I haven't hunted Colorado in a couple years and my old spot isn't worth 6 points. Just looking for a few more ideas on areas to hunt during muzzleloader or rifle season. Not looking for a monster just I good hunt. I have lots of vacation days to use this year.
6 Colorado elk points
- Thread starter Manualman
- Start date
Work2hunt
Veteran member
mallardsx2
Veteran member
- Jul 8, 2015
- 3,816
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hoshour
Veteran member
Go the Co Parks and Wildlife website's elk statistics http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics-Elk.aspx Then pull up the 2015 harvest report and look in the muzzleloader section and highlight any with success between 15% and 50%, or whatever range you want to set. Obviously, the better the success, the more points it tends to take, but 6 points will get you in some good hunts for ML.
Next, pull up the big game regulation brochure for last year (the new one won't be out for a couple weeks) from this page http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/BigGame.aspx . Look in the elk muzzleloader section to find those hunts you highlighted on the harvest report. Write down the unit number that they're listed under. For example, Unit 36 is listed under Unit 35. Write down 35.
Next, click on the 2014 points needed report (yes,t's a couple years old but was the last report of that type). The report has three sections - EE meaning either sex, EF (female) and EM (bulls). Scan down the pages, looking for those units you wrote down and that are either EE or EM. Only circle the ones that have a hunt code ending with M for Muzzleloaderk and have say 4-6 points, or whatever range you want to use.
Last, pull up the 2016 draw report and look for those hunt codes you noted on the 2014 points needed report and see how many points were needed for a nonresident to draw last year. Cross off any of your hunts with 7 or more points. Now you have the best harvest success ML hunts you can draw with your points or just under.
That will narrow it down for you to a reasonable number of hunts to research. Start that step by going to the hunt atlas http://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/index.html?app=HuntingAtlas. Zoom in on each units on your list to see how much public land there is (see the legend) and see what the units look like. Make sure you choose elk from the left side of the page.
You've done a small fraction of the work Eastmans' does to put together the MRS tables. I tell you this part of the process because we want you to know how to doublecheck what we put in our tables and our job is to educate guys to be more successful hunters.
Finally, make sure you subscribe to Eastmans' Bowhunting Journal. The next issue will have the MRS (Members Research Section) for Colorado and there will be a section on elk. There will be a lot of useful information there.
Next, pull up the big game regulation brochure for last year (the new one won't be out for a couple weeks) from this page http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/BigGame.aspx . Look in the elk muzzleloader section to find those hunts you highlighted on the harvest report. Write down the unit number that they're listed under. For example, Unit 36 is listed under Unit 35. Write down 35.
Next, click on the 2014 points needed report (yes,t's a couple years old but was the last report of that type). The report has three sections - EE meaning either sex, EF (female) and EM (bulls). Scan down the pages, looking for those units you wrote down and that are either EE or EM. Only circle the ones that have a hunt code ending with M for Muzzleloaderk and have say 4-6 points, or whatever range you want to use.
Last, pull up the 2016 draw report and look for those hunt codes you noted on the 2014 points needed report and see how many points were needed for a nonresident to draw last year. Cross off any of your hunts with 7 or more points. Now you have the best harvest success ML hunts you can draw with your points or just under.
That will narrow it down for you to a reasonable number of hunts to research. Start that step by going to the hunt atlas http://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/index.html?app=HuntingAtlas. Zoom in on each units on your list to see how much public land there is (see the legend) and see what the units look like. Make sure you choose elk from the left side of the page.
You've done a small fraction of the work Eastmans' does to put together the MRS tables. I tell you this part of the process because we want you to know how to doublecheck what we put in our tables and our job is to educate guys to be more successful hunters.
Finally, make sure you subscribe to Eastmans' Bowhunting Journal. The next issue will have the MRS (Members Research Section) for Colorado and there will be a section on elk. There will be a lot of useful information there.
NDHunter
Veteran member
I don't really have any unit recommendations but I would try and burn those points this year. Once you get past 4 points in CO, there aren't many hunts you can draw until you have 20 points.
Thanks for the ideas. I may just stick with the area I know. Even though it's an easy draw it has a higher success ratio than a lot of other areas I can draw this year for muzzleloader season. The number of elk hunt codes in Colorado drive me nuts.