CO Units 48,481,56,561 Deer - Rifle October Season

[Vanish]

Wife and I both drew this tag this year. We'll be moving to the upper Ark Valley come July, but scouting starts sooner! Neither of us has bagged a mulie buck yet. If anyone has any relevant information they wouldn't mind parting with, please private message me!

[mtnmutt]

Too bad the deer guy closed his sporting good store in Leadville. He would be the one to hit up on deer info.

For 48, the deer are frequently just below freemont pass where 91 flattens out,however, the deer closer to BV are dumber. I think they are highly inbred. All the deer from BV to Poncha Springs seem more stupid. They just stand on US 24. Drive 24 north of BV and you will see signs that say lower speed in winter months...guess what that means...deer. Over the years, I have seen lots of deer from Poncha Springs to Freemont Pass on the west side of the road.

Try stopping in western archery in poncha springs. You may end up with good information.

[Vanish]

I know all about 24 ... hah! We took 4 trips to BV / Salida over the winter when we were considering buying (it looks like we're going to rent for awhile now) and they were all over the place. The favorite place was any fenced-in garden. Unfortunately, you can't hunt within the city limits or subdivisions!

Good to hear there is a bow place down there. I don't like the staff at the only one near us currently, and we have to drive 45 minutes just to shoot our dang bows! Can't wait to get out of the city.

[eltaco]

Don't have any info for you bud, but I'm wishing you luck since you were my nearest elk camp neighbor last year

I drew in CO this year, as well. Time to learn some new ground from afar!

[bnsafe]

no info for ya but good luck. hope somebodies pm ya

[otcWill]

pm sent

[Vanish]

Hey otcWill, did you PM the wrong guy? I got nothin!

[otcWill]

Hope not, sending you another now. Let me know if ya don't get anything. Think I might be having some pm issues.

[Vanish]

I got it, thanks!

[Vanish]

A bump on this one as the season gets closer. I think the wildlife biologist for the region is avoiding me.

All my research is saying "stay low" but I really want to backpack away from the roads ... don't want another experience like last year having the deer literally shot out from my crosshairs.

[Vanish]

Not going so well. Been a rough year for all our hunting since mid-elk season actually.

We started off at the biologist recommend area and it was a real zoo of road hunters. I had no idea road hunting was this popular. At one point I watched one of the roads and counted 12 trucks passing by in 8 minutes. I saw ONE person hike away from their car, and counted over 40 different vehicles road hunting. We had wanted to backpack in to get away from these hunters, but the biologist highly recommended as low and as close to private land as we could. We hiked up and away from from the area and could tell he was right, there just wasn't any sign higher and there wasn't any real place to glass.

We came lower and tried to get away from the roads, but it was impossible to get more than 1/2 mile from a road. We saw a couple groups of does. Sunday morning I explored some more of the area and found bucks ... on nearby private land. Not surprised, if I had that many people driving around I would be in the quiet fields, too. This wasn't the hunt I wanted to have, honestly it was worse than near Boulder, and so we moved mid-day Sunday.

Sunday midday-evening and Monday morning I saw more does and no hunters, so I'm liking this area better. Heading back out Thursday night. I have identified an area that I think will really pay off, but its not easy to get into ... not hard by "our" standards either. I was able to glass it from 1-2 miles to the West on Sunday night and saw several groups of deer, but was unable to tell if any were bucks. There are no roads (that I can tell), and yet its fairly "low" and much more glassable. It will be a two mile hike in the dark, but that's nothing compared to what I was doing elk hunting.

[Vanish]

Well, more tag soup. An awful lot of that this year.

We saw one buck and I made the stalk from 3/4 of a mile as the crow flies. Flubbed it at the end on a huge buck, the only buck we saw on public land in 6 days of hunting. My spotter hadn't seen the buck for 10 minutes and I was worried I had busted him without seeing him. Turns out he was still chilling just out of sight over a small knoll. As I crested the rise, we spotted each other at 30 yards, no time to shoot. A better hunter would have had a real trophy.

We tried another new spot Sunday night in a last ditch effort and found more does. Just before dark, on the other side of the fence, was another bruiser, but naturally on private land.

I talked with a CDPW guy last night at a gas station on the way out and he said many bucks were still up near timberline because the weather just hasn't moved in, pretty much the opposite of what the biologist advised for this time of year. Damn. We did learn a lot about the area for if we ever go back.

[Still Hunter]

I just joined this forum, so I couldn't help you earlier. I live in BV, and know this area well. Pay no attention to what others say about the deer here. The ones in the mountains are not stupid by any means. A lot of hunters think all the deer are down low in town, because they don't see any in the mountains. That just shows how smart the deer are. Just because you don't see them. Doesn't mean they're not there.

These units have a 60% success rate for deer. That's what draws so many hunters. I refuse to hunt the rifle seasons anymore, and only hunt with a muzzleloader now. The difference is less than 100 hunters for muzzy season, and almost 900 hunters for rifle seasons. I can hunt the whole season, and be lucky if I see 1-2 hunters. I'm not near any roads though. I prefer the wilderness areas. I'm mostly an elk hunter, because the deer tags are harder to get, and I prefer elk meat anyway.


Anyway, scout the whole area during the year. I'm retired, and scout 250 days a year. I combine it with mountain creek fly fishing. I've found some good areas while looking for new creeks. You might consider getting away from the rifle seasons, but that's your choice. If you stay with the rifle. Try for a 1st rifle tag. Way less hunters, and you can still catch the rut. This is of course for elk. A lot more options for elk. We even have a 4th season to choose from if you don't mind the weather.