Colorado GMU 68 or GMU 86

I am currently in the planning stages of a Colorado elk hunt in 2010. I am looking at GMU 68 and GMU 86 as these both have OTC tags (as of right now). This will allow me to save up my preference points a bit to get into a better unit another year. This will be my first time hunting out west, and I was wondering if anybody has any places to find elk in these regions or types of locations to look for. Is one unit particularly better than the other? This will be an archery hunt, and I will probably be hunting the first couple weeks of the season, so I was wondering what kind of calling I should do? Should I bugle very seldom and use mostly cow calls? Should I just stay pretty quiet and sit by water? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!! Also, I will probably get a mule deer tag, does anybody have any tips on mule deer hunting with the bow?

Thanks!!!
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Bowhuntrben,
There is hardly a unit west of downtown denver that doesn't have bulls on public land available to OTC archers. In fact you can find bugling bulls within earshot of many roads right in the middle of muzzleloader season. True that most of the bigger bulls will be off in the nasty by the time season rolls around or if not then shortly thereafter. In my opinion if you are just looking to cut your teeth bowhunting elk you should be able to find plenty of bulls here but for all the obvious reasons they will be on average a 5x5 around 200pts. If you want to try to draw a muley tag and hunt both then you need to allow plenty of time for your hunt. Problem is, the best time to kill a big public land muley is right around the opener as the bucks are still in the velvet but then it is usually pretty early as far as the elk rut is concerned. Those big bucks really can evaporate into the thick once that velvet comes off. You need to hunt deer early in the season and hunt elk the last ten days of it ideally. Just food for thought. As far as opportunity goes my buddy from Cali has hunted with me the past two years and both years has killed his bull within the first 5 hours of hunting the first day out(granted he was willing to shoot the first legal bull that came in) In fact last year we got up the mountain late the first morning we hunted, parked the truck(on public land), got out and cow called about 10 times and had threee bulls bugle back from within 500 yards. Three hours later we were taking pictures of his 5x6 bull. There are plenty of elk out here and while there are plenty of hunters there are a ton of places I could get to with 2wheel drive that hold elk that aren't being hunted hard if at all.
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Bowhuntrben
SoleSearcher,
That sounds great! I would most likely take the first legal bull that comes by. I want to get one before I start to hold out for a bigger guy and to build my confidence! The person I am hunting with wants to hunt the first part of the season, so we will be out there for the good mule deer hunting I guess. I am hoping to make it a full 2 weeks of hunting, so maybe towards the end the elk will start to heat up? What techniques do you recommend for elk the first part of the season? Is it best to sit at a water hole and wait, or to move around and do a bit of cow calling and maybe a seldom bugle? Eventually I will be going on my own and will probably hunt later in the year during the elk rut. That is awesome that your friend had such great success! You should post some pictures!
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