Kindly post the published date to support your claim that CO public land success is 2- 4%. CPW sells elk tags based on a 20% success rate ( 18-20% is their figure) means they sell about 300,000 elk tags a year, The majority are not on private land
The vast majority are private land or outfitters. It may actually be slightly higher than the 10 to 1 ratio I quoted in Colorado.
The fact that the majority of land by acres is public land is misleading. What matters is where the elk are taken, not how many elk-free public acres there are. Colorado publishes statistics which mix private and outfitted success with DIY failure to get the 20% number and then sells the dream to the rubes one $610.25 out of state tag (plus habitat stamp and qualifying license) at a time.
It's a good scam I suppose, but there's no reason OP shouldn't be aware of what's going on.
