Colorado has raffle and auction Governor type permits. For more information, go to http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/RaffleAuction.aspx. You can also refer to our January 2025 issue in the “Governor, Commissioner, and Conservation Tags” article.

Colorado has a landowner voucher program. Up to 10% of private land-only and 10% of unit-wide permits for deer, elk, and antelope licenses for the general and restricted quota west of I-25 may be issued as landowner vouchers. Up to 15% of the deer, elk, and antelope licenses for the general quota east of I-25 and up to 10% of the restricted quota may be issued as landowner vouchers. Landowners must meet certain qualifications both in size of contiguous acres and type of property to be eligible. Vouchers are allocated through a draw process that takes place every year. The number of applications per landowner depends on acreage owned. Landowners who receive vouchers for licenses that they can transfer/sell to eligible hunters must do so directly. A hunter voucher can be sold directly to a hunter by the landowner or their designated land manager. A third party cannot sell a Colorado landowner voucher. Once a hunter purchases a voucher, it must be taken to a license agent or CPW location to be turned into a license. Hunters who are unsuccessful in drawing vouchers receive a preference point for next year’s drawing.

Every year, Colorado issues thousands of Landowner Preference Program (LPP) vouchers for elk, deer, and antelope. Landowners who own at least 160 contiguous acres of private agricultural land can register for these vouchers by submitting an application by December 5th for the following year. LPP applicants are drawn just before CPW’s public limited drawing and once selected, registrations are valid up to five years. For hunters, these vouchers must be acquired directly from the landowner and the hunter needs to redeem the voucher for the actual hunting license. Vouchers can be redeemed at any license agent or CPW location. Hunters are responsible for all license fees when redeeming vouchers for licenses.

There are two different types of landowner vouchers available — Unrestricted Quota (unit wide) and Restricted Quota (private land only). Both vouchers entitle the hunter to hunt the landowner’s property the voucher was issued for. Unrestricted Quota licenses are unit wide, which entitles the hunter to hunt all public and private lands in which you acquire permission to hunt within the unit. Restricted Quota licenses are private land only, which entitles the hunter to hunt only private land within the specific unit it was issued for, but permission will need to be acquired for any private land except the private land in which the voucher was issued for.

All LPP vouchers are only valid during the season dates printed on it. LPP vouchers are issued through a draw system to qualified landowners, the same as the general draw, and LPP voucher draw results are available in early June.

Huntin’ Fool has a free listing service for all Colorado LPP voucher recipients. A list of landowners is not available from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. We list more Colorado LPP vouchers than any other listing service. You can find a list of available Colorado LPP vouchers as well as other big game vouchers for multiple states at www.huntinfool.com. Vouchers are updated daily, and we have a free text and email notification process that will notify you every time a new listing is posted. You can sign up for this notifications on our free smartphone app.

Bear licenses are either unlimited OTC or limited draw. However, there are often leftover licenses available for these draw areas. Archery and muzzleloader OTC licenses are still “add-on,” meaning you must have a valid deer or elk license to be eligible to purchase a bear license for the same season in the same unit. One of the biggest changes this year is with an E-License for bear licenses purchased OTC. Bear licenses purchased online and as an E-License will no longer be “hard stock” licenses. If you want your purchase of an OTC license to be printed on the orange hard license stock, you will have to go into a CPW location or license agent to get one. Also, Colorado increased the price of bear licenses and bear application cost back up to $51.75 from the reduced price of $40.45 that we saw in 2024. Bear licenses were discounted and “locked to a unit” to help increase harvest and higher harvest percentages due to low bear populations across the state as a result of the reduced price. This year, the price has increased to $294.75.

The first rifle season will start on October 15th, and the fourth season won’t start until November 19th. Extended break periods in between rifle hunts were put in place in 2020 to allow animals to relax a bit and hopefully give a better opportunity to the next season’s hunters to take elk after the shooting stops from the prior season. After four or five seasons of harvest reporting, it appears that the break period has little to no effect on the harvest percentage throughout all the seasons.

New for 2025, there are no longer OTC archery elk hunts for non-residents west of I-25. There are still OTC opportunities for antlerless and either-sex east of I-25. For antlerless, the license cost is $46.88. Most of Colorado’s elk herds are west of the interstate, but with the increasing population, some herds have been increasing east of the divide. However, these units don’t get much attention and often have low harvest percentages simply because you have low access to private land.

The second and third rifle seasons get more hunting pressure, with the second season being the bulk of the harvest. Success tends to be better during warmer and more active weather, and large cow herds during the third season having a bigger impact on accessibility into the backcountry where elk can hang up. Elk can withstand a lot of snow, so quite often, they will stay up at higher elevations if hunting pressure persists throughout the second rifle hunt and into the third rifle hunt, which can pose a problem if you are not physically fit or equipped with the right transportation methods and gear to get back in their hidey holes. The biggest advantages the second rifle season offers are a better chance for nicer weather, calmer elk that have not been shot at yet, and fewer bulls have been harvested up to this point as compared to the third season.

Typically, bulls in general units fall between the ages of 2 to 3 years, while herd bulls are mostly between 4 to 6 years, with only a few exceeding that range. Use the issue to look through hunter and harvest data as well as a brief description of each unit to determine which ones have what you are looking for in terms of age class and elk direction. Differentiating between the over-the-counter units can be subtle, often boiling down to one’s familiarity and past experiences with a particular unit, which significantly influences the likelihood of success. Ultimately, the essence of any over-the-counter hunt lies in the experience itself, so selecting a unit that aligns with the desired hunting experience is paramount. If you have any questions, give us a call and we will help to get you pointed in the right direction to have a terrific Colorado hunt experience with your friends and family.