For many a Colorado hunter, the new season began last week, with arrival in the mail of the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s 2010 big-game regulations booklet, complete with application forms for limited licenses that are issued by drawings.
Reviewing the regulations and applying for limited licenses are a big part of planning for next fall’s hunting seasons, and this year the new-look publication is especially important reading. It includes a number of changes to the regulations that were approved last fall by the Colorado Wildlife Commission and will be in effect for the next five years.
After weighing various alternatives, a change was made in the primary rifle-season structure for deer and elk. The third combined season was lengthened to nine days and provides two weekends for hunting. It will run Nov. 6-14.
The first season will run Oct. 16-20 and again will be for elk only, with totally limited licenses. The second, a combined season, will be Oct. 23-31. A fourth, totally limited season for elk and deer in some game-management units will run Nov. 17-21.
As usual, unlimited elk licenses will be available for elk in many management units during the second and third seasons, in addition to unit-specific limited licenses. Virtually all deer licenses are limited.
Muzzleloader elk hunters will find that statewide permits have been eliminated. All licenses now are valid only in specified game-management units. Either-sex licenses also are available for designated units.
A new hybrid option might narrow the odds in one of the state’s premier elk or deer units that require many years of accumulating preference points to draw a permit. Hunters who have at least five preference points for a deer or elk license and apply for a unit requiring at least 10 points to draw as their first choice will be entered in a random hybrid drawing. Twenty percent of available licenses will be awarded through the hybrid draw.
In another change, hunters who apply for a limited license but don’t want to accumulate preference points if they are unsuccessful no longer have to pay a $25 preference-point fee.
Hunters in the Gunnison Basin will find that archery elk licenses are totally limited. A limited number of either-sex permits will be available over the counter in management unit 54 during the second rifle season. Additional cow-elk permits and late-season licenses are available in units 54, 55 and 551.
Deer hunters will find new white tail deer-only seasons in the Arkansas River drainage between Pueblo and Cañon City and in additional units of the Eastern Plains.
Rifle moose hunters will have a somewhat longer, 14-day season.
Copies of the regulations booklet were mailed to all hunters who applied for a limited license last year. Additional copies are available at DOW offices and most regular license outlets.
This year’s application deadline is April 6.
