Available Colorado Pronghorn Antelope Hunts --- Search HF Aventures
Colorado’s antelope could be broken up into two separate populations similar to its mule deer, eastern and western. The separation comes primarily to the draw as much like deer, the antelope units on the eastern side of the state are far easier to draw a tag than the western side. Public land on the eastern side of the state is rare and mostly made up of federal grasslands and some state land that is open to public hunting. Quality seems to be fairly similar, and in most cases, if you can afford an outfitter for an Eastern Plains antelope hunt, the quality is better. In Colorado, the amount of points required to draw the tag does not necessarily equal a bigger, mature buck. Keep this in mind when looking for an area to hunt for antelope. If there is a lot of public land with good numbers of antelope, it will typically require 15 plus points right now to draw. In contrast, units on the eastern side of the state that have enough public land to hunt but private land still dominates the unit will take 5 plus points to draw.
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The big elephant in the room for antelope in Colorado is the heavy winterkill 2022/2023 in the northwest part of the state mostly consisting of units 2/201, 3/301, and 11/211. Units 3/301 were as strong as any population in the state before the winter devastated that population to the point they cut rifle tags from 365 all the way down to 40. There is certainly still antelope on the landscape and harvest success remains high in these units, but this drastic tag reduction will only worsen point creep as less applicants can get through the system. The good news with antelope is they typically bounce back pretty fast with most does having twin fawns. The winter so far this year looks to be relatively mild, which is a good thing for recovery. This area was hit hard by winterkill, but other areas have seen tag cuts as well for various reasons, which has worsened point creep as well.
The silver lining currently in drawing an area that has plenty of public land with good antelope numbers within five years is in the archery and muzzleloader draw. Obviously, antelope are not the easiest animals to get within archery or open sight muzzleloader range, but if you are up for the challenge, there are a wealth of opportunities. When you start dissecting the antelope draw odds and you see that some units take 18-20 points to draw rifle hunts and then pan over to find out it only takes 4 points to draw the same area for archery, it’s not a terribly hard decision to change up your weapon choice if you ever want to hunt the western side of the state for antelope.
Quality in Colorado is good, but not great. That’s not to say there aren’t some great bucks available, but they are not the norm as in other western states. Realistically, if you need an 80" buck to be happy, you should pass on applying in Colorado. If 70-78" bucks are more in line with what you would be happy with, then for only an additional $10 to build points, it is a no brainer.
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The Colorado big game application deadline is April 2, 2024 at 8 p.m. MDT.
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2024 Colorado Antelope Non-Resident Hunting Fees
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| Annual Small Game Hunt License (required to apply) | $98.92 |
| Youth Annual Small Game Hunt License (under age 18, required to apply) | $1.46 |
| Habitat Stamp (required for adults to apply) | $12.15 |
| Draw Application (per species) | $10 |
| Youth Point Fee (all species) | $NONE |
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| Antelope | $481.52 |
| Youth Big Game (Elk, Deer, or Antelope) | $122.91 |
CO Antelope Hunting Articles from Huntin' Fool Magazine
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