Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Colorado Deer Q?

I am new to Colorado (resident eligible August 6) and will be waiting and hoping for a left over tag. I am assuming a plains deer will be my best bet and I live near Greeley. I looked at few State Wildlife Areas (new guy, no private land to hunt) and saw a few were open to deer hunting but stated "centerfire rifle prohibited". Any CO guy or gals out that can tell what is legal? I looked though state land regs but didn't see anything specific. Would I be limited to archery? I have no bow so that would suck for me. I have/shoot muzzle-loaders, shotguns (slugs) and handguns, would these be allowed? Any answers and published regs would be great, but if I have to call CPW, so be it. Any general deer (or elk) tips would be great too.Thanks in advance.

I was in the same boat a few years ago when I first moved to Colorado. I started off hunting elk in northwest Colorado on public land, and have since added deer tags when I draw them. I haven't hunted the plains. Too much private land, I worry about being legal. But to be more specific to your question, most of the public land (BLM, National Forest, State Land) is legal for centerfires. I have not hunted the State Wildlife areas a lot, but the ones I have hunted allowed centerfires. Grab a 2018 hunting regs brochure from Walmart or Dick's Sporting Goods. Most of the information about seasons, what is legal for a particular unit etc is in there. Or just read up on https://cpw.state.co.us/. That should keep you legal. And I have called CPW before, they were very helpful and nice. Otherwise, pick an area you would like to hunt and go for it. 👍

If center fire rifle is prohibited, you must use shotgun slugs, muzzle loader, or archery equipment. Archery equipment is legal in all big game seasons, as are muzzle loaders and shotguns firing rifle slugs. However, only archery equipment may be used in special archery seasons.The same holds true for muzzle loaders.
Usually those few areas that prohibit center fire rifles are higher density rural areas.Rifles firing handgun cartridges would also be prohibited. I cannot comment on handguns themselves.. Some states have opened up those areas to straight walled cartridges such as 38-55,45 -70 etc. Colorado isn't that progressive.

Left over deer tags are few since all deer tags are by draw.You might look at some of the whitetail only hunts though. Left over list should be out about mid to late July as the tags go on sale early August.I think August 7,so you will just slip under the wire. You might call CPW and find out exactly what they need for you to prove residency

Reminds me of a time, back in the mid-'70's, when I drew a deer tag for the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, northeast of Denver. The area was becoming overrun with mule deer, and they issued a limited number of permits for the Arsenal grounds. Shotguns with slugs were the permitted weaponry. I had two shotguns, one a Model 12 with bead sight, the other my Remington M3200 Trap shotgun, also with bead sights. At the range, the Remington proved to be the more accurate of the two, so this is what I used for the hunt.
On opening day, I went to the Arsenal, and was accompanied by a range officer on the hunt. After a couple of hours, we came up on a mulie buck, and I stalked within 75 yards or so and took a shot. The buck ran a short distance, and collapsed in a shallow ditch.After dragging the buck out of the ditch and into the truck, the officer got a message over his truck loudspeaker to evacuate the area immediately! Which we did, and once back to a 'safer' place, I was able to gut my buck and head to the meat processor.

Big excitement, for sure! If the opportunity arose nowadays to use a shotgun with slugs, I'm sure I would choose something more suited to the task than a trap shotgun.