Forget, if you can, all those deer that did not survive the brutal winter in the Gunnison country, or in certain other places around the state.
Hunters who look elsewhere will find lots of them — more than half a million tucked into every nook and cranny in the state.
“We have reports of good bucks all over the place. Hunting will be good for people who work to get into the right places,” declared Mary Lloyd, big-game data analyst for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
Despite the worst killer winter in a quarter-century, deer remain a management success story. Apart from that winter shock, the precise effects of which will never be fully known, the state’s deer herd continues to grow under a total-limited-license scheme that cranks out a steady flow of trophy animals.
A state that until recently was heralded chiefly for its elk now ranks high as a deer destination. Draw a tag for one of the more desirable units, make the commitment to planning and effort, factor in a little luck and you’re on your way to a fat taxidermy bill.
“Based on anecdotal information from the archery and muzzleloader seasons, hunters saw both large numbers of deer and large bucks,” said Bruce Watkins, state big- game coordinator.
Watkins extended this observation to include even the Gunnison country, Middle Park, upper Eagle River Valley and smaller enclaves troubled by winter kill.
“Although our transects showed a lot of mortality, many mature bucks remain. People forget how well deer were doing in the Gunnison country. We lost some bucks, but then we had a lot of bucks. Hunters who drew tags still should have a good hunt.”
Watkins’ projection is based on the sharp reduction of tags issued in the area — from 2,175 buck or either-sex licenses to 1,270 and 1,220 ant-lerless to just 105. Successful applicants will have much less competition for what should be a fairly solid holdover population of bucks.
Favorable management practices, coupled with decades of relatively favorable winter weather, had made the Gunnison country a national hotspot for trophy bucks. Watkins hopes for a fairly rapid rebound of the herd, despite the loss of large numbers of doe deer.
“If we don’t have another hard winter, deer should recover well in two to three years,” he said.
The bottom line, Watkins said, is that biologists probably won’t fully grasp the impact of the killer winter until they have digested the results of the upcoming hunt.
Nor can they project whether the recent trend toward a steady increase in deer harvest will continue. Colorado hunters bagged 45,026 in 2007, compared with 44,785 the previous year.
