First trip west

[ILrutaddict]

I’m not trying to push you away but as a northern front range resident, in all honesty, those units you’ve thrown out as possibilities are really hard hunting for the seasons you’ll most likely be able to draw at 0 points.

Our higher elevation here on the front range is incredibly thick dark timber. If you want to stick it out and give a go anyways, there’s always a chance you can get a buck with hard hunting but get expectations right. They don’t start moving out of that stuff until mid-late November and I’m pretty sure you can’t draw those with 0 as a NR.

Whatever you decide on, good luck! You’ll have an adventure regardless


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I appreciate the input. Nothing trumps experience so I am all ears. In your opinion, would it make sense to select a low odds/higher quality unit as my first choice to pick up a point and hunt a 2nd choice “low quality” unit? I’m super excited to get out and just hunt mule deer, but I do want to give myself a chance to at least see deer. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Bachto]

If you are hunting mid to late October an underrated tactic is to hunt mule deer like a whitetail, kind of. I am not familiar with the area you will be hunting but in the mid day 10:00am to 3:00pm I would still hunt the dark timber pockets and try and catch them moving beds. That is where the more mature bucks will be that time of year.

I would glass the mornings and evenings for sure to try and find deer but there is still overlap in how bucks act with mule deer and whitetails. Bucks in October will want to find seclusion no matter the species in my experience.

You can also find travel corridors and sit those, again all deer like to take the path of least resistance so you can sit funnel areas that deer move through similar to a whitetail.

 

[ILrutaddict]

If you are hunting mid to late October an underrated tactic is to hunt mule deer like a whitetail, kind of. I am not familiar with the area you will be hunting but in the mid day 10:00am to 3:00pm I would still hunt the dark timber pockets and try and catch them moving beds. That is where the more mature bucks will be that time of year.

I would glass the mornings and evenings for sure to try and find deer but there is still overlap in how bucks act with mule deer and whitetails. Bucks in October will want to find seclusion no matter the species in my experience.

You can also find travel corridors and sit those, again all deer like to take the path of least resistance so you can sit funnel areas that deer move through similar to a whitetail.

That’s some encouraging info. The more parallels I can draw between the two species the more comfortable I will feel. From what I understand they are still a feed to bed/ bed to feed animal with rut obviously changing some of those patterns. I think a big study point for me will also be scouting certain elevations for certain times of the year and how weather affects that, and their main food sources at those elevation zones and how to best identify where those will grow best. Much different than acorns and corn fields here in the Midwest lol. Thanks for the help!

 

[Hnthrdr]

Was going to say bow hunting the alpine in the front range/ northern frontrange is an exercise in futility. I grew up spending lots of time up and down it. I wouldn’t spend the time and effort on any units mentioned during archery or bring a fishing pole to fish so you can be entertained when the bucks aren’t there. The rifle seasons deer come out mid to late November often onto private in the lower country , you are also targeting ground 0 for cwd so keep that in mind.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I appreciate the input. Nothing trumps experience so I am all ears. In your opinion, would it make sense to select a low odds/higher quality unit as my first choice to pick up a point and hunt a 2nd choice “low quality” unit? I’m super excited to get out and just hunt mule deer, but I do want to give myself a chance to at least see deer. Thanks for the reply!

I would go for a hunt 3-4 hours from the front range. You will likely have a better hunt less recreationalists. Units you can draw second choice as a NR i wouldn’t bother with. I almost refuse to hunt a second choice unit as a resident for 40 dollars and a 30 min drive let alone 500 and a 16 hour drive…

 

[backwoods baw]

I stand corrected, there were a decent amount of 3rd - 4th season tags you could draw as a NR with 0 points last year. Not a guarantee that stays the same though for next year. I personally would choose either of those seasons. Be prepared for weather, we got a huge dumping of snow this year in 3rd.

I will say that the deer hunting is not the same up here since we had some massive wildfires, idk what it did but I didn’t see a single 4 pt this past season in 6 days. Tons of forkys

Since you’ve got Insider now, just spend plenty of time sorting through what you can and can’t draw/harvest stats/private land % and just send it.


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[Hnthrdr]

I stand corrected, there were a decent amount of 3rd - 4th season tags you could draw as a NR with 0 points last year. Not a guarantee that stays the same though for next year. I personally would choose either of those seasons. Be prepared for weather, we got a huge dumping of snow this year in 3rd.

I will say that the deer hunting is not the same up here since we had some massive wildfires, idk what it did but I didn’t see a single 4 pt this past season in 6 days. Tons of forkys

Since you’ve got Insider now, just spend plenty of time sorting through what you can and can’t draw/harvest stats/private land % and just send it.


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Yeah same experience, bumping up to the private I found some better bucks but they were not on public land… that big snow seemed to empty a bunch of them out of anything over 8000 ft. Yeah guys come thinking the burn is wide open… it is very hard to hunt/ glass. That was incredibly thick timber and loads of standing dead

 

[ILrutaddict]

Was going to say bow hunting the alpine in the front range/ northern frontrange is an exercise in futility. I grew up spending lots of time up and down it. I wouldn’t spend the time and effort on any units mentioned during archery or bring a fishing pole to fish so you can be entertained when the bucks aren’t there. The rifle seasons deer come out mid to late November often onto private in the lower country , you are also targeting ground 0 for cwd so keep that in mind.

All great info! Thanks for the help!

 

[ILrutaddict]

I stand corrected, there were a decent amount of 3rd - 4th season tags you could draw as a NR with 0 points last year. Not a guarantee that stays the same though for next year. I personally would choose either of those seasons. Be prepared for weather, we got a huge dumping of snow this year in 3rd.

I will say that the deer hunting is not the same up here since we had some massive wildfires, idk what it did but I didn’t see a single 4 pt this past season in 6 days. Tons of forkys

Since you’ve got Insider now, just spend plenty of time sorting through what you can and can’t draw/harvest stats/private land % and just send it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Send it! That method works for me sometimes. Thanks for the help!