New Or Noteworthy For This Year

The Colorado Draw System

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Colorado's Mule Deer Breakdown

The Points System

COLORADO'S 2024 MULE DEER APPLICATION OVERVIEW

Note: The application deadline for all Colorado species is 8:00 p.m. MT on April 2, 2024. You can apply online here.

Insider Features

Hunt Planner

To aid in your research and planning efforts, we have a tool called Hunt Planner. This product will help you be more efficient at planning for hunts and also keeps all your research data organized. No more notepads getting lost or headaches when trying to remember what units caught your eye during your research! Everything you need is always in one place at GOHUNT.

What can you do in Hunt Planner?

Point Tracker

Your GOHUNT Insider account also has the Point Tracker feature. This allows you to enter the number of points you have for each state and species and, as you research through Filtering and Draw Odds, your point total will automatically be highlighted.

State Information

To view important information and an overview of Colorado’s rules/regulations, the draw system and preference points, tag and license fees and an interactive boundary line map, check out our State Profile. You can also view the Species Profiles to access historical and statistical data to help you find trophy units.

Colorado is a fairly easy state to apply in. You will have to create an online account if you have not previously done so. Or you can call 1-800-244-5613 for help getting an account.

IMPORTANT DATES AND INFORMATION

Be aware that some units may have slightly different dates. Review the Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) brochure for details of the hunts you plan to apply for.

*Deer license cost will only be charged if you are successful in the draw.

UNDERSTANDING THE DRAW

Unless there is an insufficient number of resident applications, nonresident hunters shall receive no more than 25% of available deer, elk, bear and antelope licenses for hunt codes requiring fewer than six preference points for resident hunters to draw in the regular drawing and no more than 20% of available deer, elk, bear and antelope licenses for hunt codes requiring six or more preference points for resident hunters to draw in the regular drawing as calculated using a rolling three-year average for the previous three limited license draws with a one year lag.

POINT SYSTEM

Colorado utilizes a true preference point system to allocate deer licenses. This means that the applicants with the most preference points who apply for any given hunt will draw the licenses. There is no random draw for licenses. There are also no over-the-counter (OTC) mule deer licenses in Colorado.

Applicants will gain one preference point for every year they apply for a hunt and are unsuccessful in drawing their first choice. If applicants want to build preference points only, they can use the preference point only code as their first choice. Applicants can draw a hunt as a second, third or fourth choice and still build a preference point for that year. You cannot build more than one preference point per year. If you draw your first hunt choice, your preference points will be purged. If you fail to apply for a species or have not purchased a license for 10 consecutive years, then all accumulated preference points for that species will be purged.

Deer preference point only code: D-P-999-99-P

HUNT CHOICES

Colorado allows applicants to select up to four hunt choices for deer. Colorado considers every applicant's first choice before moving to subsequent choices. In essence, in order to draw a license as a second choice, there must be a surplus of permits after every applicant's first choice is considered and so on and so forth throughout the other choices. As previously stated, you may be able to draw some hunts as a second choice while using the preference point code as your first choice. This would allow you to build a point for future years and also draw the second choice hunt. 

You can explore the odds of drawing as a second choice within your Insider account. Simply change the “choice” filter from first to second and you can see all hunt odds of drawing as a second choice.

GROUP APPLICATIONS

Group applications of any number are accepted for deer. Residents and nonresidents can apply together. When a resident and nonresident apply together on a group application, the nonresident license comes out of the nonresident quota for that hunt. One person must be the group leader and all applications in that group are linked together with that group leader’s CID number. Every member of the group must apply for the same hunt at each choice. The group application will go into the draw with the lowest number of preference points of any single member of the group. This means that if a group of three apply and they have one, seven and 12 points, the application will go into the draw with one point. CPW will not over-allocate licenses to cover a group application if there are not enough licenses left. For example, if there were two licenses left and an application for a group of three was selected, they would reject that application and move to the next applicant.

SECOND DRAWING

Licenses remaining after the primary drawing will be available in a secondary drawing. The secondary drawing is open to anyone — whether they applied in the primary drawing or not. Applicants must have purchased a qualifying license to apply for the secondary draw. The secondary draw does not use preference points and you cannot apply for preference points. The secondary drawing is a random draw.

The timeframe to apply in the second drawing is June 20 to 28, 2024 at 8 p.m. MT. Youth ages 12 to 17 receive priority for all licenses that make it to the second draw. Draw results for the secondary drawing will be available on July 8. The surrender deadline for the secondary drawing is July 10.

RETURNED, LEFTOVER AND REISSUED LICENSES

Colorado allows applicants who have drawn a license to return it if they do not want it. There will be a timeframe after the draw where applicants can refuse the license and have their points restored to the pre-draw level. Applicants can also choose to pay for the license and return it at a later date as long as it’s done at least 30 days prior to the hunt. In this case, they can choose to receive a refund for the cost of the license or have their preference points reinstated to a pre-draw level. Note: If you have your points reinstated, you will not receive a point for that year's application.

Any returned or leftover licenses after the secondary draw will be reissued via a first come, first served process starting on Aug. 6 at 9 a.m. MT. The leftover list will be made available in late July.  Beyond Aug. 6, every Tuesday at 11:00 a.m., all reissued licenses will be placed on a list and published on the CPW website for customers to review. The following day, Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., those licenses will be sold on a first come, first served basis. Reissued licenses can be purchased online or in-person at CPW offices or other license agents.

THE SEASONS

Colorado offers a mule deer season for pretty much any hunter’s preference. From late season middle-of-the-rut rifle hunts to high country September archery hunts — and pretty much everything in-between.

The September archery seasons give you the first chance at a buck. Many of these permits are either-sex, so they are a great opportunity to hunt for those first-time archers that just want to fill a permit. In a lot of the units, deer will be at higher elevations — many times well above timberline — during the majority of the season. One thing to be aware of is that there are typically a lot of OTC elk hunters in the field during this season. You’ll also have muzzleloader hunters and likely early rifle hunters in the field at the same time for those units that offer this season. Archery seasons are a great way to get into some of the better units with fewer points.

The muzzleloader seasons are in the middle of September — just about the time that bucks are starting to strip their velvet. They are typically still in higher elevations in most units with a few units holding resident deer in lower sage and pinion/juniper areas. These seasons do overlap with the archery deer and elk seasons, so there’s the potential for some areas to get a little crowded.

If you’re interested in early rifle seasons, 2024 is the year! With the way that the calendar falls and how these seasons are slated, you will get to hunt in most units a week before the muzzleloader hunters and only a few days after the archery season starts. These are typically a high country backpack-style hunt in early September. Deer should still be in their summer patterns and you’ll have a rifle in your hands. With the limited permits, the great season dates and the change to nonresident tag allocation, we do expect these seasons to be more susceptible to point creep. These have the potential to take one or two more points to draw than they did the previous year.

The second and third rifle seasons are a great time to be in the field. The second season for the past few years has been a tougher hunt. Even with some decent weather, there hasn’t been really great rut activity. Harvest has continued to be steady, but the older age class deer either aren’t there or haven’t been showing up during this season. The third season continues to be a great hunt because the rut has been kicking in and bucks are cruising throughout the day. In the better units across the state, there seem to be plenty of bucks on the landscape; the older more mature deer just seem to be few and far between.

The magical fourth rifle for the past few years has fallen during Thanksgiving, making for a great hunt. This year it falls the week prior, but will still have some incredible rut activity. One thing to consider is that there are a lot of seasons and hunters who are harvesting deer before this season comes around. This season is still one of the most amazing experiences to be had chasing mule deer in Colorado.

SNOWPACK AND DROUGHT IN COLORADO

2024

2023

2022

2021

Colorado has been one of the most talked about states over the past few months. There is no doubt that some big changes are coming to this great mule deer state. Wolves have been — and will continue to be — transplanted into various parts of the western slope. Time will tell what impact that will have on wildlife across the landscape. Colorado changed the nonresident cap from up to 35% of permits, down to up to 25% of permits for the majority of the hunts. This is going to impact the number of points required to draw some permits. There are committees formed and discussions happening about changing the point system — and what to do with OTC elk tags. The five-year season structure is due for an update in 2025. Lots of change is happening in Colorado!

Even so, Colorado is still one of the best states to hunt mule deer and still a must-apply state. Even with one of the lowest overall populations recorded in recent history, it still holds plenty of mule deer and offers more opportunities to hunt them than almost any other state in the West. 

In 2020, Colorado moved all their rifle seasons later into the year, giving all rifle seasons some rut activity for the most part. Third, and more particularly, fourth rifle season landed in the peak of the rut. It was a great time to be in the field; however, with bucks being more prone to harvest, the upper age classes have taken a hit. Your top-tier units with very limited tags are still producing great deer and should continue to do so. The mid- to lower-tier units that most of us chose to hunt just don’t have the number of mature bucks that they did only a few years ago. There will always be a great buck in pretty much any unit in Colorado — the rugged remote terrain and vegetation will always allow for it — but there’s just not as many surviving through the rut hunts. 

Colorado, in my opinion, is still the king of mule deer. It’s a state where I try to find myself chasing deer every fall. There is ample opportunity and there’s always a chance you're in the right place at the right time to find a world-class buck.

Point creep

This year, Colorado implemented some changes to the percentage of tags that they offer to nonresidents for some hunts. Going from up to 35% of permits to down to 25% of permits is, for the most part, going to cut significant tags from the nonresident pool. This will increase point creep for a lot of those hunts. It’s more important this year than ever to understand how and why point creep happens.

Point creep is the single biggest point of confusion for most applicants. Simply explained: point creep occurs when the number of tags available doesn't meet the demand — AKA the number of applicants each year. Thus, the point value that it takes to draw the license keeps creeping upward. This is an issue primarily in true preference point states like Colorado where the applicants with the most points who apply for any given hunt are guaranteed the licenses. In addition, applicants who have been banking points or applying for other hunts can decide to apply for another hunt that requires fewer points and draw a permit that was available previously at a lower point total.

Prior to applying, I cannot stress enough the importance of looking at the detailed draw odds pages for the hunts you are interested in. These pages can be found for each hunt by visiting the “draw odds” page, selecting Colorado, mule deer and your residency. That will show you the odds for every hunt offered in the state for all weapon types. You can further filter on the right side of the page for the weapon or season you are looking for. You can also filter by the odds: 0% to 100%. After you have scanned the hunts and selected some that you are interested in, you can click on the individual hunt on the unit number on the left portion of the page. 

Clicking into a hunt will take you to the “detailed draw odds” page for that hunt. Within that page, you will see five years of draw information, including how many applicants applied at each point level and where permits were awarded. Please note that we do not predict draw odds. These detailed draw odds pages will show you how people applied and help you gauge your chances going into this draw if applicants applied in a similar manner this year. As stated, we include five years of data. This will help you to see if the hunt you are interested in is creeping up in the points required to draw. In many cases, going into the 2024 draw, it will require one additional point to draw than what it shows was 100% in last year's draw, which is what is displayed in the odds. I recommend that as you scan the draw odds page or the tables in this article, you take a look at hunts that were available at your point level as well as one point less than you currently have. Start by looking at the detailed draw odds pages for the hunts at your point level to see if they have been creeping up in points over the last five years. After that, consider the hunts at one or two points less than you currently have and visit those detailed draw odds pages. 

Deer population

Colorado’s deer population has been relatively stable over the past 15 years, but in 2022, we saw it drop to the second lowest population in recent history. The total statewide estimate in the most recent data set is 391,921 in 2022, which is down from 416,426 compared to 2021. For quick reference, we have included the 2022 estimated population and buck:doe ratios, which is the most recent published estimate to date.

DAU is a combination of one or more Game Management Units that represent a relatively discrete herd.

Hit list units for Colorado mule deer in 2024

How to uncover hidden gem units

Hidden gems can mean different things to different people. To some, it might be an opportunity they weren’t aware of or it might be an off-the-radar unit that produces a certain caliber of animal — or it might be a combination of the two.

Regardless of how you define it, the tools in your Insider account can help you find them. To get started, many times, the archery and muzzleloader seasons allow you to hunt the same deer as those hard-to-draw rifle seasons with far fewer points. This also allows you to hunt them more often, giving you the ability to learn a particular area. Some of the hunts you can draw as a second choice are great opportunities that people may not even know exist.

Your GOHUNT Insider account covers every opportunity and there are hundreds of other hunts that can be drawn with very few points. We also include population estimates and buck-to-doe ratios within this article above. Between those and Filtering, standalone draw odds and the Unit Profiles, you can put together a hunt that will work for the number of points you have. Historically, some of the biggest bucks in the state are harvested from low point draw units and bigger bucks will always persist in those types of units; however, the number of those bucks is fewer than it has been. Even so, our advice would be to hunt Colorado mule deer as often as possible. The law of averages is currently most likely the best strategy for Colorado. For example, if you hunt deer there five times in 15 years, you are more likely to kill a great buck than you are if you hunt one time in 15 years. 

Utilize GOHUNT's standalone Draw Odds, trophy filters, unit profiles and the information in this article to find those tucked away hidden gems. 

2024 maximum preference points for deer: 35

MANAGING POINTS AND EXPECTATIONS

Keep in mind that most of the land east of I-25 is private. Obtaining landowner permission prior to applying is highly recommended. Applicants should review the detailed draw odds pages and generally consider hunts that could have been drawn at a point or two points less than what has been available at your current level.

I HAVE 0 DEER POINTS. WHAT CAN I EXPECT?

Zero points: Most hunts that can be drawn at the zero point level are usually that way for a couple of reasons. It’s largely due to the number of tags issued, a restrictive weapon like archery and muzzleloader or there are private land issues that limit public access. However, there are still some great opportunities available with zero points. I’d start by looking at the archery or muzzleloader seasons. Typically, those seasons are early enough to have deer higher in elevation where public land is more prominent. Some second rifle seasons are very liberal with tag numbers and can be drawn with zero points — you’ll just need to be comfortable with more hunting pressure.

The other option is to build a preference point by using the preference point code as a first choice and applying for a license that is likely to be drawn as a second choice. By changing the “choice” filter within the standalone draw odds page, you can see the odds of drawing every hunt as a second choice. This strategy will allow you to draw a license and hunt while still building a preference point for future use.

Preference point only code as a first choice D-P-999-99-P.

I HAVE 1 to 3 POINTS. WHAT CAN I EXPECT? 

There are many options within this point range and it’s worth considering burning deer points in Colorado within this point range and getting back into the draw again and hunting more often.

I HAVE 4 to 8 POINTS. WHAT CAN I EXPECT? 

There are many options within this point range and we strongly recommend applicants consider using their deer points in Colorado within this point range and getting back into the draw again and hunting more often.

I HAVE 8 to 12 POINTS. WHAT CAN I EXPECT? 

With this many points built up, there are a lot of options to look at. I wouldn’t overlook some of the hunts in the above tables or feel like you are wasting points on those. The tables below are some of the best hunts within this point range.

I HAVE 13+ POINTS. WHAT CAN I EXPECT?

For 13 or more points, applicants are likely chasing some of the best hunts in the state. A lot of those hunts take decades of building points like Unit 44,  4th for example. With all of the changes and things happening in Colorado, you might look at burning your points because you never know what the future will bring. Overall, Colorado still offers very good deer hunting and is a must-apply state for every mule deer enthusiast. Good luck in the draw!

Big game license allocation for bear, deer, elk, and antelope has been modified from 65% for residents and 35% for nonresidents to 75% for residents and 25% for nonresidents for most hunt codes. High-demand hunt codes remain at 80% for residents and 20% for nonresidents.

Updated descriptions for GMU 43, 79, NEW 431 and 791

Fort Collins Natural Areas: A free permit is required for hunters using City of Fort Collins’ Gateway Natural Area (GMU 191) to access other lands.

Forest Service closure (GMU 74): There is a Forest Service closure on Hermosa Park Rd. (FS 578) from Aug. 19 to Sept. 13, 2024, affecting access to GMU 74.

Mount Blue Sky construction closure: Beginning Sept. 3, 2024, all public motorized and non-motorized (foot, bike, horseback) travel will be prohibited on Mt. Blue Sky Hwy. (Colo. 5).

There are new fourth season rifle buck hunts for GMUs 41, 42, 85, 140, 421 and 851.

There are new archery, muzzleloader, and rifle doe hunts for GMUs 80 and 81.

High-country hunt code D-M-074-E1-R hunters are required to hunt above 11,000’ elevation.

GMU 43 has been split, creating GMU 431 and new hunting area boundaries for both units.

Archery and muzzleloader seasons for deer (and archery, muzzleloader and rifle seasons for elk).

Never lose track of units you want to further research

Can help decide what unit to apply for or what order to place your units when applying on a state's website

Annual licenses (valid March 1 to 31): 

• Annual resident and nonresident small game

• Annual resident combination small game/fishing

• Annual resident senior combination small game/fishing

Resident and nonresident spring turkey (over-the-counter (OTC) turkey licenses on sale March 1)

Resident and nonresident fall turkey (valid for the secondary draw only)

Resident veteran lifetime combination small game/fishing

Resident first responder lifetime combination small game/fishing

Annual small game license for resident 

Senior lifetime fishing license holders