New to Colorado Muleys Looking for Insight

[rindog]

This is my first year to enter the draw for CO muleys. I moved to CO from TX last year, and I am officially now a CO resident. I'm used to hunting deer on private land sitting in a deer blind. I'm eager to get out the hiking boots and really hunt.

Any general suggestions on hunting areas I should target or even avoid? I'm not looking for a monster buck, just a good opportunity at something respectable. More importantly I'm interested in seeing and learening what CO is about.

Areas with large muley populations sound good, but on the other hand I hear they can be over run with hundreds (if not thousands) of hunters. I'm an avid hiker and not affraid to head into the back country if it means avoiding the masses. I'm prepared to scout during the summer and really brake the boots in.

There's so much info out there, I'm not even sure what's realiable, more less where to start. Any helps is good help. Thanks in advance.

 

[DEADON500]

RINDOG
Believe it or not--there's prbly more trophy mule deer in eastern Colorado plains than anywhere else in the state. Best of luck!

 

[BKC]

Deadon500, That was his first post and you let the cat out of the bag! Shame on you.

 

[Old Hunter]

First thing you're going to learn is units with good mule deer hunting will require some points. Elk tags are much easier to get. You might consider hunting for elk while building some deer points. 3/4 of the state you can get an OTC tag for elk. There's no OTC tags for deer.

 

[norcalhunter]

I would grab an elk tag otc archery or 2nd, 3rd season and do some deer scouting. Put in for some top deer units and get a point or a great hunt. Look at the MRS.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

My advice is not much different......Start getting some points thats for sure. Check out the Colorado Parks & Wildlife website and look for stats on what it takes to draw various units. Buy the OTC elk tag and start from there. If you can start looking in the eastern part of the state and checking with ranchers, some might give you permission to hunt, lots of antelope there too.

 

[In God We Trust]

There is a website called hunters trailhead that gives the draw odds for every unit in every state out west. My best advice is pick a unit with a decent success rate that takes 0 points to draw. Find one that is fairly close to home and then scout the crap out of it all summer. Call the wardens and biologists for the unit and get all of the info you can from them. Hunt that unit for several years and you will start to learn the unit and become more successful. Also set realistic goals for yourself the first few years. Maybe your goal will be any 4 point buck the first few years and then up your expectations after that. One more thing you can do is find a decent unit that you can draw as a second choice so you can save up points for a better unit. All of the draw statistics are on the DOW website. Also start putting in for another western state that you can draw every other year. The more you hunt the better you will be. Finally buy Mike Eastman's new mule deer book, it is a great read and resource for a DIY public land mule deer hunter. If you have anymore questions P.M me and I will help you out if I can.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

If you have anymore questions P.M me and I will help you out if I can.

Lots of great advice here. Same goes for me down here in the SW part of the state.

 

[Umpqua Hunter]

GENERALITIES: I've always thought the third rifle season is the best "value" for a quality hunt. Usually lower tag numbers and you get a chance to hunt bucks on the front end of the rut. Lots of public land in the western half of the state.

 

[Old Hunter]

Looking at charts about how many points a unit takes to draw can be misleading. It might mean 10 hunters out of 100 got a tag with no points.

You need to dig deeper, and see how many didn't get a tag with no points.

 

[packmule]

Could always find a decent unit with reasonably priced unit-wide vouchers...would let you hunt deer instead of messing around with elk.

 

[rindog]

All good info, thank you.

I went after scoring a point, but found I was way too agressive on my 2nd and 3rd choice. I guess I'm "paying for knowledge" in the beginning. I ended up getting a tag in the left-over draw for 2nd rifle, GM 18, 28, 37, 371. I've spent a few weekends scouting 37 south of Copper, east of 91 on the back side of Breck. Lots of hiking. Only saw a couple bucks, but I'm not sure if it was my expectations or the wildlife.

I have 3 more weekends to scout (the wife is limiting me) before the season. I'm tempted to head all the way north into 18. Any recommendations?

All the information provided was very helpful, and I appreciate it immensely.