Co. deer 15 points

[1ELKAHOLIC]

Hey guys I have 15 points for deer in Co. I am wanting to use them next year for archery I would like to hear where yo would put in for with these points? I have hunted elk and deer for 24 years and have killed some nice bulls, but I have never killed a monster muley. I will be going alone since I don't know anyone with the same amount of points.

 

[buckhorn]

I have 13 points. That should be way more than enough to draw a good archery unit.

 

[1ELKAHOLIC]

>I have 13 points. That should
>be way more than enough
>to draw a good archery
>unit.


Yep I have just been gathering points until I can figure out where I want to use them. It's hard to get much info on units like 10 because so few get to hunt them.

 

[elks96]

Not sure if your resident or nonresident. During the regular archery season in Sept. there is not a deer tag worth 15 points in my opinion. The only tags you might consider are the tags that put you into the very high country and hope to find the bucks before the early rifle hunters hit them. In that case I would look at spending a week maybe 2 before season above treeline with a pack and looking for the one and hope to kill him before he rubs off or gets bumped. The nice part about September is the longer season. If you get away from the traditional archery season your only other options are to draw an eastern plains tag and pay trespass fees or go for a 3rd or Fourth Season Rifle tag and use your bow. Realize that if you get the 3rd or 4th season tag you will be required to wear safety orange.

Next year the season will run slightly later and if the weather cooperates we should see some decent rut activity during the 3rd and 4th seasons.

I beleive that the NW units are way over rated for deer. If i were going to pick one, I would make unit 201 my first choice and 2 my second choice. Unit 1 is too small and unit 10 is probably one of the crappiest deer units in the state right now. I would rather have a 2nd choice tag than unit 10. Unit 21 is in the dumps and not much better than units like 3/301 etc.

This year they added more 4th season hunts, the down side to the 4th season hunt is the 5 day season. The up side is there are typically very few tags in the units and the buck are usually pretty love struck.

Best chance at a trophy mule deer is a plains tag and paying a tresspass fee, next would be a good unit 4th season and making the most of the 5 days, then after that a high country tag and above treeline, then an archery tag in units like 2 or 201.

 

[1ELKAHOLIC]

Non res Thanks for the response. 201 was my original pick, but due to going on other good elk hunts for the past few years I just kept putting in for more points. So I started thinking about other options and hoping they would have another year that they would let you use only the points it required. Now that they have a new 5 year structure that hope is gone. I have had several people tell me to use it on a rifle hunt. I'm not big on that idea, but it may be the way to go? Any idea what the tress pass fees in the plains would be? Anyone have a contact they would suggest?

 

[DW]

I rifle hunted 201 last fall. There's 10 pts I wish I had back.

 

[1ELKAHOLIC]

>I rifle hunted 201 last fall.
>There's 10 pts I wish
>I had back.


oof! Good to know. What would you do if you had them back?

 

[DW]

Find an area that was burned 10yrs ago and hunt it. The glory days of mule deer hunting followed a time when 30-50 million acres burned annually. When we started putting out the fires the mule deer population and quality began to shrink. I'd go early season high country above a burned off area.

 

[fullthrottle]

I respect you for wanting to get after it and use archery gear, but your crazy to burn 15 on a archery hunt. There are way to many awesome late rifle hunts you could use those points on, and then have a great archery hunt in a few years. That being said if you do stick with archery, good luck and have a great hunt.