I am interested in joining a Hunt Club. Is anyone familiar with COS (Colorado Outdoor Sports) or AWA(American wildlife Association) Clubs which are multi state?, COS is an affliate of AWA. Info on other clubs would also be appreciated. Ray

Fifty Nine(59) Views and NO replies! Somebody Please! Ray

I guess that makes me number 60 Sorry but I've never heard of it.

Are you looking for a club that has country leased that you can hunt on or one that lobbies politically for hunting issues? If it is the later I would recommend the North American Hunting Club.

I am looking for clubs that have land leased for hunting. Thanks Ray

Why in the world would you want to get involved in a hunt club in a state like Colorado? I'm a 5th generation native of that state and can't understand why someone would pay to join a club when there are millions of acres of public land to hunt.

Most hunt clubs are for people that don't have access to land to hunt. Colorado has National Forest, National Grassland, BLM land, State Wildlife areas, State Forest, School Trust Lands and probably some I'm not even aware of. On all this public land you can hunt elk, mule deer, whitetail deer, black bear, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, desert bighorn sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope,moose, turkey, ducks, geese, rabbits, squirrel, coyote, fox, bobcat and any thing else the state has to offer. Granted, some of the tags can be hard to draw, but the oportunity is there.

All a club would be able to offer would probably be deer, elk and small game. Not worth the investment to me. I'd suggest you go to the main DOW building off Broadway in Denver and research just exactly how much public hunting is available and learn how to use the preference point system to get tags. I've taken 14 elk, 24 mule deer, 4 whitetails, 8 pronghorn antelope, a mountain goat, 2 black bear and all the small game that is common to the state and I've never hunted off of public land.

Mac

Sorry Mac, but I'm waving the bullshit flag here. Yes there is quite a bit of public land in Colorado, especially for big game hunting in the western part of the state. But if you are into waterfowl hunting, which is excellent in the eastern half of the state, you are very, very limited if you rely on public land. Yes, it exists, but Colorado's population has grown out of control, and these public areas are so grossly overhunted that it's not even fun. There's always some moron skybusting at ducks/geese nearby, so a good hunt over decoys is out. I grew up on the front range hunting private land and became pretty spoiled. That was back in the day when you could knock on doors and eventually find permission to hunt someone's cornfield. If you think a lease or trespass fee to hunt Wyoming mule deer is expensive, try to lease a cornfield in Colorado. As the front range exploded into an urban mess and open spaces were covered with houses hunting access became limited to only those with a lot of cash. It's so sad, that for the most part the only way to go on a good hunt anymore is to shell out your paycheck. And we wonder why kids don't hunt anymore. I feel lucky that I moved to Wyoming several years ago, but our situation is beginning to catch up to Colorado's.

Can't agree MrHawg.

I live in Sterling in the northeast corner of the state and the state has bought either the land or the hunting rights to nearly the entire South Platte river bottom from Fort Morgan to the Nebraska state line. All the lakes in major lakes in eastern Colorado such as Prewitt, Jackson, North Sterling, Jumbo, Bonny, NeeNoshe, Queens, Two Buttes etc... have public hunting around them.

Some of the State Wildlife areas such as Tamarack, Bob Elliot, Messex etc... run to chunks of land over 10,000 acres. If you want to hunt waterfowl, there is a lot of opportunity. The weekends can get pretty crowded, but that's what they make Mon-Fri for. If the skybusters bother you, I'd say you didn't walk far enough from the access road. My experience is that a slob hunter is a lazy hunter and won't walk too far. I know where there are some sloughs and ponds on public land that get almost no pressure outside of my family and the numbers of ducks and geese that we have taken would amaze you.

I stand by my earlier statement that there is an incredible amount of land available if you do the research. I've never had trouble getting access to a farmers land if I wanted it either. I've had lots of offers. But then I guess that being from Sterling is different from being from the "Front Range". If the folks from Denver would leave their "Big City Ways" in the city, they would get along better with us Country Folk". Then access would not be such an issue.

Attitude breeds unacceptance. How many times did you offer to help a farmer or rancher repair fence or dig ditches in exchange for hunting rights?

Mac

Not sure if I posted it earlier, but I left Colorado six years ago. It sounds like the northeastern part of the state has picked up quite a bit of property. That's great.

Mac, I didn't come from a city. I usually didn't have any trouble finding places to hunt, but most of those places are now covered with houses.

Mac, I have been looking at bear hunting in Colorado. Since I don't live in the state, any suggestion based on your experience and knowledge.

Look around the town of Trinidad in the south central part of the state for bear. They have the highest bear density in the state down there. Put in for a tag for the Sept hunt and hunt it hard.

Lots of towns like Trinidad and La Veta have serious bear trouble in Sept and Oct as the bears are stocking up for winter. Lots of public ground in the area. I'd also get ahold of the Chambers of Commerce and see if they can provide me the names of landowners that are having bear trouble. The DOW biologist could give some good info too. All the way down to the New Mexico state line ave lots of bear. If you draw one of the Sept tags, you can hunt with anything you want and also use the tag later in the year during a regular deer/elk season if you don't fill in Sept.

There is a fellow named Joe Boucher that runs Horn Fork Guides out of Buena Vista. He helped me fill my goat tag and takes some bears in Sept. There is another fellow named Albert Goode that runs the hunting rights on the Kim Ranch in the Ranching for Wildlife program out of Kim Colo. He takes a lot of bears. Joe Boucher has a website under Horn Fork Guides and Albert Goodes contact info is listed under the Colo DOW's Ranching for Wildlife web page.

Mac

Mac, thanks for the info, this will help a lot. I had hoped to make a trip this year but found out I will be hunting "Mickey" with a camera in central florida along with the grand daughter....my next hunting partner.....again...thanks.

Mr.HAWG
What is the purpose of the picture you post with your replies?

My Avatar? Well, I decided to change it because someone said my pig picture was evil looking. This one if from a funny scene from the movie Office Space where a guy beats up his computer. I guess you have to see the movie to appreciate it. That's all.

Is this one better?

I really like Kenny, but nothing beats the Office Space movie clip...

Just my $.02

MG

I guess you can pretend the Office Space guy is kicking the shit out of Kenny.

"YOU KILLED KENNY, YOU BASTARD!"

Ray:
AWA via Hunting Sports Plus for Kansas/ Missouri/Iowa

Good so far but only one year--helpful. Have been with MidAmerica, too. Can't help with Co. In Kansas/MO it is a low cost alternative to guided hunts, provided you can scout and set up. Farms are subject to local pressure, though, unlike managed tracts...so it isn't always like the pictures...

What does that have to do with Kenny?

What does "Kenny" have to do with MY post???
A bit about me. 20 yrs active duty USAF + 20 more yrs Civil Service all working for the AF, then combined and retired. Orig fm W TN, fm a rural area but didn't live on a farm, however all my "bread and butter until I was 13 yrs old came from farming. lived in a small town of 2500 with agricultural base. Own a small farm in W TN of 165 acres and have undivided family land (304 acres)(all timber) adjoining my farm.
So I hope you can see I'm not a city slicker. I tried public land for many years plus I had real good luck a few yrs back getting on provate land. No more!! I've lived in CO 27 yrs this time plus 3 yrs earlier. I have books on State Wildlife Areas, State Trust Lands, and BLM and National forest maps of almost the entire state. I've also talked to numerous DOW people. My experiences last season--- Some pri land I had hunted for 4 yrs had a rules change by homeowner's assoc which effectively kicked me off. On another place where I paid a small fee, the landowner told me back in 2003 we were scheduled to hunt but--after we had put in for and drawn PLO (pri land only) tags for daughter and grandson--said we could still hunt but his buddies would be making a "first pass"
thru land. They had a reputation for driving around his land in a pickup scaring off game. Many times on public land I have witnessed overcrowding and way too much road and vehicular (ATVs too) hunting. Private land almost always is Much!! better. As well as safer! So, that's why I prefer a Club. Thanks Ray