Colorado Hunting Thread

My favorite time of the year is coming up! Who else is excited for the dove opener?

We normally hunt private land out east, but I'm not sure if that's going to be possible this year. Still excited to get out on some good public land and hopefully eat dove poppers.

 

What does Dove taste like?

 

Hmm. Not sure how to describe it. It's lean and a bit gamey. Not as gamey as waterfowl but a bit richer than pheasant

 

Some inspiration:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0cMki0NcduP_jQUrKZWxTw/videos?view=0&sort=dd&flow=grid

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nXRXnhjQECSdYKcsI0XCg

 

Man a lot of good information here. How are the public lands for over the OTC tags? I know I’m Maryland when I tried it was just a sea or orange and jackasses that would probably shoot thru you to hit a deer. My plan is to put in for rifle elk and mule deer next year to start building up points. Then if I don’t get tags I’ll buy OTC.

Also are any of y’all backpacking in and staying for a week or just get in the truck drive out to BFE and start glassing over spots until you can see a heard or bull?

depending on my work schedule when I get to CO I wouldn’t mind getting together with a small group of people and going out for a hunt.

 

I only hunt public lands, both in the draw and OTC. I don’t have enough rich friends to get onto private land For reference last years so hunt for third season we only saw 8 other hunters in total. Don’t bother with points for deer and elk, if you want to build points do moose, goat and sheep. Just find a GMU, scout it, and put in for the draw, I’ve never missed out on a draw.

I take my trailer up park and then hike in, we usually pick the later season for rifle so the last thing on my mind is a tent covered in a foot of snow. Hike out of camp in the dark, get 5-10 miles in where I want to be and wait for movement.

 

No lack of options this year

Cow elk rifle, buck deer rifle, bear rifle, either elk archery

 

Nice haul, Marty!

 

It’s not a haul yet, as of now we only have tag soup

 

If you want to build points in Colorado, just apply for preferences points in your species of choice and hunt OTC. If you apply for a specific tag and are successful in your draw, your points reset to zero. OTC tags are abundant for elk but apply to specific units. Deer and pronghorn are draw only, but you can get lucky and pick something up in leftover. OTC elk tags are antlered as well, not either sex.

 

I made out like a bandit this year. Was unsuccessful in the primary draw for my first choice elk, managed to pickup a cow tag in secondary - then grabbed a bull tag for the same unit(s) in the leftover - and still get to keep my points.
This year will be my first hunt on private in Colorado

Also have archery deer season around the corner / can't wait to unplug for 10 days.

 

Whats up yallllll. New hunter here. Located a little north of Denver.
Been wanting to get into the hunting for a long time now. Finally taking the plunge. Got a furbearer tag, and plan to go after Coyotes in the NE area. Anyone have any tips they'd be willing to share? Mainly regarding finding them and good areas to start looking and calling.

 

Rifle or bow?

 

Rifle

 

Might be a yank for you, but tons of yotes in the Cherokee SWA lower units (Roy Brown and Lone Pine).

I watched about 5 or so chase away a heard of 15 mule deer last weekend while glassing in the morning at my hunt spot (not in Cherokee). Go kill em all if you can.

 

Who else hunted CO Archery Elk this year...eerily quiet in the elk woods! 11 days total, 8 in the 2nd stretch, 2 groups of 2 hunters, we covered 2 units, 40+ miles on foot, moved camp 3 times...saw 2 piles of fresh, chased a few hunters around bugling...saw ZERO elk. Seemed to be a trend amongst a lot of other buddies. I hunt S. Central CO...think this is my last year going down there. Luckily, my backup Nov cow tag has been productive for putting meat in the freezer in the past.

Hope some folks had better luck than we did...

Saw an article by CPW saying some of the southern CO herd had migrated to NM this summer??

 

Well that's not great. Around what unit? I will be down around 82, hopefully there are still a few left around there.

 

No archery this year, works been to damn busy cause of the Rona, was going to try and sneak away for a weekend but I didn’t even get that done.

All rests on 3rd season for me Friend did go out and knocked an elk down during muzzleloader season in our GMU so there is promise

 

While not in 82...we were in the same ballpark. Based on CPWs thread, i'd say the further south you can hunt, the best....but what do I know, my freezer is nearing empty