Folks,
It’s my second year hunting. As a beginner, I’m still looking for any advantage I can get. I’ll be hunting GMU 33 in CO 2nd season. I’m also bringing a good friend on his first hunting trip of any kind. We both have a buck tag and a leftover cow elk tag. I think our plan will be to focus on deer, but to take a cow if we encounter it.
I’ve searched the forum and didn’t find much talk of GMU 33 deer. So I thought I’d ask. The main things I’m trying to determine are what elevation / vegetation / location we should focus our initial affords at. The unit ranges from about 6k’ on the south west side (toward rifle), full of brushy BLM, up to >11k’ on the north east side, where it’s a lot of alpine meadows and fur/spruce on NFS. In between you find what looks to be oak scrub, lots of aspen, and pine.
So far weather has not been very cold, and it looks like there will be very little snow accumulation by next weekend, if any. That suggests to me that the deer will still likely be scattered throughout the unit, up to high elevations, not yet concentrated in wintering zones. Given that, my thought was to start fairly high, near the top of the aspen zone around 9-10k, focus on glassing broken country, with some still hunting dark timber midday. If that’s not working out, probably progressively head down.
The unit offers a lot of deer tags and is also an OTC bull unit, so I’m expecting it to be crowded. Maybe very crowded.
Am I thinking about this the right way? I’d appreciate any advice from folks who have hunted the unit before as to which general areas i could focus my attention (not asking about specific draws, just any general region or elevation). I’ve put a ton of potential camping and glassing spots down on OnX, but having trouble narrowing it down. Any PMs appreciated.
It’s my second year hunting. As a beginner, I’m still looking for any advantage I can get. I’ll be hunting GMU 33 in CO 2nd season. I’m also bringing a good friend on his first hunting trip of any kind. We both have a buck tag and a leftover cow elk tag. I think our plan will be to focus on deer, but to take a cow if we encounter it.
I’ve searched the forum and didn’t find much talk of GMU 33 deer. So I thought I’d ask. The main things I’m trying to determine are what elevation / vegetation / location we should focus our initial affords at. The unit ranges from about 6k’ on the south west side (toward rifle), full of brushy BLM, up to >11k’ on the north east side, where it’s a lot of alpine meadows and fur/spruce on NFS. In between you find what looks to be oak scrub, lots of aspen, and pine.
So far weather has not been very cold, and it looks like there will be very little snow accumulation by next weekend, if any. That suggests to me that the deer will still likely be scattered throughout the unit, up to high elevations, not yet concentrated in wintering zones. Given that, my thought was to start fairly high, near the top of the aspen zone around 9-10k, focus on glassing broken country, with some still hunting dark timber midday. If that’s not working out, probably progressively head down.
The unit offers a lot of deer tags and is also an OTC bull unit, so I’m expecting it to be crowded. Maybe very crowded.
Am I thinking about this the right way? I’d appreciate any advice from folks who have hunted the unit before as to which general areas i could focus my attention (not asking about specific draws, just any general region or elevation). I’ve put a ton of potential camping and glassing spots down on OnX, but having trouble narrowing it down. Any PMs appreciated.
