Colorado Cow Moose

OMG, colorado back door says I drew my moose tag! This is the first year I finally said screw it and gave up drawing a bull tag, so it will be a cow moose tag for unit 42 (as long as back door holds up) Finally figured I could either hold out in hopes of drawing a bull tag before i die, or draw a small handful of cow tags in the next 30 years.

I am so excited, can't wait for summer to roll around so I can start scouting

Congrats!

Congrats. Plenty around your unit as you know. Have had 2 cow moose tags and sure beats no tag by a mile.
Take lots of pictures!

how many Points did you cash in?

Khunter said:

Congrats. Plenty around your unit as you know. Have had 2 cow moose tags and sure beats no tag by a mile.
Take lots of pictures!

how many Points did you cash in?

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what about are the odds on a cow tag for you residents?

Congrats, but do not trust the backdoor!

MTGomer said:

what about are the odds on a cow tag for you residents?

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Congrats, Jorgy!

Odds are hard to nail down since the report combines Archery/Muzzie/Rifle, but for the combination it was ~8-9% in 2015 - which is excluding the weighted point influence. So - simple arithmetic on weighted points makes it more like 6%.

bobbydean said:

Congrats, but do not trust the backdoor!

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Thats what she said

But seriously, the back door method has only been screwed up once when the DOW had the whole thing f'd up. Last year, or maybe it was the year before. Other than that, it's always been right, but I do know I can't count on it until I see it official.

9 weighted points. Finally decided I will get my bull moose hunt in another state at some point. I've been buying points in Wyoming, and apply in Maine every year. Thinking about starting to apply in Idaho next year.

Congrats!

Awesome! Congrats.

Congrats! There's a bunch of them in there, it's a great area.

Best of luck to you! I too drew a cow permit for unit #7! Took me 14- years & I justified the change from a bull to cow due to age/ health. They are amazing animals!!

eaglestone.constructors@c said:

Best of luck to you! I too drew a cow permit for unit #7! Took me 14- years & I justified the change from a bull to cow due to age/ health. They are amazing animals!!

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Congrats, I saw my first Colorado moose in unit 7 almost 20 years ago on Deadman Creek. Thought I had a elk walking right to me opening morning, didn't actually see him until he was about 20 yards away. After the initial "holy crap it's a moose" thought, my mind went to "holy crap he is really close and I really don't want to get stomped to death." They are such neat animals, so gangly and huge, yet they sure can vanish in thin cover when they want to.

how did you do on your hunt?

Well, I had a good time......Summer and early fall were super busy with my business, so I only got out one weekend for a scouting trip, never saw a moose in 3 days. October rolled around and myself, my 2 sons (18 and 21) and father in law headed up to Vega State Park with the camper. The first day I hunted above Vega, didn't see any moose, but on the trip back down to the reservoir saw a flock of turkeys and I had a turkey tag in my pocket with a day left on it. Found out a 300 mag will anchor a turkey pretty well. I won a free dishwashing from my son who had no faith that I could head shoot this young tom at 40 yards.

Saturday afternoon we had the first of many encounters with getting run over by the ranchers herding up their cows. Frustrating, but completely understand what was going on.

Sunday I saw my first moose, a bull

the next few days were rain on and off, get over run by cowboys herding cattle. It was pretty though

over the next week, I found 5 more bulls. This one couldn't have cared less I was driving behind him. He is a little bull, can't even see his antlers in the picture

These were a bit bigger

I learned alot over the week I hunted. I was told the moose on the mesa aren't in the places you would think they are. I was told right. Found most of the moose in the thick aspens, or right next to them. Only saw one moose in the creek bottom, and that one was just passing through from one side of the mesa to another. Also learned my sons are "addicted" to being on their phones. Very frustrating to have them pull them out every 15 minutes to see if they had coverage.

Ended up not getting a cow, never even saw one. Saw 6 bulls, lots of deer, a handful of elk, lots of turkeys, coyotes, a badger and lots of other small game.

Had a great time and would do it all over again. Only things I would change is I would bite the bullet and buy/rent a atv to get myself farther down some of the roads that are closed to trucks. And I should have brought a small camera so my pictures had a better chance of being better.

Thanks for taking us along on the hunt. Sounds like a great time!

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing the adventure.

Well it sounds like you had a fun time with the family looking for one.