Me and a buddy drew a mule deer tag for second season here. It will be a first for both of us to hunt in Colorado. It's going to be a DIY type of hunt for us, and we plan on packing in far so we can try to get away from other hunters and increase our chances. Does anyone have experience with this unit, deer or elk?

TIA

We hunt in 76. It's not far from 74. I got my first elk there two years ago. My husband has taken 10 elk (3 bulls and 7 cows) up there in the past 15 years. You'll also get mule deer. It's some nice country out there. Just remember, as nice as it is getting away from the other hunters, if you take something you have to pack it out of there and it's not always an easy task. One of the guys we went with took a bull across a ravine and it took 4 hours to get him down the hill to get the 4 wheeler close enough to get him out. There are guys in the area who will come in on horseback but you're looking at paying $500 or more to have them pack it out for you. But I guess since it's mule deer it won't be as hard as an elk and between the two of you you can pack it out yourselves. My husband says "go low, find streams/rivers, stay in the scrub (they're browsers)." There's no reason to go high and get into the dark timber or aspen since that's not their main forage. You'll love it up there though. Best of luck!

Thanks for the info!

Packing in really limits what you can cover if you aren't sure where exactly it is you need to be looking. You can still find some alfalfa fields on private toward the North end of the unit and can glass public back in behind it off the roads. If the weather is right 2nd season you'll find deer scattered all over the place from 8k to around 10.5k', staging to bump up to winter range; which for most of them will be North around Blue Mesa.

Thats why i started this thread! I have already put in LOTS of hours researching various online resources, Google Earth, ArcGIS Explorer, etc, and continue to do so just about every day. We will get there a day or 2 early to try and scout as much as we can in that limited time, so any tips and pointers like this are very valuable to me and greatly appreciated!

So by saying the weather being "right", do you mean just mean no snow?

Last year it was too hot and the elk weren't where they usually are. Being too cold isn't usually the issue.

I mean lots of snow to push deer down and concentrate them better. Those deer got hammered so hard a few years ago that the best bet is to use the roads and cover a lot of ground. If you start finding does down low start looking around for the highest N/S running point around there with some cover on it and keep a close eye on it when the sun hits it in the mornings. Your older bucks tend to lay up on those vantage points and cover a lot of country. It puts you between a rock & a hard spot on getting up there to them undetected, but that's why they're there.

N/S = North/South?

Yes

Thank you for your information. We drew the mulie tags, but im pretty sure that I'm going to buy an OTC elk tag as well. I just dont think i can pass up a nice bull if I do see one. Fortunately, i was recently blessed with a very good job, and i should be able to afford the OTC tag. So i figured, why the heck not? This is sort of a bucket list hunt for me.

Combo hunts are fun, I wouldn't expect much in terms of size but they're usually kicking in and bugling again 2nd season.

Man i sure hope thats the case. I've never heard an elk bugle that didn't come from behind a Texas high fence.

As far as the size goes, anything would be a trophy to me. I know this unit is not known for size, so I'm certainly not getting my hopes up for something massive.

Like my ol' granddaddy used to tell me..."Its awful hard to eat them horns."

First thing is if your going to be doing alot of walking, get in some good shape. I have never been up there hunting deer or elk but have called some yotes up in Colorado and it is tough if you not in shape. Start conditioning yourself for the trip. put you pack on, your rifle and what you would be hauling while walking and get used to the wieght. Not sure about that area but there are people that will lease horses to hunters up there, not real cheap but adds up with fuel and how long it takes to haul horses from here

Size will increase over time due to quantity. When the 2007/8 winter slaughtered the mule deer, the elk numbers started to explode.. there were a cpl in the 350s shot a cpl units over last year where 5 years ago legal bulls were difficult to find. That area in general is well known for its deer genetics, so you should have a blast.

Look on monstermuleys.com you should be able to find some helpful info on there. There's some guys on there that prolly wont mind sharing info with you.

Thanks Dustin i will definitely check that out.

Bump for any last minute advice, or perhaps some hunting reports from the area?

I leave Tuesday evening to head up there, and start the hunt on the 20th.