Up and coming Colorado mulie hunt (unit 62). Need some advice.

[Michael Eichele]

I have a CO unit 62 for Nov 1-7. The local biologist is no help whatsoever. I cannot even get him to return my calls. I have simple questions like CWD, buck/doe ratios, overall numbers, fawn survival rates, rutting activity ect....

Does anybody have any info on these questions? I have a couple of areas that look good to me on the map but dont know if they really would be any good.

 

[J E Custom]

Meichele

Try=

http;//wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/Plan Your Trip

It has all of this info for each Unit.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Michael Eichele]

Thanks for the link. I have poured through the web site and that link and still am not finding any unit specifec info.

 

[dogdinger]

meichele, i have not personally hunted this area , but i have friends who do. it is a coveted draw......you will not have any trouble finding big bucks there. be careful about private land in the ridgeway area....lots of new movie star/bunny hugger types moving into that area....the rut usually does not start until around the middle to the end of november in my experience...we have a good acorn crop this yr so concentrate on hunting the oakbrush......good luck..AJ

 

[Natty Bumpo]

Even if the biologist gets back to you, I doubt he'd be able to fill in your blanks with any degree of confidence. He won't have an estimate for the number of deer in that unit. He might be able to say whether deer numbers are increasing, decreasing, or stable. But even then, the margins of error are such that year to year comparisons are dubious. It probably will show longer term trends.

Any figures they have for fawn survival are probably based on work done by Colorado State University. Might be recent or decades old. Probably was done at one or 2 sites in the state that may or may not be near where you'll be hunting.

With respect to CWD, yeah, it's there. Don't know if Colorado tests annually or not. Personally, I don't see the point of it. Why spend money on testing to tell you what you already know. It's there. Testing protocol to determine if it's increasing/decreasing/spreading/shrinking will be different that testing just to determine if it's there or not. If they've tested in the past, they should be able to tell you what the prevalance rate was. Wear gloves, don't eat the brain or spinal cord, and don't worry about it.

They probably have some broad estimates of buck/doe ratios, but this can vary locally. For instance, are you hunting public land where hunters have the option of harvesting antlerless deer? Or are you on a private lease where the lessees are managing for big bucks?

That's just my take on the matter. Could be wrong. I don't know anything about Colorado Division of Wildlife; but, I work as a biologist in another state.

 

[Coyboy]

I returned from a mulie hunt a week ago. High country tag in zone 471. The hunting was dismall. 4 years ago I seen 13 bucks the first day. This year I seen 6 deer all week. I new the first day somthing had changed. We camped at 12,500 feet and mostly glassed from the tops down. Seen a fair number of elk everyday but the deer were all but gone.
Found out later that week from some other hunters that there was a very severe winter kill last year. I would have to say so numbers looked to be down 75%+.

What ticks me off is I subscribe to the DOW's Colorado Outdoors Mag. You would think this kind of winter kill would make the NEWS and a guy could save 4 points and a healthy gas bill.

 

[slymule]

Meichele, I've been over alot of unit 62 the last couple of weeks looking for bear. Been up and down Divide Road, which separates unit 61 and 62. Divide Road is shite! Wash boardie son-of-a-gun, and I mean the whole thing. After 2 weeks of looking around I think your best shot for being able to see in decent looking country would be to go into the area via Uravan. Take Spring Creek Truck road, the one that goes by the Uravan airport, its basically in the middle of town you can't miss it, and head NE up that road until you hit Divide Road. I'd hunt the area around the Mesa county/Montrose county line, a pretty good natural crossing point there (a long strip of black timber going from area 61 to 62), and then I'd also hunt down off of Windy Point. You'll be able to see into a pretty nice canyon from that area.

That area had a pretty mild winter so no need to worry about the winter kill. CWD could be anywhere in the state by now but I wouldn't worry about it unless the buck you shoot looks or acts sick.

 

[Michael Eichele]

Thank you SlyMule.

Have you been to the Escalante creek canyon recently?

 

[slymule]

Meichele, not since last year. I've got a buddy thats done some early scouting for desert sheep and he says that there's alot of deer and elk down low already, just up from the Gunnison river. Also talked to a couple of hunters that were camped off of Divide Road that said they were thinking of moving their camp - said most of the elk were down low already in the private stuff. Doesn't take much pressure these days to send the game into private land where they're safe. If you want to hunt low in that area the best advice I could give you would be to find the biggest landowner that doesn't allow any hunting in that area, then hunt the border of his property catching game heading into his "safe" property. Believe me, the game knows where the safe areas are and if you hunt the borders you can catch them coming and going. I've done this for years, always has worked well for me.

 

[Michael Eichele]

That is good advice. thank you.

What was Escalante creek like last year?

 

[slymule]

Actually I didn't pay much attention to it. If I remember it was late Spring last time I was up on 6.5 rd. It's not much of a creek to cross if thats what you're asking.

 

[Michael Eichele]

No just looking for info on it from a hunting standpoint. From viewing the map, it caught my interest.

 

[slymule]

Meichele,

Since I don't normally hunt that area I'm not real familiar with alot of the creeks. Escalante creek is one of the largest creeks in the area and I would say it probably runs year long. What you'll find up in that area is that alot of the creeks only run during spring runoff and by the time you get up there to hunt, they'll be just a dry creekbed. Its not like back East where a river is deep and wide, and creeks run year long. Take the Colorado river for instance, its not hard to find a place to cross. I've crossed it many times coonhunting with crotch high waders and I can always find a place to cross without getting wet. What we call a river out here would be like a good sized creek back East. Most creeks that run year long out here you can either jump across or walk across on the tops of rocks. Alot of them labeled on topo maps only run during the spring runoff and dry up as it gets into summer. You may find a pocket here or there thats above ground that has water but you're just as likely to be kicking up sand as you walk across whats labeled as a creek.

 

[long450]

I have hunted that area a good bit. Lots of good area such as Spring Creek Trail, Prior Flat, Bever Dam, Quakey benches (clear cut in 2007), Mores Piont, and Sawdust Pile. You must have had some points to get that draw! In any case where to hunt is going to depend upon where the mule deer are, and that will depend upon the weather.

You are hunting late season and my bet is that the mule will be in the lower country in the Oak brush. That is not to say that you will not see an occasional mule deer a little higher up, but I rarely see them when I hunt elk in the 3rd rifle season. If weather is "normal", it will be cold up top and the bulk of the mule deer will be down.

From up on Divide Road heading down there are several nice views of Mount Sniffels.

I will not be able to go this year, but wish you the best of luck!!