Colorado 2010 big game brochure online now

[PO Cedar]

http://wildlife.state.co.us/RulesRegs/R ... igGame.htm

 

[4onaside]

Thanks for the advice. Give me something to look over during the cold winter's evening(inadvertently using a line from "O'Leary's Bar"). However, when you are a regular for a limited number of species in one unit, you pretty much know the fine print. A least I can now confirm that nothing has changed from last season, or it has!

 

[DoeTag]

Thanks!

 

[4onaside]

There are some notable differences this year, one being that I'm going to have to "lend" the dept $354 for an elk preference point this year, as opposed to $254 last year(I don't have enough to draw a bull license yet). Also, there is an "early" elk season in the unit of my interest, which has never been available in the past. This is in addition to the regular seasons. Stuff like that is easier for me to digest from the paper copy as opposed to scrolling back and forth online. Also the plains unit that I hunt for goats, is now, combined with three other adjacent units, so I don't know how that will effect the number of tags available. Screwin' with all of that becomes part of the actual hunting experience.

 

[Locksley]

COOL

 

[PO Cedar]

Rumor has it lots of folks are going to burn their preference points this season....Unit #54,55,551 all went draw for archery. ALL muzzie permits are by unit draw,no more statewide tags.... Unit #36 was busted into two units,Unit#361 now.......I'm going back to the 4 corners area in CO this season unless I find something I like while in Idaho flyfishing in the summer...LIFE IS GOOD!

 

[megalomaniac]

The ML tags going by unit rather than statewide will be the biggest change. It'll be hard to predict just how many it'll take, but I'm sitting on 3 for elk and should be able to get a ML tag this year for my unit. If I don't get drawn, I may have to shell out a few bucks for a landowner tag.

 

[4onaside]

Chasin' Rusty.
The last time that I had a unit 76 tag was in 2003, and killed a nice bull. I've been accumulating preference points ever since(6 as of now), with the hope of getting back into the unit. However, the universal problem, well universal as far as Colorado non-residents are concerned. Due to my age, and the ever increasing popularity of the better units, it looks more and more like I'll never catch up to the rabbit! LOL Points required increase every year, and the likelihood of my either dying, or at least not being physically able to hunt the mountains, looms larger and larger! Cow permits are relatively easy to come by in "my unit", and even a cow muzzleloader tag only takes 3 pts(now up to 12 for a Mzl bull permit/8 for archery, and 10 for first rifle). Considering making the elk a pleasant memories deal, and consentrating on goat hunting, and the turkey/deer hunting less than an hour away from where I sit).

 

[megalomaniac]

Chasin' Rusty.
The last time that I had a unit 76 tag was in 2003, and killed a nice bull. I've been accumulating preference points ever since(6 as of now), with the hope of getting back into the unit. However, the universal problem, well universal as far as Colorado non-residents are concerned. Due to my age, and the ever increasing popularity of the better units, it looks more and more like I'll never catch up to the rabbit! LOL Points required increase every year, and the likelihood of my either dying, or at least not being physically able to hunt the mountains, looms larger and larger! Cow permits are relatively easy to come by in "my unit", and even a cow muzzleloader tag only takes 3 pts(now up to 12 for a Mzl bull permit/8 for archery, and 10 for first rifle). Considering making the elk a pleasant memories deal, and consentrating on goat hunting, and the turkey/deer hunting less than an hour away from where I sit).

Actually, this year, you have a chance at a tag in 76...

With the new regs, you can put in for the unit with less than max points as 20% of the tags in units requiring many PP's will go in a random draw (but the only ones eligible for the random draw tags are those holding more than 5 PP).

I was saving points for an archery tag in 76, but like you, realized with point creep it just wasn't going to happen in the next decade- I'd rather hunt more often for lower quality bulls.

 

[4onaside]

Chasin' Rusty.
The last time that I had a unit 76 tag was in 2003, and killed a nice bull. I've been accumulating preference points ever since(6 as of now), with the hope of getting back into the unit. However, the universal problem, well universal as far as Colorado non-residents are concerned. Due to my age, and the ever increasing popularity of the better units, it looks more and more like I'll never catch up to the rabbit! LOL Points required increase every year, and the likelihood of my either dying, or at least not being physically able to hunt the mountains, looms larger and larger! Cow permits are relatively easy to come by in "my unit", and even a cow muzzleloader tag only takes 3 pts(now up to 12 for a Mzl bull permit/8 for archery, and 10 for first rifle). Considering making the elk a pleasant memories deal, and consentrating on goat hunting, and the turkey/deer hunting less than an hour away from where I sit).

Actually, this year, you have a chance at a tag in 76...

With the new regs, you can put in for the unit with less than max points as 20% of the tags in units requiring many PP's will go in a random draw (but the only ones eligible for the random draw tags are those holding more than 5 PP).

I was saving points for an archery tag in 76, but like you, realized with point creep it just wasn't going to happen in the next decade- I'd rather hunt more often for lower quality bulls.

The headwaters of the Rio Grande river has to be one of the most beautiful places in the country! I love the unit. I knew about the "Hybrid" drawing,although I have to read it again, as I remember the point minimum standard(for residents) being higher than what they actually are in 76, in order for the unit to be elilible for the hybrid drawing. I may invest $543 dollars or whatever, rather than $354. As you know, I either get all of it back(less the $3 application fee) or a tag. Odds are, I just have to lend the Colorado DOW a couple of hundred dollars more for a couple of months as opposed to just applying for a cow tag. Don't know if you ever look at the points that people have when they apply, but I have never understood why someone would apply for a bull license with no points, when the minimum required TO EVEN BE IN THE DRAWING, is say, i.e., 10! I knew a guy who did just that last year, and his reasoning was, "well, they might make a mistake and draw me!" Yeah, sure. LOL We'll see.

 

[megalomaniac]

Actually, I usually put in for 76 as a first choice, then OTC archery as 2nd choice, it's just easier for me... I know I'm not going to get first choice, just the PP. But I'm nervous something might go wrong and award me an OTC archery tag as 1st choice and burn all my points in the process if I applied for the PP as 1st choice.

 

[PO Cedar]

I certainly didn't expect to draw the archery muley tag last year. I had used that unit deliberately calculating it would be a preference point only situation..... And I know the odds are great for a trophy bull in Unit #76 but this young herd bull was the smaller of two bulls that came in on me while I was chasing the muleys in a OTC elk unit. The other bull was in a much easier and accessible area of the unit that I had moved to due to non-hunting friends coming out to visit for a couple of days. I wasn't quick enough to get a pic of him as he ran a satellite bull away and almost ran over me in the process. He was a huge bull with 18-20 cows/calves in his harem....I guess having the whole season to be out there helps in the odds of an encounter from a big one too........
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2246 ... t=outdoors

 

[4onaside]

I certainly didn't expect to draw the archery muley tag last year. I had used that unit deliberately calculating it would be a preference point only situation..... And I know the odds are great for a trophy bull in Unit #76 but this young herd bull was the smaller of two bulls that came in on me while I was chasing the muleys in a OTC elk unit. The other bull was in a much easier and accessible area of the unit that I had moved to due to non-hunting friends coming out to visit for a couple of days. I wasn't quick enough to get a pic of him as he ran a satellite bull away and almost ran over me in the process. He was a huge bull with 18-20 cows/calves in his harem....I guess having the whole season to be out there helps in the odds of an encounter from a big one too........
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2246 ... t=outdoors

Obviously, there are units, and as your encounters point out, OTC units that have excellent elk possibilites. However, I only know two units really well from experience, Units 79 and 76, which are side-by-side, but the difference is daylight and dark as far as quality is concerned. Not "quality" as in individual bulls, but quality of elk hunting. Due to my age, I don't want to waste $543 on a 79 tag. We have killed some bulls there over the years, but the success %is extremely low, and I want to have confidence when(and if) I ever get to go again, that I will have an excellent chance of success. I feel that way about 76, and obviously half the other elk hunters in the country do also. LOL

 

[4onaside]

Chasin' Rusty.
The last time that I had a unit 76 tag was in 2003, and killed a nice bull. I've been accumulating preference points ever since(6 as of now), with the hope of getting back into the unit. However, the universal problem, well universal as far as Colorado non-residents are concerned. Due to my age, and the ever increasing popularity of the better units, it looks more and more like I'll never catch up to the rabbit! LOL Points required increase every year, and the likelihood of my either dying, or at least not being physically able to hunt the mountains, looms larger and larger! Cow permits are relatively easy to come by in "my unit", and even a cow muzzleloader tag only takes 3 pts(now up to 12 for a Mzl bull permit/8 for archery, and 10 for first rifle). Considering making the elk a pleasant memories deal, and consentrating on goat hunting, and the turkey/deer hunting less than an hour away from where I sit).

Actually, this year, you have a chance at a tag in 76...

With the new regs, you can put in for the unit with less than max points as 20% of the tags in units requiring many PP's will go in a random draw (but the only ones eligible for the random draw tags are those holding more than 5 PP).

I was saving points for an archery tag in 76, but like you, realized with point creep it just wasn't going to happen in the next decade- I'd rather hunt more often for lower quality bulls.

But only for various hunt codes in units 2,10,61,201 and 851(pg 14 of the brochure). The standard is those hunt codes requiring 10 or more RESIDENT pts to draw(based on a three year average,etc.etc.) So 76 is not amongst those units eligible for the hybrid drawing this year.

 

[megalomaniac]

That's too funny... you would have a chance at a 201 tag, but not the 76 tag in the draw!

If I were you, I'd be putting in for 201 until you build enough points to guarantee a 76 tag!

 

[4onaside]

That's too funny... you would have a chance at a 201 tag, but not the 76 tag in the draw!

If I were you, I'd be putting in for 201 until you build enough points to guarantee a 76 tag!

2,10,61, & 201 have one thing in common. They are long ago and far away, as far as my home is concerned. 2,10,&201 being in far Northwestern corner. I am very familiar with 851, but as far as I know, the only public land there is Bosque Del Oso WMA which is highly coveted by residents. Funny thing, the locals say that there are no elk in Bosque during the elk season, as they are all on adjacent private ranches. I can attest that they are(on the ranches)as it is a pastime of ours to drive the roads and rubberneck. The Hill ranch of "fair chase" Mike Eastman fame is in this GMU. So, I'll continue to ponder until April 6th. I'm afraid that if I apply for 2,10 or 201, I might get drawn!! LOL