I have hunted outside of Montrose, east of the Uncompahgre Plateau, with success but that has been near 20 years ago now. Nucla is on the western side of the Uncompahgre.

Historically that area and more to the south going towards San Miguel and Dolores Counties has produced big mulies, big as in world record class. However with drought and mountain lion populations the mulies might not be what they used to be.

I say "might" because there is a lot of wide open spaces over there and I haven't hunted in that region for years.

Were you thinking of hunting on the National Forest or more toward Paradox?

Quote:

On 2003-02-04 23:17, bitmasher wrote:
I have hunted outside of Montrose, east of the Uncompahgre Plateau, with success but that has been near 20 years ago now. Nucla is on the western side of the Uncompahgre.

Historically that area and more to the south going towards San Miguel and Dolores Counties has produced big mulies, big as in world record class. However with drought and mountain lion populations the mulies might not be what they used to be.

I say "might" because there is a lot of wide open spaces over there and I haven't hunted in that region for years.

Were you thinking of hunting on the National Forest or more toward Paradox?

I really don"t know where Im going to hunt Im leaning towards unit 70 which is in the naturita area, or the dry creek basin area. Ive never hunted this area before I have heard there"s alot of quanity of deer but not a whole lot of quality deer. Sorry it took so long for me to respond! Is that paradox area near naturita, nucla area? Hows paradox for deer hunting? hope to hear from you see ya

Mule deer are not what they used to be (quality) all over Colorado. Not sure if this is a problem for all the western states or just here. If you talk to any of the old timers, they will tell you, not only are populations generally down, but you just don't see trophy sized bucks like you used to even 20 years ago.

I'm not sure that anyone has ever figured out why either. My own personal observations are that they are being pressured out of their habitat by people, elk, even whitetail have moved into areas they had never been seen in before. Mule deer are a timid species and don't seem to be able to hold their own under pressure.

This doesn't answer your question about the Paradox/Naturita area. That area has always had nice sized populations of mule deer, but I don't know what its like in recent years.

The big bucks are out there, that being said, I have read CDOW literature that says the mule deer population is down.

Paradox is about 30 miles west of Nucla and borders on the Utah state line. Not sure what the hunting is like out there though.

You can check the unit 70 report from the DOW for more info:

http://wildlife.state.co.us/huntrecap/index.asp