Hunt'n Colorado???? Help!!!

Me and a few buddies already have reject notices. But, none of us have a clue on the area we should hunt for mule deer. There are so many different units. If someone could please give us an idea on which units we should put in for, it would be greatly appreciated.

This would be the first hunt out west for all of us in our group.

If you are familliar with Colorado, please give your insight on which units to avoid and which units to go after.

okayyyyyyy...........

it's been a while since I lived out there, but here ya go............don't know the unit numbers, but hunt the White River National Forest outside of Grand Junction, the units west of Silt, Colorado, or near the top of the Poudre River, near Cameron Pass, northwest of Fort Collins..........snow depth dictates how high/low on the mountain the deer will be......won't be in stuff over 1 1/2 foot deep...........good luck.........

SKYNYRD,
I hate to be a bearer of bad news but applications for the drawing were supposed to be postmarked by 4 April. There is a lot of information on the Colorado web page. A good place to start a search is the magazine Big Game Hunting in Colorado offered on the web page. http://wildlife.state.co.us/hunt/BigGame/

You can also investigate success rates on harvests and also determine how many preference points are required for a succesful draw at http://wildlife.state.co.us/huntrecap/.

Adding to Coon Dawg's recommendation, The White River NF near Eagle is also good, Areas around Craig and also Leadville Basin are fantastic. Don't forget the eastern part of the state in the plains, there are some whopper deer killed in the east every year near Limon and Lamar. However, it will take about 6-7 preference points to get drawn in the eastern portion of the state.

Huntfish is correct. The date to get your application in has passed. A hunting buddy got his and my application in 2 weeks ago. I don't know when the last time you applied was, but I believe so long as you do not let 4 years go by between applications you will not lose your preference points. Start early next year. I believe you need to get some special codes or such from Colorado if you make a party application.

Huntfish provides some good links with some free information to Colorado. When I started applying out west I realized how time consuming and confusing it can be. Especially if you are applying in different states. This year I subscribed to this service:

http://huntinfool.com/index.html

If you apply to multiple western states I strongly encourage you to consider this service. The basic subsciption is $100, which is not cheap for a monthly magazine but the way they break down each state makes it worth it. If you give them a call, they will send you one of their monthly guides/magazine for free and you will see what I am talking about. For an additional fee, they will fill out the application for you, but that gets expensive for multiple states and species, but not as expensive as USO and Cabella's. I don't use this service because they provide enough information to easily complete the application myself and they will gladly answer any question over the phone as well. PM me if you have any questions.

the dead line for the draw was april 5th !
but if you look on the colorado dow site
http://wildlife.state.co.us/hunt/
you can find all the info you need !
for each area the give you draw and kill %
for the last 4 years
we book our hunt for the 2nd elk rifle season
then apply for our deer tags
in our unit the draw for deer is 100% for the last 2 years
and the kill is 52% and 50%

Jorge,
Thats an excellent resource. I called them today to have them send me the recent magazine. Good information on their web site too. Also noted that they added Kansas this year. Thanks

Russ
Colorado bound for speedgoats this year.

Russ,

I think you will be impressed with the publication and will enjoy reading the articles and stories. If you decide to join, send me a PM and you can use me as a reference. Maybe I will win something else from them.

George

George,
If you win another hunt due to me joining, I have first dibs on being the gun toter.

You got it buddy. Of course you might win the Grand Prize hunt for joining - STONE SHEEP.

Last Thursday, prior to this recent snowfall, i took my two sons to the top of a decent overlook on Colorado State 131 heading north from I-70 near Eagle to Wolcott.

Putting my Kahles to work we probably saw over 200 mulies from that spot alone. Maybe 300. You couldn't look without having a group in the field of view. Great winter forage for those animals coming out of the Gore Range.

If you guys haven't hunted mulies you better do some homework now.

First, get rid of the cigarettes and get your legs some mileage. Build (plan now) a work-out regimen going into your hunt. Second, get your optics in order. If you are serious you'll need to have some decent spotting scopes and binoculars (don't forget binoc shoulder straps). Third, get your shooting sticks and practice (from Stoney Point on the internet) some long range shooting under heavy breathing conditions. Fourth, subscribe to both Muley Crazy and Eastmans Hunting Journal (the mule deer special issue is fantastic this year). Order as many hunting video's as you can from Eastmans.com with Mike Eastman and Guy Eastman (Guy took not one but TWO BOONERS this year) and hang out at MuleyMonsters.com as much as you do on this site. There are some terrific mule deer fanatics on that site who are extremely helpful. Send me an email if you think i could help. I grew up with mulies and my real love is hunting the big guys. I am headed into the Sheep Mountains of Montana for 8 days this fall.........it's a 30-incher or a 200 inch Booner i want before i can't do it anymore. May the Mule Deer gods be with me and some great moisture hit Montana to drive forage and hence, horn size this summer. February was the driest February in 100 years in Montana. Last but not least, be ready to hump it away from the crowds and you will do just fine. That means work. The big boys hang where the 4-wheelers and camper crowd aren't. Good luck and don't be shy about calling Game Wardens and biologists in Colorado. You can easily find them on the internet. They get paid to talk to non-residents. After all, it is YOU who pay their salaries.

Chippewa Partners,
Your secondary optics post is excellent information. Most folks here don't realize how important optics are out west. You will spend more time on the binocs and spotting scopes instead of the scope which is usually utilized at the time of the shot. Don't skimp on these optics, infact spend more money on your binocs since they will definitely help on eye strain. Minatures are not recommended. Get one that fits the hand comfortably and definitely spend the $30 for the shoulder strap, once used you will not go back.

BTW, Eagle area has some awesome Mulies.