CO Pheasant Help

O

OriginalOscar

New member
New to forum! Live in Utah, my boy just moved to Denver area and has great GWP and looking forward to bird hunting together this fall. A couple general questions if someone could help.

1) Suggestions on counties east of Rockies to explore?
2) Are the CO walk-in access areas good option?
3) Does CO have "posted open" law where all cultivated or irrigated lands are considered closed to trespass unless you have written permission from landowner or the land is posted open?

Appreciate any advise and really looking forward to spending time with my boy and his dog this fall on the plains of CO.

Best,

Troy Rushton
 
OriginalOscar,

Colorado pheasant hunting can vary dramatically from year to year depending on weather/moisture. So far so good this year over most of the pheasant range. If you look at drought maps eastern Colorado is in fairly good shape this year, which means there was moisture for nesting cover and insects, and therefore food, for chicks.

You will find that the best pheasant range is in the far eastern part of the state with northeastern corner counties followed by the southeastern corner counties having the best pheasant populations.

Colorado has a really good walk-in program for pheasant hunters and Pheasants Forever Corners for Conservation are included on many of these. In good moisture years there can be some really good habitat and good pheasant numbers. The walk-in areas can be accessed during pheasant season without permission.

There are also State Wildlife Areas mostly along the South Platte River in the northeast and the Arkansas River in the southeast. These can have pheasants and quail on them as well.

Most of eastern Colorado is private land and landowners do not have to post their land - it is the hunter’s responsibility to know what land is accessible and what is not, and the penalties for trespass are steep, including 5-year loss of hunting and fishing privileges. Colorado Parks and Wildlife puts out a Walk-In guide with maps every year before pheasant season. You can view last year’s guide on the website to get an idea of how things work. Included lands are well marked.

Good luck - hopefully the weather will hold and we won’t get a lot of hail out East between now and then and we’ll have decent bird numbers this year. Either way, get out and hunt - there are plenty of places to go.
 
You’re welcome! The closer you get to Kansas/Nebraska the better things are generally - and in most years. Good luck and have fun!
 
marshrat said:
You’re welcome! The closer you get to Kansas/Nebraska the better things are generally - and in most years. Good luck and have fun!
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As noted above the first layer of counties west of KS/NE are usually the best but the next layer west can also produce birds. The key is scouting, fuel purchases and boot-leather time on the ground hunting. It changes every year depending on crops, what land is enrolled in WIA, weather-all seasons worth--and hail is a killer. And knock on doors---some will say yes.
 
PairOfLabs said:
As noted above the first layer of counties west of KS/NE are usually the best but the next layer west can also produce birds. The key is scouting, fuel purchases and boot-leather time on the ground hunting. It changes every year depending on crops, what land is enrolled in WIA, weather-all seasons worth--and hail is a killer. And knock on doors---some will say yes.
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Thank you. Looking forward to exploring and learning Eastern Colorado with my boy. His GWP is about 18 months old and he's done an exceptional job training him. He needs time on ground in birds to help bring it to next level. Thanks again and good looking labs.
 
Here's a link to the above referenced Walk-In Atlas published by the CPW. Northeastern CO has quite a few properties enrolled and will just need a couple trips to evaluate each property. If you can hunt mid-week and especially after some snow, it can be quite good at times...
 
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