New Units to the Colorado draw question.

[lowpressure]

Does anybody know if there are any herd survey results out for all of the units that transitioned to draw in 2020? Most were in the SW part of the state but they have been draw for two seasons now and i just wondered if they were going to start seeing a better bull to cow ratio yet of and increase in harvest size.

Anyway, it was just something i was thinking about and hadnt been able to find.


thanks

 

[cnelk]

That would be DAU E24

https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/DAU/Elk/E24DAUPlan_DisappointmentCreek.pdf

 

[WTFJohn]

OP, in 2020 they gave out enough tags to hit the leftover list in order to gauge actual hunter pressure/interest in those units. 2021 had a similar number of tags issued as were applied for the previous year.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is a nationally recognized leader in conservation, outdoor recreation and wildlife management. The agency manages 42 state parks, all of Colorado's wildlife, more than 300 state wildlife areas and a host of recreational programs. CPW issues hunting and fishing...

cpw.state.co.us

The post-hunt population estimates have the herd up ~3,000 animals, but I wouldn't trust a single data point from CPW (aka watch the trends not the numbers).

These units, even though they are limited entry, are still managed for opportunity not for trophy quality. In addition, the biggest driver for limiting those units was poor calf recruitment (multitude of reasons), something that will take multiple years to overcome - especially with the increase in outdoor recreational users over the last two years.

 

[lowpressure]

Thanks for the responses yall. I am still building points in multiple states but like a lot of people i end up back home in Colorado. (i grew up in Montrose and never really knew how good i had it)

 

[tdhanses]

Only change in these units were for archery to be draw, still otc for 2nd/3rd rifle. I wouldn’t expect them to change much at all going forward till rifle isn’t otc.

 

[lowpressure]

tdhanses I agree completely. If a unit is a draw unit it should be that way across the board.