Need help sorting this out.

Ottersix

Active Member
Messages
136
Hey folks. I need some opinions please. I have been building p-points in Colorado now for 7 years. In the beginning it was all directed at unit 66 for a late rifle trophy hunt. Well,point creep has put the rut season just about off the radar. So,that leaves the first rifle season. We got snowed out of elk camp a day early this year,and holed up at the Gunnison KOA for a couple days to clean up and get ready to head home. I seized the moment and did a little scouting over in 66. One evening and one daybreak trip. We saw a few bucks. Nothing worth 7 or 8 years of planning and p-points. 2 friends of ours were hitting town as we were leaving. They hunted 66 the following week with a well known guide from the area. They both scored OK bucks. Not what the unit is known for that's for sure. My question is this. With 7 or 8 preference points,should I bag the whole unit 66 thing,and look at another unit? Maybe something that I can get drawn in for a rifle rut hunt with that few points? Sit on the points I have and hold out for the second season in 66 as a retirement gift to myself ? While hunting deer in other states that I can draw every couple years ? I'm 51 and want to hunt Muleys! Right now I don't care where. I'm happy with hunting other localities every other year until I can get a good season in Colorado. Holy crap. My life is slipping away and I haven't raised a rifle at a single Muley. It's very frustrating. Anyone else ever find themselves in a similar quandary?
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-10-13 AT 10:28AM (MST)[p]Yup, only I'm 66, so I'm thinking you've still a youngster with plenty of time to maneuver. Start putting in for sure thing draw units as a second choice and start pulling the trigger on a few younger mule deer until your first choice comes up.

Regarding unit 66, a neighbor hunted second season this year. He saw a fair number of what appeared to be 2 to 3 year old bucks. Hunted 5 days in balmy fall weather, hoping for a good snowy cold front to move in. It didn't. He finally saw an older buck with a little better set of antlers and pulled the trigger.

His report, bad winter a few years ago killed off the older age class of deer from the unit. They seem to be coming back but not there yet. Seemed to be a fair number of the smaller 4 point type deer available but they were younger and needed a couple more years to meet his personal standards. He had 7 points when he applied for 66 as his first choice. He's hunted 66 more than once over the years.

Personally, I've never been on the unit so everything I know is hear say and you'd need to consider it as such. Maybe someone that lives in the area will offer some additional information.

Were as you asked if anyone else has a similar quandary, the answer is yes but if your asking if anyone that has never killed a muley is in a similar quandary, I can't answer that. All lot of us have killed a bunch of muleys, while we are waiting and hunting for something higher on our list. Of course, there is the adage the say's: if your ever going to kill a big buck your need to stopped killing little bucks.

Where as you saw you've done neither, I'm just suggesting you start drawing tags in what may be units with more deer/bucks and kill a few, while your waiting for what you consider to be a better unit to come available. And.......you never know, most all units have some monster deer and on occasion they'll wander out in front of someone that's in the right place at the right time and if your there, it might be you.

You'll never get it done if your not out there swinging for the bleachers. Good luck.

DC
 
Here is the best $20 you will ever spend on your question:

https://hunterstrailhead.isecuresites.com/index.php?ID=1&XID=1:0:0:0:0

This was a free service until he got it up and running for a couple of years, but it is well worth the $20 price ($25 after this month). It has so much info to do the research you need to do. Yes, you can dig through all the raw data yourself, but he does the work for you and makes it easy. Wish I owned it!

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
 
2lumpy,sounds just like what my friends ran into. If 66 were a 2 or 3 point draw,I'd be all over a couple of the bucks I saw scouting. They weren't worth 7 or more years of saving points though. 23 / 24" bucks with decent fronts. Weak back forks and lacking in mass. Like your neighbor said,they need a year or two to fill out.

txhunter; Thanks for the link. I'll have to get up into that. I figure I'm headed to more than one state if I want to hunt with any regularity.

I don't think I can draw a lesser valued unit in Colorado without loosing the points I have saved thus far.If I'm drawn for any tag,I loose all my points? I could be wrong. It's all very confusing. DOW sites are anything but helpful. Hard to navigate and worded for folks that already know what they are looking for,lol. Anyone that thinks big game hunting is dying,should try to get a tag! All I want to do is hunt deer every couple years and I have to hire a tag broker. So to speak. And I'm not a trophy hunter.

I love being there. The sage. The high country. The elbow room. We have been hunting 67 for elk. I see a couple decent Muley bucks in there every trip. I don't know that I could predict seeing them in deer season though. Needle in a haystack sort of thing. Deer in general are a lot easier to find in 66. It's the tag that's hard to get,lol.
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-10-13 AT 04:47PM (MST)[p]

No, you can hunt deer every year and still get an additional point. Put the hunt you want as your first choice and then figure out a second choice from a unit with "left over tags". In other words, more tags were offered than people who applied for it as a first choice. Drawing a 2nd, 3rd, ... choice will not use your points and you still get another for that year even if you draw a tag.

The Colorado DOW website's statistics link has the info you need to figure this out. Look at the "drawing summery" and look at the column "Hntcde totals" and it will show you how many drew 1st, 2nd, .... choices. That will allow you to pick a unit where you can draw a tag as a second choice.

http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/Pages/Statistics.aspx

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
 
txhunter is correct, you should be hunting those 2nd choice units!! There are BIG bucks in them. You have been missing some great hunts with those other choices. Pick one that has a history of having 2nd choice tags available and then stick with it. Once you learn the unit, you will find where the big bucks hang out consistently.

Mntman

"Hunting is where you prove yourself"


Let me guess, you drive a 1 ton with oak trees for smoke stacks, 12" lift kit and 40" tires to pull a single place lawn mower trailer?
 
BIGJOHN, you must be confusing me with my oldest son, I haven't been gray for 15 years. When I put on my red jacket and walk down town young mothers hand their children to me and take pictures. No guff!

DC
 
There are some SUPER units available as 2nd choices, but just not for the premium season (4th). With some work and some weather you can get a real whopper there and always find some nice bucks to play with even if snow is not there. Dow is in the business of printing money and yours will do just fine!
 

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