Has anybody studied the 2025 CO Elk draw trends?

[BigLou]

I'm starting to plan for this fall and have checked draw stats for several units that I have hunted or want to hunt. In the 5 or 6 units I have studied, appears that NR participation declined significantly. Certainly in a few of my old OTC archery units, seems like there were plenty of leftover tags. Is this a broader trend across the state? Was there a material decline in hunters in the field driven by fewer NR's?

would love insight from anyone who has analyzed the data or seen better summary data...

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

CPW lost just over $2 million in non resident tag sales for 2025


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[swavescatter]

Does this mean the COVID outdoor/hunting boom is over?

 

[35WhelenAI]

Is there a breakdown of how much NR archery sales were lost versus how much in NR rifle sales were lost? Money is money however curious if one or the other contributed more.

 

[cnelk]

.
Hang on…

 

[cnelk]

Here are the last 3 years of elk NonRes draw stats

 

[35WhelenAI]

Where's the $2 million loss? I may not be understanding how to read it but looking at Grand totals that's not a decrease?

 

[cnelk]

Those are just applications - not license sales.

Thats an increase just in Qualifying Licenses

 

[35WhelenAI]

@BigAntlerGetter, what math or Source showed that $2 million dollar loss?

Applications look like they made more money with respect to qualifying licenses, by quite a few, should be a net gain there. Would have to compare that to the actual number distributed then do the math for the NR numbers. With that, was there a gain in Resident licenses issued with the new split percentages? Ultimately, did the CPW lose or gain money overall doesn't matter where it comes from.

 

[BigLou]

thank you CNELK!

to have an "apples to apples" comparison, wouldn't you need to take the 2025 total of 180,707 and subtract from that number all of the NR OTC licenses that were purchased in previous years? I will do some searching to see if I can find the data...

 

[BigLou]

according to chatGPT, there were 45,000 otc licenses sold to NR's in 2023. I cannot find a source to verify...but if that is true, then looks like approximately 15,000 few er NR's hunted in 2025. That's alot more than $2mm...

 

[cnelk]

You’re not going to find OTC NonRes license sales very easily.

More CPW ‘transparency’

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

Those are just applications - not license sales.

Thats an increase just in Qualifying Licenses

They stated at the CPW commission that they lost $2 mil on non resident license sales, but recuperated the $2 mil in qualifying licenses where they raised the price


You guys should watch CPW commission meetings it will give you a ton of insight on licenses and everything and if you are a resident or non resident you need to see what is being voted on and send emails to the commission with your pros and cons. If non residents don’t send their insights they will go off of everything the residents want such as 90/10 ratio for draw licenses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

@BigAntlerGetter, what math or Source showed that $2 million dollar loss?

Applications look like they made more money with respect to qualifying licenses, by quite a few, should be a net gain there. Would have to compare that to the actual number distributed then do the math for the NR numbers. With that, was there a gain in Resident licenses issued with the new split percentages? Ultimately, did the CPW lose or gain money overall doesn't matter where it comes from.

Was announced at the January CPW meeting


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[35WhelenAI]

Colorado allocated more non-resident archery licenses for the draw in 2025 than they would have needed to cover the total number of non-resident archery licenses from 2024 when most of them were sold over the counter. Ultimately they're hoping guys don't want to commit to hunting in the fall by applying in April and will not apply for tags and won't overcrowd the woods in the fall when they decide a month before the season they want to give it a try.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

I'm starting to plan for this fall and have checked draw stats for several units that I have hunted or want to hunt. In the 5 or 6 units I have studied, appears that NR participation declined significantly. Certainly in a few of my old OTC archery units, seems like there were plenty of leftover tags. Is this a broader trend across the state? Was there a material decline in hunters in the field driven by fewer NR's?

would love insight from anyone who has analyzed the data or seen better summary data...

The total number of elk tags awarded to NR adults in the primary draw over the past 6 years have been:
23,242 in 2020
26,406 in 2021
27,359 in 2022
25,350 in 2023
24,916 in 2024
35,833 in 2025

To get a better idea of the total number of NR elk hunters, you would need to add the OTC tags purchased by NR to the above numbers of tags drawn by NR, but OTC data is not readily available.

 

[IrkedCitizen]

1st choice NR applicants increased 15,680 in 2025 from 2024. The least expensive NR qualifying license cost $101.54. That is $1,592,147.20 minimum taken in during the draw.

So I agree the math ain't mathing