Non resident elk help

[Ridn9high]

My great uncle has 13 non resident points. We had a conversation about his points tonight and I had to talk him into putting in for another. He said he'll never get the units he wanted with the point creep each year. He is getting up there in age and his health isn't what it was 5-8 years ago when he was trying for unit 61 and 10. This year he is going to put in for another point and try to hunt next season. If you'll have an area(s) in mind that is worth burning those points on, would you send me a PM. I'm not an elk hunter and have no idea what areas to point him at looking at. I have 0 points for elk and never plan on having even 1 pp point for them. Just trying to help him out after waiting all this time. Thanks everyone!

 

[Sparky27]

I would start by looking at this page: http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/BigGame/Statistics/

The reports you'll want to look at are the 2010 "Preference Points Required" and "Hunt Recap Summaries." The first will give you an idea of what units are in your ballpark and the second will help you get more specific on your drawing odds. One word of caution on the "Preference Points Required" - that will be the MINIMUM number of points it took to draw last year. For most folks, it probably took one more than that. I usually mentally add a point to whatever it shows on that report.

Once you have an list of which hunts are available to your great uncle with 14 points, I would compare that to the "Harvest Survey Statistics" report for the past few years. Find out which of those hunts have been producing.

I would then narrow it down further by looking at each unit on the NDIS maps: http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/GMUnitMaps.htm

These maps are a great resource. They can show you public vs private land, topography, roads (or lack thereof) etc. Find a unit that will fit the type of hunting your great uncle is interested in.

Finally, when you've got it narrowed down to a couple of units, I would contact Forest Service and DOW professionals in each area to ask about access, pressure, etc.

Doing all this research will take a little time, but when cashing in more than a decade's worth of points, it is certainly worth the effort.