We did not shoot anything. We had previously hunted the OTC 2nd rifle season and were very lucky to come back with one cow elk. CO hunters told us that the elk are pushed out of the area during the (limited) 1st rifle season, and were now mostly on private. Our long term plan was to hunt the MZL season after accruing enough points, but my hunt partners decided to go for the 1st rifle instead. I have used my CO points on other hunts, so had a cow tag while they had bull/either tags. 5 GMUs are grouped for the 1,000 limited tags, so there was still a mass of people that turned a 5 day hunt into a 1/2 day hunt. We had packed back 2 miles into a drainage, and on opener the elk were pushed over the hills between us and the road. We heard over 20 shots that morning, and none for the next 4 1/2 days. When we left, there were 100's or even 1,000's of elk on private on our drive out. There were outfitters on both sides to boot.
We did have our opportunities though. Both of my partners had passed on cows, one had missed at a legal bull, and I had a herd of 25+ in range and moving closer when 4 shots over the hill and nowhere near us sent the group running away from me, never to be seen again. We had .22 handguns also for grouse since we were required to have a small game license to apply for our tags. No grouse opportunities either.
But, this was the most enjoyable deer hunt that I have ever been on, even though I had no deer tag and the season wasn't open. Deer were everywhere, and I stalked within MZL range a number of times. Few bucks, but if there were that many does/fawns, then there must be a good number of bucks up higher somewhere. I would love to be back there right now with a deer tag in my hand.
I think that I wore out my last pair of hunting partners. They are 14 years younger than me, but told me that they are getting too old to do hunts like this. They were lucky though, because if we had tagged out it would have required 3 or 4 pack trips each to get the meat out. We would still be there.
