New to Colorado elk hunting

[Jonesy71]

Hello my name is Austin, I currently am in the USAF and just recently got stationed in Colorado. I’m completely new to the area and me and a buddy of mine would like to participate in the otc elk hunting this year. I’m just looking for any advice for hunting the public land or units we should look out for. Right now we were planing on hunting 28 and 37. Keep in mind that being in the Air Force sadly means we can only hunt the weekends so drive 4 hrs from Denver really is t an option for us.

A big question for us is how do you know what land you can and can’t hunt being a waterfowl hunter primarily I’ve always just bought into land and never hunted public how does it work

Thank you so much in advance for any advice you give all will be greatly appreciated.

 

[JohnCushman]

Welcome aboard. I'm retired Army.

 

[wannakillabigbull]

A big question for us is how do you know what land you can and can’t hunt being a waterfowl hunter primarily I’ve always just bought into land and never hunted public how does it work

Thank you so much in advance for any advice you give all will be greatly appreciated.

Your best bet to start off e-scouting would be to use the Colorado Hunting Atlas.

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

The atlas will show you all the lands for each unit and who the land belongs to. You'll find BLM, national forest, and state lands that are huntable for you. The hunting atlas also will show you summer and winter ranges for elk, which can help you determine where to concentrate your hunting.

From there you can either get a map if you're good at navigation, or invest in an OnX Hunt App membership or GPS chip. The easiest, assuming you have a smartphone, is to get the OnX Hunt App membership for Colorado this year. It's a GPS service that will show you your location and all the land ownership around you. By using that you should have no problem staying on public ground.

Good luck!

 

[kylemcintyre67]

2nd for the OnX app. I don't know what you do in the airforce, but if you are familiar with a bft and building overlays, its the same thing. Has the ability to give your the public/private overlays as well as other helpful things like the road-less layers.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Your best bet to start off e-scouting would be to use the Colorado Hunting Atlas.

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

The atlas will show you all the lands for each unit and who the land belongs to. You'll find BLM, national forest, and state lands that are huntable for you. The hunting atlas also will show you summer and winter ranges for elk, which can help you determine where to concentrate your hunting.

From there you can either get a map if you're good at navigation, or invest in an OnX Hunt App membership or GPS chip. The easiest, assuming you have a smartphone, is to get the OnX Hunt App membership for Colorado this year. It's a GPS service that will show you your location and all the land ownership around you. By using that you should have no problem staying on public ground.

Good luck!

Good advice, except you can't hunt state land in Colorado. Units 28,37, 371 are tough with low success rates FYI. 4 hours is nothing, there is no reason you can't leave the base at 7pm get to your hunting area at 11pm hike till 1am sleep for a few hours chase some bulls and be back by 10-11pm Sunday. It makes for a brutal Monday morning but that's what it's going to take to be successful.

 

[Backcountry Hunter 2]

Good advice, except you can't hunt state land in Colorado.

This is a false statement. You can hunt some state lands in CO. You just have to check before hand if the area is hunt-able or not.

 

[Jonesy71]

Your best bet to start off e-scouting would be to use the Colorado Hunting Atlas.

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

The atlas will show you all the lands for each unit and who the land belongs to. You'll find BLM, national forest, and state lands that are huntable for you. The hunting atlas also will show you summer and winter ranges for elk, which can help you determine where to concentrate your hunting.

From there you can either get a map if you're good at navigation, or invest in an OnX Hunt App membership or GPS chip. The easiest, assuming you have a smartphone, is to get the OnX Hunt App membership for Colorado this year. It's a GPS service that will show you your location and all the land ownership around you. By using that you should have no problem staying on public ground.

Good luck!

Thank you everyone for the help now I’m using the app and I feel like I’ve narrowed down to a couple places, but how do you normally gain access to these areas. Is it common to to just park on the side of the road and hike in or is there like a designated point to gain access

 

[Backcountry Hunter 2]

There are trail heads in many places, but you don't have to use them if you don't want to.

 

[Jonesy71]

Ok that makes sense using the hiking trails and everything. I geuss where the confusion is is I’m from sadly from California. If your not on private there’s a chance someone is calling the cops because the see you with a rifle.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

This is a false statement. You can hunt some state lands in CO. You just have to check before hand if the area is hunt-able or not.

I guess if you want to argue what "is is"...

You can't hunt state land i.e. School State Trust land in Colorado unless said lands have been leased by CPAW to be used for that purpose, such lands are then given the title State Wildlife Areas by the department to differentiate them from "State Lands"

https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/Pages/WildlifeAreaMap.aspx

 

[Backcountry Hunter 2]

I guess if you want to argue what "is is"...

You can't hunt state land i.e. School State Trust land in Colorado unless said lands have been leased by CPAW to be used for that purpose, such lands are then given the title State Wildlife Areas by the department to differentiate them from "State Lands"

https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/Pages/WildlifeAreaMap.aspx

Well written response! I agree with your statement. I didn't want the OP to not be able to hunt "State Land" if it was hunt-able.