# Colorado Vs. Wyoming



## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Hello All,

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and will be enjoying a good New Year!

I am in the process of planning next year's hunt. I'm a little behind the ball this year as I usually have the following years trip planned by mid summer the year prior. Next year I will have 2 preference points plus my application point available for mule deer and antelope in Wyoming for a total of 3. In Colorado I will have 3 preference points plus my application point available for mule deer and antelope for a total of 4.

My question; Which state and preferably unit (if you don't mind sharing) would you choose with the points I have available for a diy hunt? Or would you hold off another few years and continue to build points? If I had to go after one animal I'd prefer mule deer, if I can find a good unit that offers both mule deer and antelope that would be a bonus.

Thanks for your help in planning my next hunt.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

Hunting18 said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and will be enjoying a good New Year!
> 
> ...


I’m in about the same boat as you for Wyoming and Colorado, also with elk points. Keep in mind you will go into the 2021 drawing with 2 points for Wyoming and 3 for Colorado. You won’t be issued that years point until after the drawing, does that make sense?

I plan to build deer points in Wyoming for many years until I can draw a good high country unit.

3 points in Colorado should draw you a 3rd season Muley tag, and you should be able to make a good hunt out of it. My standard practice for DIY hunts is have 2 days before season to scout, this is especially helpful navigating private/public land boundaries. Good luck, let us know what you end up doing.


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## big buck 75 (Sep 6, 2010)

Not sure about Wyoming but Colorado seems to suffer from point creep, so depending on your age you may or may not want to continue with Colorado.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

big buck 75 said:


> Not sure about Wyoming but Colorado seems to suffer from point creep, so depending on your age you may or may not want to continue with Colorado.


I'm 27, so should have some time.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

steelyspeed said:


> I’m in about the same boat as you for Wyoming and Colorado, also with elk points. Keep in mind you will go into the 2021 drawing with 2 points for Wyoming and 3 for Colorado. You won’t be issued that years point until after the drawing, does that make sense?
> 
> I plan to build deer points in Wyoming for many years until I can draw a good high country unit.
> 
> ...


Thanks, I was under the understanding that your application technically counted as an additional point. Guess I misunderstood somewhere along the line.


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## anagranite (Oct 23, 2010)

Wyoming has point creep as well, when I started buying points for elk it was 7pts to get 100% draw. I'm currently at 10 pts and my draw odds are still low unless I buy the Special Elk tag.


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## anagranite (Oct 23, 2010)

The big questions are 

1. What weapon? Rifle, bow, or muzzloader
2. What type of terrain? East to west both state vary a lot. Some parts of Wyoming are considered Wilderness areas and require a guide I do believe.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

Hunting18 said:


> Thanks, I was under the understanding that your application technically counted as an additional point. Guess I misunderstood somewhere along the line.


Yea, no problem. Its helpful to know exactly where your at when looking at draw odds. Wyoming has great data on harvest reports and especially past draw odds.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

anagranite said:


> The big questions are
> 
> 1. What weapon? Rifle, bow, or muzzloader
> 2. What type of terrain? East to west both state vary a lot. Some parts of Wyoming are considered Wilderness areas and require a guide I do believe.


Weapon choice is up in the air, just depends what my best options are. I have and am competent with all three. 

I have not been in the mountains a ton, so preferably nothing crazily steep until I have some experience. However again, I am game to try just about anything.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

Hunting18 said:


> Weapon choice is up in the air, just depends what my best options are. I have and am competent with all three.
> 
> I have not been in the mountains a ton, so preferably nothing crazily steep until I have some experience. However again, I am game to try just about anything.


Maybe antelope in Wyoming is a good place to start! I shot my first pronghorn this year in South Dakota and posted the hunt on here. Really fun critters to chase.


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## big buck 75 (Sep 6, 2010)

Hunting18 said:


> I'm 27, so should have some time.


Yep, you have time, depending on the unit you should be fine. But FYI I have 21pts for Colorado and it is still not enough to draw some units.


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## shanny28757 (Feb 11, 2006)

At a given preference point level you can assume you can get into a better unit faster if you go to a more primitive weapon. So for instance, early rifle tags for elk during the rut in the highest quality units are probably the hardest to draw. But you might be able to get into those units with fewer points if you opt for a muzzy or archery tag. 

Also, in both Co. and Wy. you don't enter the draw this year with your existing points +1. If you have 3 points as of Jan 1 you enter the draw with 3, not 3 + this year's entry for a total of 4. That will certainly make a difference when you're looking at draw odds.

Both colorado and wyoming post their previous year draw stats for all tags. It can be a bit daunting to compare and contrast units if you're just looking at the PDF file, but the data is there. Services like GoHunt dumb it down and make all the data very easy to search based on how many PP's you have. They usually have a 7 day free trial you can check out.


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

I'd go for one animal at a time especially for your first rodeo. Of course we were done in a day for pronhorn but you'd have to go later in the season to double up with mule deer and the pronghorn would be less forgiving.

For pronghorn wyoming for mule deer I guess either. For wyoming look at the draw odds and perhaps pay for the special tag. People generally aren't (or at least shouldn't) post units on an internet forum. Except in cases where it doesn't matter.


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## Matt79 (Oct 14, 2012)

I agree with Shaffe in picking one species, esp. if hunting with others. You have plenty of points to get into a pretty decent unit in Wyoming for lope. We did it two years in a row in a one point unit and always tagged out with good bucks and does in few days. You will see a lot of bucks to choose from.
As far as mule deer, I haven’t hunted Wyoming but have done ALOT of reading and research, and do have 5 points there. I have friends that have hunted both states numerous times. I decided to hunt Colorado in 2020, in a one point unit on public ground. I ended up shooting a very nice buck and buddy did also. We seen 3 that would dwarf the ones we killed, after getting into range on them and playing with onX, realized they were about 100 yards off public onto private ground. 
After I burn my Wyoming deer points I probably won’t put in there anymore. Point creep is getting horrible and IMO Colorado has has a lot more potential. You can go to a 1 or 2 point unit in Colorado and see bucks that you would be happy to see in Wyoming in max point units.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Thanks for all the replies. Really opened my eyes to a few things. Here's to making some choices.


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## GrizzlyHunter (Jun 17, 2005)

Hunting18 said:


> Thanks, I was under the understanding that your application technically counted as an additional point. Guess I misunderstood somewhere along the line.


Steely is correct. You do not get an additional point until you are denied for your current application.


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## GrizzlyHunter (Jun 17, 2005)

Hunting18 said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and will be enjoying a good New Year!
> 
> ...


I would suggest an Antelope hunt in Wyoming. It's a very fun hunt that is way more social than deer hunting in Michigan. There can be a lot of road hunting involved, not that I'm recommending it, but it's pretty common. You can draw a tag in some decent units, just look up the drawing statistics for the last few years and it'll point you to which units you'll have a good change of drawing. Keep in mind that the point creep caused the required points to draw a tag to increase almost every year.

You can also pay more money for the special applications (about $300 per hunter) and it'll help you draw a tag 2-4 years sooner than a normal app.

I organized an Antelope hunting WY last year and we went 5 for 5. I took my two sons (24 & 22), my buddy took his daughter (24), and everybody had a blast. We're probably going to CO for Mule Deer this fall.

Good luck!


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Well after reading some comments on here I originally planned to hold off on Colorado and Wyoming for a few more years. I was just going to spend a couple weeks in my Ohio public land hot spot and build a few more points.

However as of last week a group of friends had someone drop out of their annual Colorado trip so I will be joining them this year. I am purchasing an otc license so I won't be burning any points. 

We will be hunting around steamboat springs area unit 5 & 14 primarily. I'm excited, however don't have high hopes. If anyone has some tips/secrets on the area, I'd be willing to give some tips/secret on Ohio if anyone is interested...


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## 58hydraglide (Sep 1, 2008)

Remember that their "summer range" doesn't factor in hunting pressure. They will go out of there comfort zone if pressured enough. 

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