We saw plenty of elk and hunted DIY the second rifle season. We were in a different area than Gunnison but it was about the same as the past 3 years for us. I think the DOW does a pretty good job ofmanaging the resource. I guess everyone has a decision to make. Hunting eastern whitetails or going out west for elk....no problem with my decision making. I plan to go out twice next year.
OBTW we got 2 elk (7X7 and a 5X5) and a mulie (one guy had a deer tag). The warm weather hurt us until we went real high and got away from the crowds. Getting 2 was pretty good considering we had to spend two days, dark to dark, packing them out on our backs from 11,500 in a wilderness area.