Where to hunt...

[cohunter14]

This question typically gets brought up each year. How do you pick one specific unit to hunt and, once you pick that, where to hunt within that unit. I will speak for Colorado since that is what I am familiar with. In Colorado, you can find a lot of information to help you pick the actual unit on the statistics page of the division of wildlife website here: http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx. You can use the Estimated Harvest links to figure out what the success rates look like for each year in a given unit and season. You can also find links to population estimates, required preference points for each hunt code, as well as hunt recap summaries. The hunt recap summaries will provide a breakdown of the applications for each hunt code, including how many tags are available, how many people applied for those tags, and how many preference points those people had. Using all of this information, someone should be able to find out which units provide a higher success rate and which of those units you can actually get tags for. Another good reference for figuring out if there are over-the-counter tags available for a given unit is to look in the Big Game Regulations Brochure. You can find an online version of this here: http://case.epaperflip.com/colorado/Parks-and-wildlife/. One thing I would like to mention about all of this: do not get too tied up in picking the perfect unit. Elk are killed every year in every single unit west of I-25. Pick one that provides you a decent success percentage and get to work on where to hunt. Too much time and energy is typically spent trying to pick the perfect unit when that time could and should be spent on where to go within your chosen unit.

So, you\'ve picked out which unit you are going to hunt, now what? Well, in Colorado, folks have access to another great tool via the division of wildlife mapping system, found here: http://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/index.html?app=HuntingAtlas. Once your map loads, you will be able to use the tool bar on the left to select game species, among other things.Use that tool to select elk migration routes, summer concentration areas, and winter concentration areas. This is an excellent tool to show you the areas within a unit to focus on. You can also use the buttons in the upper right hand corner to toggle between road maps, aerial maps, and topo maps of the area. Spend some time on here and you will be able to get a great starting point in your search for the perfect elk hunting location.

 

[cnelk]

I would like to add a map of NW Colorado that shows where gas leases are
This could be very helpful for future use, even tho the gas wells may not be in your area now, they could be coming.

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[cohunter14]

Just going to bump this up now that the forum is growing a bit...

 

[cnelk]

Another useful link is the Big Game Hunt Guides
These arent \"giudes\' you hire, but a guide that has some very helpful info.
Colorado is divided into regions and info posted accordingly


<!-- m --><a class=\"postlink\" href=\"http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/BigGameHuntGuides.aspx\">http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages ... uides.aspx</a><!-- m -->

 

[Colorado_Lew]

I would add that once you pick a unit and hunt it, don\'t be too quick to hunt a different unit the following season.
Sometimes it takes a couple of years to figure out how the animals move and relocate in a unit.
IMO too many hunters jump from one unit to the next looking for greener pastures without putting in the time to figure out each one. There are times when a person should move on due to any number of things, but for the most part putting the time in can lead to big rewards.