A cow tag is always easier to draw, as there are about 5 times as many cows as bulls. Archery hunting success ratio is about 1/2 or less of rifle hunting. It use to be quoted as 18-20 % for rifle and 10-11% for archery. Due to ever increasing number of hunters I believe it is more like 14-15% for rifle and 5% for archery. So factor in those two statistic before choosing sex and what to use
Season wise, you can buy an Over the Counter tag (OTC) for 2nd and 3rd rifle season and archery for some big game units. Colorado is divided into Units and you select which unit you want to hunt in. Many units are lumped into one big area. I don't know of any OTC units that are not tremendously over crowded and success ratio is probably at least half of units that require a to draw a tag in a lottery.
Weather is a big factor too. Of the four rifle seasons the first season is more likely to have warmer weather, but that effects the success kill ratio. The later the season, the more chance of snow which could limit access to hunt areas, but success kill ratio climbs, especially for cows since they will be herded up more and at lower elevations if the snow is deep in the high country.
Horses will definitely get you into better country. Many areas in Colorado are Wilderness designated and ATV or any motorized/wheeled vehicle is not permitted . So it is either back packing or horses/mules. If successful, those horses will be invaluable in packing 300-400's of meat back to your truck. IF, and that is a big IF, the horses will pack meat, you have the experience to do so, and are very familiar with handling horses. You cannot depend on there being forage for your stock, the later the season the less there will be. Therefore,you will need weed free certified hay or any processed feed . Water is a big concern. You will have to camp near a good water source. The later the season the more of a chance the water will be frozen up. Lack of water will kill your horses.Then you get into the problems of the horse being hobble broke, high line or picketing broke and the possibility of encountering moose, and bears, or even the occasional llama.
On the plus side, horses will expand your hunting territory and make you more mobile. A lot of foot hunters will exhaust themselves in 3 days hiking around 10,000 ft elevations. With horses, you can hunt hard all day and all you have to worry about is having enough energy to crawl back into the saddle. However, they will add an hour to an hour and a half to you camp chores morning and evening and taking care of them during the day.
For your first hunt, I would seriously recommend this guy and hunt Wyoming.
http://www.headinwest.net/ The learning curve is tremendous and it is money well spent. Most of the time, new hunters spend 5 years + before being successful .
Someone mentioned, " just go,don't over think it ". That is fine if you want to go on a camping trip and hike around with a rifle. 10% of the hunters, kill 90% of the elk, they don't do that with that kind of attitude.
