Colorado eastern plains

[Rick Seymour]

I had to go to Denver for work Thursday evening all day Friday, so I turned it into a scouting trip for Antelope heading east on I-70. I have one of those Colo State topo maps which have the little grey colored parcels of land indicating 1 mile X 1 mile public. 9 areas and only 3 did not have a posted sign or have a fence across, even though the parcel was right on the road. Going to have to make a call to the DOW AND visit the local DOW to find out if I am incorrrect. Here in the western portion of CO the forest service darn near has a "yellow brick road" leading the way to public land. I did see quite a few nice Bucks which that in itself is a "hoot" for me. Just grumbling

 

[Rick Seymour]

Well...I found out from DOW yesterday that 95% of the CO "state public land" parcels in eastern CO. is leased by someone. They have the right to post public land to keep you off. DOW advised that I go Mon-FRi to whichever county courthouse I chose and purchase a "Plat" map. This map will give the person/persons address that leased the land. Go find them and go from there. On National forest land individuals lease the land but can't keep you off. Guess I need to spend my CO. dollars in Wy.

 

[Jared Bloomgren]

That is a bummer! Did not know that.

 

[Nick Muche]

There is land here and there on the eastern plains that is open to hunting, but like you said A LOT of it is leased by ranchers. I hunted there two seasons ago for Pronghorn on a ranch that a guy had permission on. It was a lot of fun, we saw ton's of Pronghorn but no one got a shot. I think if you went out there around Hugo and just knocked on some rancher's doors you could find yourself some land to hunt on, especially if you planned to bowhunt them.

The public land was in such small parcels, at least the ones we came across, that it wouldn't really pay to hunt them unless you saw a buck and could stalk it.

Best of luck, we had a blast, saw lots of goats too. It can definately be done on the cheap with a little leg work in terms of gaining some permission.