RBC | A combination of cooperative weather in the form of early snowfall coupled with last year’s elk harvest being lower than normal resulted in the first rifle season going well for hunters.
“Hunters in general were finding elk,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Area 6 Wildlife Manager Bill deVergie. “We also saw several really nice bulls taken. This is probably a result of last year’s harvest being a bit lower than normal… more bulls left over for this year.”
The second rifle season was closer to normal.
“After the elk are hunted during the first season, they become more difficult to find and the harvest is lower,” deVergie said. A return to warmer, drier temperatures during the second season didn’t help hunters, either.
Deer hunters have also had a good season. deVergie said the mandatory testing for Chronic Wasting Disease for the units in Deer Management Area D-7 brought a lot of deer through the CPW office for sampling.
“Most deer hunters seemed very pleased,” deVergie said.
Third rifle season kicked off last weekend and continues through Nov. 12. Fourth combined limited deer/elk season is Nov. 15-19.
Elk hunting has been good so far
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I do not agree at all. It’s been the second worst elk season in my 28 years of hunting around Meeker, and I hunt with an outfitter. High winds, fog and sleet for the first 4 days of the season kept the elk bedded up around Buford. Didn’t see an elk until the 5 day. Better check with the processing plants because they told us the deer harvest was decent, but the elk was so bad they had to reduce their staff by the middle of the 3rd season.
I agree with Larry . I have been hunting the Peiance area since 1988 . the last decade has gone down hill every year and this year we saw one elk and that was a calf that had been hit along the road . almost to unit 10 .
One further note , we keep hearing noise about wolves here in Colorado please tell me CPW is doing something to rectify this . we do not need or want wolves here I think our herds of animals have suffered enough .