Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Cant say enough bad about Damg colorado parks

I read somewhere that you can get on CPW website early, complete prelim info, but stop before logging in or some such, waiting for the clock to hit the magic hour.

Perhaps someone here can share that technique. My info may be incorrect.

Best of luck!

Yes,you start it all, Log in, Confirm info and then there is hot button for "Procede". Hit it early and it will kick you out. Wait too long and those sought after tags are sold within -35 minutes.

I don't' play that Circle Jerk game any more. If there are only a few tags left for the secondary draw, chances are very very good that they will be taken by youth. I have no problem with that for sure. But time and time again when leftover tags go on sale the CPW lowest bidder's computer chokes, goes off line, and by the time they get it fixed and you get back online, you can't get online fast enough to get a coveted tag that several thousand other people are trying to get a tag too.I am sure as heck not going to play that game once a week when the list is updated

This is the first time I’ve tried this. I have a bull tag for first rifle and I’am desperately trying to get an elk tag for my 20 year old daughter. She has a bear tag but has never hunted out west. My first trip since 2012. I’ve nothing better to do on Wednesdays so I’ll give it a shot. It if it were just me I’d be leaving for archery

Shawn

Im not trying to be a smart ass or anything. Truely sincere. But I as well as oldest son have tried to do our best as others have stated here of running elk off of private property into public land. I realize its not much consolation. But last time I was able I know we ran at least 500 +\- out of our hay meadow.

I typically hunt cows. I have my big guy. Could care less about another bull.I go for the hunt, time spent with my family and friends, and the meat. And I will also admit that I have never been treated by anyone in Colorado in any other way that cordial. Including game officers.

I wish all good luck this season. To me each animal is a "trophy"!

I am fine with a cow as well. I have two bulls mounted and one is a giant for the public land I hunt. That’s how we got in this situation. We applied as a group and I selected a cow tag and she selected a bull tag. We had a chance at the bull tag because there were leftovers, she didn’t have any points and I had four. Well I forgot the group has the number of points as the fewest member. Needless to say, we didn’t draw. We applied separately in the second draw and as luck would have it I drew a bull tag and she got squat. Anyway, she’s going and will have a bear tag. Just hoping to amend my mistake and get her a tag.

Shawn

I would like to echo Kaywoodie’s sentiments. I’ve been hunting those elk critters in Colorado for 16 seasons and WA and MT before that. Time spent with family and friends on the hunt are way more important than antlers. My son prefers to get a cow tag and fill it as soon as possible then hunt deer the rest of the season. I get a bull tag and shoot the first legal one. That tenderloin we cooked last night was mighty fine, but I’ve had plenty of tag soup along the way!

I’ve always found the folks around Craig and Hamilton to be very cordial and helpful, unlike most jackwagons in WA State. The only rude behavior I’ve observed were from out of state hunters. I have also had positive experiences with CPW officers and testing folks at the Craig warehouse.

I do agree that the draw process has its warts. The whole license distribution process is currently under review by the commission and I doubt any changes will be favorable to non-residents.

Hey WAM. I have been at it for 46 years in Colorado, another 8-10 in NM.This year because of health I won't be doing it. First time close to 50 years I will miss a season. I too, now only shoot cows. I shot my last bull 2018. I have killed enough of those critters, I don't need to kill another, but I do like the meat.

I have three nice bulls mounted here in the house, one a 7x8 , antlers nailed up on the barn with no more room, antlers up in the rafters, and a pile here in the yard.

Most rank and file CPW guys are pretty decent. It's the top level that cater to everything our POS liberal governor wants that chaps my butt..I just wish WCO's would get out of their trucks and into back country where most of the illegal activities happen.

SS, I missed hunting in 2020 due to health issues. I did manage to get out the last day of late rifle deer season in November and passed on two good bucks. I just didn’t have the energy to deal with them. I had a great hunt in 2021 and hoping for a repeat this year. Someone said you never get a warning for your last hunt. It just comes like a thief in the night and then it’s gone. Happy Trails!

This^^^!

I’ve been suspicious for the last couple years something was going on with the secondary draw.
I was on one of the “Focus Groups “ this spring and an acquaintance of mine, who is a former wildlife commissioner, was also in the group. He and the CPW people facilitating the group said they know it’s happening. CPW hasn’t figured out what to do about it.
People are able to program their computers—really powerful computers with really good internet—to recognize the hunt codes they want, and within seconds (or milliseconds) of the system coming online the computer scans available hunt codes, chooses one or multiple codes, checks out and pays for it.

Friggin’ internet……

True…….

I wish it were a weekly draw for any return tags, say anyone who’s wants one puts their name in at the beginning then every Wednesday they draw lucky winners. You could add preference to anyone who applied in the first and second draw for the same hunt code and those with “qualified” licenses

Shawn

I like this idea. I’ve heard this proposal recently and it’s the best alternative I’ve listened to.
The thing is it will require more computing power and more labor on the part of CPW—which means it would cost more.

The old school WCO's would ride horseback into the high country to bust sheep and goat poachers. They would go undercover in the taverns at night and listen for poachers bragging about their misdeeds. They would rent aircraft time and fly into road closed areas to photograph camps with vehicles, then ride in on horseback to write them up. They were respectful and gave freely of advice and methods. I think most of those guys retired at about the same time, due to them all being hired at the same time with federal funding back in the early eighties maybe?

I suspect more illegal activities happen by road hunters than those serious enough to pack into the backcountry. Drunken thrill killers, spotlighters, trespassers, etc. Serious trophy poachers may be the exception.

As for top level CPW guys ‘catering’ to their elected officials…maybe in Colorado but I am doubtful of that too. Lots of behind the scenes disagreements and fights take place in those situations and they end up doing what they’re told or they get removed. That isn’t ‘catering’ in my mind.

True…..


Very true…..
CPW revenues are almost always part of the consideration, but the economics of Main Street businesses/outfitters carry even more weight.

You need to read the bios of all the CPW commissioners on the CPW website. Maybe two of them have anything to do or knowledge of wildlife/hunting.They have been hand picked and appointed by Polis to carry on his agenda. Of course they would not be there if they did not cater to Polis. The acting director, Heather Dugan has no back ground in wildlife, she has always been in the parks division.These are the people who have final say on what happens to Colorado's wildlife and hunting seasons

Alpinecrick. Revenues are more than a part of the consideration, they are what drives license allocation, resident/nonresident quotas, and five year big game structure.

Sorry SS, but not true. There are enough wildlife advocates in CPW who won’t let that happen. Yes, there have been times in the past when revenues were driving the decision to the detriment of the resource but it does not happen very often.

In recent times there has been more of an effort to make that top echelon of CPW people be more aware of the views at the local level. As mentioned I was in a focus group this spring and I’ll be darned in they didn’t have a couple people from Denver as facilitators. Several of us in the focus group walked in a bit skeptical and ready cross swords with the Denver folks, but I’ll be darned if they didn’t do a good job. I have to give them credit.

I am not seeing what you are and a lot of others don't either.

I attend every CPW meeting that is local. I was at the last Sportsman Caucus meeting for the SE region. A woman (Denver facilitator) from CPW got up and gave a spiel about tag allocation etc. I disagreed with her on about every point, but she would not waiver. After the meeting, both SE Caucus representatives and the acting director for the SE region came over to me after the meeting and told me I was spot on.

One of the points was reducing OTC tags and changing certain areas to draw because of fewer elk and too many hunters. Her response was they could not afford the reduction in income. They are more interested in that income than the health of the herd. It is true today as it was in the past.

Another point was CPW is still using data from 2007-2009 to establish NonResident elk tag quotas from 35% to 20% when they have data from the last draw within months. However, using that old data that 35% figure does not get cut as fast so they get to sell more NR tags which means more money. She would not comment on that.

Then there was the slide that their survey said most hunters would be OK with hunting elk every 3-4 years.The entire room of maybe 50 people jumped on that.

Also now you have the 2nd draw. CPW gets another $7 for residents and $9 for nonresidents when before they didn't by just selling leftover tags. It didn't solve the problem of the computer crashing the day the tags go on sale, because it crashed again this year. I am all for giving youth priority, but many applicants don't read that fine print that youth get 100% priority in that draw and essentially waste their money when they apply.

I remember going to a meeting several years ago before the big jump in tag prices and the qualifying licenses .The purpose of the meeting was to get public opinion on proposed changes. One of the first slides was how could CPW maximize income. Every point they put up came to fruition. They had their mind made up before any public meetings regardless of the opposition.

There might be advocates, but they sure as heck are not on the commission and those are the ones that make the decisions. These commissioners now are more interested in parks...Only two are hunters. CPW has become another bloated government bureaucracy. From frequenting different social media sites, I can say, there are a lot of hunters out there that agree with me. This entire thread reflects that also.

Much of what Colorado hunting has become is due to marketing by not only CPW, but tourism industries, gear and clothing industries, guides and outfitters, and social media. Hunters are not in it for sport and meat as much as they are in it for recognition and peer affirmation. Hence the well-moneyed Hunter-Poseurs and the relegation of the Regulatory Agency to a tax and fee collector.
They are selling tags to hunt elk that they admit can't be counted.

To my knowledge, every PP and allocation focus group this spring recommended (with the exception of the NR groups) that we go to all limited tags. Every CPW person I talked to--including the Denver crowd--were quite amenable to the idea. Indeed it has been discussed within the CPW for a couple years now as being inevitable.

We were asked to create three priorities as recommendations, and from the info I have every resident group included limited tags for elk across the board for one of their three recommendations. It was also mentioned that CPW will put this before the Commission before the 2023 seasons and regs are set. It's not set in stone by any means but chances are better than average we will see ALL limited elk tags next year.

Here's most popular recommendations from the groups in no particular priority from the last communication I received. This is not limited to elk only, other species are generally included:

-Draw for all elk licenses. This does not mean former OTC licenses will be difficult or require PPs to draw--at least until the number of applicants continue to increase.

-Preference point banking. It may be required that to use a portion of our points will require using a minimum number of points, like 3-5 points even if it normally requires less points to draw that hunt code. Another twist is point bidding: allow hunters to bid however many points they wish for a hunt code and if their bid is the best they spend those points and bank the rest. This may apply for elk only, or other species also.

-Hybrid draw set at 2007-2009. (SS, I think that's what you're referring to in your above post) We gave CPW hell for this, and it turns out this was from a bit of politicking on the part of a one wildlife commissioner for his own benefit 15+ years ago. This one is easy so expect the Hybrid Draw to be updated starting next year. Plus expand the hybrid draw to include units that meet the criteria after 2007-2009.

-Secondary draw will use preference points. The person purchasing the license will have to have the minimum number of points that the 1st draw applicants drew out at. In my opinion this will stop the computerized purchase of secondary tags by people who don't have enough preference points. This means it will take some time for CPW to sort out the applications and do the draw. Some applicants may not know if they drew or not until shortly before the earlier seasons start.

-Require that at least one point be used for all male hunt codes.

-Eliminate the preference point hunt code—hunters could only gain a point for an unsuccessful
first choice. ( I give this one a better than average chance of passing).

-Split hunt. 50% general lottery, 50% PP.

- Implement a once-in-a-lifetime draw model for high demand units.

-Cap the number of preference points someone can possess.

-100% lottery for sheep, goat, and moose. I saw the numbers/odds for moose--i knew it was getting bad but didn't realize it was this bad. It made smoke come out my ears but I had the opportunity to review the statistics and if a 40 year old has 10 weighted PP's he has about a 5% chance of ever drawing a bull moose tag. A friend of mine failed to draw a bull moose tag and he has 31 weighted points.

-100% lottery for all big game. Beginning with a 5 year period, applicants will no longer receive PP's if unsuccessful, and will have to use their PP's sometime within that 5 year period. After that will be a 100% lottery.

-Reduce the purge time for inactive hunters to lose their points.

-Return to a pay-before-you-draw big game application model.

-Require that landowner tags be used only on the landowners property, or neighboring private
land.

-Status Quo

Proposed resident vs nonresident splits:
-90% resident/10% nonresident
-80% resident/20% nonresident
-75% resident/25% nonresident
-Change current 80% resident/20% nonresident for premium units to 90%
resident/10% nonresident and 65% resident/35% nonresident for other units to
80% resident/20% nonresident
85% resident/15% nonresident with 10% random
-Eliminate NR tags from all sheep, goat, moose, and from male pronghorn hunt codes.