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Colorado draw results
I got my first choice for elk - a cow tag in Unit 48 (near Leadville) - and my second choice for Mule Deer - a dow tag in Unit 104, where I've hunted before. I'm especially happy about the elk tag - my good friend and I have permission to hunt on 700 acres of private land in November. It will be just the two of us so it should be a good hunting adventure. How did everyone else do?
Replies
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
N454casull
Did you and Jerry have PPs? I may need more training on how to work the system.
Mike
N454casull
Uh, Mike. I do have to make a correction to this. You have a cow tag, and I have a bull tag. One way or the other, I'm gonna shoot the bull this fall.
And about that packing out thang, why do you think I advised you to apply for these tags?
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
I like getting cow tags because I don't have to worry about shooting them in the horns.
N454casull
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Depends on species but they start rolling out towards the end of May. Of course we have a back door in the CDOW software on their webpage that lets you find out earlier. You basically go on there like you were going to buy a tag, then you "buy" a Wildlife stamp and it shows you all your current/previous purchases. So usually before they are posted you can see your results.
Got 5 PP's for deer now....someday I'll be able to use them lol
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
I've been here seven years now, and I'm still not used to the drawing for a specific area/time, and a one week season. If weather conditions aren't favorable (and I don't mean simply "uncomfortable") during "your week" in the area you've drawn, you may as well stay home and drink beer and eat popcorn.
Mike
N454casull
In Nevada, I put in, and paid $110 in application fees for, all manner of fauna in Nevada and got drawn for exactly nothing. I was spoiled as hell being able to just go online, buy and print a tag in Nebraska, so I was pretty bitter when the results came back like that. That said, they have some cool species to hunt here (rocky mountain big horn, desert bighorn, california bighorn, mountain goat, elk, etc.) and I will still put in for that stuff next year, but it's a real pisser when you can't even get drawn for a simple a mule deer tag without some level of seniority in the point system.
Chris....when I bought all my licenses and permits and applied for all the different drawings this year, they swiped my credit card for $387. I personally think our General License is a good deal...upland hunting, one deer, one elk, one black bear, year of fishing for $85. It is all the special drawings and permits that really add up.
Don't you get the license portion of that money back if you don't get drawn?
You can do that here, too. Just not for every unit and for every sex/species. 2nd and 3rd rifle (9 days long each) have OTC bull tags for pretty much every unit except trophy units. We also have left over tags, which are draw only tags that didn't get drawn. You can just walk in and buy those as well, but your choices are limited to what they have and where/when. There are also B class licenses, usually for damage control, those are OTC from the CDOW for special areas/seasons.
Some of our seasons are very long, but are specific. Alpine deer for example, is 2 months long but has to be above 10k ft. Late plains deer is a month long, but, thats 98% private land.
Over all, it can be quite confusing though. I miss the days of drawing a doe and buying a buck anytime you wanted. But, in those days a 120" 3x3 was a NICE buck in my area. Now, it might take you several years but as long as you get more then 100 yards from a road the chance at a 190" or bigger buck is ALMOST in the bag.
Nope. I paid those tag fees in addition to my regular state hunting license and not a dime of those application fees is refundable. The only tag that I got "over the counter" is the mountain lion tag ($29) that I bought purely as a target of opportunity chance, assuming that I'd be hunting for something - anything - else and could shoot a cat if I saw one. Unfortunately, that was a bad move and I didn't get drawn for any other animal. So, that lion tag, along with my state combo hunting/fishing license, is looking like a major waste of money. The only one lake within 30 minutes of me worth fishing is Lake Mead, and if you want to get anything other than bullhead cattys out of there, ya need a boat. The only hunting within ANY range of me worth bothering with for anything other than desert bighorns (and good luck drawing a tag for those) is 2.5-3 hours north.
It's nobody's fault that I live far from anything worth doing outdoors in this state or that I work longer hours in this new job than I realized I would. It just blows that I can't even get a tag to try my hand at some kind of big game for even a week out of the year without putting up the money, possibly for years and years, without getting drawn for anything in the interim. To say "I miss Nebraska" when it comes to the outdoors is the understatement of the year. Rest assured, I will be headed back there for ducks, geese, pheasants and hopefully deer come this fall. At least as I was smart enough to buy a lifetime hunting permit and lifetime state waterfowl stamp while I still lived there as a resident.
Before I moved, I had a gut feeling that Nevada was going to be a pain in the *** for hunting and it seems that I was right.
As great as the hunting is in the western states, there doesn't seem to be near the numbers of deer as there are in the eastern or southern states. There is probably a greater variety, though. For instance, in Colorado, one may legally hunt whitetail deer, mule deer, pronghorn, elk, moose, black bear, bighorn sheep, mountain lion and probably some animals that I am overlooking. Some of these, such as deer and elk, can be hunted at the same time and in the same place.
The other part of the equation is that so much of hunting land in the western states is public that it's very easy to over-hunt it, or to have more hunters at a given time than is safe. The flip side, of course, is that you don't have to pay high lease or trespass fees. This is one of the reasons that so many out of state hunters come here, and one of the reasons for the hard to understand game regs. If states such as Colorado were just to sell everything over the counter, and as many tags as there were a demand for, and for a long season, the hunting pressure would be tremendous. With the regs the way they are, at least the hunting pressure is spread out over the fall, and some areas can be managed to produce quality animals.
The bottom line is that it's one big balancing act that is constantly changing.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
OH! Bison too, granted its private ranch stuff, we still got em so they count! Some exotics here and there as well, not like Texas or NM though
That really seems like a fair deal. I wouldn't mind paying $3 per tag in non-refundable form, but when it's $13+ per critter (after you factor in the $3/tag predator fee here), the state's chunk adds up really fast. It's good to hear that Colorado charges a sane amount for applications because Kristi and I plan on retiring there when I get out of the Air Force.
I understand that the game numbers in Nevada necessitate a draw system since a state that has a large desert region that doesn't hold a whole lot of anything, but the fees vs. the opportunity to actually hunt here just don't add up. I paid for a state general hunting license to try for ducks this fall, but the sad thing is that there are only a handful of WMAs in the entire state AND you can only hunt them every other day...AND you can't even hunt where you want because you MUST reserve a state-owned blind in advance. I mean, good grief - I can't even take a week off to go hunt unless I'm willing to either lose every other day or drive several hours to a different WMA that let's you hunt on the days your primary WMA is closed to hunting (and vice versa.)
Ugghh...I'll take Colorado' draw rules and fees any day of the week over this annoyance. I hate complaining like this and I don't mean to hijack ken55's thread, but I think any other state's draw system HAS to be better than this.