Common wisdom has it that Colorado is a good place to shoot an elk, but if you
want a big elk, you will need a lot of luck. But luck is where you find it, and
some hunters these days do find big bulls in Colorado. Their secret? Like
their whitetail-hunting brethren in the Midwest, these hunters know their quarry
have adapted quite well to suburbia.
Hunting close to the Front Range usually does not come to mind when thinking
about elk. Unlike some of the more popular options in the Centennial State,
hunting close to that much humanity is usually not a wilderness experience. To
be sure, there are some great wilderness areas, such as the Mt. Evans wilderness
in Area 46, but hunting within spitting distance of Denver, Ft. Collins, or
Colorado Springs is different. To be sure, you do hear the occasional bugle,
but the sound of barking dogs is more likely the music you hear drifting up the
mountains in these areas. Add to this the fact that you have to draw a tag for
what is usually an area with difficult access, and most hunters simply throw in
the towel and head west.
But guess what? Tucked in behind housing areas and private ranches, elk near
metropolitan areas often grow back-scratching antlers. And while you must enter
the draw to get a tag, areas near Denver don’t require a lifetime of preference
points to draw successfully. So if you have your hopes set on a monster bull,
consider hunting close to home. After all, once the bullets start flying, you
just might find bulls in your backyard.
Years ago, most land west of the Front Range consisted of large ranches and of
course, national forest. The decade of the 70’s saw a huge boom in housing
construction, and ranchers confronted by developers with wads of cash eventually
sold large chunks of land that quickly became housing areas. Often, the ranch
continued to exist, albeit on a smaller scale. Many of these ranches abutted
national forests. The result is a patchwork of housing areas with large yards
next to ranches that almost always seal off access to public hunting areas...almost,
but not quite (see the sidebar for access information).
Areas near in the suburban sprawl of Denver make surprisingly good habitat. My
first bull, a very nice 6x7, was killed not too far from a major highway. The
next year I shot a 6x6 within a mile of several hundred homes on what used to be
a 70’s cattle ranch. Believe it or not, that was my first two years of elk
hunting – two days, two bulls. They remain my single best two days of elk
hunting ever, but I still like hunting for suburban elk.
Hunting techniques for suburban elk bear little resemblance to classical
wilderness elk hunting. These elk seem to have a knack for knowing just where
they can and cannot go during hunting season. I often find elk feeding in
residential back yards as I drive in before dawn. But once the sun comes up,
they are out of there and on the way to their bedding areas. Rare is the day
you can catch elk in a park after sunup.
One year my brother Jeff and I did catch a huge herd in a large meadow – but by
the time it got light enough to see them, they were wasting no time heading for
a north-facing slope. Rather then chase them directly, we circled around them.
Jeff knew the lay of the land intimately, and he knew these elk would follow one
of two draws to their bedding area. We struck out on the first option, but ran
into a boatload of elk once we hit the second draw. I passed on a 5X5 standing
broadside at less than 200 yards because of what sounded like a monster bull
screaming at the top of his lungs. We found a ridge that covered most of the
draw and sat down to watch the procession. Cows and raghorn bulls created an
elk parade as they walked up the draw and over a saddle to our right. A new
group of cows wandered into a small open area below us, but then broke into a
run – had we spooked them? No, that big 7X6 did. A 225-grain Hornady from my
.338 Winchester put him down from 80 yards.
Elk often feed in ranch pastures. If you can find a ranch with a pasture near a
national forest, you have a good start. Look for a pasture that has not been
overgrazed; come October many are. Trespassing on a ranch is rarely tolerated,
but you can often drive up to the front gate and have a peek. If you can
observe the pasture, look for elk early in the morning or evening.
My ideal suburban elk habitat is a large ranch with good pastures that offers
good bedding areas on public land. While I have hunted in very cold
temperatures in Colorado, temperatures are almost always mild, causing elk to
seek shady areas in which to bed. If you know elk, you know what I mean - a
north-facing steep slope with thick conifers – black timber. These slopes stay
cool even in mid-day and elk know the odds of a human or other predator sneaking
up on them in this kind of cover is...well, you may as well buy lottery
tickets. Hunting black timber sounds romantic, but difficult to master.
You can’t hunt the ranch, and you can’t sneak up on them in black timber, so the
only option is to set up between the elk and their bedding areas. Get a map and
try to identify draws leading to north facing slopes. Get out and scout for
these areas – they are close to home, so you don’t have any excuses. Besides,
you have to get in shape and toughen up your feet anyway.
Setting up between feeding areas and bedding areas is only effective in the
morning and evening; between those times elk lay up in thick timber. Trying to
put the sneak on them when bedded is very difficult, and will almost always
result in spooking the whole herd to the next drainage. In the middle of the
day, I like to watch escape routes from those same bedding areas – if someone
else spooks the herd, then you at least have a chance. Stormy days are an
exception to that rule. One year Jeff put me on a 5x5 that was feeding in a
semi-open stand of conifers at 11 am.
Sometimes you can find a housing area adjacent to a national forest. While
these areas are good for access to national forest, they often lack feeding
areas as the ranches do. But housing areas offer one thing ranches do not:
entry. You can scout housing areas by simply driving around and looking for elk.
But don’t even think about doing it in the evening; too much commotion. Instead,
get there in the early morning, about 4 am, and drive the roads looking for elk.
After you find them, try and figure out where they are bedding – I can assure
you, it is not in someone’s back yard. The closest north-facing high elevation
slope in the nearest chunk of national forest is a more likely bedroom.
Is suburban elk hunting foolproof? Of course not. Like whitetail deer, elk are
surprisingly tolerant of humans, but in slightly different ways. Unlike deer,
elk are constantly on the move. Spotting a monster elk in any area before
hunting season opens does not mean you will bag him opening morning. On the
contrary, those animals are likely (but not always) to be long gone. But
spotting elk time and again in suburban areas means there is enough food and
cover in the area to draw elk over and over.
If elk hunting to you means sleeping in a tent in the middle of nowhere, of
packing in miles on horseback, or simply spending a week in the beautiful
Rockies, go ahead and head for the Western Slope. But if time, family or job
pressures make that a fantasy, hunt close to home. Home may be where the heart
is, but if you live on the Front Range, it just might be a good place to bag
this winter’s elk steaks.
