Colorado NR w/11 pp High country rifle hunt

Smtn10pt

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Hello all and thanks for clicking on my post. I am looking to burn up my Colorado deer points this year and have done as much research as humanely possible from the computer. I have the hunt I want narrowed down to the early season above timberline rifle hunt. I should be able to pull a unit 65 tag or definitely the 48/481/56/561 tag.

I am wondering what those with knowledge of either area can tell me about the merits of those units. I know I would be "wasting" half my points with the 48 series tag but is it really a "waste" or are there equal chances for success in both areas? I am not great at judging mule deer since I live in PA, but I figure I will at least be able to pick the biggest buck out of a bachelor group.

Thanks
 
I hunted elk in October 2015, in unit 48. Didn't see a decent mule deer buck. I know that by October they disappear, but I spoke with a guy who had a high country deer rifle tag a couple of years before and he was very disappointed with his hunt. I would look somewhere else with 11 points.
 
Thanks Martin, I have only hunted Colorado once back in 98 as a highschool grad present. I killed a smallish 3x3 with my muzzleloader in the Weminuche, but I remember thinking man if I only had a rifle! I saw some bucks that seemed huge to me at the time. Hoping to take a step up (or several) in quality of deer with this next hunt.
 
10pt,

I too am from PA and while I can't provide much info about the units that you have mentioned, I offer the following advice based upon my own personal experiences. For the record, last year I used my 20 preference points on a 4th season tag in Unit 55 so I know what it is like to have a lot of preference points. My advice:
1. Continue doing your research and pick a unit that you can have an enjoyable hunt in.
2. Take as much time off of work as you can afford and drive to your hunting area. This way you will be able to pack everything you'll need and also you'll be able to bring your meat home without paying the airlines extra fees. Pack some fishing gear and catch a couple trout while you are out there.
3. Don't worry about wasting your points as they didn't cost you much money. if you have a great hunt but don't kill a big buck you still have not wasted your points.
4. Don't worry about score. Shoot a buck that you are happy with. If you truly see a big buck you will know it immediately. If you have to talk yourself into shooting; then the buck probably isn't big enough.
5. Make sure that if you select a high altitude unit that you give your body a couple of days to acclimate.
6. Remember that even in the best units most hunters are not successful killing big bucks.
7. Take a friend or family member with you that will help you through any difficulties you might encounter and can help glass, pack, etc.

Just my 2 cents. I hope you have a great hunt.
 
LAST EDITED ON Mar-24-17 AT 06:10PM (MST)[p]Between those 2 choices, definitely 65. 50% success rate too but that was the first ever hunt. Because of that it might be a crapshoot as to how many points it will take this year

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
 
Thanks for the tips PLK, I have a friend with a place to stay closer to the 48 unit but I am not tied to staying there if 65 is the better hunt.

txhunter, I didn't realize the hunt was that new, probably why I can find almost nothing out about it other than the success rate you mentioned. I know some guys going to 48 this year and they have some knowledge of the area. I am tempted to take advantage of that for convenience sake, but the temptation is also there to put in for 65 and if I don't draw it this year fall back on 48 next year based on how their hunt goes! Realistically speaking I will probably never do this hunt again because I wont wait this long to go back. Thanks for your suggestion!
 
I would really think about waiting another year or 2. You are really close to a couple other units that start a week earlier which is a big deal when it comes to the high country.

I had an early rifle tag last year that started same day as muzzy. I hiked in 5 days before the season started to scout. First night in I saw what I considered a good enough buck. I watched it all week and it was coming out of the timber in the morning by opening day. It just fed and bedded lower and lower all week. The later the season the harder that hunt gets. Also most of the early rifle hunts start same day as muzzy. Better to hunt a unit that starts a week before muzzy starts.

Whatever you do get there early to locate a buck and acclimate at the same time. Good luck with your decision and your hunt.
 
Ah that's the difference I have been missing, the 82 unit starts a week earlier. Definitely a much better chance at a highly visible velvet buck! The units I'm looking at have the same start date as the MZ season. The way point creep has been going, especially for NR tags it might take 5 years to draw a tag that's only 2 points out of reach. I'm probably going to give it a shot this year and then have the ability to hunt once or twice more with my bow in the next 5 years vs waiting. Heading in a few days early does sound like the best option for this years hunt.
 
You really should wait just 2 or 3 more years. There are a few much better hunts available as someone posted earlier. 2 or 3 more years is not much to wait when you already built points for 11 years. You could be hunting some really big bucks with the right scouting and right time in the EARLY RIFLE. Don't sell yourself short! 65 isn't a bad unit, but I would hold out just a bit longer.
 
A lot of guys don't realize that the majority of early high country hunts have super low densities of deer over super rough, rugged country. It usually takes a lot of boot leather to find the few bucks that exist. There are monster bucks available in these units but you'll have your work cut out for you. Also, it's wise to keep tabs on winterkill in the winter ranges where some of these bucks migrate. Some central Colo regions got hammered by deep snow this year so I wouldn't expect the high alpine units where those bucks summer to be very productive.

Hunting dates are also important. Once muley bucks shed their velvet they often head directly into the trees where they often stay until the rut and snow drive them to lower elevation. Some early high country dates are earlier than others. The earlier the season the better.

The high alpine country in Colo is some of the prettiest setting in the US...bring your camera!
 
I wish I had 11. Im using my five (and uncle is using his 12) because of point creep, increased hunters, etc.

He is older, so i need a unit where a good (older guy) can get a buck easily (not huge, just over 20").

If anyone has any ideas....let me hear them.
 
First of all you need to tell us if you guys are res or nonres.

Second, I think you can get a better hunt if you put him in separately than if he has to come down to your level. Grab an elk tag in the same unit to tag along and hunt. Then put in for yourself next year

Use http://www.toprut.com/

Put in Colorado, residency status and then click on 3rd season. There are a couple of hunts within reach for him with high success rates.

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
 
The other option is put him in for a different unit than you (8-10 point unit last year) and you get a tag in a neighboring unit (4-5 point unit). After he shoots his buck, you can hunt. 3rd season tag is likely enough time to get this done.

That or go on two hunts and focus on his tag. In that case, might look into a 4th season hunt. This would be my choice. You likely could easily get a 4th season elk tag.
 
LAST EDITED ON Jun-01-17 AT 12:53PM (MST)[p]Drew the 48 tag! Cant wait to see what kind of deer we can get into out there!
 
congrats! Get in really good shape. That area has some seriously steep country and is the land of the 14teeners

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
 
Sweet. Love that part of the country. Seriously big country and your tag is good in the units to the South as well right? Interested to hear how your hunt goes. Hope you find a big one.
 
Thanks everyone, the tag is good for 48/481, 56/561! I almost wish it was narrowed down a little more because that's a lot of country to look over. Going to try and get out a few days before season and get my eyes on some deer. I have only hunted Muley's out there one other time and I really need to look over a bunch so the eastern whitetail hunter in me doesn't get trigger happy.



I was looking at the 82 tag but was a few years away from drawing that and I wanted to hunt now. Good luck to you.
 
Get yourself in the best shape as possible. There isnt anything back east that can really mentally or physically prepare you to hunt that country. Deer densities are rather low in 48. I would personally focus on the units to the south. High country hunts can be down right tough. Be prepared to live off your back, cover alot of country, and be menatlly tough enough to keep going day after day. Some of the loneliest, toughest days of my life have been hunting high country mule deer.
 
I tried a early high country hunt in Colorado one year. It was mostly a disaster. I don't remember the unit number, but it was the unit where the Air Force pilot turned his jet 180 degrees and crashed into one of the highest peaks in the area. The jet was supposed to have two nuclear bombs aboard. They found the plane, but they never found any sign of the bombs. Half of the US military was out searching the area, with helicopters circling overhead constantly, troops were on the ground, and even diving in all the high country lakes. About half of the unit was closed to the public due to the missing bombs. Who knows where they are today.

My hunting partner was unemployed at the time and went over a week before the season to scout. He found two good bucks in an avalanche chute, but there was no good way to approach them. Someone at the forest service office give him a hot tip about an area that supposedly had deer in it. For the opener, we drove as close as we could get and hiked seven miles to a little lake. We camped at 12,000 feet and the peaks went up beyond 14,000 all around us.

Opening day, we saw a few elk, but no deer, and no deer sign. We hiked out and tried some other areas with similar results. I asked my buddy why he thought that area was any good in the first place, and he said there had been more B&C bucks shot on that unit than anywhere in Colorado. Talking to locals, they said there used to be some late hunts in the area, and that is when those monster bucks were killed.

We finally went back to the place where he saw the good bucks before the season and only saw one small buck, so we tried some other areas. We saw lots of good elk in bow range, but no more deer. Finally, we went back to the buck chute and saw exactly nothing. On the last morning, we spotted one of the good bucks through the spotting scope and pulled off a successful ambush on him. It was a heavy 32" four point in full velvet. Without that last minute success, the whole hunt would have been a disaster.
 
Thanks for the response bugleb. Sounds like you really had to work for that deer, but that's a deer worth working for! Just shows it can happen at any time. That is seriously bad luck having that military exercise in your hunt!!

Those B&C bucks have to be somewhere in September, just hoping that if I spend enough time in the mountains and look over enough terrain I'll get my eyes on one. Once I do its up to me to get him killed. I like my chances with the rifle, just need to find one.

What unit were you guys hunting and would you put in for that tag again?
 
Any hunt that ends with "got a heavy 32" 4x4" is not mostly a disaster in my book. Very challenging hunt, but the ones that end with that kind of success are why we keep going back. One of my "best" hunts ever is one in Wyoming where I killed a mature buck just at sundown on the last day of the hunt.

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
 
LAST EDITED ON Jun-05-17 AT 08:51AM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jun-05-17 AT 08:49?AM (MST)

"I tried a early high country hunt in Colorado one year. It was mostly a disaster. I don't remember the unit number, but it was the unit where the Air Force pilot turned his jet 180 degrees and crashed into one of the highest peaks in the area. The jet was supposed to have two nuclear bombs aboard. They found the plane, but they never found any sign of the bombs. Half of the US military was out searching the area, with helicopters circling overhead constantly, troops were on the ground, and even diving in all the high country lakes. About half of the unit was closed to the public due to the missing bombs. Who knows where they are today."



FWIW, they weren't nukes. The A-10 (the a/c in question) is not nuclear-capable. It was just carrying free-fall bombs that the pilot jettisoned (probably over northern AZ or UT) before the plane crashed.
 
glad to hear the bombs weren't nukes. that's the way it was reported in the news at the time, and the military sure put a lot of effort into finding them if they were just plain bombs.they spent the whole summer in the wilderness with lots of helicopters in the air and a lot of troops on the ground, and didn't give up until the snow started to pile up.

I call our high country hunt a near disaster because in a week of scouting and over a week of hard hunting, we only saw a total of three bucks. It was only pure blind luck that we got one of them and it was a good one. I will tell a little more of the story on the next post to keep this one from getting too long.

One time, near 50 years ago, when I was a lot younger, I had a friend that wanted to get a big buck. He asked me where he could find one. I had never been there before, and still haven't, but I told him I had heard that Pilot Mountain had some big bucks on it. He said he and his buddy would try it the next weekend. (This was buck when hunting in Utah as still fun, and you could still hunt anywhere in the state.) The next time I saw him, I asked him how his hunt went. "Terrible" he said. Him and his buddy only saw one deer all day. The "one deer" happened to be a 30" buck, and they got him, but he still thought it was a "terrible" hunt. I thought they did pretty good for a one day hunt in an area they had never seen before.
 
My near disaster hunt mentioned earlier was an early hunt in the Holy Cross wilderness, whatever unit that is. Only the wilderness area was open, and most of it was too high for deer. After my buddy scouted for a week and we hunted together for over a week, I made a big mistake. This was in pre-cell phone times, and as we were passing through a town one day, I made the mistake of using a phone booth to call home to see if anyone had died or anything. My wife was fit to be tied. Among other things, our foster indian son had gotten arrested and she had to bail him out of jail. Our kids had driven her nuts also, and she demanded that I get my butt home pronto. I told her we would hunt that evening and the next morning, and then I would head home.

That night we checked the avalanche chute, that was visible from the road, and saw nothing. In the morning, we were glassing the chute at the crack of dawn, and I spotted the 32" buck. It was a long, long ways away, but to get closer, you had to hike 1/4 mile down a steel hillside to the bottom of the canyon, cross a good sized river, and hike another 1/4 mile up the steep other side to get back up to the elevation where we were sitting. At that point, it would still be a really long shot, and it would be unlikely the buck would still be out in the open by then.

We decided to waste some lead shooting at it from where we were. We both fire off a few rounds and couldn't even hit close enough to scare the buck, but after all the noise, it walked into the pines at the side of the chute. My buddy said "well, I guess that was that". Since he was divorced and unemployed, he could still hunt a few more days to the end of the season, but I was on the hook to get home. Since my buddy has never been a team player when it comes to hunting, I suggested that we hike across the canyon, and he could work his way up along the edge of the chute, while I would circle into the pines and try to push the buck out in the open.

He agreed to that plan, since he would be the one to get the shot if anyone got one. So we hiked across the canyon, and I swung into the pines and then back toward the avalanche chute. When I popped out on the edge of the chute I was really surprised. I was still a good 400 yards below where we had seen the buck. So I circled back into the pines and came out 400 yards higher up. Just before I came to the chute I heard a deer take off. It didn't sound like a big buck, it sounded like a doe or maybe a 2-point, but it turned out it was the big boy and it came out of the timber less than 100 yards from my buddy.

He dropped it with on shot, but it bashed its antlers against some pines while it was death charging down the hill before it dropped. We had to peel the velvet and stain the antlers, but it made a pretty impressive looking mount. After we got it packed out, I had to head for home, and that was that.
 
Read through all the post. Was glad that no one mentioned my under hunted area.. Keep up the great work..LOL
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LAST EDITED ON Sep-27-17 AT 01:09PM (MST)[p]Thanks to all who were following this post. Here is a brief summary of my hunt.

I was able to spend a day and a half before the season looking over some country and driving around.
I did not spot any deer period during that time, nor on the opening day of the season. I was starting to become very worried at this point. The second day of the season started out with me spotting a band of 11 sheep (one with a collar) a few moose, and finally a doe and fawn mule deer.

I was encouraged by seeing the game but still concewrned about not seeing any bucks. That evening I went to a new spot and after sitting out the standard afternoon hail/thunderstorm I got in some glassing.


I wasn?t seeing anything at all when, on a whim, I scanned the very top of the mountain. Through my binos I saw a ram come over the top of the mountain, I debated setting up the spotter to look at him and decided I might as well. Luckily that was a smart decision because this deer and another smaller deer were with the ram. I watched them until dark and made a plan to be back in there the following morning.

When daylight broke I was able to find the deer and made my shot count on the bigger of the two. I watched as the other buck ran up into the rocks and rejoined his buddy the sheep.

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