Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Colorado mule deer hunt

Not legal to use planes here, so scratch that one.

Bullschit, you can use a plane all you want as long as it isn't within 24hrs of the hunt...

Not much good after that, but whatever. Not looking for an argument.

"Scouting an area from the air well before the season starts is not illegal," said Renzo DelPiccolo, area wildlife manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife in Montrose. "But we have seen and have had reports that aircraft are being used to harass animals so that they move into a specific area. That type of activity is illegal."

The federal Airborne Hunting Act prohibits hunting or harassing animals from aircraft. Anyone convicted of that activity can be fined and sentenced to a year in jail.

DOW regulations prohibit using aircraft for hunting, for directing and communicating with hunters on the ground, and for hunters on the ground to take directions from someone in an airplane. State rules also prohibit hunting in an area the same day or the day after a scouting flight was made. The penalties can include a fine of $2,000 and 15 penalty points."

Unfortunately, it has gotten so bad that people are even out looking for deer and elk sheds with chuteplanes, etc. Utards mostly...

I think you misunderstood, we killed those bucks in the pictures I posted.

All of the bucks that my friends have killed west of I-25 were all basically DIY hunts. Granted, we all go out even if we arent the ones with a tag because we just love the comraderie and the hunt but it was all public ground with tags we drew.

As for the clients I hunt with on fully guided hunts, most are fantastic guys that are good hunters and share our passion for hunting. They do it because they LOVE to hunt, just like us. Every know and again we get an A-hole in camp and we hunt just as hard for them as we do for the others but we just dont rebook them for future hunts.





The man I was hunting with had hunted 8 days with me the previous year and we didnt connect on a 190" type buck on the last evening on that hunt, he then came back and hunted another 8 days and we killed that giant on the morning he was to leave. He missed his flight so we were able to freeze the cape and clean the skull cap and then salt it so he could fly home with them the next day. As for the meat, it fed the cowboy and his family on the ranch. Every single bit of the deer we kill in Mexico are used in some form or fashion

Here in the states if the hunters want to donate the meat they will pay for the processing and they will donate it directly to a family that needs it. It works out pretty good, I know the families really appreciate getting their freezers filled with good venison

Yep, recently donated some meat to the DOW, and they were very thankful. They told me there is a waiting list of people wanting it.

Congratulations.

What bugs me about meat donation is it must be processd commercially. My own processed meat is better than any commercial.

I would usually have meat to donate but $200+ for an elk is a might steep to only turn around and donate it.Even the raptor center in Pueblo now wants it done commercially

Man isn't that the truth. I've had some given to me because it "wasn't fit to eat". After I opened the package, I could see (and smell) why. Fat, silver skin, bone marrow, the glands in the middle of the ham, etc all in the meat and smeared around. Nasty stuff.

Then don't donate or, process it yourself and then donate. Or, just consume it. But, if a person doesn't want the meat from the animal they killed, there's actually a lot of options.

Not many options in CO. You can only donate more than 20lbs after it is processed or 20 lbs prior.You can't give the whole animal to someone unless they have a like license and then it voids both license. None of the food banks will take noncommercial processed meat.

In Co, legally, you have to keep the carcass tag until all the meat is consumed.

I can eat a smallish elk myslef in a year so it's no problem,but some years I can kill 2. Meat in the freezer is like money in the bank, butI could help some folks who need the meat once in awhile.

You might check with your local SCI chapter. Our chapter has spent over $20K in the last couple of years on this program:

http://www.safariclubfoundation.org...Content_ID=324&Parent_Content_ID=238

Back to Unit 54.I recieved the yearly Pref Point issue of Co Outdoors today and it listed last year required points to draw buck tags in 54.

2nd seaon arequired 1. So 2 will guarantee a tag. 3rd season required 3 & NR 5.

Unit 55 was 2 required for 2nd season and 6 for 3rd season,NR 7.

Buck to doe ratio unti 55 was 43:10 and unit 54 was 31:100.

Looks like Unit 55 is more desireable

I'm a little late in joining this discussion, but I'll throw my $0.02 in. The DOW down played the die-off from '07-08, probably because they didn't want the bad PR to impact license sales. I volunteered to help feed that winter and saw 1st hand how bad it was. I saw a ravine in the sage brush where the deer were piled up like cord wood. It was terrible. Fawn mortality was high. We've had a few mild winters and I believe the herd is slowly recovering.

One thing to consider about 54/55 are the OTC elk hunters. You'll bump into a lot of orange. Access is easier in 55. I'd go 3rd season if possible.

I took my brother elk hunting in 551 for 3rd season last year. We were all over that unit and saw lots of elk. I didn't see a single deer. Not even a doe. Maybe just a weird coincidence, but alarming.