Northwest Colorado Antelope and lesson learned

[m.mcolorado]

Learned a valuable lesson on my 3/301 Antelope Hunt yesterday. Usually would keep this to myself but when people are putting in 14 + years i feel compelled to say something. First I will tell you I live 30 minutes from Unit 2 and 3 in Northwest Colorado.

When I rolled out to hunt yesterday morning I could not believe the caravan of hunters in the area. If you are on the ropes in your decision on which unit to hunt maybe this will help!

Unit 3/301 has limited public land compared to unit 2. Unit 3 is a easy private land tag to secure. There were hunters yesterday absolutely everywhere and driving on every back road and every two track in the unit. Also if you all private land hunters stay on their private ground you are mistaken. I saw this goat several times and knew he was not what i was looking for. I watch several hunters push him in a 5 square mile radius only for him to return to where I was. I told my hunting partner at around 4 p.m. if I see again I'm going to kill him so I can get this hunt over and get the hell out of here. To have 20 trucks drive by me in an hour, well to say I was livid is an understatement.

80% of the hunters in Unit 2 concentrate on the Cold Springs area leaving 90% of the unit open. Unit 2 has 10 times the public ground.

In my opinion 3/301 has more antelope than 2. But 2 has more ground and better quality. Just my thoughts from a very and frustrating hunt.


Matt M- Prostaff- outdoorsmensocialnetwork.com
Field Staff- Team RIP Outdoors.com

 

[shootbrownelk]

That's a nice goat m.mcolorado. I take it there were lots of "road hunters" in the unit. Sounds like the Colorado DOW issued too many tags for an area with limited access. I'd say that you did good, considering what you had to deal with. I'll bet most of those 20 trucks that passed you in that hour, went home empty handed.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I've scouted this unit many times and drew a tag last year, which I turned in before the season (for my points back) because of a family emergency. Scouting is a tough deal as you actually don't know what it will be like opening day.

Thanks for the info on unit 2, it will be a consideration in next years application for me.

 

[CoHiCntry]

This is really good information. Thanks! I'm looking to burn my points in the next few years and those units are of interest. Nice goat by the way...

 

[Orion/CO]

I feel your pain. With 6 pref points I drew a Unit 87 (Pawnee Grasslands) this year. After a lot of scouting on Wednesday I found a handful of decent bucks that I wanted to target on opening Day (Oct 5). On Saturday the wind was howling and I blew an early stalk and one missed shot. The rest of the day I spent watching other hunters and vehicles drive up and down the roads, including on every 2 track in sight (which are all posted as "No Vehicles" by the USFS), driving cross country (totally illegal), hunting on land marked private on the USFS map (which I also assume was being done illegally), and I even saw a party of 3 all shooting while standing ON the road at a small buck (which I highly doubt all 3 had buck tags). Finally while the sun was going down I ran into a herd heading for their bedding ground and managed to drop the herd buck. Not huge, but decent given the quality of bucks I found during my scouting and hunting. In a way I was hoping for something bigger, but on the other hand I was glad to take what I got and get out of that mess.

 

[y02MDM]

sounds frustrating having to put up with so many yahoos. We have the same problem on every public parcel here as well. Nice buck thouh. great mass congrats

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

One of the problems with Colorado is the short season when compared to Wyoming. Most of the rifle seasons are only about a week long (Yes there are some longer, but these are in the minority). I love to hunt wyoming later in the season and then there is almost no other hunters around. Last year we hunted the 3rd week and saw no other hunters except for a few locals out scouting for deer.