CO Antelope - Units 137, 138 & 144

[Chase]

Burned my preference points on a rifle tag this year for pronghorn in southeast CO. I had a good conversation with the CPW manager for the area and he was very helpful in answering specific questions. He pointed out that intense hunting pressure has been biggest factor in last few years, but that this year tags were significantly reduced, so patterns may change from what he told me about.

Anybody here have any experience in the area? I'd be glad to PM my plan so far and see what input you might be able to offer.

My general research so far says:
- roads get bad when wet so plan and pack accordingly
- onX or similar maps a must to navigate public/private boundaries
- good animal population but don't pass up any reasonable buck
- almost zero public in 138, so focus on 137 and 144

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Bigjay73]

I have a ton of experience for this unit, but the only rifle hunt I've ever had was the late doe hunt, which is a complete shit show. Even in that mess of a hunt, we found solitude and pronghorn. Ill PM you when I'm done in the gym

 

[Bigjay73]

And im going to premise this by saying for the love of whatever God, please be a regular on here, and contribute from time to time. The fate of future advice seekers lies solely in your boomer sooner hands

 

[Chase]

Point taken. While I haven’t been too active posting, during the last few years I have been able to help a few guys via PM with info about some units in NM I know. Your help is appreciated and I’ll be sure to pay it forward - just not with your info. Thanks again!

 

[BoulderBulls]

We did this hunt last year with doe tags. Certainly it was crowded so I hope you experience less crowding. We are weekend warriors so we hunted hard for a handful of days. Turned up some antelope but never connected all the dots. never made it down to the southern half of 144 but looks like there's public that way. The big contiguous blocks are tempting but Don't discount the small public parcels we turned up some on those as well.

Hope that helps and good luck.

 

[Chase]

About a month late, but just wanted to post a follow up on this hunt.

I arrived two days early to give myself a full day to scout. Located 8 different bucks while scouting, half and half animals on private/public land. Really liked the area. Variety of terrain gives you several options in how to hunt - super flat, open country in some areas is conducive to road hunting, while the more broken country is well suited to walking out the canyons and draws where animals could go hide to escape pressure.

Opening morning while driving between glassing points I spotted a solid buck on private land that appeared to be walking towards public ground. Another group of hunters ended up driving straight at the buck and running it off to never be seen again before it came onto the corner of public where I was trying to cut it off. After that, I only saw one other buck and he was running full speed across private land. I drove to cover lots of ground, got out and covered some of the more broken country on foot to try and find animals hiding from road hunters, but ultimately just couldn't turn up many antelope. Saw a few doe groups, but no more bucks. Three solid days of hunting and no shot opportunities. I did see about everything else though - badgers, coyotes, turkeys, several very nice mule deer bucks.

Overall impression after talking to several ranchers in the area was that antelope numbers are down in general from higher tag allocations for the last several years. I know this year the private land tags were cut in half and public buck tags reduced from 75 to 50. If I had more time to spend, perhaps I would have stumbled into one, but the number of sightings was generally not what I expected from a tag that required 3 preference points to draw. Other hunters were present, but never once did I see a single other hunter out of their vehicle - they were all road hunting exclusively as far as I could tell. Seemed like a lot of other hunters, but really most of the time I saw the same dozen trucks over and over. I'm sure someone shot an antelope somewhere but in three days I never heard a shot, never saw a group with an antelope in their camp/vehicle.

Overall I had a good hunt, met some nice folks, and got to run around with my dad for a few days. Time well spent even if I didn't get to punch a tag.

 

[Paul from Colorado]

I’ve hunted these units for 22 years, the population numbers go up and down with the availability of water and range conditions. That being said this year numbers were way down but so were the number of hunters. Go to the Forest service office in Springfield and get a copy of the pasture allotments inside the Comanche National grasslands. The goats are there but they do not make it easy on you. Some of the units by Kim are great, nice rolling hills and some yucca you can use to stock. Plan on long stocks, long shots and amazing skies to sleep under. Bonus is that since there is no sagebrush the goats taste amazing!

 

[Hwalsh]

I will be hunting this area in a couple weeks. I can give a up date on antelope numbers.

 

[Addicting]

I just returned from here and we scoured the unit. We saw a total of zero antelope in 5 days. Lots of hunters and only one said he saw some on private property. It is beautiful country that got absolutely pounded by hunters looking for non existent animals.

Please know that every square inch of public in this unit will get hunted. Mule deer, whitetail, and antelope all start on the same day.

Sad to see how CPW is managing big game in this unit in favor of cattle ranching.

 

[Sheltowee]

I just returned from here and we scoured the unit. We saw a total of zero antelope in 5 days. Lots of hunters and only one said he saw some on private property. It is beautiful country that got absolutely pounded by hunters looking for non existent animals.

Please know that every square inch of public in this unit will get hunted. Mule deer, whitetail, and antelope all start on the same day.

Sad to see how CPW is managing big game in this unit in favor of cattle ranching.

I've hunted these units for pronghorn during muzzleloader. Didn't encounter a ton of other hunting pressure-- no more than one would expect on western public land-- but the 'lopes are few and far between.

 

[Addicting]

I've hunted these units for pronghorn during muzzleloader. Didn't encounter a ton of other hunting pressure-- no more than one would expect on western public land-- but the 'lopes are few and far between.

Two tracks that only existed on the map Saturday were beat down roads by Wednesday. I did not expect to see that much pressure. Earlier in the season is definitely better than the late rifle.

 

[Sheltowee]

Two tracks that only existed on the map Saturday were beat down roads by Wednesday. I did not expect to see that much pressure. Earlier in the season is definitely better than the late rifle.

Yeah, I guess it makes sense that pressure would skyrocket during modern rifle relative to muzzy. I've hunted those units (as well as a couple bundled with those further north for muzzleloader) two years and had one or two decent stalks each trip. Slim pickings compared to a lot of other western state pronghorn units.

Of note: muzzy season coincides with the annual tarantula migration on the Comanche, which I did not know was a thing until my first trip down there. Made tent camping a bit of an adventure.