New Colorado Mountainish Man

[Eargesplitten]

Hi,

I'm just posting my new guy thread here, I'll probably mostly be lurking unless I have questions because I don't have any informed opinions worth posting. I haven't done any hunting aside from small game, pheasant, and goose in the past, but am hoping to start going after big game in the next year or two. I'm up in the Colorado high country and know some hunters around here that I've been asking for advice as far as stuff like expected target ranges, but I don't know very much about the hunting side of things vs "shooting" at this point. I mostly just target shoot or competition shoot for fun, but also meat is expensive and being outside is fun assuming it's not single digit degrees.

I've currently got a .270 Tikka T3 with a Harris bipod, but I'm hoping to get a new barrel in 6.5 Creedmoor (someone I know recommended the classifieds here as a common place to find them) and get it chopped and threaded to 16-18" so I can put my suppressor on it without it getting comically long. I fool around with Gordon's Reloading Tool as a method of relaxation because I'm weird, and it seems like I can get impressive results even out of a 16" barrel. This is a pretty heavily wooded area anyway so I'm unlikely to get any clear PID past 200y or so. So I feel like I've got the gun/shooting portion down, I "just" need to learn how to find prey animals that aren't interested in being found.

 

[AZJesse]

Welcome from another newcomer.

 

[Eargesplitten]

Thanks! I just remembered to say that I am also potentially interested in hunting in PA, although I'm not really familiar with their wildlife or laws. I've got some friends in PA that I go to visit fairly regularly, but it sounds like it would be a lot harder for me to get a tag for anything there since I'm out of state. Whereas I can just buy an elk tag over the counter at my local sporting goods store here. I am planning on potentially moving to PA in a couple years given that, without bringing partisan politics into it, Colorado's gun laws seem to be getting worse year by year. That's a future concern though.

 

[atmat]

Welcome! Where in CO?

 

[Flazyj]

Welcome also from Colorado!

 

[Eargesplitten]

I'm up in the mountains west of the Continental Divide. I don't want to be any more specific because with how small all of the towns are here it would make me too easy to doxx since I use the same username everywhere (because I'm bad at remembering what username I used where).