Colorado Points & No Man's Land Recommendation

[CiK]

I am looking for some advice. I have been collecting points in Colorado. I keep hearing about Colorado and their no man's land. I have 4 mule deer points and 4 elk points. Is one of those further into no man's land than the other? I want to start cashing them in next year. I would love to do both, but I think it will only be one and then the other soon after.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Trial153]

pick some units that you can draw with what points you do have and go. If you don't have plan for the points then you might as well just get tag out of deal.

 

[Bigjav]

You’re getting close to no mans land with deer and I think you’re unfortunately there already with elk because you’re never going to catch the premier units so from this point on you’re going to be burning more points than needed to draw a tag IMO

 

[Oak]

Five NR deer points have way more draw value than 5 elk points.

 

[HighDesertSage]

You can have a good mule deer hunt. Stop building elk points and go to wyoming.

 

[Saranac84]

Cut your losses and go hunt elk on a 1-2 PP 1st rifle tag. Learn the unit and hunt it every few years.

Then do some research on a 3rd season deer tag that interests you and hunt in 2021.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I have 7 deer points as an NR this year. Its hard to decide what to do. Only think I know for certain is that I wont be burning them during their 2nd and 3rd elk season circus...

I think I will hold them and wait for them to unveil that they will be taking peoples points for drawing any tag.... just wait its coming. Utah just made some serious changes...and Colorado will follow.

 

[HighDesertSage]

You got a link to the Utah stuff?

 

[Mallardsx2]

https://wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks/2020_biggameapp.pdf

 

[Mallardsx2]

Read it carefully.

 

[Blacktailbc]

Only change I see for Utah was losing your preference points for picking up a leftover general tag. Not a huge change imo.

 

[CiK]

Thanks all! Looks like Colorado is in my near future. Time to go subscribe to GoHunt or TopRut and figure this out.

 

[npaden]

8 deer and 8 elk for me. I've ended up with a quality tag before the Colorado draw the last 2 years in a row for elk so I have been skipping burning my elk points. I'm 1 point behind what I want for this year... Seems a recurring theme.

I started building deer points for a high country mule deer hunt with a rifle with a chance to shoot a decent velvet buck. That seems to get farther away too. They also moved the season back so less chance of getting one in velvet.

 

[Pelican]

I started building deer points for a high country mule deer hunt with a rifle with a chance to shoot a decent velvet buck. That seems to get farther away too. They also moved the season back so less chance of getting one in velvet.

The dates for high country rifle deer didn’t change, just archery and 2nd - 4th seasons.

 

[npaden]

The dates for high country rifle deer didn’t change, just archery and 2nd - 4th seasons.

I thought they moved them all back to after labor day?

 

[Pelican]

I thought they moved them all back to after labor day?

Prior to 2014, some high country seasons did start Labor Day weekend, but for the last 5 years they have started the first Saturday after labor day.

 

[NC2CO]

8 deer and 8 elk for me. I've ended up with a quality tag before the Colorado draw the last 2 years in a row for elk so I have been skipping burning my elk points. I'm 1 point behind what I want for this year... Seems a recurring theme.

I started building deer points for a high country mule deer hunt with a rifle with a chance to shoot a decent velvet buck. That seems to get farther away too. They also moved the season back so less chance of getting one in velvet.

Like np says, I think you'll keep finding yourself one point behind where you want to be to draw one of the top elk units, even if you fast-forward 20 years.... With 4 points for deer, I'd be cashing in. I don't think you'll increase your opportunity at a premium buck by enough to continue building them. Now if its more about timing/schedule alignment, etc., by all means keep building but otherwise, I'd be applying for a tag and expecting to hunt a big muley.

 

[Phaseolus]

You could have a great cow elk hunt in unit 61 with your elk points

 

[CiK]

You could have a great cow elk hunt in unit 61 with your elk points

4 points for a cow elk hunt? Why does that make me uneasy?

 

[rmyoung1]

@CiK I'm gonna disagree with the prevailing sentiment regarding your elk points. I think you sit in a pretty good spot for a NR actually. With 4 points, the central CO units with limited quotas across all rifle seasons are in play. I'd be looking into first rifle seasons in 66, 67, 57/58, 48, 481, and second rifle season in 49. All of those units have very respectable harvest rates on bulls and awesome public elk country. Good luck.