Final BG Limited license list
Colorado
The final CPW limited license recommendations list has hit the web at the link. This list is large, and a challenge to review so I am going to use my ask the audience lifeline in my review process. Page 184 gives you a high level overview. Appreciate CBA members taking a look at their hunt codes. If you notice any concerns with your GMU quotas, send me an email if I can assist in any way. My email address is in the magazine, you get the magazine by joining at www.coloradobowhunting.org Thanks for being a dues paying member!
Pulling these annual recommendations together is a monumental task for CPW staff. The PWC will approve license recommendations at the May meeting so CPW can complete the limited license draw and we can all get excited to have tags in our pockets or formulate a plan B.
I have already asked about the elk tag reductions in GMU 55. It seems they are recommending putting out more bear tags in certain areas.
There are going to be some rifle hunters that will be extremely disappointed after the draw this year.
This list is very informative and should be kept for future use.
No effect in my GMU...good info, thanks for posting!
One item that stuck out for me was this----------During the Sept Archery elk season and in addition to the bow elk hunters, where will be also issued 375 Early Rife Buck deer tags (Wilderness area and above treeline) and 12,000 rifle Early Season bear tags issued. While those two hunts will not be eliminated, those additional hunters do add to the perceived "crowding issue" and may also add to the "early migration of elk" to private and other refuges. It is just too easy to point fingers at the number of bow hunters as a "crowding" issue, and attempt to limit their numbers and participation.
Kind of blows my mind that they lowered the number of archery tags for deer in some of the units that I hunt and raised the numbers of buck tags for all the rifle hunts... WTF!!!??!!
I am one of those Early Rifle Buck tag applicants :)
then you are part of the problem of crowding :) Should be a good rifle deer hunt in spite.
There are more tags for each of the rifle hunts than archery!
Colorado never fails to blow my mind with their tag allocation and snubbing of bowhunters!
A member raised the issue of lowering deer archery tags while raising rifle tags. I asked Brad Petch Sr NW biologist about that. In my interactions with Brad I have been super impressed. The guy is super detail orientated, and helpful. In this case, archers are being somewhat penalized for having either sex tags based on biological goals. We support biological management.
His explanation is they are reducing all licenses that have doe take to increase the herd to mid point of the objective. Last year they cut, this year they are cutting again - rifle, PLO and E/S archery. Same time the buck to doe ratio is high, and the CWD plan calls for a reduction of that ratio to manage prevalence to 5% so they are raising the quota of buck tags.
Brads answer is much more detailed, but I do not wish to share more specific info as this would reveal the GMU, and I do not wish to do that to a CBA member as he wants to draw a tag.
The larger question is would you guys be ok with creation of a buck only archery deer tag for scenarios exactly like this where we lose licenses to meet specific management goals? It would take an issue paper, and support from CPW to do it.
We currently have buck only deer tags in some GMU's. Not sure when that happened or why.
We will discuss this at our board meeting on Friday. At this point, I am leaning towards a motion to support a member request for buck only deer hunt codes in additional GMU's. Care to change my mind?
They increased rifle tags for deer in our area, and if those 1850, what percentage will be given to resident hunters? Of the 250 archery tags, what percentage will be given to residents? They did nothing for elk here in the sw units. We're still gonna see over crowding and pressure starting in September. Where do you find the numbers of hunters checked by the dow officers while in the field per gmu? I'd like to know the numbers, and they have to check a certain amount every day. Where does CPW poet these numbers?
It should be 65/35 based on first choice demand. That is the policy. If first choice demand is not sufficient, all allocation split bets are off. 1850 seems like a lot, you have a lot of deer?
I'd talk to your game warden about checking hunters.
Unless it is a primo/high point unit, residents should have 65% of the tags as a minimum and could get more than that depending on PPs. If a high point unit, 80% of tags go to residents
No sir, we don't have a lot of mule deer bucks, and most tags are killed with lil forkies or three points. We've talked to the Dow officers a lot saying how we need doe tags cause of the high doe numbers here, before they migrate in and through. I'll talk to the Dow guys. Thanks...
As a side note, they did add one more lion permit to several of the units here. So, we can kill three more lion in this area.
High point units were "frozen" some time ago, and not been revised in a long time. Unit 61 early rifle elk takes like 18 points to draw as a resident and is 65/35.
CPW’s archery tag allocation algorithm is totally, absolutely screwed up.
That is where the problem originates!
Hell, archery deer could be either-sex, state wide, OTC and we wouldn’t scratch the rifle deer kill numbers! Especially for bucks!
They need to change their tag allocation model!
Buck only archery mule deer licenses wouldn't bother me one bit. When I want to shoot a doe, I get a whitetail tag.
However, I'm curious on the statistics of the number of hunters that do fill their E/S archery tag on a mule deer doe. It wouldn't be fair to only consider myself.
I think if they are increasing rifle buck tags in the unit they should at least replace the lost ES archery tags with buck only tags. Not talking statewide, only in units that match the description Steve posted. I don’t think archery opportunity should be reduced while increasing rifle tags. Thanks for getting on this so quick.
I was given this recently, this is how they allocated back when Mumma was the director. I haven't had the time to try to apply it in this scenario. You also have E/S vs buck tags. No expert just sharing it because you brought it up.
Thats the way it was explained to me (if I'm doing the formula correct). If you have 10 deer to harvest and bowhunters represent 20% of the demand for tags, we get allocated however many licenses it would take for bowhunters to take 2 deer (20% of harvest objective).
If our success rate was 10%, that means 10 tags per deer, or 20 total tags.
Going through the allocations it is F-ing crazy!
They increased rifle buck tags across all seasons and decreased archery tags!!!! WTF! Seriously! CBA should raise HOLY HELL!
So glad the CBA supported raising fees and losing opportunity!
Total Bull$hi++!!!!
Give me a summary in excel if you can. Thanks!
My fear is this is all too late to change anything this year. But go get um!
Steve,
I am working on crunching the numbers, but the biggest hit I am seeing so far is in 15 and 18. Archery tags were decreased by around 40% in each of those units and rifle tags were increased by 10% for 2nd and 3rd seasons.
Archery tags were about 20% of the rifle tags in 2018 and are down to 14% and 12% of the rifle tags for 2019.
Add up the total number of deer killed by bowhunters and we kill nothing compared to rifle hunters (bucks or does).
The algorithms used to calculate the number of archery tags are totally screwed up. Have been since day one. Hell, it will be harder to get archery tags than rifle tags. That has been the case in a number of units in the past. That is idiotic. Why hasn't CBA fought this?
