Sangre's/Flat tops/San Juans = Worthless
Mule Deer
Man the CPW is attempting to screw archery hunters with this change. Pay attention to about page 229...
http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Commission/2019/January/Item.10-Final-Chapter.W-2.pdf
With the change most units in the Sangres, San Juans, and Flat Tops will be worthless to archery guys. Or what I have seen is things change after guys with 1000+ yd rifles start banging away above timberline. To start one of these hunts the same day as archery in entire mountain ranges is total bs....
Sad to see the direction of cpw..
The document only goes to page 219
It took me a while to find it but they have an early deer rifle season that starts the same day as archery season for elk and deer.
Most all the mule deer archery seasons got moved back from the 25th to the 31 st of August. Or not ideal if you like to hunt deer with a bow..
Page 80 lines out what units the 1000 yd "shooters" will be banging away the on the same opening day as archery.
Didn't CO archery elk and mule deer west of I-25 open on the last Saturday in August for the past many years (after we lost the mid-August opener way back when and a couple of weeks of season cutting it back to 30 days). Maybe the season has rotated back to an August 31 opener this year because it's the last Saturday in August...which will please a lot of elk hunters as the season will run longer in September? Just speculating, as i didn't read 219 or 229 pages of proposed season info....don't hunt CO now-a-days.
Kurt you are right the seasons structure is the later dates for archery this year..
The difference is that a quite a few units have the recommendation to have high country rifle hunts moved up to the same day archery starts.
Having archery start the same day as rifle season will = archery guys competing with guys toting 1200 yd pea shooters. Or with the way guys shoot fair to say it will make things a bit more challenging for archery guys.. That is when we are not ducking bullets lol..
Have ducked bullets in the Holy Cross once. Do not want to do that again...
These early season timberline hunts for mule deer has been going on for several years now. We have no early season timberline hunts for mule deer down here, wish we did though. And most of the guys I know that draw these tags aren't no 1000 yard rifle hunters, but serious mule deer hunters that don't shoot 1000 yard rifles. Kinda think this whole thing is getting blown outa proportion and a way to gripe at the long range shooters.
The early above timberline deer seasons are pretty limited, 30 tags for unit 82, chances of running into a rifle hunter are pretty slim in a unit that is 75 miles north to south.... I know I don't worry about it in 82.
I have hunted one of these units but always before rifle started. The spot I go is delicate and it doesn't take much to empty the basin of deer for a few days. I would skip if I couldn't get in before rifle.
It doesn’t make a difference in Wyoming. It’s not like they’ll be “banging away”. More like glassing away.
I find the elk to he lower than any deer worth shooting.
For it elk makes little difference.
It definitely tends to run a lot of deer out of basins though.
30 tags in the Sanger’s is not a lot, however you can figure that those 30 rifle guys will ge into about 30 basins and blow the bucks out. Guess a bowhunter can always get lucky and be in the right basin that the gun guys aren’t in.
Rare to have bigger bucks put up with any pressure at all.
The early rifle seasons used to be either the week of muzzle loader or the week before. Had rifle hunters complain that they were not seeing the numbers of deer they expected and that they had to compete with bowhunters and muzzle loaders. CPw changed up the early rifle buck hunt schedules. This year with the archery season slid back so far, the rifle hunt starts the same day as archery in some units.
So they are making new units into early rifle units? Or the existing high country rifle units just start earlier this year?
Justin,
I don't think that these are new rifle hunts, I think the scheduled start for archery season moved back like it normally does. For some reason the early rifle season moved up. So, for this year, the early rifle season starts the same day as archery deer.
Usually, the rifle seasons don't start till a week after the start of archery so you get at least one week of archery deer hunting before the rifle hunters blow out the basins.
Starting the same day will suck for archery deer hunters in those units.
He is right stay out of these units it wont be an good;)
I kinda like the rifle tags starting that early....just a little friendly competition. You bowhunt for the challenge right?
I would give these units less consideration for sure if the rifles hunts started at the same time. Bull shit if you ask me.
Yeah, Firsty, maybe to skewer one of those orange pumpkins...
