I am thinking about taking my career west to Colorado (currently in Minnesota). We have been looking in the Denver area. I have 50 acres, which is an adequate sized chunk of property in my area (big enough for me and my wife to chase some whitetails, ducks, and turkeys, anyways). Do most people in Colorado have their own land that they hunt or do most hunt public land? I am guessing I won't be able to buy my own ranch if we make the move (just a lowley land surveyor). Is finding a place to teach my two little up and commers to huntgoing to be difficult?

JMO, most folks...unless they pay through the nose do public lands!
Thats where I taught my kids.
Dan

Fortunately, there is a LOT of public land available to hunt in Colorado (Wyoming, Montana, etc.). Unfortunately, it's not "right next door". The front range (Colorado Springs - Denver - Ft. Collins) is largely private. Some of the countieshave purchased bands of property for use as "open space", but last I heard - hunting wasn't one of the available uses (thank a relatively largepopulation of anti-hunter/"environmentalists").

Drive a couple hours west and you'll find plenty of National Forest. Of course the drawback to hunting public land is that it's open to EVERYONE to hunt, so the easy accesses get congested quickly during hunting season.

Lots and lots of public land west of Denver, and a little bit east of Denver. To gain access on private land east of Denver for antelope, and even mule deer, can be a little tough, BUT what I've learned is that if you get far enough east and take the time to knock on some doors, be curtious, and ask for permission, it's really not that difficult to get access to private property.
Here's my best secret for gaining access,coyote hunting. It's very easy to approach the farmers and ranchers AFTER all the other seasons are over and ask to hunt coyotes. Once I gain access to call coyotes, I use that to get to know the farmers and it gives them a chance to get to know me, and if I see that there's other good hunting game numbers on the land, I will eventually, after a year or two, ask permission to hunt other animals. This has worked well for me over the last 20 years, I now have more private land to hunt than I can cover in a winter.

I killed my first deer with my 835. Firing rifled slugs, I group pretty good at 50 yards. I mostly use 2-3/4. I think I've only used a few 3"s and I don't know if I've ever fired the 3.5". Please don't base your entire purchase off this, but I did have an FTE once. I was skeet shooting 2-3/4s and after a few the action jammed when I pumped back to extract. I jerked it back and forth and eventually the shell came out, and so did the extractor. It was a clean fix--I just bought a new one for like $10. I didn't feel like putting the original back in. This may have been covered by warranty but I found it pretty easy to fix it myself. I've had no problems since then and I don't bad mouth the gun.

My next shotG will be a short barrel for tactical/WTSHTF. Unless I buy an AR-15 for that role

How did I get it? I won it at an NRA banquet. It only cost me $200 in raffle tickets to flood that drawing box $200 for a $350+ shotG is pretty good I think.

Good luck with your decision and God bless.

Let us know how we can help. I work in Denver near the mousetrap and Waffle House serves coffee 24/7.

Not wanting to be a Smart Axx but 50 acres of land to hunt in CO is like nothing. My sister and her husband dryland farm 12,000 acres...their shop takes up 50. We hunt antelope, deer, coyotes, pheasants, prairie dogs and anything else in season and never see another soul.

You don't want to hunt public land, basically it sucks. Too many other hunters and no game.

Find private land owners willing to let you hunt and go there.
There is plenty of private landowners that would allow you hunting access free of charge. I do it every year and have since 1963. They won't come banging on your door, you have to go bang on theirs.

I should expand on this just a bit. The DOW RFW ranches here have to be 12,000 acres just to get inthe RFW program. The one ranch in the program is 120,000 acres and 3Forks islike 300,000 acres. So be ready to expand your view of things. Everything is Colorado is 300 miles away.

And somethin else odd... of the 57 members here who have moved to CO or thought they were moving to CO in the past 7 yrs no one has ever taken up my offer to call me for more info or meet for coffee. Aint that weird?

Anyway, good luck on your trip move and hunts.

Silvertip - have you ever drawn a RFW license. My son did last year and I did this year. Sweet deal if you get in on a good ranch. While we were out hunting we only ever saw other hunters, in the field once. My son got an excellent cow elk, his first one and had a great time hunting. Looking forward to going this year in Nov.......just got my packet from the DOW Friday.

Public land for me.

The neighbors might get upset if I started stalking around .75 acre lot with a rifle