cohunter14
Administrator
- Jul 10, 2017
- 5,278
Well, it's back to the drawing board for me this year and I am in search of a new unit to hunt in Colorado after my difficult rifle season. I figured why not post up some of the ideas I am using and share them. If anyone else has other suggestions or ideas, feel free to add them in as well!
To start, I had some basic criteria that I wanted to meet including the following:
- Driving distance from home: I live in Colorado, but I want my new hunting area to be in an area that I can get to in a decent amount of time. The closer it is, the more time I'll get to spend there both scouting and during hunting season.
- The ability to hunt the unit in both archery and rifle seasons every year: I have hunted different units the last couple of years for each hunt and that doesn't make much sense to me anymore. The more time spent in the same area, the quicker you learn it. For me, there is no reason to pick an area that I can't hunt every single year.
By doing both of these things, I quickly eliminated a bunch of units.
The next step, although I don't typically put much weight in it, is to look at the harvest statistics. I know these are a scientific guess at best and at worse they are no more than a guess, but it's at least something else to consider. I like looking at more than one year as the numbers can vary significantly from one year to another. Three years seems to give you a pretty good average or idea of what is going on.
The next thing I am going to look at is the terrain of each unit. I personally want to find a spot that fits the way I like to hunt, which is spot and stalk. If I pick a unit that has no good areas to glass from, it doesn't do me a whole lot of good. I also need to keep in mind that we have a couple of hunters in our group who are getting up there in age, so I cannot put them in some crazy steep or brutal terrain. Other things to look at include pine beetle kill areas and the effect it's having on the areas, recent wildfires, and I am also looking at how close areas are to major cities or towns. The easier it is for people to access the area, the more crowded it will get.
That's where I am at for now. I currently have 25 units I am considering, which is a big cut down from the starting point, but still a ways to go. Of those 25, I definitely have a few in mind already that might be a fit and I've been doing some digging on them already. If things fall into place correctly, I might even be out scouting one of these areas before the rifle seasons are done.
Any other thoughts on what to consider? Anything I am missing?
To start, I had some basic criteria that I wanted to meet including the following:
- Driving distance from home: I live in Colorado, but I want my new hunting area to be in an area that I can get to in a decent amount of time. The closer it is, the more time I'll get to spend there both scouting and during hunting season.
- The ability to hunt the unit in both archery and rifle seasons every year: I have hunted different units the last couple of years for each hunt and that doesn't make much sense to me anymore. The more time spent in the same area, the quicker you learn it. For me, there is no reason to pick an area that I can't hunt every single year.
By doing both of these things, I quickly eliminated a bunch of units.
The next step, although I don't typically put much weight in it, is to look at the harvest statistics. I know these are a scientific guess at best and at worse they are no more than a guess, but it's at least something else to consider. I like looking at more than one year as the numbers can vary significantly from one year to another. Three years seems to give you a pretty good average or idea of what is going on.
The next thing I am going to look at is the terrain of each unit. I personally want to find a spot that fits the way I like to hunt, which is spot and stalk. If I pick a unit that has no good areas to glass from, it doesn't do me a whole lot of good. I also need to keep in mind that we have a couple of hunters in our group who are getting up there in age, so I cannot put them in some crazy steep or brutal terrain. Other things to look at include pine beetle kill areas and the effect it's having on the areas, recent wildfires, and I am also looking at how close areas are to major cities or towns. The easier it is for people to access the area, the more crowded it will get.
That's where I am at for now. I currently have 25 units I am considering, which is a big cut down from the starting point, but still a ways to go. Of those 25, I definitely have a few in mind already that might be a fit and I've been doing some digging on them already. If things fall into place correctly, I might even be out scouting one of these areas before the rifle seasons are done.
Any other thoughts on what to consider? Anything I am missing?
