Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Advice for over-the-counter elk tags in Colorado?

A buddy wants to go elk hunting in Colorado - he says he is ready to buy over-the-counter tags, but doesn't know much, if anything, about hunting in that state.

He has a hunting trailer, ATVs, horses, and is an experienced elk hunter - got his last one in Nevada last year with a bow. He just doesn't know which units to apply for and which areas have the most potential in Colo.

Can anyone pass on any advice?

czech:

He just needs to know where the OTC tags are valid. That's pretty clearly defined in the Big Game brochure.

PICKING A HUNTING AREA: Picking an area to hunt is the easiest and the most difficult part of hunting in Colorado. There are literally millions of acres of public land located in National Forests and on BLM land. So it’s easy to find a place where it's legal to hunt. But finding "the right place" to hunt is more difficult.

Most Western hunters are not going to tell you where their honey holes are located. You're going to have to find your own spot. But there's lots of info available and if you do your home work, you might be able to find a good place to start. If you want to hunt in Colorado, here's how to locate an area.

Get a copy of a road map of Colorado that indicates which land is public. Compare that to the map of game management units in the Colorado Big Game Hunting brochure. Look for units with lots of public land.

Next, look on the CO P&W big game web page for the recap of preference points required to get a license in limited draw units.
http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx
There are more licenses offered than there are applicants in those units that require zero points. Those are places where game populations are at or above management objectives. Look for units which require zero points and have lots of public land.

Then, go to the interactive game management unit maps. http://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/huntingatlas/index.aspx?keyword=gmu&value=54 . There you can find winter ranges, calving areas and summer ranges in each GMU. Finally get a copy of the USGS map(s) for the area and memorize it. With all that info, you ought to be able to pick an area where there are lots of elk and lots of public land. And then you should be able to determine where they are in summer, where their winter range is located, the most likely routes that they use to get from one area to the other, and therefore where they are most likely to be during hunting season.

If you want to put in for the computer draw, here's a link that gives draw expectations. http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx

I’m not familiar with the resources available in other western states, but I would wager that there’s similar info available in all of them.

KC

The way that you can make the best use of OTC tags is to keep your plans flexible - pay attention to what is going on. Don't pick a particular unit. Keep your options open.
By the time hunting season arrives you will know which areas have been hammered by fires, floods, droughts. Find out where the CPW is offering refunds on limited tags because the conditions are poor.
It's pretty easy to find where the conditions are bad. It's harder (especially from out of state) to identify where the conditions are excellent. Probably 1/2 to 2/3 of the units are OTC. Sounds like you would come in from the west so you can narrow it a little because there is probably no real need to cross the divide. Determine if antler point restrictions or CWD areas are important to your selection.

Identify some areas you like for the style of hunting you want to do. Find out how those areas are shaping up recently. The CPW hunting atlas will tell you a lot of the basic stuff that will not change. Consider contacting a CPW hunt planner once you narrow it down a little.

I use both horses and ATVs from year to year. Either can be a big advantage but I find that I seldom use both. Typically I'd either plan to push into wilderness with horses or else cover a lot of ground in Nat'l Forest with ATVs.

Finally, when you narrow it down to a few areas you are interested in don't be afraid to give an outfitter in the area a call. I've had some pretty good conversations by telling them I want to commit to a wilderness or NF area but that I do not want to encroach on any of his camps. Invariably they will say the hunting is now worth a crap there anymore but they will almost always want to help you to avoid their operation. Often they will pass on some other helpful info in the course of the conversation.

Listen to KC - he has provided sound advice.

And realize that there's no motivation and little to gain in a successful hunter telling you what unit they hunt in, especially on the internet.

I hunt in a unit that already has too much pressure, I'm not interested in seeing more orange on opening day. But KC gave you the path to cutting a few years off your learning curve.

The info is out there for a solid starting point. The rest is up to you to find out by putting boots to the ground.

And some of the best advice for a Colorado elk hunt - is to focus on being in shape, in really good shape. Even with horses, physical fitness is often times a game changer. Be willing to hunt dark to dark. Do the tough things that many aren't willing to do.

If your buddy was successful in Nevada, tell him to expect 10 times as many hunters when he's hunting an OTC tag in Colorado. There are tons of people with the same idea. Lots of elk in Colorado, easy to buy a tag, but very few "easy elk" in Colorado.

Also tell him "thank you" from a Colorado resident hunter. The out of state hunters spending money during hunt season keeps many towns alive, as well as provide much of the operating fund for wildlife management in Colorado. That fact isn't lost on me.

Good luck on your quest.

Thanks to each of you. I'll pass this on.

I remembered something else.
The terrestrial biologists in each region compile a pre-season report or forecast for their areas each year.
I've seen these in several forms. I think that Colorado Outdoors takes them and recycles them into a summary report each year.
For most of us with limited licenses we are more-or-less committed already by the time this is published but for someone with OTC tags it could be a powerful tool.