Archery Elk in Colorado
The fall season started with archery elk hunting in Colorado. As if trying to kill a critter with a fast moving stick from a bow wasn’t enough, I switched to a traditional bow this year, also known as the struggle stick. I made the switch after the experience I had with my compound bow in 2019. You can read about that article here. Needless to say, archery hunting isn’t easy as is, and when you have an experience with faulty gear on a compound bow (my fault from taking a few diggers), miss an elk at 40yds, then do the 17 mile walk of shame back to the trail head with blistered feet, you question what the hell you’re doing. Ultimately, the missed shot came down to the woodsmen/hunter skillset. It was lack of monitoring my gear in noticing a cam on the bow that was out of timing after taking a shale rock tumble, which led to the missed shot. So, back to 2020, I decided that since I’m into the very technical side of reloading and long range hunting and competitions, I wanted to simplify my time in the woods during at least one hunt a year, with a weapon that has no sight or cams that can be knocked out of sorts, leading to a waste of time and gas money.
In 2020 there was more hunters than I’ve ever seen at what is usually a pretty remote trailhead, so much so that the football field sized parking area was nearly full every weekend. A lot of those hunters I encountered were COVID enthusiasts that decided to get into hunting because they were getting paid more to be lazy and unemployed, then to be a participating citizen in society. Now I’m not discouraging anyone from hunting because like every year, with this year probably being the most lucrative for conservation funding vice tags filled, hunters are in fact the largest donators since the invention of tags and licenses. License sales totaled $96,269,926 in the 2018-19 in Colorado alone (Meyers, 2020). Although anyone can get lucky hunting occasionally, odds were definitely against these new hunters that paid a $650 nonresident fee + travel expenses to come from Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Virginia, and New York (all real encounters by me on the trail systems). Due to the amount of hunters, and everyone bugling their faces off way too often…the elk were quiet.
I saw one elk bugle over Labor Day weekend which was the opener this year. It was also a very dry year across the west, which affected every bow hunter negatively. Excuses aside, there were some better choices that I could have made. One being, when I called a couple cows within 10yds of me, I didn’t realize they had closed the half mile distance as fast as they did, and spooked them away by changing where I was set up at, just to realize they were standing behind the cover of a bush that I wanted to relocate to… Granted, it wasn’t a missed shot on a trophy bull, but with a trad bow, as anyone will tell you that hunts
with one, shooting a cow is the equivalent of shooting a rag horn bull with your compound, if not more challenging. With all the elevation gain and loss, and distance covered to get away from folks, during the month of September alone I lost 15lbs. However, I gained more knowledge through experiences to add to the hunting tool box. And the best part, finding solace from the tops of mountains and ridgelines with picturesque views, or while falling asleep in the bivy in the middle of Aspens.
John Meyer, (2020, January 06). Colorado hunting, fishing licenses bring in 20% more revenue, plus more key 2019 numbers. The Denver Post. https://theknow.denverpost.com/2020/01/06/colorado-hunting-fishing-numbers-2019/231344/