Colorado Elk??????

[silvertip-co]

You can plan hunts 5 years in advance in Colorado.

Just go to the DOW websiste and go to their search and type in '5 year big game season structure' or '2010 big game season' or something similar and the 5 year schedule will come up. The seasons are NOT set in stone, so the dates COULD change a little as time goes along. I had a link for the 5 year plan but have lost it or I would post it. I'll look when I get to my home pc on Sunday and see if it's bookmarked there. Good luck.

[TennVol]

Steve,
Don't worry about drawing the either sex tag in GMU 751 for the 1'st season. Since the 2001 season, everyone who has applied for that tag for their first choice has drawn it. There have always been at least 500 tags that weren't drawn for first choices. The number of tags available has been 2500 every year since at least 2001. I've not read anything to suggest the number of available tags will change for the 2008 season.

Also, every year the seasons have a different start date. The 1st elk season always starts on the 2nd Sat in Oct, unless Oct 1'st was a Sat - then the season starts on the 3'rd Sat of Oct.

Start dates of 1st Elk season:
2009: 10 - 14 Oct
2008: 11 - 15 Oct
2007: 13 - 17 Oct
2006: 14 - 18 Oct
2005: 15 - 19 Oct
2004: 9 - 13 Oct

Here's the link from the CO DOW for the 5 year plan:

http://wildlife.state.co.us/NR/rdonl...s_revised2.pdf

[elkstalker300]

I am not trying to argue with you TennVol, but I know that Co does hold a certain percentage of tags just for resident tags and only around 30% goes out to Out of State hunters so if they give out 2500 tags only 750 will be allowed to the nonresident hunters. I agree he shouldnt have any problem drawing one, my daughter which is resident didnt draw her 1st season tag last year (2007) but everyone else did in their group. It takes every other year to draw a 3rd season buck tag, I love those pref. point systems every state should have them

[TennVol]

Elkstalker300 - I know you're not trying to argue. IMHO, the CO big game regulations are entirely too complicated. My hunting buddies & I have had to take the time to really read the regs through to get an understanding of them.

The percentage you are referring to is a 65% quota for residents and 35% quota for non-residents. That percentage only applies in units where it has taken less then 5 preference points (averaged over the three previous years) for residents to draw a tag. (Units needing five or more points for a resident to draw have an 80% resident/20% non-resident quota.) The unit Steve is wanting to hunt hasn't taken any preference points since 2001 for anyone to draw, so this formula applies to the GMU he wants to hunt.

Here is the link to the file the DOW has posted regarding the percentages for residents vs non-residents: http://wildlife.state.co.us/NR/rdonl...nresidents.pdf

If enough residents don't apply to satisfy the 65% of the tag requirement, the remaining tags can be drawn by non-residents. Last year, only 731 residents applied as their 1'st choice for one of the 2500 available tags in the hunt code that includes GMU 751. That comes out to 29.2% of the available tags. That leaves approx 70% of the remaining tags available to non-residents who apply for the tag as their 1'st choice. If for some reason the number of CO residents who apply for that tag this year gets to the 65% point, then only 35% of the remaining tags will be available to non-residents as their 1'st choice, but historically, that's not been a problem.

Here is the data for hunt code EE07501R since 2001:

Table:
a) Season, b) Number of tags available, c) Number of residents who listed this GMU as their 1'st choice, d) Number of non-residents who listed this GMU as their 1'st choice, e) Total number of tags drawn on 1'st choice)

a) 2006 b) 2500 c) 731 d) 1336 e) 2067
a) 2005 b) 2500 c) 721 d) 1218 e) 1939
a) 2004 b) 2500 c) 667 d) 1034 e) 1701
a) 2003 b) 2500 c) 662 d) 1082 e) 1744
a) 2002 b) 2500 c) 683 d) 1084 e) 1767
a) 2001 b) 2500 c) 663 d) 1122 e) 1785

Sorry to hit you guys with so much data, but I have spent a lot of time and money over the years trying to figure out the regs here in Colorado.

[lerch]

Thanks for all the info everyone, TennVol that some pretty impressive stuff you got there,

Now maybe everyone can see why I cant understand $H!@ in regs!!!!

thanks again guys
steve

[TennVol]

Steve,

Here are the harvest stats for GMU 751 for the first rifle season over the past few years. Take them for what they are worth. We use them to try and find the GMUs with the highest success rates and the least amount of hunters for each season. (The average yearly success rate for all manners of elk hunting as reported by the Colorado DOW is usually between 25% - 28%.)

2006 - 250 hunters 66 bulls 55 cows 48% success rate
2005 - 222 hunters 21 bulls 29 cows 23% success rate
2004 - 327 hunters 65 bulls 44 cows 33% success rate
2003 - 290 hunters 82 bulls 25 cows 37% success rate
2002 - 293 hunters 88 bulls 49 cows 47% success rate
2001 - 241 hunters 16 bulls 36 cows 22% success rate

In my experience, the harvest rates have a correlation to the weather during the season. Too hot = lower success rates. Too much snow = lower success rates. The ideal situation is just the right amount of snow to get them moving, but not so much that you can't get to them.

[lerch]

Thanks again buddy, you been a hell of a lot of help so far. I am getting ready to make another new post with some new info on what i have decided so far, tell me what you think

thanks again man, i really appreciate it, if for some reason you ever wanna hunt down in OK just hollar and i will help you in any way i can. That goes for anyone by the way

thanks
steve