Colorado unit 61 muzzleloader ob servations

[sundance]

As it seems with all things now days, the 9 day season flew by. When you have three months to plan and anticipate a quality unit hunt, it becomes like what an extended Christmas might have been when I was a boy. And that probably is as much fun as the hunt. It lasts longer. Anyway, the hunt was a success, as I harvested an 8 X 7, 320 bull on the last Saturday of muzzle season. Holding out for a 340 plus bull in that unit is tough. We saw two bulls in that range before season but never could find them later. The summer was dry and they were bugling good until the afternoon rains came. Usually cooler, wetter weather means more activity, but the opposite happened, and they shut up. I successfully archery hunted this unit 6 years ago, so I had a pretty good feel for the unit. My son, who was with me on the last hunt, and I, had some serious tactical conversations about what we were encountering. As it was 6 years ago, calling in a bull is very tough. You can throw the book at them but locating bugling back and forth is about all the response you will get. We hunt hard, covering 7 to 9 miles a day, and as far as sign, it was troubling because of the lack of any in places. 6 years ago we didn't run into a single hunter. This year, almost every hunt we either heard, or bumped, another hunter. In some parts of the unit, word must of got out about past hunts where the bigger bulls were harvested because some places were choked full of elk chasers. When you have hunted all your life, you grow a sixth sense about what the woods and animal sign tell you and for whatever reason, there was no where near the elk in this unit as there was six years ago. There also is an abundance of hunters when muzzle and archery coincide. More people calling, better calls, all add up to more wary bulls, no matter the unit. As a lifelong resident of Colorado who has covered hundreds of miles on public land, been from timberline to canyon deep, cussed and sweated on many a trail, put a stick in a multitude of bulls, there is not the elk in this state they say there is, in either OTC, or draw. It is a money game and healthy numbers bring healthy money. And, some field officers support those observations. As for me, I will be so glad to grab my bow next year, muzzle is not for me. And this year was a first as far as sitting on my butt eating a pbj, bugling in between bites just for fun, and having a bull blow up my lunch. I had to wad the last bite in my cheek so I could draw a bead on this 8 x7. So, I don't know now. Was it my calling, or did he want my sandwich? New on the market next year, Peanut Butter and Jelly Lip Bawler.