When making a checklist of essentials for the upcoming hunt, deer enthusiasts might want to include the phone number of a good taxidermist.
Of course, not every hunter will return with a trophy. But in a time of plentiful bucks, it will happen often enough to put an even greater strain on a Colorado industry that in recent years has suffered from overload.
Both in woods and workshops, the deer business is booming these days.
Reflecting a continuing trend of healthy populations, the Colorado Division of Wildlife has slowly increased its allotment of buck licenses.
“It should be a good year for anyone who has a license,” state big game manager Rick Kahn said.
Kahn bases his rosy view on the fact that virtually no place in the state suffered significant winter mortality, always the greatest concern for deer. Mild winter weather allows for greater survival of older bucks and fawns – a boon for both present and future prospects.
Populations have increased in certain places to the extent the agency is trying to encourage the harvest females as an article of population control.
“It’s hard to get anyone interested in doe harvest,” Kahn said.
Much of the reason concerns the widespread availability of bucks that are – if not outright trophies – at least highly desirable specimens.
“We have no issues for bucks. There are lots of good-sized bucks out there,” Kahn said of a population that contains a high percentage of animals 3-years-old and older. “There’s more than we’ve had in recent memory.”
The veteran manager believes the statewide deer population hasn’t increased dramatically in recent years, but that the limited license arrangement produced a gender shift, with a greater percentage of mature bucks.
Kahn pointed to the upper Colorado Basin, including Middle Park and North Park, as areas that boast exceptional deer numbers.
Mild winter conditions served to boost populations in virtually all of southwest Colorado, and deer prospects are improving in the San Luis Valley.
