Colorado deer hunters may not have it half bad this season.
With some straight shooting and a break in the weather, hunters, for the first time in nearly four decades, might score a 50 percent success ratio.
Or better. Deer enthusiasts came close last year at 46 percent, highest in the lifetimes of some hunters.
Now, with even more and bigger bucks wandering the forests, it’s a grand time to have a deer license in your pocket. Continued low winter mortality, coupled with a carefully managed system of limited licenses, served to produce a dramatic success story.
Hunters hauled nearly 42,000 deer out of the woods last year, 13,000 more than in 1999, when the limited license plan went into effect.
“It’s not that there’s so many more deer out there, it’s just that the sex ratio is much better,” said Rick Kahn, wildlife management supervisor with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. “That’s got hunters pretty excited.”
The increase in the numbers of mature bucks is fine enough. The really good news is the growing ratio of older animals, those that qualify as true trophies, or close to it.
That said, the veteran game manager began to rattle off a half-dozen locations where hunters can find animals in both size and numbers.
“The Gunnison Basin has acquired a national reputation for big bucks,” Kahn said of a burgeoning herd that has reached an estimated 25,000 animals, prompting DOW officials to ponder increased hunting opportunity in the areas starting next year. The agency has opened a public comment period to discuss a high-country buck hunt, as well as an extended deer hunt into the fourth hunt period in November now reserved for elk. aps should be directed to DOW biologist Brandon Diamond at 300 W. New York Ave., Gunnison, CO 81230.
Kahn also cited Middle Park as a big-buck hangout, along with the Piceance Basin and the Bears Ears area northeast of Craig, saying, “Grand Mesa also is pretty good, and there’s lots of deer on the Uncompahgre Plateau.”
Under the limited-license scheme, hunters are restricted to a designated game management unit.
“The area isn’t as important as the timing,” Kahn said. “The later you hunt, the more vulnerable bucks become. When snow starts to accumulate and they move out of dark timber into sagebrush and other open areas, they become more vulnerable.”
Hunting pressure actually may be advantageous in pursuing big bucks, Kahn suggested. Wise, old moss horns survive by sitting tight, letting hunters pass.
Unlike the more mobile elk, which tend to flee an area completely or congregate on private land when pursued, deer are more territorial. Flushed from cover, they’re more likely to cross paths with someone packing a license and a gun.
“There’s an old adage that a moving deer is a dead deer,” Kahn said.
Kahn’s advice is to hunt locations with which you are familiar, using knowledge of topography and animal habits to shift odds in your favor.
Considering the number of large bucks out there, he might have added another item of counsel: Don’t shoot the first thing you see wearing horns.
