I drew a Colorado deer tag for units 69, 691, 84, 86, 861. That includes the Wet Mountains, the Wet Mountain Valley and the east side of the Sangre de Cristos. The area goes from Slide Mountain to the Arkansas River and from Pueblo to the crest of the Sangre de Cristos. It's a huge area.

I own a second home north of Rosita, which is in the middle of the units. It's rare to visit the house and not see deer from the house. But the area around the house is a no-hunting area. I'm fairly familiar with some of the country because I have done a bunch of backpacking and fishing there. It's rare to see deer anywhere except near the house.

I have never hunted the area. So I'm curious if anyone else has hunted there. Any tips for the area.

KC

Wow! 249 visits and not a single response. Is there no one who hunts the mountains west of Pueblo?

KC

I have done some riding in the Music Pass /Medano Pass area,but can't say I have seen a lot of deer, or even a few.Years ago I did some ML elk hunting around Medano ,but can't recall seeing any deer. I actually saw more bear.

I have not hunted it, but I do climb a bunch in the area that is unit 84. Lotta game in there, especially in the areas all around Greenhorn Mountain. I've seen some biga$$ mulie bucks in that area, along with sheep, elk, and black bear.

I do some turkey hunting on Medano Pass road. I have seen lots of deer, elk, antelope, bear, and lion down on the private ranches. Mt Lions more above the ranches. I have seen some bucks on Mtn. Seven. Good size but maybe 130 -140 score. Pretty much stuck to the Medano Pass road or the Music pass trail. There was sheep on Mtn 7 too.

antlers:

I'm considering backpacking from Greenhorn Mountain to Apache Creek. Or maybe hiking up from Badito Cone. Does that make sense?

Last fall I heard some guys talking in the Rustlers Roost Restaurant about getting big bull elk ( and seeing nice bucks) on a private ranch near Gardner Butte. I wonder if it might be worth the effort to hike the public side of fence line in the foothills Northwest of Badito Cone?

KC

snake:

I thought I knew all the mountains in the Sangre de Cristos. Guess not. Where is Mtn. Seven?

KC

Vince I'm concerned about being tempted to stray onto Wolf Springs Ranch. So I think I'll avoid the Medano Pass area. I've climbed all the mountains up around Sand Creek Lakes and I've hiked from Music Pass down into the Sand Dunes. All I've seen there was sheep.

KC

Yep. Either one. Beautiful country in those areas with lotsa big game.

I had the GPS maked as mt 7. The mountain is just northeast of the sand dunes and is named "mount herard" We went to medano lake and hiked in from there. I did not want to get on the wolf springs ranch.

Some day I will have to relate the story of my encounter with a big bull bison that went thru the fence from Wolf Springs.

Snake:

Yeah. OK. I know where Mount Herard is. Thanks.

KC

I bet that makes a good campfire story. I'm looking forward to hearing it some day.

KC

KC, I may have missed it, but which season. I've spent a lot of time in 84 and 86 during September and have seen some nice bucks. I would not know much about later seasons.

Third Season. The rut should be starting, but they may have dropped down to lower elevations.

I hiked in there a few times when I lived in Colorado back in the late 1980s. The memories of some of those mule deer bucks that I saw still haunt me. In those days, my deer hunting partner was my late father-in-law and he was in his early 70s. He was spry and alert, but not capable of doing the hikes, so I never tried to get a tag for that unit. Hope that you can find one of those big bucks for yourself.

Yep, in third season they won't be where I see them in September. Good luck on the hunt.

Wolf Springs is well fence. Pretty hard to stray in there,except maybe where a buffalo went thru. I have hunted along the fence several times.

Macey drainage.

Get a bunch of your friends together, form a non-profit, and buy the Wolf Springs Ranch. The seller is asking $54.7M for 56,000+/- acres, close to 90 square miles. Pricey, but you'd be guaranteed a place to hunt and you should get a lot of landowner tags.

You could even park your truck off of Ophir Creek Road and get out and start bushwhacking towards Greenhorn and you'd be in prime habitat all through there.

Or, you and your friends could get together and buy the Mosca Pass Ranch for only $6.5M. A bit smaller, only 5,056 deeded acres, but those acres control access to a little over 2 square miles of BLM (640a) and State (720a) land that is currently being leased to the owners of the Mosca Pass Ranch. Just a thought.

I always wanted to hunt in Colorado but working in education all of my life, couldn't get any time off in the fall. powdr

The Tanner Peak and Curly Peak areas south of Canon City holds some nice bucks.