Could OTC in Colorado get busier?

[Mw01313]

We had the same thing in the South with duck hunting. Every 17-20 yr old wanted to duck hunt. The public areas were packed. It seems to have faded out for most part. Some guys kept hunting because they loved it but from what i see the popularity fell off. I would imagine it will be the same with western stuff. What amazes me is how booked up the very expensive hunts are (i.e. sheep, goat etc.) The prices keep going up but outfitters are booked farther and farther out.

 

[5MilesBack]

Because they are limited. Draw units in Colorado have not seen an increase in "pressure" for the same reason. That is the purpose of limited tags and what your preference points are for.

You would think this is the case, but in reality for whatever reason.......my main draw unit which has the same number of tags every year, has steadily gotten more and more crowded with hunters and general recreationalists. It's gotten to the point that I see more hunters in my draw unit than I do in my OTC areas. So I have no idea what's going on.

 

[southLA]

You would think this is the case, but in reality for whatever reason.......my main draw unit which has the same number of tags every year, has steadily gotten more and more crowded with hunters and general recreationalists. It's gotten to the point that I see more hunters in my draw unit than I do in my OTC areas. So I have no idea what's going on.

You just gotta go 6 miles back to get out of pressure.

 

[cnelk]

You just gotta go 6 miles back to get out of pressure.

THIS! ^^^^
Go Deep everyone!

 

[5MilesBack]

You just gotta go 6 miles back to get out of pressure.

That's where most of the pressure has been. But it's greatly increased in every part of this unit over the years.

 

[sndmn11]

You would think this is the case, but in reality for whatever reason.......my main draw unit which has the same number of tags every year, has steadily gotten more and more crowded with hunters and general recreationalists. It's gotten to the point that I see more hunters in my draw unit than I do in my OTC areas. So I have no idea what's going on.

Do you look around the whole unit, or just the places where you have known there to be animals in the past?

I wonder if folks are just figuring out where animals are, maybe you have known for awhile, and are ending up where you are at.

 

[CoHiCntry]

No more OTC for non residents, draw only would be a step in the right direction. Relieve some of the pressure for residents & create a more quality hunt for non residents when they do draw.

 

[OMB]

We had the same thing in the South with duck hunting. Every 17-20 yr old wanted to duck hunt. The public areas were packed. It seems to have faded out for most part. Some guys kept hunting because they loved it but from what i see the popularity fell off. I would imagine it will be the same with western stuff. What amazes me is how booked up the very expensive hunts are (i.e. sheep, goat etc.) The prices keep going up but outfitters are booked farther and farther out.

Premium hunts are getting more expensive because the largest cohort of hunters, Baby Boomers, are hitting retirement flush with cash from a strong stock market and they're doing their dream hunts. I don't see that flattening for at least 10 years at this point.

 

[Mw01313]

No more OTC for non residents, draw only would be a step in the right direction. Relieve some of the pressure for residents & create a more quality hunt for non residents when they do draw.

Speaking as a NR that has hunted CO off and on for the last 20 yrs ( kinda sucks to realize i am that old), this is probably what needs to happen. I have basically been buying points in 2 or 3 states and cant hunt all of the tags i could draw over the next few years if i applied. If a NR works the point game, he can hunt something, somewhere every year. I went CO OTC rifle in 2018 and swore id never do it again.
One result of cutting out the OTC tags would be a serious loss of revenue for CPW. I would assume they would raise Res tag prices to fill that gap.
Now, before any CO residents think i am saying that you should be happy to have all of us NRs piling in every year to keep your fees low, I am not. But CPW is a government agency. When the guvmint loses a revenue stream, they dont cut expenses. They look for the next place to get it.

 

[Mw01313]

Premium hunts are getting more expensive because the largest cohort of hunters, Baby Boomers, are hitting retirement flush with cash from a strong stock market and they're doing their dream hunts. I don't see that flattening for at least 10 years at this point.

Makes sense.

 

[ClayA23]

I went to Colorado for the first time this year in a OTC unit. I only ran into one group of hunters off of the trail. It seemed to me at least half of the people in the general area were recreational users and not hunters. I wondered if there was a way to limit recreational use during some seasons.


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[CamoPirate]

I think a more interesting and maybe more helpful statistic would be how many are new never-before applied hunter applications vs recurring applications. I think more and more people are applying each year with all the buzz articles and youtube videos telling people how to do it, but I personally doubt many people are sticking to it.

I don't feel like this would be a hard stat to put together, given everyone gets a license/acc ID # attached to license/tag purchase.

 

[Still Hunter]

As a "Addicted NR" , I think it will eventually slow down. But no time soon! Elk hunting's not for the weak at heart. I have seen a lot of new hunters but not many of them are repeat hunters every year. All the YouTube videos are bringing in new blood and generating a business opportunity for some. Born and Raised Outdoors has caused a increase with their hunting videos for sure. However when Rocky Mountain Elk Calls/Phelps/BRO are all now producing calls we will see if this close nit group of elk hunters continue to hunt and do videos together when they are all competing for the same consumer dollars.

 

[def90]

As a business owner I don’t have the time or ability to travel out and spend a week straight in the field so I day hunted Unit 38 last archery season which being just outside of Denver is probably one of the busiest units in the state. In the 10 days I managed to get out I didn’t see another hunter in the field, I saw a few of them on the roads going in and out but none while actually hunting. I managed to get on fresh sign as in green runny poop fresh pretty much every day but in the end didn’t figure out where they ended up at each morning until the last day of the season I found a sizeable heavily used wallow that I will be visiting next year.

I think there are some obvious areas to everyone that looks at a map that attract a shit ton of people as well as the weekend warriors at to the pile but I think there is still a lot of lightly touched area. The last two years with covid have unleashed many more hikers in to the woods than I have ever seen in the past as well. I didn’t have a problem with hikers this past year but the season before was the first time I had seen backpackers camping in some areas where I have never seen them before.

 

[5MilesBack]

Do you look around the whole unit, or just the places where you have known there to be animals in the past?

I wonder if folks are just figuring out where animals are, maybe you have known for awhile, and are ending up where you are at.

I hunt areas in every part of that unit when I or someone I'm helping gets a tag there. I have no qualms driving 40-50 miles from base camp to hunt.

I also just saw something a little disturbing yesterday when I completed a CPW survey from a tag last year. One question they asked was "Which option would you prefer.......(1) being able to hunt this unit more often but have less opportunity at big bulls, or (2) more opportunity at big bulls, but not being able to hunt this unit as often". That can only mean one thing.......they're looking at possibly increasing tag numbers in some of these draw units.

 

[kentuckybowman]

Maybe... just maybe, with inflation and no stimulus $$ to fund many peoples budgets will show a bit of a flattening....

Maybe.

A good recession and 4 dollar gas will take some pressure off the elk.

 

[fatlander]

A good recession and 4 dollar gas will take some pressure off the elk.

No it won’t. Elk hunting is still cheaper than leasing land on the east coast to hunt whitetails. It’s not going to slow down anytime soon.


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[Btaylor]

No it won’t. Elk hunting is still cheaper than leasing land on the east coast to hunt whitetails. It’s not going to slow down anytime soon.


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That's a fact. I can do 2 CO hunts for the annual dues to the last club I was in down here.

 

[Okhotnik]

The newly introduced wolves will help keep the herds fit, healthy and restore the pristine balance to the point before the greedy white man settled in the Rockies. This will actually result in more hunting opportunities for non residents. I learned that at my last brew pub public land hunting meeting.

Book it

 

[lavashine]

That's a fact. I can do 2 CO hunts for the annual dues to the last club I was in down here.

Exactly. Last lease I looked at was $1600/yr.... and 11 other hunters had access.