Much more than just elk: In Colorado, you might be surprised what you can hunt
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- Created on Wednesday, 24 November 2010 17:24
- Written by R. Scott Rappold
By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD, THE GAZETTE
LINCOLN COUNTY• In the barren prairie far southeast of Colorado Springs, amid the spiny cacti, rattlesnake skins and petrified cow patties, hunters Gary Thompson and Shawn Wayment have seen no signs of their quarry.
“I’ve gone scaled quail hunting four times and I was not able to find it. I thought they were mythical beasts that do not exist,” says Thompson. “I’ve burned a lot of boot leather chasing these things.”
After an hour of seeing nothing but poodle-sized jack rabbits while their dogs track aimlessly across the prairie and bitterly cold winds blast around us, it feels like a snipe hunt. (Ask anyone who has ever been to summer camp what a snipe hunt is.)
Actually, these guys hunt snipe, too. Yes, they’re a real animal.
Wilson’s snipe is a small bird that eats worms. The hunting season is under way through mid-December, though we see none of those this day either.
Such are the difficulties when your prey is small and good at hiding. Persistence and eternal optimism are essential.
“It’s kind of like a gambler. We’re optimistic. We keep playing and playing and playing,” says Wayment.
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Colorado is known worldwide for elk hunting. In 2009, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, 208,529 hunters spent more than a million days to take 47,543 elk.
Meanwhile, an estimated 1,600 hunters in Colorado pursued scaled quail in 2007-08, one of more than 75 small game species legally hunted.
While some prey are ignored — in the last statewide survey in 2008, zero hunters reported going after tiger salamander — others are booming in popularity.
DOW officials say the past two years have been the best in recent memory for pheasant hunting, and to encourage small-game hunting the agency this year dropped a fee requirement to hunt for small game on the 220,000 private acres that are part of the Walk-In Access program, in which private land owners allow hunting on their property.
Hunters pursue small game for many reasons. A $21 license lets you pursue any of the species, without limits on the number of days, and there are fewer restrictions than when hunting big game.
“You tend to have longer seasons, larger bag limits, more widespread recreational opportunities. You might have a quail season that lasts 75 days,” said Ed Gorman, small game manager with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Click here for small-game regulations and seasons.
So why would hunters spend time pursuing crow, weasel, pigeon or one of the two kinds of skunk legally hunted?
“I don’t know anybody who knows anybody who hunts skunk,” said Michael Seraphin, spokesman for the DOW office in Colorado Springs.
Yet there’s a market for skunk pelts. There’s one for bobcat pelts, too, which can fetch up to $300, Seraphin said.
For some, annual hunts are a family tradition. Gorman knows of families that have been hunting squirrels for generations.
“Certainly I can speak for having some people who are very dedicated squirrel hunters. They like to eat them,” he said.
Back on the plains of southeast Colorado, Wayment says scaled quail is tasty, and he enjoys snipe wrapped in bacon.
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But for Wayment, a veterinarian and hunting blogger from Castle Rock, it’s about the thrill of the pursuit, and the thrill it gives his English setter Gretchen and English pointer Gep. The dogs have been bred for generations to sniff out birds and point them out, and they race across the landscape with enviable enthusiasm.
When they find a bird in a bush, they might stand perfectly still, no barking, doing the hard work so the hunters can ready their shotguns. The dog then flushes the quail, and a well-aimed shot takes the bird.
It’s exciting when they get one, but that’s not the main reason Thompson hunts.
“I like being outdoors,” he said. “It’s mainly about bird dogs, for the most part. You’re walking around outside. It’s pretty country.”
During our attempt on a recent Monday morning, they found no quails, though they were successful later that day.
Wayment also says he hunts for the love of the dogs, and even in a day without a covey, he’s never disappointed. (Check out his blog here.)
“Heck no. It’s better than going to work.”
The animal less hunted
The 10 least-hunted small game species in the state and the estimated number of hunters for each, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife:
Tiger salamander: 0
Fox squirrel: 242
Abert’s squirrel: 247
Pine squirrel: 257
Marmot: 257
Gambel’s quail: 274
Ptarmigan: 294
Striped skunk: 330
Richardson’s ground squirrel: 527
Raccoon: 554
Note: Numbers are for the 2007-08 hunting seasons
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