Colorado deer draw

Where did you draw at? Thats awesome...congrats!

Drew here! :thumb

Looks as if I'll be headed to Colorado again this fall. It's been a couple of years so I am excited.

Nothing for me....4 points now.

Moose

I got my 4th season tag!

We weren't expecting to get drawn this year...and and a warden in our area told us they were reducing the number of tags by 10-15% this year.

I drew CO unit 21 3rd season rifle. Does anyone have any intel on this unit? Thanks so much

Good unit, you should enjoy it.

We didn't draw, but are locked in with vouchers.

My buddy and I drew CO GMU #1 2nd season last year as a group; he had 9 pts I think, I had 7 pts. So the min was basically 7 pts. This year, 1 NR drew at 11 pts, and one NR at 9 pts. 4 NR @ 10 pts did not draw, as there were only 2 NR tags available and those 4 must have been grouped together. Point creep once again, a climb of 2 points in one year. YIKES! Glad we drew last year. So many of these CO limited tags are becoming one in a lifetime hunts.

I live in a CWD unit in WI, and basically, we can shoot them by the truckload. A different world.

Saw the same thing with elk in the unit 6 of us applied for... 1 would usually take it bc of a lack of them, but apparently the herd hung close to town long enough for the rumormill to get going.

So many of these CO limited tags are becoming one in a lifetime hunts.

I live in a CWD unit in WI, and basically, we can shoot them by the truckload. A different world.

I agree for a non resident you may be able to only draw some units 1 to 2 times in a lifetime.

But you can not really compare Colorado's mule deer population roughly 460,000 deer to Wisconsins booming whitetail deer herd I am sure it is pushing well over a million deer. Whitetails are way more adaptable and mule deer all over the west have been on the decline a few years ago Colorado had over 600,000 deer but due to harsh winters we lost tags and numbers of deer. I hope the population bounces back units that used to be decent are now almost void of deer.

Greatwhite, I am not complaining. I used to live in Craig. Moved away many years ago, but my dad stayed in Craig, and passed away in '96. I have friends that live in Craig and Maybell as lifelong residents. I feel for them, as it's tough to look out your back yard and know you can't hunt the animals you see for quite some time. When I started with points, area 2 only took a NR 5 pts for elk. Now it's 20 pts. I have 18, but I missed 2 years. As you know, it is not only NR that have point creep issues, as residents contend with it as well. I would bet most residents just now starting out with points would have a hard time drawing a 2 or 201 elk tag more than once in their lifetime unless they get lucky with that "lotto" drawing they just started. The point is that some of the deer licenses are going in the same direction. Over the years, the number of tags in these areas hasn't changed much, it's the number of hunters looking to draw them. I am 50 years old, I'll be lucky to use those elk points in NW CO someday on a single hunt. One of my buddies who lives in the area drew area 2 for elk about 10 years ago. He hopes to get one more rifle bull elk tag there before he dies. He may get close to a third shot at it, but not likely. Hopefully, I'll get another shot at hunting area 1 deer, but I doubt it. I hunted area 2 for deer about 8 years back, also doubtful for my future. Other places to go, yes, but not in close proximity to where I lived and my friends. So you residents of these types of areas, spend your points wisely, as you'll be stuck with the decision for quite a few years until you can reload your points. Thinking in terms of a point per bullet, revolver loads ain't doing much these days, the future of point collection requires big Glock clips for everyone in parts of CO.

I am very aware of the winter kill situation in western CO. About the time you think the deer are coming back, you get another tough December and January in the low country. Last year was another tough one I am told for that part of Colorado. Snow, then ice, then more snow on top, then cold. It affects the deer a couple years out as the little ones were suffering the most. And so the tags go down, but the number of hunters chasing them grows. The comment on WI deer is not trying to compare similarities but to show the huge contrast. I appreciate my Colorado hunts more than you know.

Playing the Point system is something I'm trying to figure out since I'm starting to get enough to matter. I'm getting preached to that as long as the vouchers are reasonable (and an available option) that $-wise the points will be worth more in the long run and who knows, they may allow banking one year (highly doubtful..but never can tell)