Colorado application deadline April 1

[PO Cedar]

I'm thinking about applying for an archery deer preference point. I'm already having "mountain withdrawals". Thank goodness turkey season is almost here--

 

[megalomaniac]

Amen to that!

I'm already getting fired up just from the application season! I'll be putting in for a preference point for elk, with the OTC archery tag as the hunt. Just building points to go on a trophy hunt for a monster one day. Until then, I'm more than satisfied with my cheap trip once a year...

My archery cow elk from this past year with OTC tags on public land... man that's some fine eatin'. And thank God for the tree in the background... if it hadn't been there, I'd have been packing elk straight up another 300 yards at 11,600 ft!

 

[PO Cedar]

I've had moose,pronghorn,bear,deer, in the past but elk meat is undoubtably the best tasting wild game meat there is in my book. I bet that cow elk made some fine eating during deer season here.As for cheap trips,the OTC hunts aren't that cheap considering the gas/diesel prices particularly. Did you just buy the half-price cow elk tag? I'm hoping they are available this year after the severe winter conditions in some of the OTC areas.

 

[megalomaniac]

I bought the OTC either sex tag...got within 75 yards of multiple bulls everyday except for one. I just couldn't seal the deal. I took the cow on the last morning of the hunt. Shot her around 7am, had her packed out by 9am, back at the cabin at 10:30am, packed up and back on the road from colorado to Mississippi by noon.

'cheap' is a relative term...
$525 for the tag
$300 for gas (my 1/2)
$250 for food (my 1/2)
$300 for rustic cabins with hot water, hot showers, gas stove, and heat. (my 1/2).

so figure around $1300 or so for 1 day of scouting, 7 days hunting, another 2 for travel. If you're willing to tent it the entire week, knock off $300, so one could easily do the trip for $1000. For me, I seem to have so much more energy for actual hunting when I'm sleeping in a real bed, taking hot showers, and have heat. It's worth a little extra to have those conveniences.

Most public land elk hunts with a guide are in the $2500-$3500 range, not including tag and travel expenses. Move up to private ranches and you're in the $4000-$6000 ballpark. Step up once again to the trophy ranches and be willing to pay $7500 to $20,000.

$1300 is not chump change, but IMO is a bargain for a 7 day hunt out west with elk seen every day except for one, and a very real chance for a kill. Especially when bow season opens during the hottest time of the year in MS!

 

[4onaside]

Well, I had to also get into the process. I applied night before last for an elk preference point,which will be #5. You talk about an optomist! The unit that I am after took 9 non-resident points last year, so will probably continue to climb as demand increases. I am rolling the life-expectancy deal big time. However, I can easily drive to a park where we killed 2 bulls the last time that we had enough points, so if I'm still alive, I really wont have to be as amblatory as one of you young guys. Incidentally, mego, the last bull that I killed out there was also at 11,600, but we drove to the level of the kill in a Jeep Cherokee. Kinda like hunting a pasture in West Tennessee. Well, except for the breathing. lol

 

[PO Cedar]

This pic was taken the second year I hunted that area,4onaside. There were no quality draw areas back then and a spike bull was legal. This was in 1982-taken from the back side of the parks you were talking about. The pic is grainy,old like me, and scanned from a slide. The geographical marker showed 12,007 ft.

 

[Quiver]

I'm glad you reminded us. I've been so wrapped up in gear upgrades that almost forgot my points.

 

[4onaside]

This pic was taken the second year I hunted that area,4onaside. There were no quality draw areas back then and a spike bull was legal. This was in 1982-taken from the back side of the parks you were talking about. The pic is grainy,old like me, and scanned from a slide. The geographical marker showed 12,007 ft.

I believe that 86 was my first year, and there
were no point requirements. We applied for the unit and got drawn. I have gone only sporadically over the years, nowhere approaching every year. Little did I understand how difficult access would become as time went by. lol
A footnote for those who have never been, and this defies logic, but I had more difficulty in breathing the very first year that I went, and it seems like the older I get, the easier it becomes. I believe that you should have to aclimate every year from scratch, and it not be a cumulative thing. Maybe I just take things a whole bunch slower as I've gotten old? lol

 

[Locksley]

Good luck PO Cedar and the rest of you-all . 1987 seems only a short time ago to me that was my first year out there.

 

[4onaside]

Good luck PO Cedar and the rest of you-all . 1987 seems only a short time ago to me that was my first year out there.

Obviously, it matters not in the slightest, but it is possible that 1987 was also my first year out there. It is no longer chiseled in stone in my deteriorating brain, but it was either 86 or 87, either way, a while ago.

 

[PO Cedar]

Well,I sent the CO DOW my money. I don't expect to get drawn this year but I'll have a preference point in the bank. I didn't want to wait until the last day.

 

[JayMc]

I bought an elk and deer preference point from CO today.

I'm hoping for 2010