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A bright and sunny day, a good position, and the sound of elk bugling...it must be archery and muzzleloading season in Colorado's high country.
Anymore, though, participants aren't out there alone, as both archery and muzzleloading are becoming increasingly popular.
What is it that attracted 25,000 archery elk hunters and 10,000 muzzleloading elk hunters to Colorado last year? (Archery deer hunters also purchased 22,000 licenses while muzzleloader deer hunters purchased 6,000 licenses. Many of those hunters possessed both deer and elk licenses.)
Division of Wildlife experts believe the increase in hunters is due to three factors: the time of year the season is held; overcrowding in the regular rifle seasons; and, the primitive nature of both archery and muzzleloading.
Weather plays a big factor in the increase of hunters. September in Colorado is gorgeous, the weather is great.
"Great scenery mixed with generally clear skies, mild temperatures and fall color are extremely inviting," said Dick McIntyre of Rocky Mountain Archery and Hunting in Grand Junction.
Overcrowding during the regular rifle hunting season also attracts hunters to the archery season. Although there are many more archers and muzzleloaders today than 10 years ago, they are spread throughout the month-long season, and throughout the state. Compare, for example the 28,000 archery and muzzleloading deer hunters from last year to 55,500 deer hunters in the first five-day rifle season last year.
"Sportsmen could go all day and not even run into another hunter in September," McIntyre said.
Then, there is the challenge. "The weather's usually nicer, and there is less pressure from all the rifle hunters," said Gabe Lucero, co-owner of Red Rock Archery in Grand Junction, "but it's a challenge to get close enough to an animal to get a good shot."
Because of the nature of the equipment, archery and muzzleloading does, indeed, require honed skill. A highpowered rifle can sling a bullet accurately for two hundred yards under the right conditions, and if it misses, can travel a couple miles. Muzzleloaders have a much shorter effective range, about 50 to 75 yards.
Archers should be within 15 to 40 yards.
"It's a primitive style of hunting," McIntyre said. "It requires advanced skills in tracking and in using the weapon."
Are too many hunters shifting to archery and muzzleloading? Game managers and landowners are concerned early season hunters move animals onto private or restricted lands too early in the year.
That means increased game damage, a larger population of animals, and a dwindling harvest on them because they're not on public property when regular rifle hunting seasons begin.
"From 1992 to 1995, we conducted a pilot study in units 12, 13, 23, 24 and 33 to see what effects early season hunting had on movements and distributions of elk," said Senior Big Game Biologist John Ellenberger. "We radio collared 20 elk, and saw that all of them moved because of early seasons."
The division then continued with a more detailed two-year study to see if there is a direct cause and effect of early season elk hunting to animal movement and distribution.
This is the final year of that study. Ellenberger said results will be evaluated this winter. "So far, it appears early season hunting may cause movement of some animals, but it's really too early to tell until we have all the results."
What does this mean for game management? "Well," Ellenberger said, "we may have to totally limit the number of licenses issued, we may have to alter season opening dates, we may have to shorten seasons. We'll see."
In the meantime, a bright sunny day, a good position, and elk bugling in the wind, are good signs that archery and muzzleloading seasons are upon us.
