Hunting Big Game in Colorado: How to get started from the comforts of home

Do you want to hunt in Colorado, but can’t get your boots on the ground until a day or so before the season begins? No problem! Colorado Parks and Wildlife has great resources to get you hunting efficiently and effectively by understanding hunt codes, using the hunting atlas, and looking at hunting statistics. It is no secret, all of the tools can be found online to help you make the most of your hunt, be safe in the field, and understand all of the regulations that you will need to know.

One of the first things to do is visit the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website at cpw.state.co.us. The resources found here are incredibly helpful and not found in many other states. Once there, click on the, “Things To Do” tab, then go to “Hunting” and then click on “Big Game”.

Once you are there, you can locate the big game brochure. This will contain all the regulations pertaining to big game hunting in Colorado. The information is very important to know, even while in the field. I have always told my students to get three copies. One for your backpack, one for the truck, and one for the bathroom. Great reading material!

You will want to focus on the section under “Applications and Preference Points,” titled, “How to Read Hunt Codes; How to Read Hunt Tables.” This will help in understanding how the hunt codes work for the application process. The hunt code contains a lot of information such as species, sex of the animal, unit, season, and method of take. Understanding the hunt codes will not only be helpful in the application process, but later in this section we will discuss how to use the hunt codes in the hunting statistics pages.

Next, you will want to access the Colorado Hunting Atlas. This is an interactive map that will allow you to view the entire state of Colorado with all of the Game Management Units (GMU). This tool, even if you have never been to Colorado before, will provide an oversight of areas you are interested in hunting. Basically, you will be doing a digital scouting trip through Colorado without leaving the comforts of home.

There are a plethora of tools to use on this interactive map. The Basemap feature allows you to look at Colorado via street, aerial, and topography. This is a feature that is located in the upper right-hand corner of the map.

Typically, I will switch several times between all of these features in order to understand the elevation of where I am looking. This gives you a good idea of what type of hiking and climbing you might be doing in that area. Aerial views allow you to search for the four elements of habitat (food, water, cover and arrangement). You will be pleasantly surprised that you will be able to find the grassy meadows, connecting cover, and water sources. You can even zoom in far enough to sometimes be able to locate a wallow or game trail.

Next, take a look at Map Layers & Legend. This is located on the left-hand side of the map. You will see a tab called “Games Species”. When you click on that box, you will find all the big game species for Colorado. For this example, let’s focus on elk. Once you click on the elk box, you will notice a number of other sub boxes. These are all useful, however I believe if you omit two of the boxes titled “Summer Range” and “Winter Range” it will keep your map cleaner and easier to read. Both of these tabs will be somewhat helpful in understanding where the range of elk is, however, it will make it seem like there is an elk behind every pine and aspen in the area. Instead, focus on the tabs migration and concentration areas. When using these overlays, you will actually have a historic understanding of where the game is during different times of the year. This is data collected over the years from heard counts and radio collars.

​I like to see where the elk are at during any given time of the seasons. For example, if you would refer to the map provided, we are going to focus on Game Management Unit 181 (GMU 181). First, I will take a look at where the elk are during archery season. So I will click on “Summer Concentration Area”. Now I discover that the concentration of elk in the early season will be in the northern part of the GMU. Then I will want to look at where they will begin to move, especially knowing that muzzleloader season is coming up in late September. The rut is now in full swing and hunter pressure in the beginning to push the elk. So now I will look at migration patterns to see where they will begin to leave their summer grounds. Now it is discovered that they tend to move in multiple directions. They leave to the north into GMU 17 and some into the center part of the unit to the State Trust Lands (STL).

Now it is time to look at the rifle seasons which start in mid- October and run through late November. Incidentally, there are four rifle seasons to hunt elk in the area. This is the time the significant winter weather storms can occur triggering the first herds of elk to start migrating to their winter grounds. So now I will click on the tabs “Migration Corridors” and “Winter Concentration Areas”. And now we discover that major elk herds have now moved to the southern part of the unit making it their home for the winter.

The discovery of using this tool is that now instead of wondering where you should hunt in that big piece of land that is a GMU, you should be able now to reduce it down to 20-30% of where you should concentrate your hunt. For example: archery season - focus on the north, muzzleloader - focus on movement to the south and rifle - focus on weather and movement towards the winter grounds in the south. You will find it will be more of an effective and enjoyable hunt when you have a game plan rather than driving to an area wondering where to go.

The “Hunter Reference” tab will be another tool you will want to use. You will find that the places of interest can be very helpful when needing to know where to camp, where other agency offices are such as United States Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM), medical locations and so much more.

In addition to the many tools, many of which we have not covered (but I encourage you to explore), you can hover your mouse over the GMU that you are interested in and right click. This will bring up a box that will have a drop-down box to give you information on the GMU and land management, as well as, contact information on the area CPW wildlife office, hunter resources, and field map finder. This map is absolutely free to use, and you may print any maps you build.

The last thing to help you have a more successful and enjoyable hunt in Colorado is to use the Hunting Statistics page. These pages will provide hunter success, population counts, and draw out success for each GMU.

The Post Draw Report will provide information for each GMU.​ This is some of the most important information you can gather in order to draw a tag to hunt in Colorado.

You have already taken the time to learn the hunt codes for the GMUs that you are interested in hunting. In Colorado, you can make four choices, per species, per application to have a chance of getting a license. These statistics show many licenses were available per GMU, how hunters applied and how many were successful and most importantly, how many preference points were needed, if any, to draw.

To help you understand the statistics pages, I recommend that you read through the web page, watch the short video provided and use the draw recap glossary. Once you click on “Draw Recap Reports for 2019”, you will be surprised to see that there are 937 pages to filter through. Good news! There is a short cut. Use the “CTRL” button with the letter “F” on your keyboard. This is a “find” feature that will appear in the form of a search box in the upper right-hand corner of the spread sheets. Now instead of searching through all of those pages you can now type in your hunt code, hit enter and be sent directly to the page you want to read.

With these three tools and some homework, you will find that whether you are a resident of Colorado or not, you will have answered the question of “where should I hunt”. As if that is not enough, Colorado Parks and Wildlife provides a service called “Call a Hunt Planner” at 303-291-7526. Hunt planners are available Monday – Friday 8 AM – 5 PM (MST) and are here to help you in planning your hunt.

As always, feel free to contact me about all hunting and fishing in Colorado.

-Tony Dymek, Fall Obsession Field Staff