I've lived in western Co my entire life and hunted deer in various units around here every single year either with a tag in my pocket or helping family and friends. Also spend a big majority of my time in the winters watching deer and keeping tabs on them atleast in the units fairly close to home.
I spent opening weekend of third season in a 4 ppt unit (for residents) helping my little sister get her first deer. This is a unit that I grew up in, and know very well, and we have taken some really nice deer out of in the past. A handful of good deer come out of this unit every year. We saw quite a few does but did not see a single mature deer. She only had a few days home from college to hunt, so she ended up shooting a small 3 point. The only good takeaway was that she was thrilled to get her first deer, but as far as numbers of deer and especially bucks are concerned, it was not anywhere near what it usually is.
As soon as she tagged out I had a tag for the bordering unit which is also historically known as a pretty good deer unit.. Although I was not as familiar with this unit as I was with the unit where my sisters tag was for, I have spent time in it in the past and had a pretty good idea of the units potential, plus I had the whole season off and figured that I could turn up a good buck.
I saw between 20-40 does a day every day, but I only saw 3 bucks the entire season. 1 was a forky, 1 was a 2 yr old 3 point and the last was an average 140 class 4 point..
I only heard 2 gunshots all season, 1 of which I know was an elk because I saw the hunters shoot it through the binos.. This tag was also a 4 ppt tag for residents.
It was hands down the worst deer hunting that I've seen. I hunted a 3rd choice deer tag 2 years ago in a unit that I had never stepped foot in prior to opening day and had a much better hunt than this, saw 3 bucks in the 160-170 range, and a handful of small bucks every day on that hunt.
I've talked to several locals that are big buck killers and they all said the same thing, saw lots of does, no mature bucks. Around the local rumor mill I haven't heard of a single big buck being killed.
I commute through these units daily to and from work and stop in a few spots and glass each day, this serves as a pretty good gauge for how the deer are doing. A few more deer have shown up down low since 4th ended, But I'm still not seeing as many deer as I normally do by this time of year. I have yet to see a single mature buck, even down on the private where there are usually a couple real good bucks that show up. The Bucks that I've seen with the does are mostly young deer.
The late season dates we have coming up the next 5 years sound exciting, but its going to be detrimental to our already struggling deer heard.. Wish our CPW would pull their heads out and listen to what the hunters are saying.. unfortunately their decisions are based off of revenue and nothing else. And they refuse to manage our predators.. I'll echo what a couple others said already but we also have a problem with lions and especially bears, But the CPW refuses to do anything about it.. making Non res tags bear $100 is a joke.. That didn't do a thing to get populations under control.