My elk carcass and hunting bear -Colorado

[Ghillieman]

Morning,
Wondering if I'm able to shoot a bear over my elk carcass during Colorado 2nd rifle on public land. Is it considered baiting? What about another carcass I may come across? I would think baiting would constitute an intentional act of bringing an attractant into the woods for the sole purpose of attracting game. I would think this situation would pose a excellent opportunity however I certainly don't want to violate any laws and plan on purchasing a bear tag if by chance a bruin makes an appearance. If it is illegal how far does one have to be from the carcass to remain legal? I've seen some video's of Alaska hunts where bruins are take over various carcasses but not sure about Colorado.

 

[Redman]

Call CDOW they will have the correct answer to this question. We tend to only give the 100% facts on the only suitable rifle and round to dispatch the bruin with!

 

[Khunter]

Absolutley legal. And can be very effective. Your assumption is pretty much spot on for Colo.

Me in the middle with a bear taken from my archery bull gut pile. Set up a tree stand next to it. stopped by daily while deer hunting and once it was obviously being chewed, on hung around and arrowed a boar 20 minutes later. My buddy who had done this a lot advised it may take a couple days for bears to start hitting and to not hunt it till it has begun being hit was spot on and saved wasting a lot of time sitting it before the bears had started feeding on it.

My understanding is you just can’t be moving/transporting carcass for purpose of hunting over it—that would be baiting, but using as it lays, or any such carcass, regardless of who killed it, that was not transported, moved, manipulated for hunting purpose is legal and not baiting. You can sit any carcass that was not transported from original kill site, does not have to be ‘yours’. Do not move the carcass/gut pile at all from where it fell.

Here is CPW definition of ILLEGAL bait which excludes the above situation that is legal. This is from the regs booklet, page 15:

“Bait means to put, expose, distribute or scatter salt, minerals, grain, animal
parts or other food as an attraction for big game. Salt or mineral blocks used for normal agricultural purposes are not considered bait. Scent sticks that smell like food are illegal for bears.”

pretty sure that if a truck carrying a cargo of hostess donettes misses a corner and crashed into the forest “naturally”. you could hunt over that donette pile, as long as did not move/manipulate it. LOL.

Go get ‘em and when you succeed, render that bear fat, amazing, high quality stuff.

 

[utah400elk]

I looked into this a couple years ago. First advice is to call the game warden for your hunt area…

I was told you can’t move the carcass at all. It has to stay where it dropped. As long as you don’t move it, then it is absolutely legal to hunt over it.

Good luck