I am looking to burn my 7 deer points next year.. Looking at unit 79 fourth season.. Looking at this unit it looks to be pretty good.. Success rate looks good.. Doesn't look like they give to many tags out for all seasons.. Access looks to be good.. My only concern is private land low... Can any one give me sum advice on this unit.. How are the deer doing in this unit.. How the genetics? I am not looking for a world record deer. A fun hunt that I hope to see lots of deer.. Any info would be great.. Any other unit that I should be looking at.. A private message would be good.. Thanks Rodney
Colorado Deer Hunt
- Thread starter Conrad8899
- Start date
CODAK
Active Member
My best advice is to commit and start scouting lightly now. Find their winter range and follow them in reverse. From shed, to summer range. 4th season bucks will tend to be closer to their winter range. Find that big buck or two and follow them (lightly!), pattern them, and see what covers they prefer and where the does like to hang. This can help if you werent able to scout the area during the season you will be hunting.Burning pts isnt easy but there are big bucks in every unit in CO, you have to do the dirty work to harvest one. Some of the biggest bucks I know of people killing come from areas 0-2 pts. It's adaptation, they learn how to avoid hunters like the plague. It makes it harder to find them, but the reward is that much sweeter
Thanks for the advice.. I am going to look around one unit next weekend... And do sum coyote hunting... I am in no mans land as far as Colorado deer and elk points... And its tough finding enough hunt days.. With all my Wyoming hunts.. To hunt down in Colorado.. I all most have to give up sum thing here.. Rodney
CODAK
Active Member
Another thing to consider... fourth season starts just 3 days after 3rd ends... is it worth the extra points just to draw a 4th season tag? Depends on who you ask.. I'd take 9 days over 5... may open up a few more areas being a NR
JimP
Administrator
I would perhaps wait until 2019 to burn the points. Find a unit you would like to hunt and then this year check it out from top to bottom. If it is 4th season you want in it then go during the 4th season to look at what is going on in 2018. This will give you a lot of ideas on what to expect when you draw the tag. You wouldn't need to go for the full hunt but just a couple of days to get the feel of things.
I have had good luck going into a unit blind but if you don't need to why do it.
I have had good luck going into a unit blind but if you don't need to why do it.
JimP
Administrator
Fourth season will put you closer to or into the rut where third will possibly just get you at the start of it.
Also there is a better chance of snow during fourth season than there is third just for the reason that it is later.
A few years ago I held a fourth season tag in unit 44 and we didn't get any snow until the Sunday before it started. Before that the dust was 6" deep on the roads and it was drier than popcorn farts.
Also there is a better chance of snow during fourth season than there is third just for the reason that it is later.
A few years ago I held a fourth season tag in unit 44 and we didn't get any snow until the Sunday before it started. Before that the dust was 6" deep on the roads and it was drier than popcorn farts.
Thanks JimP for the advice... I couldn't imagine have enough points to draw 44 fourth season... Only if I had got into the point game early..
bigmoose
Active Member
minn elk chaser
Active Member
- Jan 6, 2014
- 319
- 68
I had a 4th season tag in unit 44 for 2016 and the weather was very warm. Most days were in the 60's and windy so not ideal hunting conditions. Five days can go by very quickly if you are trying to cover allot of the unit. Learn all you can before the hunt and hope for the best as luck plays into the equation.
JimP
Administrator
Yes, and no.
I knew where a big buck was hanging out at with his does and I estimated him at around 205". I saw him the day before the hunt started and no one else had been into the area. I backed out and left him and his girlfriends alone and went to check out a couple of other bucks. I went back in opening morning and it looked like there had been 2 or 3 4 wheelers and a truck had been into where he had been living. I never did see him or the people that drove the vehicles in the night before. I suspected that he was shot the night before the season opened, I never did see him or his does in the area again.
We went to check out another big 190 buck but he was no where to be found either. I took a hike into a big canyon and saw a big buck jump up and was running full tilt. I managed to drop him only to find out that he was just a large 3x4 with heavy horns. But he was the heaviest buck that I have ever shot. I estimated that he went over 400 lbs live weight. I tried to drag him on the snow and I couldn't budge him. I ended up cutting him in half to get him into some trees away from the gut pile to keep him away from any coyotes and the birds. I went back in the next morning to pack him out.
It then rained for the rest of the season and those out hunting were miserable.
The wait really wasn't all that bad since I archery hunted all the years that I was waiting so it was no problem. I also had elk tags for unit 44 where I could see what the bucks were doing. It didn't hurt that I live in the unit and shot the buck 20 minutes from my home.
bigmoose
Active Member
That's too bad about the the buck you had scouted earlier. Maybe just the traffic from the 4wheelers and truck moved the group off. It's terrible to think he may have been poached before the season.
It sounds like the 3X4 was quite a lunk. That's a huge body.
It was good to be able to elk hunt in the area previously and of course to live nearby. I've always wanted to live in the Gypsum/Eagle area. We looked at a piece of property up Gypsum Creek years ago. Should have bought it then for $53,000 as now it's worth a small fortune ! I could not afford to live there now with the high prices and all the housing developments and golf courses. Lots of changes since the 80's.
My avatar buck is a 44 buck that I took in 1980.
It sounds like the 3X4 was quite a lunk. That's a huge body.
It was good to be able to elk hunt in the area previously and of course to live nearby. I've always wanted to live in the Gypsum/Eagle area. We looked at a piece of property up Gypsum Creek years ago. Should have bought it then for $53,000 as now it's worth a small fortune ! I could not afford to live there now with the high prices and all the housing developments and golf courses. Lots of changes since the 80's.
My avatar buck is a 44 buck that I took in 1980.
JimP
Administrator
You have the price range right for what is up Gypsum Creek now days. I don't think that you could touch a piece up there for less than a million. Things have changed a lot since the 80's. I moved here in 87 and still can't believe all that has been done since that time.
I should of posted a photo of the buck that I got. Here are a couple of him.
I should of posted a photo of the buck that I got. Here are a couple of him.
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bigmoose
Active Member
Here is a question for all of U.. Should I look at better or more popular unit.. To draw a 2nd season tag.. Or try to draw a 3rd or 4th season tag.. In a less popular unit. I am really leaning to the 3rd or 4th season.. Lets here sum opinions...
JimP
Administrator
What kind of deer are you going to be happy with? Are you looking for a bigger buck or would a average one suit what you want?
Second season is a great season to be out and about. But the vast majority of deer and elk hunters also agree and the number of hunters in the wilds reflect that.
Third season there are fewer hunters just for the amount of points that it takes to draw and also being in November. Fewer hunters, and the possibility of bad weather. But depending on what unit you may be in the rut or just the beginning of it. The possibility of a bigger buck is a little bit better than second season just because you might have weather and able to catch them moving down out of the high country.
Fourth season can be a crap shoot. A hot dry year like it was this year and all bets are off on what to expect. I had some relatives hunting unit 53 I believe this year and they saw lots of average bucks and only a couple of what you would call wall hangers and they were living in the thick stuff. Or you could have a couple feet of snow which will push them out of the brush and out into the open. You just never know.
As I said in my post above, when I had my 4th season tag it was hot dry and dusty up until 3 days before the hunt started. Then it snowed. Now if it hadn't snowed I might of done better but I don't think so. That cold and snow just gets those buck chasing the does even if they haven't started the rut yet. That buck that I had was running with around 10 does but he wasn't in the rut yet. The huge buck that I had seen the day before was into it big time. He was chasing does and mounting them, and they were only a mile apart.
So after saying all that, if you know the unit and can do a little bit of scouting 4th season might be best for you but those 5 days go fast. If you don't know the unit you want to hunt with very little scouting 3 might be the best. It is longer and there will be more hunters out to chase the deer out into the open.
Second season is a great season to be out and about. But the vast majority of deer and elk hunters also agree and the number of hunters in the wilds reflect that.
Third season there are fewer hunters just for the amount of points that it takes to draw and also being in November. Fewer hunters, and the possibility of bad weather. But depending on what unit you may be in the rut or just the beginning of it. The possibility of a bigger buck is a little bit better than second season just because you might have weather and able to catch them moving down out of the high country.
Fourth season can be a crap shoot. A hot dry year like it was this year and all bets are off on what to expect. I had some relatives hunting unit 53 I believe this year and they saw lots of average bucks and only a couple of what you would call wall hangers and they were living in the thick stuff. Or you could have a couple feet of snow which will push them out of the brush and out into the open. You just never know.
As I said in my post above, when I had my 4th season tag it was hot dry and dusty up until 3 days before the hunt started. Then it snowed. Now if it hadn't snowed I might of done better but I don't think so. That cold and snow just gets those buck chasing the does even if they haven't started the rut yet. That buck that I had was running with around 10 does but he wasn't in the rut yet. The huge buck that I had seen the day before was into it big time. He was chasing does and mounting them, and they were only a mile apart.
So after saying all that, if you know the unit and can do a little bit of scouting 4th season might be best for you but those 5 days go fast. If you don't know the unit you want to hunt with very little scouting 3 might be the best. It is longer and there will be more hunters out to chase the deer out into the open.
Jim a average deer would work for me.. Just looking for a good hunt and look over sum deer.. Would defiantly stay off the trigger. Unless a good one showed himself... How much scouting would I be able to do.. It depends on how the Wyoming draws shake out this year..
JimP
Administrator
That is where I was saying a while back to find a unit this year and do what scouting you can both this year and next and then hunt it in 2019. You can make a couple of trips to it just to get to know the roads and what kind of terrine it has. And if you could get into the unit during the hunt to scout it a little all the better for you to see how much pressure it receives.
There have been time that I have been fairly successful going into a new unit blind and only knowing a little about it, but that is the exception and not the rule. And where a number of drawing points is in the game you really want to be successful in the hunt.
There have been time that I have been fairly successful going into a new unit blind and only knowing a little about it, but that is the exception and not the rule. And where a number of drawing points is in the game you really want to be successful in the hunt.