ColoradoElk

Dopler makes some good points, as has everyone else. However, I don't see alot of the elk hunting he describes in Colorado. There are some cow tags available in September, but the first rifle season (when you can get a bull) begins this year on 10/11, which isusually after the rut, the big bulls are tired and hiding. I do believe in general stick flippers are better hunters than the rifle guys, but in my travels through the woods, I have seen PLENTY of blinds set up with a pile of salt blocks 15 yards away, a month later in the general rifle seasons. DOW has said the average elk kill with a rifle is 170 yards, but I bet there is some exaggeration there. In the timber, 50 yards would be a long shot. Also, the archery seasons are a month long. My season is five days, a day or two of bad weather (more likely than not) makes it a REALLY short season. Much shorter seasons, higher hunting pressure with "booms"that put the animals on "alert", rut is over and more severe weather make rifle hunting in CO harder than you think.

But hey Dop, like you said:

"I hope that rifle huntersrealize that killing a Bull elk in open country with a rifle is like a turkey shoot, like shootingfish in a barrel. The Bull elk bugles, you hear it a half mile away and you walk up to it and shoot it at 300yards.Rifle hunting for elk is like a gimme in golf. I could honestly train my 6 year old neice tosucessfully undertake such an endeavor."

Don't forget the fellow that paid "$250,000" you are happy for, missed at 190 yds. Maybe rifle hunting for elk isn't like a gimme in golf.

npaden

I wasrifle hunting in Wyoming during the rut a week ago. I shot my bull on opening morning from 100 yards away through a tiny opening in the timber and brush. I took a shot at an angle that would have never been an option with a bow (severe quartering away) even if he had been at 25 yards. If I was bow hunting I don't think I would have his antlers hanging on my wall in my dining room right now. I will concede that hunting with a bow is more difficult.

However, we did hunt 6 more days after that for my friends. We had a 360 class bull on public ground in Wyoming within 100 yards of us on two different occasions and even though we were wearing our pink dresses we couldn't close the deal on him because it was so thick we couldn't see him and he was smart enough not to come any closer to us.

I'll give you that a rifle is easier, but it still isn't like a turkey shoot, fish in a barrel or a gimmie in golf.

npaden

Montana already does have rifle season during the rut. Firearms are allowed in some wilderness areas beginning on September 15th. If it is like the area I was hunting in Wyoming,you are not going to get close enough to see them if they aren't talking, and with the wolves around they aren't talking much as it is.

kodiakhuntmaster

Wow, I never knew rifle hunting for elk in open country was all that easy! I guess I should have saved my money on camo to go for the pink dress. Who am I kidding, I don't have the legs to pull that off[8D]My experience with elk that lived in open country was that they would see you or smell you if the wind shifted from a mile away, and then they run into the next county.

I always had much better luck hunting in the woods rather than open land. I've never bow hunted for elk, and since I don't live in elk country anymore, I probably won't get a chance to try that anytime soon. I will say that rifle hunting for them was plenty hard enough for me.

lnester

Well, from my short stint living in Colorado thus far, here are my observations. Most of the elk and mule deer I see killed have no business being harvested. I mean, can this state of yahoos pass on ANY animal? It's like you shoot anything that moves! Why doesn't the DOW enact strict regulations about bull and buck harvesting? I have never shot an elk in my life, but I would NEVER take any bull less than 5x5. The raghorns that I've seen posted on here are ridiculous.

And mulies? A good, mature buck is a pleasure to harvest. But again, why doesn't DOW require the horns to be at least to the tips of the ears? This would improve the overall quality of deer in Colorado. My dad used to hunt here in the 70s and tells me countless stories about quantity and quality of deer in Colorado. Now, it seems like the herds are drastically different.

Okay, sorry to rant. But if somebody's going to blast "rifle" hunters, then I figured I would take my shot at those hunters who kill anything that moves.

homers brother

I generally have a great deal of respect for guys who connect with elk with sticks and strings.

However, lately that's been challenged by sights like two guys, standing in the forward corners of a pickup box creeping down a logging trail, arrows nocked. What was that all about? I was starting to worry that I wasn't fly fishing in blaze orange! It was kind of funny, but I'm sure not representative of most archery hunters.

Come on, guys. Are you that against rifle hunting? If so, maybe we should can it and then everybody can share your exclusive, early season (at least in WY) with you? Or, are you just miffed that a rifle hunter took this bull? I'm not much of a horn hunter in the first place, but it sure seems like a lot of arguments are a byproduct of those appendages.

I'll make you a deal, If you can guarantee me a cow tag every year, I'll happily not shoot the next "spider bull"

elkslayer338

well Rifle elk hunting and Bow or Black powder are completely differentand to tell you the truth I personally feel it is muchsimpler to take one during the rut, so bow and black powder seasons appeal to me. On that note try to call a bull in during rifle LOL. add three foot of snow and youhave to be hardcore to stay on the mountain then. its not the weapon that makes the elk hunter its their overall knowledge and ability to adapt to conditions, elk behavior, Weapons andterrain.Lets not forget that the real elk hunter knows that the kill is just a small part of the hunt its the team work / camaraderie thatencompasses elk camp.It does not matter how you got your elk you still have to pack it out.

this is my 6x6 I shot this year with my 338, but I could have easily hit him with a bow, he hadno Idea I was there. the wind in my face the sun rising behind me and my body tucked in the shadow of a aspen, when I stood up to shoot he was 25 yds broadside to me.....

txhunter58

I can't believe you consider hunting with a bow sporting! Why any self respecting elk hunter gets up close and personal, jumping on their back and stabbing them with a knife.

There is always a harder way of doing something..........

Tongue in cheek or not, looking down on how someone else enjoys hunting is just trying to be macho: I am tougher, smarter, stronger, A BETTER HUNTER, than you.

Don't think much of that attitude, in case you were wondering. Probably not since you got it all figured out.

PS. Said with my tongue PARTIALLY in cheek........

GermanShorthair2

I am a bow hunter as well as a rifle hunter.I feel that everyone needs to lay this spider bull "bullcrap" to rest and mind thier own damn business.
I personally don't care whether someone kills one with a bow or a gun and how easy or hard it may be.It is our right as hunters to hunt in any way shape or form that is legal and to hunt the way we please with the equipment we want.I just don't inderstand why issues have to be made on things that are irrelevant.
I don't have to kick other peoples balls in to prove how big a man i am
I am with you 200% txhunter58!!!

Colorado Luckydog

I bow hunt and I rifle hunt. Sure bowhunting is harder, that's why I do it. But to say rifle hunting elk is like shooting fish in a barrel is retarded. Looking down on other hunters methods and thinking your better than them is also retarded. Dumb statements like the one above make me wonder if you have ever even been elk hunting in your life!

Edit- I have a problem with the whole spider bull thing also, but it's not from the method of take. My problem with the whole thing was the amount of time allowed in the field, because of the Governor's tag. He was allowed to hunt that bull for 2 1/2 months. That's where I call bullchit!