Anyone Hunt CO Second Choice Archery?

[Qubo]

Been curious if anyone else hunts archery elk on some of the tags that make it to second choice in the primary draw? I'm a CO resident and due to having too many hobbies and not enough leave/cash for them I currently don't do the nonresident thing. I do however want to archery hunt elk every year so I am relegated to the Colorado OTC tags. Last year I burned my points for a limited unit, still ate tag soup though. But since I've only been doing archery a few years and I don't have a OTC unit I like I am currently searching for a new OTC unit. But I've been wondering about the few units that go to second choice. I like the idea of gaining a point while still keeping the number of hunters down in a limited unit, but I also know these units probably go second choice for a reason. I'm going to start looking at them on GoHunt to see if any are worth it. Not asking for anyone to share their unit, just more curious if there is anyone out there having success on public land with second choice tags. Thanks

 

[Yooper906]

Been curious if anyone else hunts archery elk on some of the tags that make it to second choice in the primary draw? I'm a CO resident and due to having too many hobbies and not enough leave/cash for them I currently don't do the nonresident thing. I do however want to archery hunt elk every year so I am relegated to the Colorado OTC tags. Last year I burned my points for a limited unit, still ate tag soup though. But since I've only been doing archery a few years and I don't have a OTC unit I like I am currently searching for a new OTC unit. But I've been wondering about the few units that go to second choice. I like the idea of gaining a point while still keeping the number of hunters down in a limited unit, but I also know these units probably go second choice for a reason. I'm going to start looking at them on GoHunt to see if any are worth it. Not asking for anyone to share their unit, just more curious if there is anyone out there having success on public land with second choice tags. Thanks

I hunted one of the units that use to be OTC, but then went limited. It was the first year of the switch and was able to draw it second choice. I honestly didn’t see any change from when it was OTC. CPW still issued a ton of tags that was comparable to the amount of people hunting the unit OTC. We did manage to get into a few elk, but had to get really creative to get away from pressure.

Hope this helps, I think there are better OTC units and you can still get your pp.

 

[ccc23454]

Cant speak directly to CO 2nds but will tell you lesson i have learned other ways, mainly about easy to draw a LE units(theres a reason). A LE unit that issues a ton of tags can be worse than a otc/general unit. Example; If the LE unit issues 100 tags, all 100 hunters are there and there only and likely dont have years of zone experiance to draw from. When a equal sized otc unit may have 150 or 50 hunters but abiility to move around and hopefully some seperation. The biggest benefit of otc is ability to hunt and learn it every year but recent trends have made it difficult. You referenced gohunt, i would probably form a opinion from it then do the exact opposite. Remember no subsitute for time in unit so whatever area is easier to spend time in should win out.