Hunting Colorado

[white eagle]

what does it take to elk hunt in Col????
can you buy a license over the counter and go hunt ?
do you need to apply ?
what the deal..................................[smilie=w:

[ammohead]

If you found your way on here it should be no great trick to find Colorado's game and fish web site. That way you will know that all the info is correct. Last I checked there were some over the counter tags, and some areas on draw. They also have a cutoff date for the need for a hunter education cert that goes back to the 40's. I am 57 and I needed one. It is best to get info from the horses mouth.

[rockrat]

You can buy an over-the-counter ELK tag, but not deer anymore. There are certain areas where you need a special drawing tag to hunt. Near me, 61 is by permit only, but 62 is good for over the counter.
They have leftover tags quite often and hunters will try and grab those. The deadline for applying for the special hunts , IIRC, is April 3, and they let you know sometime in June. If you don't draw your first choices, you can ask for a leftover tag. I know many out-of-state hunters that have drawn elk and deer tags the first year of applying for them.

All you need is money to hunt here, and acutally out-of-state hunters are weighted more than residents. The CDOW much rather have your $500 than my $50, or so it seems.

[Colorado1135]

that about sums it up. its best to have a spot picked out that you intend to hunt, then determine the draw area its in and apply for one of the seasons offered. or you can do it the reverse way, find out what areas are easiest to draw, or an OTC area, then look at available hunting areas and pick a season from there and do it that way. if you want to just hunt elk I would say put in for a preference point first, and a left over or OTC tag so you can go, and down the road if you want you can go for a better area once you have some PP saved up.

once you have your area and season picked and have your tags, THEN start to plan for what to bring etc. because if its a muzzle loader season on the front range, you might want to plan differently than say a late season cow hunt by Del Norte.

[Wolfer]

We always go in 2nd season because some of the guys could buy over the counter bull tags in the unit we hunt ( unit 36 ) In August leftover cow tags go on sale and some of us will pick up one. Due to work situations we often don't know whose going until the last week or two, hence it's impossible to try to draw for us.

[1Shirt]

To me, the cost of non res elk lisc in Co. has gotten out of reach of a lot of hunters. There is an article in the most recent Varmint Hunter magazing about elk hunting in Co, that says that the laws are anything but friendly there as well. Gotta remember that Boulder in in that state, and there are whoops of tree hugging liberals influncing the laws.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[white eagle]

welcome to my world
I have been dealing with those types all my life
there isn't a darn thing that they do that would surprise me

[winchester85]

not sure what someone means when they say that the laws are anything but friendly? laws are laws.

there are 6 major seasons for elk in colorado. archery, muzzleloader, and 4 rifle seasons. muzzleloader is draw everywhere in the state. archery, 2nd, and 3rd seasons are over the counter for most of the western half of the state, BUT not all. 1st and 4th seasons are draw pretty much the entire state. there are some units that are HIGHLY sought after and require 12 to 18 years of applying to get a license, most of those are in the extreme northwestern part of the state. colorado has provisions for taking 2 elk per hunter, at least one must be a cow.
the regulations, though getting more complicated over the years, have all this information readily available.
to the best of my knowledge, colorado is the ONLY state where an out of state hunter can walk into a store and buy an elk license. colorado has a phenomenal elk herd, and the quality of animals is pretty good in areas with unlimited licenses. colorado's license fees are also quite competitive with any other state. about $500 for a bull, $250 for a cow, if it is cheaper somewhere else i doubt it is much once you add in all the other fees the other states charge. there is no preference for out of state hunters, however there is an allotment of tags in limited areas FOR non residents, i believe it is 20%. again all this info is in the regs.
i know several wildlife officers, and they are pretty easy going guys. not at all like the shows on tv about wildlife officers. but if you poach, i hope you get caught. colorado allows someone who turns in a poacher to get rewarded with either a preference point or an over the counter license for turning in poachers.
i hunt almost all public land for elk, every year i have opportunities at elk scoring over 300. last year i missed a 340 bull in archery season, later taking a small 6 point.
deer are draw everywhere in the state, it has been that way for over a decade.

[Colorado1135]

When was the last time you looked at the reg book for Colorado?
actually Bull elk are $579 and cow are $354
there are different types of licenses that fall under the A,B or C list, they tell you what you can take under each, and some will allow you to buy several licenses.
Never assume OTC tags are available for any area. pick the area first, then look at the seasons available, or look at the seasons available and find an area in that zone. either way you are looking at BOTH the land available and the list of licenses and what it takes to get one.
it is very rare for a hunter to get annual opportunities at elk over 300 on public land, unless they live nearby, know the area very very well and/or spend plenty of time preseason scouting. a 300" elk is a very nice bull, most public land bulls will fall in the range of 230-280" and lower, although the opportunity does exist to find a big one, they are out there, just not as common as private land.

[JJC]

Do your research. DOW's web site has alot to offer when getting started. I was told by two hunters who don"t know each other about a 400 class bull on public land. As always location and luck play a part. DOW has an interactive map that shows concentrations of game. Watch the tutorial and get to looking around. There is a company that sells paper maps showing what game is where in units also. Second rifle is OTC in many units it's also nine days long. I get my topo maps from mytopo.com.

[winchester85]

last looked at the regs yesterday, but then i dont buy out of state licenses. it is a decent price. i looked at idaho years ago and was turned off by all the extra fees and b.s. i would be surprised if any state were much different in total cost. i hunted new mexico last year, their elk license i think was over $500 too.
i dont rifle hunt for elk, but i am out in the wood hunting coyotes or helping friends. i see 300 class bulls almost every year DURING rifle season on PUBLIC land that is heavily hunted. some areas are better than others, but there are good bulls on almost all public land. most hunters that see a 260 class bull think it is a 300 and would be very pleased.
there is also a big misconception about private land having bigger bulls, in some cases of LARGE parcels of property with proper management its true, but just because it is private doesnt make it a game farm. i have 725 acres of private to hunt behind the house, but i still go hunt public land for BIG bulls. the grass is not always greener on the private side of the fence.

[Colorado1135]

I'll give you that, I've worked on a couple large ranches, and hunted myself on public land. and I would agree huge tracts of national forest are a good place to find big bulls, but often times they are in areas where access isn't the easiest. I have no problem doing what it takes to find my elk, and I totally agree, most people will overestimate the rack size on an animal. I have had the opportunity to see MANY animals taken from all over the west, and generally the average public land bull isn't in the 300" range.

[76 WARLOCK]

I have been hunting here for nearly 60 years, and I agree the best Elk hunting is on public land. The biggest expense will be to get into the area and then pack the animal out. You will need to be a lawyer to read and understand the hunting regulations.

[waksupi]

If you want to do yourself a big favor, forget the bulls, and shoot a cow for good eating. Also, if you are going to hunt elk, do it the next few years. Once the wolves spread to an area, you will not be hunting elk any more. Because there aren't any left to hunt.

In Montana now, if you pay an outfitter to hunt elk, all you will be getting is a nice horseback ride through some pretty country. Find out if wolves are where you want to hunt.

[76 WARLOCK]

Well, it is time to start seriously hunting wolves legal or not. I know if I see one it will eat no more Elk.

[starmac]

I'm sure NM has changed, but they used to be all draw on elk, unless you bought a land owners permit (bucks). there are several hunts and the quality bull hunt out of state tag was 756 bucks more than 10 years ago.
I had several friends that would go to colorado and buy out of state, simply because it was hard to draw out in nm and the price back then was not bad. You could also hunt deer on the same hunt, which you couldn't do in nm either.