Using GoHunt / Colorado Hunt

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for advise on how to choose the best unit for a Colorado Mule Deer hunt next year. Since I'm about 12-14 months out I figured I need to start doing some serious research since once hunting season starts in a couple weeks I'll be away from my computer as much as possible and once its over i'll only have about 90 days until the application deadline for next year.

Forgive me if this sounds redundant since I've asked similar questions before on this site on how to choose a unit but a lot of the answers I got back were to use GoHunt. I finally signed up for gohunt this week and have been using their site heavily but I almost feel overwhelmed by how much information they have to provide. I've tried using the filters to narrow down my results to specific units but I'm only able to narrow it down to about 14 units and they are spread all over the state. I know a common question is it depends on what type of hunt you are going for (i.e. experience vs trophy).

We have a party of 4 going to do a DIY rifle hunt. We all are nonresidents and all put in a preference point this year so we will have 1 preference point next year. We would like to see a lot of deer and ideally each kill a nice buck but have no aspirations of shooting trophy class bucks. This is our first time out to Colorado so its more about the experience but we dont want to come home empty handed either. We plan to hunt in pairs and split up. My parents are two of the group so they wont be able to wander as far from roads or into rough terrain but me and a friend plan to go deep and hike as far as needed. I routinely did 12 mile road marches in the Military so the hiking isnt a concern although I know I need to get prepared for the terrain but thats a different topic.

With all of that in mind, does anyone have any advise on some specific units I should hone in on or have any ideas on better techniques to use GoHunt to pick out the right unit? I had unit 3 or 301 in my mind previously but after looking at GoHunt those units have about the same statistics as all the other units coming up (171, 88, 99, 100, 143, 771 .....). Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Maybe I should have narrowed this down a little simpler, does anyone have any advise on how to narrow down unit results using GoHunt?

Have you used their filtering system?

nhn2a said:

Maybe I should have narrowed this down a little simpler, does anyone have any advise on how to narrow down unit results using GoHunt?

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Big Fin said:

Have you used their filtering system?

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yep - you can narrow down quite a bit with the filtering system in terms of all the things you mentioned.

Also - the most important things for the hunt you're describing are going to be public land availability and drawing potential. Several of the units you mention above (99,100, 143) are on the eastern plains and have virtually no public land. With 1 NR point - you're most likely looking at 2nd/3rd Rifle season hunts in the mountain units to be able to get the tags and have land to hunt. Use Filtering2.0 to pick an area (2-3 unit chunk) or two that makes logistical sense and dig deeper from there on both GH and the CPW stats

Thanks! I have been using the filters but was only able to narrow it down to about 15 units that all look pretty much the same although I didnt look at the percentage of public/private so thanks for that feedback? Are there other things to look at to try to narrow it down farther than the filters allow that you guys commonly use?

Any of the units in western co are good. I prefer the NW corner of the state for sheer quantity of mule deer. Alot of the units you mentioned are on the eastern side and access could be an issue. Get a 3rd rifle tag, especially if not coming home emtpy handed is important to you. 3/301, 4, 5, 11, 211, 22, 31, 41, 42, 421, 53, and 62 are all great. Pick one you can draw and go hunt. I see alot more deer down in the desert low country than up in the mountains here, especially in 3rd rifle. Good luck! Post up pics!

Also, check out the hunt atlas. Learn how to use this:

http://ndismaps.nrel.colostate.edu/index.html?app=HuntingAtlas

Thanks for the feedback. I was already favoring unit 3/301 in the northwest corner but as I mentioned in the original post I just couldn't find any reason that is was better than the others. Just out of curiosity, why do you say 3rd rifle tag is better? I've got 100% draw odds during 1st and 2nd Rifle and 87% during 3rd rifle in that area.

nhn2a said:

Thanks for the feedback. I was already favoring unit 3/301 in the northwest corner but as I mentioned in the original post I just couldn't find any reason that is was better than the others. Just out of curiosity, why do you say 3rd rifle tag is better? I've got 100% draw odds during 1st and 2nd Rifle and 87% during 3rd rifle in that area.

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Later dates will put you into a good portion of the rut.

Big Fin said:

Later dates will put you into a good portion of the rut.

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Ok that should have been obvious, I was definitely overthinking that one when I asked.

I'm not as big of a fan of the north west corner of the state just for the simple fact of numbers and hunting pressure. A lot of the areas are wide open and the animals can see hunters coming from a long distance away, depending on where you decide to hunt. If you can draw a unit 33 tag, I could help you with some BLM areas to focus on for some decent bucks. Nothing world class but keep in mind that a lot of hunters don't utilize BLM as much as they do NF. I say that just based on experience no actual statistics. I typically see more animals and less hunters on BLM than I do on NF. Also in Colorado we have State Trust Lands (STL) and State Wildlife Areas (SWA's) which are also good places to look into. These areas typically hold what I like to call resident animals that don't get a lot of pressure due to their lack of use. Later in the season, find the does, and you'll find the bucks. Feel free to email me if you would like some more insight. Since I live in Colorado and have hunted a good portion of the western slope I can certainly help you hone your areas as well.

Overall I would definitely encourage you start getting in shape now. I don't know where you're coming from but our mountains are no joke. Keep in mind our applications are not due until the first Tuesday of April as well. I'm not sure what seasons you'll be hunting where you live but most of ours are over before Thanksgiving. Beyond that, we have few seasons that go into January for big game, but most of them are youth or private land only areas.

Keep me informed. Like I said I'm glad to help out in any way that I can.

Sounds like you are getting there.
Odds
Terrain
public access

Once you sort through those variables, you shouldn't have all that many options left. Might as well buy deer points for Wyoming for the whole group now, also.

Yep I feel like I'm getting closer. I've gotten a lot of good feedback on here. I think we are going to plan for the unit 3/301 area. Now we just need to narrow in on where exactly in the unit we want to go. GoHunt recommends the State Trust Lands in the northern part but the ones in that unit dont allow camping and we were hoping to camp out in the area. Still looking though.

I'll have to take a look at the Wyoming tags as 3855WIN mentioned since the State Trust Lands are almost on the boarder. This may be an opportunity to do a multi-state hunt in the same trip and I've never hunted there either.