tag draw failure...

[KHNC]

First world problems...

*sniff, sniff, tear*

I drive 17 hours to hunt CO. My hunting partner drives 26 hours. Just depends on how bad you want it.

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Not in the state you are a resident of you dont. You are most likely driving to CO once and done. Do you hunt other places besides CO? What if that was your ONLY option? Would you do that one hunt and then stay home the rest of the season? 4 Hours is a pretty inconvenient when you arent talking about a once per fall trip. I drive 5 hours to deer hunt in KY from NC. Its a sucky drive so i narrow it down to just an 8 day rut hunt each november now. Otherwise, i deer hunt an hour from the house in SC. I only make the 25 hr drive west one time in September.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Im not some snowflake bitch.

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[Ucsdryder]

OP,

Its a supply and demand issue. Guess what? Up to 20% of elk tags over six points go to the scary non residents. Under six points its 35%. Save the math you guys make up less than 2% of the US population. Grew up in Iowa buying two buck tags a year at walmart before the season. We would have no elk left in the west if western states took this approach. Guess who pays taxes on Federal Land. US citizens. Guess where most the hunting is Federal land. Just because you moved to Colorado doesn't entitle you to whatever elk tag you want.

By the way I paid $680 dollars for my CO elk tag as a non resident. Your welcome for subsidizing you in state tag. You guys get cheaper tags and it is easier to draw which is fair to an in-state hunter. If Colorado were to purchase all the Federal land with your tax payer dollars and you guys don't mind paying 5x license and tag cost then by all means kick all the non resident hunters out.

No sympathy here

You’re welcome to come here and hike on YOUR federal lands. You can join all the leaf lickers from boulder. It’ll be lots of fun for you! If you want to hunt the elk owned and subsidized by my tax dollars, hunting license, Yearly CO state park pass, etc then you have to pay your share. I’d gladly pay substantially more if Colorado would get off the non-resident teet at the current rate of 40-50% when you figure in otc. If we could get in line with the rest of the western US that would be great!

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Redirect Notice

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I agree. Actions speak louder than words.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Not in the state you are a resident of you dont. You are most likely driving to CO once and done. Do you hunt other places besides CO? What if that was your ONLY option? Would you do that one hunt and then stay home the rest of the season? 4 Hours is a pretty inconvenient when you arent talking about a once per fall trip. I drive 5 hours to deer hunt in KY from NC. Its a sucky drive so i narrow it down to just an 8 day rut hunt each november now. Otherwise, i deer hunt an hour from the house in SC. I only make the 25 hr drive west one time in September.

You're correct but in the state I reside in currently the non resident access is virtually the same as non-resident just purchase a tag and deal with crowds. I was specifically referring to western game in my post because whitetail management and hunting is not at all similar to western game.

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[RyanT26]

Fixed that.

 

[KHNC]

You're correct but in the state I reside in currently the non resident access is virtually the same as non-resident just purchase a tag and deal with crowds. I was specifically referring to western game in my post because whitetail management and hunting is not at all similar to western game.

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I get that it isnt the same. However, if you hunt in your own state of MO., I feel like it would be a large inconvenience if you had to drive 4 hours to hunt or stay at home. Giving the guy a sniff sniff tear was a bit much in that case. I know from experience what its like to travel to hunt as i have hunted in 26 of the lower 48 states.

 

[CBECK61]

You’re welcome to come here and hike on YOUR federal lands. You can join all the leaf lickers from boulder. It’ll be lots of fun for you! If you want to hunt the elk owned and subsidized by my tax dollars, hunting license, Yearly CO state park pass, etc then you have to pay your share. I’d gladly pay substantially more if Colorado would get off the non-resident teet at the current rate of 40-50% when you figure in otc. If we could get in line with the rest of the western US that would be great!

Both very valid points that I agree with. For a small majority of hunters I think they would also opt to pay the 5x tag cost to keep non residents out. I would be one of them in my state. I also think that CO should do what Idaho does and cap their OTC tags which essentially would turn into a draw and keep them in line with their current draw percentages. I think management of species becomes much harder if you don't cap hunter #s.

I disagree on the Federal land. State essentially owns the wildlife so in theory it would be well within the states rights to operate this way but I would strongly oppose such a law. I live in Wyoming and believe its BS that we will not let Non residents hunt Federal wildness.

The OP was only referring to draw tags in which case the OTC %s are irrelevant because he it more than welcome to hunt those just like everyone else.

Kicking non resident out really wouldn't help you in the draws especially the better tags but my reduce point draws by a point or two. It would relieve pressure though on OTC units which is COs $ bread and butter. I think capping those units with a system like IDs or just turning them into a draw would be a better solution all around.

If in state tag cost went up that much you would hear way more complaining than the few dudes who didn't get the tag they wanted on their third chance.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Both very valid points that I agree with. For a small majority of hunters I think they would also opt to pay the 5x tag cost to keep non residents out. I would be one of them in my state. I also think that CO should do what Idaho does and cap their OTC tags which essentially would turn into a draw and keep them in line with their current draw percentages. I think management of species becomes much harder if you don't cap hunter #s.

I disagree on the Federal land. State essentially owns the wildlife so in theory it would be well within the states rights to operate this way but I would strongly oppose such a law. I live in Wyoming and believe its BS that we will not let Non residents hunt Federal wildness.

The OP was only referring to draw tags in which case the OTC %s are irrelevant because he it more than welcome to hunt those just like everyone else.

Kicking non resident out really wouldn't help you in the draws especially the better tags but my reduce point draws by a point or two. It would relieve pressure though on OTC units which is COs $ bread and butter. I think capping those units with a system like IDs or just turning them into a draw would be a better solution all around.

If in state tag cost went up that much you would hear way more complaining than the few dudes who didn't get the tag they wanted on their third chance.

You and I are on the same page. I don’t have any issues with nr hunting on federal land and agree that they wy system is flawed regarding wilderness. My point was aimed at the nr who say they have as much right as anybody because they’re hunting federal lands. They get confused that the state owns the animal so that’s why they are capped at a certain percent. My only gripe with Colorado is they don’t limit the % like every other western state.

 

[TexasCub]

Colorado is designed to function off the non res money and will not change a damn thing to make the hunting experience better. And true wildlife management takes a back seat to revenue intake. So there is no single way to recommend a better system when ultimately money is the only thing that drives the decisions. They also know it’s crowded as hell, they are told that annually yet do nothing to change it. I honestly don’t even know what the hell they do with all the money they bring in, the entire state is like a giant slot machine for them, camping , hiking, biking, fishing, skiing, boating, rafting, OHV‘s, ATV’s, hunting, it’s a non stop revenue flow. Yet everytime you turn around theyve come up with a new way to get more money from us.

 

[browning2480]

I get that it isnt the same. However, if you hunt in your own state of MO., I feel like it would be a large inconvenience if you had to drive 4 hours to hunt or stay at home. Giving the guy a sniff sniff tear was a bit much in that case. I know from experience what its like to travel to hunt as i have hunted in 26 of the lower 48 states.

I know this wasn’t directed at me, but I know lots of people that drive 4 hours in Missouri to go hunting. Growing up there we did it all the time. The big deer used to all be up in the Northern part. Driving up there to public ground or a lease was just what you did, at least where I was grew up. I enjoy that though, as it allows you to actually get away, which is part of the fun for me.

I do agree that you can’t compare someone driving from the East to what the OP is talking about through. If that was the case the farthest person driving would always be telling people sniff. Sniff lol

 

[Ucsdryder]

Colorado is designed to function off the non res money and will not change a damn thing to make the hunting experience better. And true wildlife management takes a back seat to revenue intake. So there is no single way to recommend a better system when ultimately money is the only thing that drives the decisions. They also know it’s crowded as hell, they are told that annually yet do nothing to change it. I honestly don’t even know what the hell they do with all the money they bring in, the entire state is like a giant slot machine for them, camping , hiking, biking, fishing, skiing, boating, rafting, OHV‘s, ATV’s, hunting, it’s a non stop revenue flow. Yet everytime you turn around theyve come up with a new way to get more money from us.

Yep. It’s called the “parks department”. They’re a giant suckhole. There’s a reason they combined divisions. Take a department in the black and a department in the red and make both of them a shit show.

 

[BluMtn]

Come to Washington if you want to spend your money on nothing. Even a NR has to buy everything to put in for a draw. You must buy a license and tag then pay the draw fee and if you do not get drawn you still have a license and tag to hunt 11 days for a spike elk and 9 days for a buck.

 

[fwafwow]

Wait - is CO now giving tags away to non-residents? That guy at Cabela's robbed me! (Sorry OP - couldn't resist.)

OP - I get the frustration, and I'm sure that some of the posts just made the feeling worse. My $0.02 - best to just let this one ride rather than doubling down. Posts can get pretty tough, but if we were all in a room together, or at a fire, drinking beers after a hunt, I expect at worst we would have just agreed to disagree. Lots of body language, smiles, etc. are left out of message board discussions making them more likely to get heated.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

I get that it isnt the same. However, if you hunt in your own state of MO., I feel like it would be a large inconvenience if you had to drive 4 hours to hunt or stay at home. Giving the guy a sniff sniff tear was a bit much in that case. I know from experience what its like to travel to hunt as i have hunted in 26 of the lower 48 states.

As has been brought out even people here in Missouri often drive 3 or 4 hours. I don't hear but I still pack in 3 and a 1/2 miles to get away from the crowds from the cities or other States. You can criticize me for using my drive or my partner's drive as a comparison to somebody that lives locally but the OP compared it to hunting whitetail out with east which is absurd. Out West it is not uncommon to drive 3 or 4 miles to where you want to hut in any state and has little to do with non resident hunters. Each person has to put into their hunt as much as they're willing, but whining about how much harder it is on them on social media isn't likely to gain much sympathy especially when they chose to live in one of the most densely populated regions near the Rockies.

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[Foldem]

If you don't have a single tag you want by August it's not bad luck, it's piss poor planning. .

 

[Phaseolus]

You moved to Colorado to hunt? Should have done more research...

You moved to Fort Collins to hunt and are mad you can’t hunt your backyard. newsflash, FoCo is on the plains...I grew up on Harmony Road in FoCo. There are plenty of places within a reasonable drive to hunt elk and deer that you would draw or hunt OTC, you just don’t know about them...

 

[mporter012]

Dude, you are clueless! Good luck on your hunts!
[/QUOTE

Ok explain this to me. Dude works the normal 50 hours a week. Has to drive 4 hours to hunt. Has a couple kiddos. How much does dude hunt?

This thread is confusing. I thought western hunting meant that you could move anywhere you want and the fish and wildlife in that area would just give you tags for hunts within 10 minutes of your house? This isn’t true?

come on now. Hey i dont mind bring wrong. Im trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong to be able to hunt more. Im merely pointing

Ok buddy, you're losing me now. The sense of entitlement evident in the statement "the drive is insulting" is, frankly, insulting! It sounds like you would be happier moving back to PA. The way CO manages it's tags is not a secret that you could only know after you moved there. They manage the state for maximum opportunity for everyone and they have done so for a very long time.

Not only do we one chance at CO tags, not only do we get 2 chances, but then we get a chance at the leftovers, too...........

I think a lot of the frustration comes from chasing the better tags in all three of those. On the leftover list are tags that get people excited, for sure. Those are usually gone very quickly. Meanwhile there are tags that give anyone who is on at 9:00 a really good chance at getting one. They aren't flashy but there are elk in them. The last tag I hunted like this resulted in my buddy and I scouting 2 days, and hunting 4 days before we finally found some bulls on the last day. And I missed a shot opp at a great bull by about 2 seconds. But that's elk hunting, and I was happy.

It's a lemon/lemonaid situation.

Wait - is CO now giving tags away to non-residents? That guy at Cabela's robbed me! (Sorry OP - couldn't resist.)

OP - I get the frustration, and I'm sure that some of the posts just made the feeling worse. My $0.02 - best to just let this one ride rather than doubling down. Posts can get pretty tough, but if we were all in a room together, or at a fire, drinking beers after a hunt, I expect at worst we would have just agreed to disagree. Lots of body language, smiles, etc. are left out of message board discussions making them more likely to get heated.

No I hear you, and I can take the heat. And i don't mind being wrong/critiqued. That's how I'll learn. I don't think lots of these dudes are hearing me out though. I'll get lots of hunting in this year, and it'll be great. The frustration is that it's a lot different taking a week off and driving to some spot, and not minding the drive, compared to always no-matter-what having to drive 250 miles to load the gun. If it would have been this complicated growing up, I may not have ever had the time afield to even get into the sport. I get their criticism though - CO has lots of OTC opportunities and it's a damn beautiful state. And yes, it's freaking crowded, and yes, I could move elsewhere (which I may).

 

[Lukem]

come on now. Hey i dont mind bring wrong. Im trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong to be able to hunt more. Im merely pointing




No I hear you, and I can take the heat. And i don't mind being wrong/critiqued. That's how I'll learn. I don't think lots of these dudes are hearing me out though. I'll get lots of hunting in this year, and it'll be great. The frustration is that it's a lot different taking a week off and driving to some spot, and not minding the drive, compared to always no-matter-what having to drive 250 miles to load the gun. If it would have been this complicated growing up, I may not have ever had the time afield to even get into the sport. I get their criticism though - CO has lots of OTC opportunities and it's a damn beautiful state. And yes, it's freaking crowded, and yes, I could move elsewhere (which I may).

I think your biggest misunderstanding, and I mean no disrespect by this, is that whitetails of PA are entirely different than all of those of the west. They are simply at a density that allows everyone to hunt where they live. Elk and mulies must be managed differently. Add to the fact that proportionally more people want to go to CO to hunt those western animals than to PA for WT and you have less opportunity to spread around. You can't have the same expectations.

 

[bsnedeker]

I'm not here to get into a dick measuring contest with you buddy. You stated you spend more time in the field in one month than I do in the year. I'm not saying I'm some hard-core MF'er but I spent over a month in the field last year hunting elk with my hunting partners and solo. That isn't even counting the time I hunting turkeys, bears, wolves, fishing, and scouting. Point is, you may very well spend more time in the field than me, I don't know, I don''t know anything about you other than the fact that in this thread you sound like a whiny little crybaby who is mad he can't get his way.

Again, good luck to you this season and I hope your attitude improves.