Colorado Ranching for wildlife

[tburkepa]

Looking for any experiences or advice for elk tag on a Ranching for Wildlife ranch. I get to be the plus 1 on my hunting partners Colorado resident hunt if he draws. He has 25 points he's looking to use and we want to do it while we are still able to pack out an elk since we are both mid 50's. He's looking at getting a bull since he's probably going to have to burn a lot of points to draw. Looking at past results there are a few ranches with 90-100% success. So he's wanting to put in for them. We aren't looking for a "canned" hunt as we have hunted public for past 20 years and have had some decent success. Walking isn't a problem as past 3rd season we hunted area that was 4.5 miles back in and our group got 4 bulls that we packed out on our backs. So I'm looking for any experiences, advice or recommendations that anyone would have. Thanks in advance.
Tim

 

[IrkedCitizen]

Curious why is he looking at RFW versus a regular upper tier unit? 25pp can draw quite a few coveted units. What method of take will he use?

Personally since you guys are still relatively young I would just DIY in one of the upper tier units. Then you can have more than one other person in camp to experience the hunt. Seems like you have been successful in the past and if you hunt like you have in the past then he should be able to get a good bull.

 

[tburkepa]

I think he's just looking at the high success of the RFW as compared to trying to learn a new unit in the upper tier areas. He travels for work quite a bit and also has children/grandchildren so he hasn't done scouting for new areas. And I live 1600 miles away from CO and don't have the extra vacation time to scout for him. We have had really good success over the past years (2022 we got 4 bulls and 2 mulies in our camp). So finding a new area for our group hasn't been high on our priority list. After posting my question I also did find in Rokslide archives other suggestions compared to RFW. But I was too busy searching the ranches and success and where they are located to use my head and search past threads. Shame on me! The other issue of more people in camp is that most want to be able to shoot something of their own. I'm happy with experiencing the hunt and getting half of the elk meat!!

 

[Northpark]

When I lived in CO i participated in several RFW hunts for antelope and elk and found them to be very satisfying experiences. I’m not sure which ranches he’s looking at but there plenty of solid ranches in the RFW program. I hunted the silver spur a few times and was always happy and successful.

 

[Sako76]

Tri-States has a RFW hunt, I forget the ranch name, that is the one I would do. We had it booked in 2022 for a rifle elk hunt with the understanding we didn't want to hunt the full moon, guess what, they booked us right in the middle of the October full moon and we backed out, at least they refunded our deposit with no questions asked!

 

[Phaseolus]

RFW can be a fun hunt but they aren’t worth 25 points in my opinion.

 

[ElkArcher918]

Check out the CPW website for RFW info. and stats then decide were to put in for. Damn, with 25 NR points and limited time I would spend the $ and go guided on a private ranch in NW or S. Central CO. High probability of killing a "once in a lifetime" giant. IMHO, with the exception of a few top tier RFW properties he would be wasting points.

 

[LongWayAround]

All of the RFW tags I have looked at have weird strings attached. You get instructed where you can go, where to park, maybe you get your hand held by one of the ranch guys.

I'm generally not interested in that.

If you guys are killing multiple bulls and packing them miles, I can't see how one of those ranch hunts would appeal.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Sorry if I missed something. If you are the plus one and he needs 25 points to draw, you would be tagging along but not hunting?

 

[Slugz]

Jay Scott Outdoors

jayscottoutdoorspodcast.com

I'd get ahold of this guy and discuss the Aught 6 Ranch and info about RFW.



FYI on the RFW program as a whole.
-Success rates are one thing that is not correlated to animal size
-Big animals are shot by the clients who are being guided on the ranch ( 10,000$ or more hunt) inser ay RFW ranch here. Some with bigger animals.
-I've never heard of a RFW hunt that didn't come with some handcuffs like area to hunt, they pick the animal, etc etc. (maybe there are some)

 

[COelk89]

As others have said I would put in for one of the two or three coveted units in the state. I would not want to go on a hunt where I am limited by the ranch. Just image if you got put in a compartment to hunt and the elk are not there!

He should be able to draw a rut hunt any legal weapon in some of the "best" units in CO. Finding the elk in such coveted units in Colrado is not very difficult. They are mostly desert units with pretty limited areas where elk tend to be be early season. I had a cow tag during second season in one of these units a few years ago. There were so many elk, I screwed up multiple times before I got a cow down first afternoon of the hunt. I saw at least 6 6 pt bulls in about 3 miles of hiking, most of them staring right at me within shooting range.

 

[Jkr61]

NR i believe cannot apply in draw for RFW hunts. You can only go as a guided client- no points needed just the cash.

 

[tburkepa]

Sorry if I missed something. If you are the plus one and he needs 25 points to draw, you would be tagging along but not hunting?

That is correct that I will just be the pack animal and extra eyes for the hunt.

 

[tburkepa]

Thanks everyone for the information on RFW. He is now looking into some of the areas that have been suggested without doing the RFW route. We just talked last night about different options. The being told where to go and "handcuffs" aren't as appealing to us as we initially thought.

 

[cuerro viejo]

NR i believe cannot apply in draw for RFW hunts. You can only go as a guided client- no points needed just the cash.

Even then most those ranches pick the clients just as much as clients pick them