Colorado

[Dcc22hunter]

Interested in putting in for Colorado rifle mule deer. Amyone have a starting point as far as a unit? Just want someplace accessible with public land. Thanks in advance.

[BOHNTR]

You may want to keep tabs on the winter they're having right now.......already dead deer in the deep crusted snow. These areas will influence tag allotments and overall success.

[Northern Pintail]

Colorado has a great website for finding the information you're looking for, along with maps, hunt success, draw rates, migratory routes. Just dig into it and decide what kind of hunt you want (Archery, rifle/time of year). once you determine when and how you want to hunt that will help you narrow down where you should start applying.

[BruinPoint]

I assume you don't have any preference points so you should take time to check out the Colorado Parks & Wildlife website or one of the various draw odds resources and find hunts that you can draw with 0 points as a first choice. From that list you can narrow it down. I don't like posting specific units on public threads but there are quite a few that would work.

[wannakillabigbull]

Colorado is the land of opportunity for decent bucks. I missed a 160s buck last year in a unit that only takes 1 point to draw as a non-resident. Missed him four times....but I've taken a 182 buck there and my family has taken maybe eight or so 150+ deer in the last dozen years. My best buddy took a 163 incher last year in a tag that you can draw like 90% of the time with 0 points as a non-resident. Take a look at CPW's website and start figuring out what units are available to you. Every one has the potential for great bucks if you work hard and get lucky.

If I were starting from scratch I would go to the hunting statistics page for mule deer on CPW's website, then start looking at Estimated Harvest as well as Draw Recap Reports. I would link to the webpage but I can't copy paste. Cross reference which units you can draw with zero or one point with the % success people have on those hunts. Also make sure that unit isn't mostly private. That's maybe the best way to start out.

[452b264]

First you need to decide what type of hunt you want.

 

1)Rifle, bow, muzzle loader

 

2) Do you like the High country, or the low cedars. Some of the units in Colorado have 11,000 to 14,000 foot peaks all the way down to the low cedar country. If there isnt any snow there is little migration and you must be willing to find the deer or seek out pockets of resident deer in the low country (tons of hunters). I hunted a unit in 2004 on a leftover tag and packed in 8 miles, the guys camped above me had 5 mules. It stormed real hard right before the hunt but without any snow this area is void of deer and you must hunt a lot higher.