thicketmaster
Active Member
- Messages
- 148
I have a 2nd season deer tag for 3/301 has anyone been around Craig or the elkheads this year? How is the deer population doing in this area? Most of the deer in the Craig area migrate off of Black Mountain.
Units 3/301 Craig Colorado?
- Thread starter thicketmaster
- Start date
I haven't been in the area since 2011, but my impression has always been that most of the deer in those units are resident animals, not migratory. In 2011, we hunted further south, but drove up one day and saw lots of deer in sight of the roads. They're good deer units.
elks96
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 3,802
Living in Craig for years, I can tell you that there are some resident deer, but most of the deer migratory. In fact they tend to migrate the most on the last full moon of October. There are always a few deer in the sage in 3/301, but there are always more later into the year. they will typically migrate from east to west pretty straight line. Again there are some resident deer, but there are tons that migrate in...
The deer population sucks. The quality of bucks sucks. In all honesty you would be hard pressed to fond any areas in NW Colorado that have seen any recovery from the 07/08 winter. Think of it this way... Deer died off big time in 08. Then in the fall of 08 they did not drop tags at all. Thus the ones that lived got hit hard during the seasons (this was the last year I had a Colorado Deer tag, and it sucked). So in spring of 09 you get your first crop of fawns, unfortunately the Coyotes were still strong and the rabbits died off at the sametime. So that years fawn crop got hit harder than usual. So fall 09 fewer tags but a lot fewer deer.... This was compounded by bad winter kill, over harvest and higher than normal predation. Thus 2010 was the first year the deer had any chance to recover. It has only been a couple years since then....
The herds are nothing like they were prior to 2007 (which was OK but not great).
That being said, get out and hunt. There are good deer in every unit and always some nice bucks taken in 3/301. The way the fall is going expect the 2nd season to be wet cold and muddy...
Good luck!
The deer population sucks. The quality of bucks sucks. In all honesty you would be hard pressed to fond any areas in NW Colorado that have seen any recovery from the 07/08 winter. Think of it this way... Deer died off big time in 08. Then in the fall of 08 they did not drop tags at all. Thus the ones that lived got hit hard during the seasons (this was the last year I had a Colorado Deer tag, and it sucked). So in spring of 09 you get your first crop of fawns, unfortunately the Coyotes were still strong and the rabbits died off at the sametime. So that years fawn crop got hit harder than usual. So fall 09 fewer tags but a lot fewer deer.... This was compounded by bad winter kill, over harvest and higher than normal predation. Thus 2010 was the first year the deer had any chance to recover. It has only been a couple years since then....
The herds are nothing like they were prior to 2007 (which was OK but not great).
That being said, get out and hunt. There are good deer in every unit and always some nice bucks taken in 3/301. The way the fall is going expect the 2nd season to be wet cold and muddy...
Good luck!
DesertGhillie
Active Member
- Messages
- 271
Elks96 said it pretty well. I've seen a number of decent 4X's just outside the unit, and proabably don't make there way down to 3/301 until late November/December. But they are not anything special.
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