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Oct. 21, 2000 BY JIM THOMAS Snow and rain is expected to greet hunters for the first combined rifle Colorado Big Game Hunt which begins at dawn today, Oct. 21. A Pacific storm is expected to bring snow to elevations above 9,000 feet today and Sunday, Oct. 22. Snow showers could lower to 8,000-8,500 feet by early morning hours. Rain is expected at lower elevations. Wet weather is expected to linger into Monday, Oct. 23, as well. The first season will end Oct. 27. If the snow is deep enough, it might be enough to drive the elk down from the high elevation dark woods. But right now the woods are very dry and "noisy." Actually, the Colorado elk season actually opened Oct. 14-18 with a special hunt for those animals only. The state has the largest population of elk in North America but the herd is now larger than Colorado Division of Wildlife objectives. The Colorado Wildlife Commission approved the new big game season structure for the next five years with four separate rifle seasons for this year, including the initial elk season where only a limited number of licenses were available. "I didn’t get off a shot," Stephen Stanton of San Diego, Calif., reported. He decided to try the special hunt. "The first few days I didn’t go way up high. That was a mistake on my part. I found out they (elk) were a lot higher. I went up higher, but I didn’t see any. I will be back next year. But I will hunt try the second or third hunt," he remarked. This is the first of three combined rifle hunts. This season will be followed by two more combined rifle seasons Nov. 4-10, and Nov. 11-15. Another mild winter has produced good numbers of elk and improving numbers of deer, leading CDOW biologists to predict good big-game hunting for the first seasons of the new millennium. "I think the elk will be high and in the dark timber cover and hard to dig out due to the recent hot weather," said the Division’s Cedaredge District Wildlife Manager Roger Lowry. Elk are abundant but hunters will have to work hard to find them and push them out of the timbered areas." Hunting for the big-game rifle seasons this year could be very good or very poor, depending on the weather, according to Colorado Division of Wildlife biologists. Because of a succession of recent hunting seasons with marginal hunting conditions, the elk herds have continued to grow throughout the state and the deer herds have rebounded in some areas. In virtually all areas on the Western Slope, the numbers of mature bucks and bulls have increased. The number of mature bucks and doe have been on the decline for several years. Scott Wait, a Division biologist for the San Juans said, "Elk populations are still high and the bull harvest was low last year because of the mild winter...we’re bringing a lot of branch-antlered bulls in this hunting season." He is just as optimistic about deer hunting. "Deer populations have shown a fairly good recovery in the last two years and the buck harvest was below projections last year, meaning there will be a good number of bucks available this year," he predicted. The deer numbers are picking up in Southwest Colorado. There have been good reports of deer near Groundhog Reservoir, Haycamp Mesa, La Plata Mountains, Dunton area, Taylor Creek, Mount Wilson area, Rico and Telluride areas, Missionary Ridge near Durango, Hermosa area, and Silverton and Ouray areas. Even though there has been sightings of more deer this year, mature bucks may still be hard to find. Because of poor hunting conditions last year, there has been a good carryover of both deer and elk. This could be a very good hunting season if the weather cooperates and brings snow in the first season as expected this weekend. Durango biologist Wait agrees. "What we need is perfectly timed snowfalls, with just the right amount but not too much, that stays on the ground for the perfect length of time for tracking but never gets crunchy and not so much that chases the deer and elk clear out of the country." |
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