high 40s and low 50s. The other thing I hadn’t planned on was the popularity of the unit. I don’t know if someone recently wrote an article about the unit or whether Colorado is set to see a record number of tag sales for the 2014 – but the unit was literally overrun with hunters. I met some great guys out in the woods this September, but have never experienced anything like the numbers of camps, horse trailers and hunters throughout every mile of the unit. My father stated that this was the most hunters he’s seen in over 45 years of hunting in 15. That said, we were packed in behind everyone and never lost any opportunities to other hunters. Met some great guys and even tried to help a father and daughter get a shot on a decent buck. Saw groups of cows without bulls and bachelor groups of bulls still running around together. Not ideal conditions. Although the temps were hot, there was also water everywhere as a result of a wet summer and we couldn’t get any elk to commit to watering at any one place.

North part of the unit. Dropped off the trailhead with my archery buddies the evening before the opener of muzzy season and immediately knew something was amiss as soon as I passed the first disc golf station. Turns out someone had turned a mountainslope into their own mountain disc golf course complete with the fancy disc catching holes scattered throughout the woods. That was weird but my heart dropped the minute we slunk up to the edge of a favorite bedding area a couple miles in and discovered that someone had set up a tent within 50 yards of the best wallow on the mountainside. Thankfully we confirmed that the camp hadn’t been used in several days and continued on, getting a couple of bulls to bugle but no shot opportunities. We put the bulls to bed and were in the same spot the next morning. Complete silence. We were close to treeline so I gave a couple of cow calls, hoping to get a response. I was immediately greeted with some barking, followed by the jingling of a bell and two quick blasts from a shotgun. Turns out an outfitter had packed a group of grouse hunters and pointers into the backcountry and was hunting them along the fringe of some of the best and nastiest country in the unit. We laughed at our luck, immediately packed out, drove to the southern end of the unit and packed in to some other country before dark.

South part of the unit. Woke up to bugling bulls and zero grouse hunters. The temperatures were still cool from a front that had passed through and I stupidly passed on a heavy beamed 5x5 bull at twenty feet. I knew that there were a couple of better bulls in the area from my scouting and was certain that the rut (and not the temperatures) were just starting to heat up. Bad choice. It had been a couple of years since I’d last hunted here and I was unaware of the number of logging roads that had been blazed throughout some of my favorite hell hole country. Anything that was not clearcut or logged was blowdown city and made for some tough stalking conditions. That said, we spent a very hot week sneaking around the edges of bedding areas, occasionally calling in the silent single bull early in the morning or late in the evening. No action during midday for us, although every couple of mornings there would be a couple of bugling bulls that we would slip in on. Never managed to get a good shot opportunity for one reason or the other and elected not to take a 150 yard shot on a broadside 6 point bull on the last evening. Every time we got back on one logging road or another we ran into other hunters, all of whom had followed a road in and would walk back out at dark. Actually turned a corner and ran into one hunter carrying a scoped rifle, but he ran like hell as soon as he saw us… Definitely opened this portion of the unit up for a lot of guys. Unfortunately no one I spoke with had killed an elk or seen more than some deer or a small bull slipping through the timber. The temperatures definitely made this a difficult archery and muzzleloader season for most and I’m betting that the first rifle guys are going to have a heyday. Still a quality unit with good numbers of game. I’m not certain as to why there were so many hunters in this unit this year, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. No meat in the freezer, but good buddies in good country made this one hell of a fun hunt. Now on to the rest of my season...

-Cody
 
Thanks for the info! We are headed out to the lowest side of 15 tomorrow coming from Missouri. Going just up from Toponas on Gore Pass. Looks like the temps are still in the upper 50's during the day so I'm guessing we will be doing a lot of step timber stalks. Not sure how the 1st season guys did but I've been scanning the forum for info. I hear there has been a lot of logging in the area we go so it will be interesting to see how many new roads there are. Thanks again for your post, I suspected what you experienced for the unit would be the case this year.
 
that sucks when many years are spent figuring out an area and in an instant there not the same, this made it too easy for other hunters happened to me in Ontario in a deer area, now how you feel
 
That's too bad. I bowhunted that area for several years in the mid 2000, and we always saw decent numbers of elk (despite not being able to kill one), and very few hunters. It sounds like you had a great time regardless.

Did you hunt the Sarvis Creek Wilderness at all?
 
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