I drew unit 61 for muzzleloader this year and would love to hear stories concerning your experience in 61, your interpretation of the terrain, and animal encounters you have had. I started scouting this weekend and was reminded what a vast and varied unit this is. My hunting strategy will be to pack in as far as necessary to find the animals, and live there untill successful.
Share Your Stories - Colorado Unit 61 Elk
- Thread starter Bullwinkle
- Start date
Umpqua Hunter
Veteran member
I hunted that same tag a few years ago. Had my muzzy not lost its primer in the brush, I would have killed a 350+ bull at 10 yards. That one still hurts a bit. Shot a very nice bull the next day with my wife next to me. Overall it was one of the most fun elk hunts I have ever been on and we called in bulls daily. I only had one encounter with hunters once we got 400 yards off the road. Lots of people buzzing the roads but not a lot of company once I was off the road.
Head on over to the new members section and say "hi" and tell us about yourself.
Head on over to the new members section and say "hi" and tell us about yourself.
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CODAK
Active Member
My only experience was scouting with a buddy from work who had an archery tag. We found a 370+ bull and knew everything about him. We were what we thought to be plenty far away from access. Turns out, opening morning another hunter unknowingly blew him out of the basin as we sat watching it all unfold. We couldn't turn him up again!! Just remember there are a lot of average to good bulls there, but if you put in your time you may find a toad. Hope your luck is better, which may be tough with archery hunters coming in before the smokeys.
MountainHigh
Active Member
Bullwinkle, congrats on a great tag! My dad has also drawn 61 muzzy this year. We will be scouting throughout the summer as well. We plan on getting some good time in there and hopefully we can pull I good bull out of the unit. My dad is getting a bit older now so should be awesome and a great challenge for us to try to get it done. I have heard great things about the unit and I am looking forward to making memories with my dad. Good luck and hopefully we will both have good stories to tell after this fall!
Umpqua Hunter, Too bad about the primer, but glad you got a bull. Everyone I have talked to says the unit is full of good bulls. Did you encounter more animals down in the canyons, up in the quakies, or in the pinyon / juniper during muzzy season? I hear they inhabit all of those places.
JimP
Administrator
What do you consider a good bull? In my opinion it has a lot of 350" bulls but very few over that.
I had a ML tag down there in 2014 and took a real old 5x6. We did see quite a few bulls but getting close was another matter.
You are just going to have to scout the dickens out of it. We had planned on going one way and ended up on the other end of the unit when my friend that had a archery tag didn't see anything worth shooting where we had planned on going.
I had a ML tag down there in 2014 and took a real old 5x6. We did see quite a few bulls but getting close was another matter.
You are just going to have to scout the dickens out of it. We had planned on going one way and ended up on the other end of the unit when my friend that had a archery tag didn't see anything worth shooting where we had planned on going.
Elkhunter96
Active Member
Great unit, have seen a few over the 350 mark, but pretty rare. As Jim said, a great unit to hunt 320-350 type bulls. One of the best in CO, in my opinion.
JimP
Administrator
I think that the biggest bull that I saw down there while scouting was when I was on my way home one evening. The trouble was that he was in unit 62 just off of 25 Road about 2 miles from the top.
And he was definitely over 400 inches
And he was definitely over 400 inches