New Colorado Big Game Season Structure 2020 - 2026

[Bigshooter]

I thought I saw something about Colorado wanting to kill more buck deer to possibly help control the spread of CWD
I don't know if that is fact though?

 

[Mr Mykiss]

I’ve got 8 pets riding into this new series of dates. Still probably won’t get me the 4th season tag I’ve been chasing, oh well.

Me too but from all da hubbub it sounds like 4th is the new 5th and 3rd is the new 4th so just adjust accordingly:)

[Bigshooter]

I have 15pts.  I'm going to have to decide if I want to try for a 4th season tag next year or a 3rd season tag the following year.  4th season is to late for me starting in 2021.

[BeerBugler]

Seems like a good deal for guides, outfitters, private land owners and people with enough money to buy landowner tags. Going to make it tough for DIY non resident rifle hunters though. By the time your 3rd season tag starts most deer will be on private. A week is a completely different hunt when your talking about migrating mule deer.

[actionshooter]

Damn, glad I burned my points this year.... Its going to be tough in the future.

[Bigshooter]

They were approved yesterday with some small changes.

Commission approved a new rifle season structure for deer and elk west of I-25. Here's what it looks like with 2020 dates:

5 day first rifle elk only, starting first Saturday after Oct. 9: Oct. 10-14, 2020

9 day second combined deer and elk starting on Saturday 14 days after start of 1st: Oct. 24-Nov. 1, 2020

7 day third combined deer and elk starting on Saturday 14 days after start of 2nd: Nov. 7-13, 2020

5 day fourth combined deer and elk starting on Wednesday 11 days after start of 3rd: Nov. 18-22, 2020

[Bigshooter]

2021 2nd season will be October 30 - November 7th.  That's close to 3rd season dates this year.

[jetjockey]

I liked the first option better.  To be honest, there’s WAY too many out of state hunters in CO. Most residents wish they would make elk a draw for all out of state guys. Not trying to bash out of state hunters, but most residents try to stay away from the OTC seasons because it’s just too damn crowded for elk, and the state completely screwed up the draw system, so now there’s going to be tons of point creep.

[Karl Blanchard]

I liked the first option better.  To be honest, there’s WAY too many out of state hunters in CO. Most residents wish they would make elk a draw for all out of state guys. Not trying to bash out of state hunters, but most residents try to stay away from the OTC seasons because it’s just too damn crowded for elk, and the state completely screwed up the draw system, so now there’s going to be tons of point creep.

you guys have THEEE best otc elk and no points/low points mule deer hunting in the lower 48. If a resident isn't having good hunts every year that is on them not non residents.

[jetjockey]

I liked the first option better.  To be honest, there’s WAY too many out of state hunters in CO. Most residents wish they would make elk a draw for all out of state guys. Not trying to bash out of state hunters, but most residents try to stay away from the OTC seasons because it’s just too damn crowded for elk, and the state completely screwed up the draw system, so now there’s going to be tons of point creep.

you guys have THEEE best otc elk and no points/low points mule deer hunting in the lower 48. If a resident isn't having good hunts every year that is on them not non residents.

It’s not a matter of having good hunts, it’s a matter of fighting the crowds, which have gotten ridiculous.  Look at what you posted, of course we have the best OTC elk tags and low point deer tags.  That leads to WAY too many hunters. Not only that, when they changed the point system, point creep started skyrocketing.   Heres the interesting thing though, most the guys I know get their elk every year, and most of that is on private land, so the published success rates are very skewed.  I was talking to my neighbor the other day, and two years ago in an area that had almost zero pressure the previous 10 years, they counted 31 horses go by. And that was 4 miles into the wilderness area. Most locals won’t hunt the OTC unit’s, and they rely on the draw, returned tags, land owner tags, etc.  BTW.  Around 90,000 out of state hunters come to hunt CO every year.  You can’t even get away from the crowds in the wilderness areas.

[cem3434]

They should be thanking all of the out of state hunters for paying to manage Colorado's game and the game department.  Without all of those out of state monies, the game populations and opportunities probably wouldn't be as good as they are now. It always pisses me off when local hunters complain about how "your" local spot has gotten harder to hunt due to out of states. Find a new place or go deeper, but stop whining about your honey hole going away and blaming the out of state hunter who are probably funding a large majority of Colorado's  game management.

[jetjockey]

It’s not that there are out of state hunters, it’s the quantity and the OTC tags.  Most residents would much rather they double our tag fees, and put out of state hunters in a draw.  Colorado has 280,000 elk, and they sell about 225,000 elk tags.  About 80,000 to non residents.  Roughly 35% of all big game hunters in CO are out of state hunters.  That’s a bit ridiculous.   And if you think you can “just go deeper” then you haven’t hunted CO’s OTC elk season.  This is the land of horses and wall tents.  Like I said, everyone is happy to have out of state hunters, it’s the numbers that people have a problem with.  That, and the fact that they made changes to the application process, which caused major point creep.  Residents who have hunted draw units where they could draw every year, or worse case, every other year, are starting to have to wait 3-4 years to draw the same units, and the Hunting didn’t get any better.  That reduced opportunity is what is pissing a lot of guys off.  I don’t like that they are pushing the seasons back, but if it reduces the number of out of state hunters due to increased snow and bad weather, Im all for it! 

[cem3434]

Your response is exactly the whining I'm talking about and pushing the seasons isn't going to keep anyone from coming there to hunt. You want to have your cake and eat it too. The 35% of non residents bring in over 50% of the department annual revenue from sales. Are you really so ignorant to think that the average hunter would support significant  resident increases to minimize out of state hunters? Trust me if the State thought that they could get that money out of the average CO resident hunter, then it would have already happened.

[Karl Blanchard]

I stand by my statement. Residents act like they are the only ones who have to deal with NR. Guess what, NR affect NR hunters hunts too. For a decade I've been hunting CO, and in the "crappy" units with all the tags and NR hunters and never once have I had an issue finding a killing very quality animals. So like I said before, if a guy isn't filling tags and having a good hunt he need only look in the mirror to see the issue. 

People in general like to complain and blame others for their short comings. There's too many non residents so that's the issue.  Then when that gets capped and their tag fee's double they will scream about that as well. And leta not forget about the endless list of small towns who would become abandoned ghost towns or reduced to a few meth labs without the MILLIONS that NR hunters bring to those economies 🤦‍♂️

[jetjockey]

I stand by my statement. Residents act like they are the only ones who have to deal with NR. Guess what, NR affect NR hunters hunts too. For a decade I've been hunting CO, and in the "crappy" units with all the tags and NR hunters and never once have I had an issue finding a killing very quality animals. So like I said before, if a guy isn't filling tags and having a good hunt he need only look in the mirror to see the issue. 

People in general like to complain and blame others for their short comings. There's too many non residents so that's the issue.  Then when that gets capped and their tag fee's double they will scream about that as well. And leta not forget about the endless list of small towns who would become abandoned ghost towns or reduced to a few meth labs without the MILLIONS that NR hunters bring to those economies 🤦‍♂️

Are you aware of the application changes and what it’s done to the point system?  BTW. Killing elk isnt the problem.  And something tells me you don’t kill an elk every year like you claim.