CO 4th Rifle Season

[MuskegMan]

Like most folks here, I'm starting to mull over the game plan for my CO NR application.

Did anyone here hunt one of those new 4th rifle seasons? In looking over the PP data, there were a lot of units [4, 11, 15, 22, 33, 41, 43, et. al.] where you could draw a 2nd or 3rd rifle tag with 0 points, but folks were willing to burn 3 or 4 points just to hunt the late rifle in Mid November. Is this the peak of the rut in CO?

Anybody do it and think it was worth the investment in points?

 

[peez3006]

My buddy and me hunted a new 4th season unit last year. The real draw for us was the limited amount of tags. It was a quality experience. The bucks seemed to get more in the rut every day. We didn't kill whoppers, but had a fun time. (26" 4X3 and 24" 4X4). It ended up costing us all of our points 3,4. I will prob. do it again when I save up a few points.

Don P.

 

[BLU]

I hunt the south western corner so we don't get the 4th season deer tag, but for the last 2 years, the deer in the south are in their pre-rut with the smaller bucks really trying to get after it. The 2 years before that, the deer were not interested in rutting at all but it was dry and hot. 5 years ago, the deer were again in pre-rut and some in full rut during the 3rd season, so it depends. Also, my brother-in-law hunts the north western area 3rd season, and also found the deer in pre-rut for the last 5 years straight, so they are probably a little earlier (a week or so) towards the north. ANyway, the units we hunt need at least 1 point to draw, so I get deer every other year. My son has just the oppisite points, so he draws every other year also. This year, he had the tag and he was able to get a 29 inch 4x4 with his neck all swelled up and looking for the lady's. Good luck, the seasons look good this year also, so I will go again and look for the granddad of the buck my son shot.

 

[WARBIRDUM]

BLU,
You have a p.m.

 

[Waygoner]

I hunted elk in the 4th season in unit 54. Talked to a few deer hunters that were not impressed with the quality of animals they were seeing. It took a lot of points and I think they all expected to drop a 30" buck. There are some good bucks in the Gunnison Basin, but I think the units are over hyped.

 

[bragabit]

I used 3 points on a 4th season hunt that is undersubcribed 2nd and 3rd season. It was a good hunt, low pressure, and the deer were really rutting hard. I was a little disappointed in the quality of bucks that we saw. We saw 8 to 10, 22 to 25 inch bucks a day, but not much better. Talking to the locals the best bucks were killed on the 2nd season when the big snow storm hit. We killed two 170 class 27 and 28 inch bucks, the best bucks we saw in a week. It sounds like the best hunt is the one that the first major snowstorm hits in. Good luck in figuring that out in April

 

[dndracing]

LAST EDITED ON Feb-28-07 AT 07:59PM (MST)[p]hello bragabit. I have 5 points for colorado as a resident and am looking for a hunt like that. would you be kind enough to let me know what unit that was and was it public or private ?? thanks