Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Colorado 2014 Gathering

dogshooter:

Is the Pawnee National Grassland near you? Any good places to camp there?

KC

Yep.... and yep.

Wouldn't put your tent here though...

Someone told me a few days ago that the Grasslands had been closed to shooting.
Apparently the trash, empty cases, and general screwing up the area was the cause.
I've only heard that from one source and have no idea of the truth of the matter.

Tracks:

You wanna check that out and get back to us please?

KC

Looks like a good place to collect prickly pear apples for jelly though.

KC

I'm sure looking forward to meeting you KC. Let's talk about the Colo gathering.

To all: The Grand Mesa is nice, but last time I was up there fishing the mosquitos nearly carried me away. Don't remember which part of summer that was - anyone know about that?. And, if you are thinking about going west or southwest, there are some nice places up above Delores, etc.

So far we have a couple of suggestions:

1. Last year's site by Lake George.
2. Weld County out in the grasslands.
3. Grand Mesa with a warning about killer mosquitoes

Other possibilities might somewhere in the Gunnison Area, Flattops, maybe somewhere in the San Juans?

Total bullschitt..... they did close access to a couple square miles off CR 63 and CR96... to accommodate that stupid azz Baker Draw range. They also shut down some shooting south off 96 because it's only about 2-3 miles from Hwy 14.

The remainder is open to any/all shooting provided you're not shooting and leaving garbage. Fabricated steel targets are fine, just no tracers on NFS land.

back TTT just lurking to see what happens. Cheers NC

Sounds like fun if it's the right time of the year.

As long as it is after my DEROS (10MAR!) I'm gonna do whatever I an to go!

If you do Gunnison or the San Juans can we wait until late July so I can go look for some big ass deer while I'm there?

There is also a great camping spot on the backside of Guanella Pass that could be fun and its only an hour and a half from Denver

camping in the Pawnee mid-summer sounds horrible.

Yeah, I agree. If they meet out there you can crash at my place and we'll drive out. Its only 30 min

Mainly posting so I can check back later. We've camped up on the Grand Mesa several times with the herd. There is plenty of real estate, but not many areas that I know of to accommodate long shooting. About 2 out of every 3 years up there the mosquitoes are brutal. Everyone has their own tolerance level I suppose.

Somewhere more central might be easier for everyone statewide, I'm just not that familiar with the country up around Gunnison or the Flattops.

Lots of good camping and long shooting lanes up on the Uncompahgre plateau. But it's even farther away from the state's center of mass than the grand mesa. The Divide Road country is about 1.5 hours SSW from Grand Jct.

Plenty of long shooting in the BLM land north of GJT. But it's like camping on the moon and hot as blazes in June-July.

With 2 jobs and a houseful of kids, I'm not volunteering to do much besides comment on here. Kind of chickenzhit I know, but I'm just being honest. If it does wind up being somewhere and when I could swing it, I'd love to join up.

sd

There was nothing wrong with the place where we camped last year. It had lots of room and lots of good camp spots sprinkled among the trees, that were not used. It was easily accessed from the county road. We could have accommodated many more people. We could walk over to the "range", which was almost 400 yards. I had a good time and I think everyone else did also. But there was nothing great about the camp spot either. The people who attended made it a lot of fun and I guess in the end, that's what it was all about.

KC

I agree KC that last year's spot was really good for a large group. For those who weren't there last year, it was located Northwest of Lake George about 40 miles West of Colorado Springs.

The good thing about that area is that it is already scouted. We know what we get there.

Technically, in a strict legal sense, it's impractical because you can't drive or park anywhere other than on a county road. Everything outside the road boundaries is closed to motor vehicles.

On another note I've heard all kinds of horror stories about LE in the Grasslands being pricks although I've never had a problem shooting there.

Law Enforcement are dicks everywhere.... especially when they don't know the law. I haven't run into one in over a year.... but I only shoot out there twice a week.

Sensible, here. The location can be interesting, but the few I have attended were made great by the people.