When is it time to let go?

[BigGriz]

Alright everyone I am between a rock and a hard place... I have been hunting the same mountain here in western Colorado for 9 years. The first time I went out there I killed a bull and that mountain stole my heart! Since that day if I was thinking about hunting at all it was about my next adventure there. There have been years we filled our tags and there has been years we only filled a couple. Most the time it was me eating tag soup...but I love watching others be successful and enjoy my time out there.

As you all know times change. After about 4 years out there I started seeing more back pack hunters and horse camps come in. Also saw a change in the outfitter running the area and they doubled the amount of hunters per season than usual. All good to me as this is all of our land and I'm happy to see others enjoying it as well!

This past year I was packed up for a 10 day archery hunt. When I pulled up to the parking lot it looked like our local City Market. As we were headed in we passed a few day hikers walking out and a group taking a bull and buck back to the truck. Was glad to see them guys had some success which got me pumped up. Another 4 miles and we pulled up to our camp...unfortunately to find a camp of 6 already homesteaded there. We went over and visited. What a bunch of great guys!! Found out they had been hunting the mountain for 25 years and we shared stories back and forth for 2 hours then had to shut it down because my mule wanted his saddle off if he was going to be standing there...haha We found out they were leaving in the morning and we would just slip in right after them. We set everything to the side, put our tents up and visited all night with them. Like I said what a great group of guys.

Well to shorten this a bit we were only there for 3 of the 10 days. After the guys left we set up camp and that evening we had 3 camps go down below us. Total of 10 guys with tags. The next day I needed a nap and went back to camp for some lunch and a snooze. Well I was woke up by 2 guys putting there camp up literally 20 yards away. I got a little fired up but kept my mouth shut. I mean we are 7 miles deep and you have to camp right next door??? I talked to the guys and they saw 2 new camps going in above us...3 guys per camp. So that night my buddy and I went up on top of the mountain thinking maybe we can get away from everyone. Well we had a rude awakening! We called in a group of 3 hunters and another group of 2. We talked to the group of 2 and found out on the other side of the mountain had 3 camps and all the outfitters guys were down there and on the neighboring mountain.

Well that evening we went back to camp and tried to come up with a game plan. I was sitting there thinking about our next move by the fire when I heard 2 bulls bugling in the canyon behind us. Bingo! That's what we are doing in the morning! So morning came and we were almost set to head to the canyon when our neighbor came over and asked us which way we were headed. We told him we were head to the canyon and he said "no your not". I said excuse me? He said that he had sent his other partner that way and he is headed that way as well. He was sticking around for us to get up so he can tell us not to go over there. Well..one of the guys I was with said " First come first serve" and off we went. We went to the other side of the canyon opposite of where the other gentlemen was just in case things went wrong on his side. We had perfect wind that morning going down hill. The elk were bugling and chasing cows. We found the other guy on the other side and he was calling so we all sat back and watched him work the elk. There was a few times I thought he had shot but must of had something in the way as he was drawn several times but no arrow released. After watching for about 30 minutes I could start to hear a bugle and cow calls coming from behind the hunter. The bulls were still bugling in the bottom of the canyon. 10 minutes had passed and all the sudden we glassed up another hunter moving in on the first hunter. Well you could tell they found each other as the new guy walked off.

All the sudden my buddy says he sees 2 more guys moving in below the original hunter. It was getting later in the day and the wind is about to start to change and swirl. Well the 2 new guys go right past the one gentlemen and dive right down in the bottom..the wind switched and all hell broke loose. Elk scattered all different directions. My group got together and headed back to camp. When we got there and talked about how that morning played out we all came to the conclusion its time to leave. So...that's what we did. By 2 pm we were back to the truck headed for town.

I am sorry for the long drawn out story but I am trying to convince myself its time to move on and find a new place. My head knows what's right but my heart is ripping me back. If any of you have gone through this I would love to see how you handled it and the thought process you went through on moving on?

BHGH11

 

[JMG]

From what you described ... it sounds a little crowded. I would look for other areas to hunt. You can do some research using Google Earth and then scout prior to the season starting.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Sorry to hear that's a bummer, especially the guy telling you not to go chase an elk on public land.

I know that some people develop a deep relationship with a particular area, and it's hard to give that up. On the flip side CO is a huge state with a lot of amazing places, and this might be a sign to go out and see what else is out there.

2020 will be my 7th elk tag in Colorado, and I'm excited at hunting elk in my 7th unit. I'm kind of the opposite of you and make it a point to try and hunt a new unit every year, for me part of the allure is exploring new places.

Hope you get a silver lining out of the experience.

Also, maybe it was so bad for everyone else out there, that next year way fewer people will be back?

 

[tteel]

Man that sucks. Unfortunately I think this is becoming the new normal.

 

[WesternRookie]

Sorry to hear that. Was this an OTC unit?

 

[BigGriz]

From what you described ... it sounds a little crowded. I would look for other areas to hunt. You can do some research using Google Earth and then scout prior to the season starting.

I am thinking so. I know others were complaining about lots of people. Maybe this is my calling to go on a new adventure like I did for this one.

 

[BigGriz]

Sorry to hear that's a bummer, especially the guy telling you not to go chase an elk on public land.

I know that some people develop a deep relationship with a particular area, and it's hard to give that up. On the flip side CO is a huge state with a lot of amazing places, and this might be a sign to go out and see what else is out there.

2020 will be my 7th elk tag in Colorado, and I'm excited at hunting elk in my 7th unit. I'm kind of the opposite of you and make it a point to try and hunt a new unit every year, for me part of the allure is exploring new places.

Hope you get a silver lining out of the experience.

Also, maybe it was so bad for everyone else out there, that next year way fewer people will be back?

You are probably hitting the nail on the head. I think this might have happened for a reason my oldest daughter starts hunting next year and after a year off my wife wants to get out there! Maybe time to change things up for sure!

 

[BigGriz]

Sorry to hear that. Was this an OTC unit?

Yes, over the counter archery tag.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

You are probably hitting the nail on the head. I think this might have happened for a reason my oldest daughter starts hunting next year and after a year off my wife wants to get out there! Maybe time to change things up for sure!

Yeah personally I try and bake some adventure into the trip so that even if I don't find elk I'm excited about the whole trip. I think hunting with your family definitely meets the bar of adventure!

 

[BlakeA]

This is just the beginning. Lots of country out there to go explore. Sorry about your experience.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I'm sure those guys who had been hunting the same mountain for the last 25 years felt the same way about you when you first showed up. They've seen the area fill up with people for a lot longer than you, it seems like that's just the way it it these days. Time to find another place to hunt if you want solitude.

 

[ntodwild]

Just 5 years ago myself and friends would pack into an area where it was just us and another group of 3. Had what seemed like full on private hunting grounds for hundreds of miles. Tags were filled every year hunting was amazing until one year we show up to the trail head and like you it was a Walmart parking lot?????? We since have moved on. Public land is just that....Public. It sucks you had that experience.

The fool that camped next to you and tried to tell you where you could hunt was just a "little" out of line I would say but there are idiots everywhere and none of them are worth the time on a broken watch.

Ive been hunting 4 over 40 years (public land) and I can tell you as a general rule. When the economy is good people have money to spend on hobbies. Back in 2010 I can remember vividly telling my hunting partner (I was hunting modern firearms that year for elk) "Where did all the hunters go this year?" The past few years we have seen more hunters than we have seen in the last 10. Aside from that Wilm1313 has a good strategy and it's one my partners and I have been deploying with out of state tags every other year or so on top of our normal in state hunting we do. When you go someplace different its an adventure in itself. Somehow the motivation factor is higher as well. Familiarity is always nice but it is an adventure and a challenge to hunt someplace you have never been

 

[rmauch20]

No offense but the story has to be fake news. Hunter numbers are falling so fast there probably won’t be enough of us to buy tags for third and fourth season in Colorado next year.

Obviously joking that sucks.As long as the economy is cranking like it is and people got money to burn I think this is the new normal. Hopefully one of these days the whole back country Hunter craze starts to die down. like the duck dynasty phase eventually played out

 

[Deleted member 20812]

It would take me all of about a half second to make this decision. Hunting is supposed to be fun, and this situation you described does not sound fun.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Its always hard to say goodbye to a favorite area for whatever reason. When I find a new honey hole I enjoy it while it lasts and I also expect that it has a shelf life. Every year I make a point of looking for new areas and scouting them so I'm ready to move on to a new great area whenever I have to. Some of my best spots are areas that got over pressured and everyone left and I happened to be the first person to rediscover it for a season.

 

[GrantK]

I'm on 21 years of hunting around Colorado, as well as a lot of other states these days, one thing that took me longer than it should have to learn is to not get too attached to spots, always be exploring even if you think you have found the ultimate spot...

things change, outfitters, private access, what is growing in the lowland fields, pressure, plus many more things, and it can completely change an area from amazing to not worth the time in a single season, sometimes for good, sometimes just for a year or two, being adaptable and having options B, C, D, and more is one of the biggest keys to being consistently successful in my opinion, sure, it helps to know the country but I will take elk in an area I am completely new to over no elk in my favorite spot every time.

One benefit of the backcountry hunting craze is that there are more elk and fewer hunters in some "easy" areas than there has been in a long time, the OP's issue isn't unusual, you can be way back and overrun by people, you can also be in a spot close to the road that is deemed " too easy" by the backcountry crew and be covered in elk, hunters follow trends, if you can go the opposite way you will usually find unpressured elk...

 

[LopeHunter]

Crowds are part of the public land challenge. Hard to know how many camps would return to that spot in 2020 for that season. Hard to know how many camps would be at another place if you switched in 2020.

I have felt the frustration, too.

I had a couple of hunts like you are describing and my conclusion was I did not care to hunt if the critters were so stirred up that the critters were not behaving "normal" during the hunt. Sure, I could try and out-guess or out-alpha the other hunters but obviously were not enough critters and spots for everyone so the game quickly became where will the critters run after get bumped? I prefer not shooting at a running critter and like the idea I could pass on a critter and perhaps that critter might still be around in a day or two if wanted to try and locate again after observed a few more critters. When the pressure is high then "brown is down" might be at play so if you pass on a critter then likely that critter is going to get shot soon by another hunter.

I changed up my tag strategy to seek out limited tags in hunt application draws rather than OTC tags. I began to focus on units where ATVs were not allowed as the idea of hearing a dozen or so of those machines zooming to and fro is not something I want to use my vacation time to experience on a hunt. I have sometimes paid for private access as a way to have a less-pressured hunt. I sometimes use a guide to access horses so can go further from the trailhead on public land.

I have still had some hunts where quite a few hunters including one this year where heard several shots opening morning and bumped into other hunters as pursued bugling elk. Not as relaxing as my wilderness hunt but was better than being in my office sitting at a keyboard. Like today.

 

[photohunter]

Move on. Once you find a new area and success, you'll fall in love again!

 

[SummitsCalling]

I think there are several factors at play, economy is really strong, and the craze to go back further each year. You can't go deeper in than the next guy if everyone is back there.

One hand it would be pretty awesome to hunt the same place, year in and year out. On the other hand, I have never hunted the same unit more than once in my years of hunting. Late to the points game, barely can draw as it is, and won't ever reach max points in most states, I just go where my hunting partner does or I get a tag. OTC, limited tags, hunting pressure, doesn't matter, I'm there to put meat in the freezer and feed the family. There's only many opening seasons I'll get to experience.

The truth is, I've encountered more people who give up pretty easy, or just drove the roads expecting something too walk in front of them. Heck most ppl, can't even be bothered to be on the mountain glassing before the sun comes up, encountered that in the Kaibab last year of all places.

Pick a state and try a new adventure. I've been to so many national forests, odd spots in the middle of no where and small towns I would never visit otherwise. I've met some great people along the way too. I've encountered locals that bent over backwards to help, and went out of their way. In some ways I think hunting is my excuse to see parts of our great country many don't have the privilege to do.

 

[BigGriz]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and first hand experiences. All of this has given me the kick in the butt to start a new chapter and start pouring time into finding my next "favorite spot".