CO Unit 40 Elk - 4th Season

So this hunt is coming up soon! Like 2 1/2 weeks I think, WOW! My understanding of this unit during 4th season is that you need weather to push elk to you. I'm planning on hunting the Utah/Colorado border, since it has the most public land, but it's still so warm out that I can't imagine any kind of migration happening. Anybody have any clue/tips as to whether or not I should still plan on hunting the public ground on the Utah border?

Since this isn't an easy tag to draw, I'm posting in hopes that some people might be willing to help out...Any love? Are there other areas you might recommend checking out on the unit (that aren't private...unless you know of a cool landowner)? And recommendations or info? Anybody had this tag before or know much else about the unit?

Hopefully I can get some help from you veterans, but either way look forward to a recap on this thread after the hunt!
19,576
ABert
I've got good news and bad news for you.

First, the bad news. I've never hunted this unit so I can't help you on that.

Good news is next week the weather is doing a 180 and temps will drop considerably. We are supposed to get snow on Sun/Mon, though I don't have a clue how much. Hopefully, things will stay cold for your hunt with a bit more snow to get the elk moving for you.

I'm hunting the third season that starts this Sat. I was prepared to hunt in shorts and flip flops with the way the weather has been thus far. Thankfully, looks like I might have to break out the long johns!
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Default Avatar
Well, how did your hunt go?
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hound_hunter
Gees, sorry guys! Haven't been on the forum in a long time. So I decided to mail in my tag the day before the hunt started. I ended up driving out their anyways just to see what it was like...I still go back and forth on if I made the right call. I didn't hunt it hard since I didn't have a tag. Saw several 300" bulls, a couple larger (including one big beautiful 360ish...but it had just crossed onto private land) tons of rutting 23" 4-point bucks (nothing bigger than that though, they were all around that same size). It's hard with CO, cause the tags that I really would like to be in the bracket for are the ones that only take a point or three to draw, and then get to hunt every couple years. But I've got so many points that I'd hate to just "waste" so many years of putting in so I feel like I want to try a "better" unit before I start back at 0 and try some of the easier draw units I've been looking at. Unit 40 does not look like my style of hunt though. There are some big elk in there no doubt, but it seems like it's just luck of the draw for finding one on public land vs private. I'll be looking next year for somewhere I can get lost in public land and chase a 350" bull.
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hound_hunter
Dang, I drew deer and elk in Colorado last year and turned BOTH tags back in, haha! That sucks
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9er
"hound_hunter" wrote:Dang, I drew deer and elk in Colorado last year and turned BOTH tags back in, haha! That sucks
 To bad, but you will be in the running again this year

Were you able to gain a point? Did you have to eat your tag fee?
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hound_hunter
Unfortunately had to eat the tag money and didn't qualify for a point since I had drawn...But it's still a great program that I wish every state allowed. That deer hunt I wouldn't have been able to do, got WAY busier than expected. The elk hunt I could have but seeing that unit I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as other units I can draw. This year I've got some big hiking & fishing goals (Climb Rainier, Ontario lake fishing, Alberta river fishing, and hopefully some Alaska sea fishing) so we will see if I just build points this year or try to spend the money/time on tags.
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