46 PETERSEN’S BOWHUNTING 09 • 2019
in Colorado. My elk encounters increase every year I
hunt Idaho, because I’ve learned so much about that
unit. I bet I’d have similar success in the Colorado unit I
hunted had I started there and stuck with it.
Selecting a unit can be perplexing. Colorado, I believe,
has more than 100 OTC elk units. In addition, you can
hunt any of them with your OTC tag (some restrictions
may apply), making it tempting to jump around. Still, I
suggest hunting one unit rather than hopping around
looking for a nonexistent elk goldmine.
There are many things to consider when making a
selection. What is the unit’s archery success rate? Are
there antler/point restrictions? Are cows legal? How
many licenses were sold last year? Where’s the near-
est town in which you can obtain fuel, food and even
lodging if you don’t camp? How much acreage is open
to public hunting? What are the ATV regulations on
the public land? What is the elevation? Are there other
seasons (muzzleloader, for example) running concur-
rently with the archery season? All of these questions
are worth asking.
For a rookie elk bowhunter, looking at unit-specific
success rates seems like the obvious way to choose a
good unit. However, success rates can be misleading,
as they generally include all archery hunters (resident
and nonresident) and the areas they hunt (private and
public land).
For example, some Colorado units at lower elevations
have relatively high success rates. After speaking with
biologists, though, I learned that those units have very
few elk on public land until snow drives the herds down
from higher elevations well after archery season. Thus,
outfitters and resident hunters on private land contrib-
ute the lion’s share of the success rates.
Build Unit History
Think learning whitetail habits on a 1,200-acre pub-
lic parcel in the Midwest is hard? You haven’t hunted
public-land elk. The Forest Service ground I hunt, for
example, has a lifetime’s worth of canyons and drain-
ages to explore. In other words, you’d be foolish to hunt
a unit for one week and think you covered it well. This
can take years, not days, to do.
Unit loyalty also allows you to learn where most folks
hunt and then hunt elsewhere. Many people return to
a unit year after year and hunt the same areas. You can
make notes and then circumvent those hunters the fol-
lowing year(s), which usually puts you on more elk.
Next, you can learn elk tendencies by sticking with
one unit. It’s true that elk are where you find them —
I’ve encountered mature bulls 60 yards from my truck.
However, many elk have tendencies; I know because
I’ve found numerous locations where I can usually get
into elk daily. This took me a few years to do, though, so
I’m glad I’ve stuck with one unit.
Finally, by hunting a unit annually, you’ll find backup
spots for days when heat shuts down daylight bugling.
Personally, I hunt seeps and wallows from treestands.
I’ve encountered dozens of elk, including several bulls,
at them over the years, and I even arrowed a large cow
one season with daytime temps reaching 80 degrees. My
trail cameras have captured countless bulls drinking
andwallowingatthesesites. Again, I wouldn’t know
this had I jumped units.
Putting It All Together
It’s my fault that I didn’t take a bull until my sixth elk
hunt — I’ve had and blown opportunities during four of
my six hunts. My shots always seemed to be at alert bulls
with no chance for me to use my rangefinder.
That changed last fall. Day 16 — Sept. 25 — of my
annual Idaho hunt was a gift from God. I had early-
morning close-calls with two bulls that didn’t offer
shots, and the forest rumbled with bugles all morning
long. In my experience, you only get one day like this, if
you’re lucky, during two weeks of OTC hunting. I kept
following bugles and was so close several times that my
neck hair stood up. I’d call occasionally, but I couldn’t
pull anything in for a bow shot.
Photo by Becca McDougal
Photo by Becca McDougal
