2017 Fall Colorado Big Game Outlook

January 8, 2017 by Earl Oesterling

Ivory & Antler Outfitters Mid-Summer Update - We hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July!!!! Time is moving right along; every year seems to get shorter and go by faster. The team has been extremely busy preparing for the season which opens in a little over a month. I know, it’s crazy, we will be guiding our first group in 4 weeks!!!

2017 Fall Colorado Big Game Outlook

The outlook for this fall is very good, the above average moisture in late winter has the park nice and green. June and early July has brought dry conditions; however, the hay crop is in fantastic shape which is keeping huge herds of elk down low on our leases. We have seen more bulls and bigger bulls in the last three weeks than in past years.

Overall the elk / mule deer / moose harvest in Colorado was below average in 2016 due to unusually warm and dry conditions statewide, however this allowed a lot of bulls & bucks that would have been harvested last fall to make it through another year, these bulls & bucks are currently experiencing some of the best antler growth we have seen in almost a decade. This is exciting news for this year’s clients and hunters all over the state of Colorado.

There have been numerous articles written about the severity of winter in the Western States, and although our area recorded record snows in late December and January, it was not as severe as other areas across the west. There were enough breaks in the record snows and plenty windy days to allow the elk, deer, and moose access to winter range grass all winter long. Winter kill in our area was about normal except for Pronghorn which had the highest mortality rate due to winter conditions. Overall things look good and we expect to have a very productive 2017 hunting season for our elk, deer, moose, and pronghorn clients.

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