Help with planning for Colorado

[Paul Shirek]

It looks like my son and I are going to be able to go to Colorado to hunt this fall. I know it's late but I have two questions. First, are any OTC elk areas a good experience? Percent of success seem really low according to their site. Two, are they usually any left over deer tags for areas in public land with a decent chance? I will appreciate any help you may give.

[skilonbw]

The OTC areas do get hunt hard, even in those areas you can have success by how much you are willing to work. The deer issue is tricky the good leftover tags go quick  and often times they are sold out. What area in the state are you thinking it is quite large and since i have not hunted all public areas I can point you towards a couple but they require a lot of backpacking to see good numbers and not a lot of other hunters. Also look at some of the leftover draw areas they have a good number of elk but not people buying licenses.

[Ranger44]

Paul,  In my opinion any "elk experience" is a good experience for us midwesterners.  Any time our group hasn't been drawn for a LE tag we have gone OTC.  You're off to a good start by using the DOW site.  We look for the better hunter success numbers in an area we want to hunt like Forest Service land or wilderness areas.  Stats aren't always too dependable for many reasons but that's all we have to go on.  Once you have a specific zone picked you can call the local biologist or forest service and ask specific questions.  

Usually you can at least get a little action in OTC areas and it can be real good.  I can't help you with your second question but if you have more questions post them and others will chime in.  You can also PM with more questions if you like.  I'll try to help if I can.

[smokin feathers]

i have bought left over tags in 25 and 26 for deer and done well and had a blast. Lots of deer and elk in those units though a lot of it is in the flat tops as well with several winterhawk outfitters camps right there close.