Also posed on Campfire.

As I predicted, CPW has raised all resident and nonresident license fees for 2020. Part of the 2019 legislation that increased resident license fees also permits CPW to raise fees every year without going back to the legislature .The increases are not much, a $ or so,but still an increase.We will undoubtedly see this every year now.

There is one good point.There will now be a Senior Combo Small Game/Fishing license for a little less than the regular small game

license.https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/Fees.aspx#BigGameLicenseFees

Last year I think I heard they pulled in an extra $16 million. Sounds like more new trucks getting ordered for the boys.

I have always asked myself what is the maximum price I would pay for a tag. I don't have an answer for that yet. I only hope we see some 'benefit' from the fee increases, but I will keep my expectations low.

I know hunter participation is low around the country but I never feel that way when hunting public land in CO.

Glad about the senior combo tag.

I haven't put in for elk tag in Colorado for years . I was going when cow tags were 250.00 . 500.00 for a cow tag is too steep .

No big surprise I guess, keep jackin up the prices...cause you can.

The crazy thing is, there’s no limit on how prices can get before people say “no more” draw odds in every western state reflect that every year.

I’ll get two elk licenses, again. At 60 I’m not going to stop just to save a few dollars.

That's kinda' my thought also.

I think the prices of licenses are out of line but I’ll pay them until I can’t. If they get way too expensive, I’ll choose deer or elk instead of both. One of our crew was using the price of licenses as a reason for not going anymore. I told him that if the increase of about $100 over the last 6-8 years is the roadblock for going on the hunt, he probably couldn’t afford to go in the first place. Happy Trails

Oh,I will keep on going until my health says I can't.I gave up deer and pronghorn hunting last year though. I am always surprised though when most say " HO HUM, no problem just keep chucking them money with nothing in return. As I understand it these price increase will keep coming until CPW gets the 50% increase in total that they tried to get passed before the democrats came into the majority.Doubt it will stop then though.

If you’re unhappy with the resident license fees, you’d be really unhappy as a nonresident. If they jack up the NR fees enough to discourage NR hunters, guess who makes up the shortfall for your enterprise agency CPW? Not likely campers and hikers.....

That’s the thing. No matter how high they get, non residents will buy them with a smile.

Heck, hunting is cheap compared to skiing and a license is good for the whole season.

True enough.....until the economy takes a dip, and it always does, and disposable income takes a dip for average wage earners who will stop doing expensive out of state hunts. I bet if 10% of NR hunters didn’t show up it would mean no more new $75k pickup trucks for game rangers for a while! LOL!

Deer tags in Missouri and Kansas . Preference points in wyoming for deer and pronghorn .Motel , gear , gas , food , it all keeps going up . Eventually you've got to prioritize. As least for a blue collar guy like me .

Don't forget bear dropped for residents by about $10

Colorado moves 3rd season back just a tad and cut off two days.

Moving it back puts it ending the day before my home state of Missouri starts the rifle season.

I've done split seasons before but not any more....it just cost to much to hunt Colorado only to leave a day or two early to hustle back home. I'll have to look at 2nd seasons in the future

Two things.

Even during the Great Recession there was no shortage of people applying for tags.

I don’t know where this idea that game wardens get a new fancy pickup every year comes from. Every warden pickup I’ve ever seen looks the same. Steel wheels, vinyl seats and floors, crank windows and manual locks. Listening to people talk you’d think they were out patrolling in a fuggin Escalade.

I guess you need to cruise the parking lot at the Colorado Springs CPW office. Maybe so out in the rural places. Frank McGee told me they now buy all 3/4 they last longer.
Winches, $2500+ Ranch hand Grill Guard. Remote controlled spot light. Running boards, bigger tires, wheels. That is just on the outside.You can't touch a new 3/4T for less than $40K. Add the computers,screens lights .etc and it climbs fast

Not with a smile

I‘m glad Frank McGee is over there with you now, he is not missed in Mesa County.

The guys who check my tags everywhere I go seem to be in nice trucks and have really [bleep] attitudes. Can't stand talking to about 8 out of 10 of them. So it gets easier and easier to drive to KS and NE to shoot pheasants all fall. Screw em. But glad they have figured out a way to fleece non-residents even more.

[quote=BeanMan


I‘m glad Frank McGee is over there with you now, he is not missed in Mesa County.[/quote]

You can have him back at any time. Arrogant SOB

BeanMan-------Good to see you posting again. I need to get over Red Mtn Pass & have a cup of coffee with you.

CB,

I agree. We do head to Albuquerque a few times a year to visit the Wife’s sister, that would be a good time to visit over a cup.

He was universally hated here. My only interaction with him was sort of my fault. We were on the Grand Mesa and our Jack Russell killed a marmot, My Wife posted a picture on the internet because we were kind of proud of Sparkey. A few days later I heard gravel crunching in our driveway and saw a CPW truck, I wondered WTF? We got a $275 fine “for allowing a animal under our control to harass wildlife, to Witt: a marmot”. Even though it was legal for me to shoot 3 a day my dog couldn’t. I realized it was my fault but his attitude during the encounter was unsettling, Body armor, hand brushing butt of pistol, posturing.



You can have him back at any time. Arrogant SOB
[/quote]

As soon as the CPW reintroduces the wolf into CO, I will change my focus from west of I-25 to East of I-25 as there won't be much left to hunt!

It's up for a vote of the people this year and with all the bunny huggers in Denver and Boulder, it will pass!

Enjoy hunting elk, deer and moose while you can boys, our time may be limited!

I have hunted with a great group of friends from Kansas for 20ish years and this will be the first year they won't make the trip due to the cost of non-res. tags and poor hunting.

Elk Country

Not surprised. Maybe they could use some of the money to get their website updated at the start of the year like most other states.

My family has been hunting in SW CO since the 50’s. These days we are all well enough off to afford a tag but there are more and more of the guys who won’t buy a bull tag due to the cost and low odds. They all still go and have a good time but are realistic about the odds of filling a $661 bull tag.

Odds are my party will all be aged out in the next decade or so and it won’t matter. But we all agree that CPW has some serious problems that include tag prices among a host of other issues.

Like the opposite of that Walmart or Target ad. . Pay More,expect less

I saw today,Wyoming is trying to raise their elk tag to $800

So why were there 15,000 fewer elk hunters in 2009 than the years before? Cpw numbers not mine.

Good morning Elk Country. I hate to tell you this, but wolves are already in Colorado. We told two CPW officials three years ago that we had seen one in the Thornburg area. We were told we were wrong. However, they now admit that there are wolves in NW Colorado.

I guess things have changed. Growing up in Delta, good family friends were the local warden. He loved to bird hunt, and I spent an awful lot of time hunting pheasants with him until I graduated and went to college. Still miss those times as he was a good man (if I had not been an idiot, he could have been my father in law).

I am a 5th generation native of CO. My family settled there before the Civil War along the banks of the Republican River near what is now Wray. I was a CO resident for the first 52 years of my life. After retiring from the USN I tried to go back to CO but couldn't handle what it has turned into so I headed to TX. I still liked to go back to Co to do a little hunting and fishing but they have sold me my last license there.

I refuse to give them a $100 just to have the privilege of applying for even a preference point. I have absolutely no use for a CO small game license yet they force me to buy one now. So with the cost of the small game license, the fee for the habitat stamp and the fee for submitting an application I have $100 in the game before I even get a good start. Then there is the high cost of the tag itself if I draw. Just to go try and shoot a doe with my brother ends up costing nearly $500 just for the tag when all the other costs are thrown in. There is no doe deer in the nation worth that amount of $$$.

When they made a "qualifying" license mandatory I called them and asked why it couldn't be a fishing license instead of a hunting license since the cost is about the same and I would get a lot more use out of the fishing license. After all I can shoot rabbits, ducks and pheasants in TX but it is a little harder to catch brook trout here. Their reply was they wanted to keep "fishing licenses and hunting licenses separate." I then told them that was utter BS because they give a fishing license away with every NR big game tag. The guy hung up on me.

So now I find myself sitting here with 23 elk preference points, 18 deer preference points, 16 bear preference points, 3+11 weighted points for moose, 3+12 weighted points for sheep, 4 points for pronghorn (cashed hem in a few years ago) and 3+5 weighted points for mountain goat (took one in 2000 and don't care to shoot another) and I will most likely let all the points go unused. Heck they want to charge a NR $50 just for the preference point for sheep/moose/goat.

Compare the above to the license I buy in TX. $68 gets me a Super Combo License that consists of Resident hunting license, Resident fishing license, Archery endorsement, Freshwater fishing endorsement, Saltwater fishing endorsement with a red drum tag, Upland game bird endorsement and Migratory game bird endorsement. On this license I can take 2 mule deer, 4 turkeys and 5 whitetails. Elk are officially classified as livestock even though there are several areas they are free ranging so you don't even need a tag to shoot one. Why would I pay the CO fees?

Where do you hunt in Texas?

I am in the Amarillo area. Got public land that holds mulies, whitetails and turkeys and small game less than 30 miles away. Elk are available less than a 2 hr drive. With CO's price increase I will just stay here. Frankly I can buy NR tags cheaper in NM if I want to hunt elsewhere. As a matter of fact I can be in Raton NM in less than 2 hrs and can hunt elk and bear right on the CO state line if I want to.