Changes Coming to Colorado Hunting in 2025 - Colorado Outdoors Online (2024)

While most hunters are squarely focused on filling the big-game license they drew for the 2024 seasons, it’s never too early to think about changes in store for upcoming seasons.

At its June meeting, the Parks and Wildlife Commission approved the new Big Game Season Structure (BGSS) for the 2025-29 seasons.

“There are some big changes to Over-the-Counter (OTC) archery hunting for non-residents as well as some notable changes to our regular rifle seasons that hunters need to be aware of,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Area Wildlife Manager Brandon Diamond of Gunnison. Diamond was on CPW’s Big Game Season Structure working group.

CPW’s five-year BGSS sets the framework for annual big game hunting seasons, as well as the manner in which licenses are distributed. In preparing the 2025-29 BGSS, CPW conducted a two-year public engagement process that involved both residents and non-residents. Public feedback was crucial in the development of the new BGSS, especially as it pertained to archery OTC elk season.

OTC Archery Elk Licenses

Discussions related to the level of crowding and the overall hunting experience during OTC elk seasons were widespread during this BGSS planning process.

Specific to the September archery elk season, CPW heard from members of the public a strong desire to keep OTC archery elk licenses available for resident hunters while limiting all archery elk licenses for non-resident hunters. After deliberation and final approval by Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife Commission, non-resident archery elk hunters will now have to apply for all archery elk licenses in the spring big-game draw in all Game Management Units (GMUs).

This will now include all GMUs that formerly offered OTC archery elk licenses for non-residents, and is a novel approach to license distribution in Colorado. Residents may continue to purchase OTC archery elk licenses in OTC units, however residents will still need to apply in the limited license drawing for units that are currently limited. Deer licenses will remain fully limited for all seasons for both residents and non-residents.

“Non-resident archery elk hunters should keep an eye out for the 2025 Big Game Brochure and take some time to review these changes,” Diamond said. “Non-residents will have to think more about their upcoming hunts and application strategies because all archery elk options will now be limited.

“To be clear, the archery elk licenses that are limited right now, such as GMUs 54, 55, 551, 66 or 67 here in the Gunnison Basin, those units will continue to remain limited for all archers whether resident or nonresident. The big change only applies to units that are already over-the-counter for archery elk. This is a significant change taking effect in 2025.”

As it has been previously, archery season will start Sept. 2 each year and run through Sept. 30 for a 29-day season.

Rifle Seasons

Some changes have also come to rifle seasons.

The upcoming BGSS allows managers the option to prescribe limited deer hunts during the first rifle season, which has traditionally been an elk-only season, based on local management considerations. Some areas may offer antlered deer hunts during the first rifle season, while others may only allow antlerless hunt codes.

“With support from local wildlife advocates, CPW is considering some limited doe hunting in the northern Gunnison Basin during the first rifle season in order to address some of the crowding concerns during the busy second and third rifle seasons,” Diamond said. “The second and third seasons are incredibly busy, and we hear a lot about it from hunters. A limited doe season during first rifle likely won’t significantly detract from the elk hunting experience, and will allow us to lessen some of the hunting pressure during our busiest seasons. It gives us flexibility to put some surgical management on the ground based on our ever-evolving conditions.”

CPW Senior Wildlife Biologist Jamin Grigg said having the ability to offer a limited number of deer licenses during the first rifle season may also allow the agency to manage Chronic Wasting Disease in areas where there are high densities of resident deer and high CWD prevalence is a concern. Some areas around Montrose and the North Fork of the Gunnison Valley may potentially benefit from an optional first season deer hunt.

“We have a number of units where we are expecting to allow some very limited first rifle deer licenses,” Grigg said. “Likely, that’s coming for the Gunnison Basin and, potentially, areas around Montrose.

“Those will be initiated for a few reasons. One is to redistribute hunters a little bit and alleviate some hunter crowding occurring during second and third seasons. We are not expecting to issue more licenses or hunt deer harder overall and will still manage to the objectives set in our Herd Management Plans. Really, it’s just redistributing licenses and hunting pressure. Another reason is to target CWD hot spots. That’s an impetus for first season deer licenses in places like Montrose – GMUs 70, 64 and 65 and some of those GMUs starting to see CWD prevalence increase a bit more than we’d like it to. That’s one way of targeting CWD-positive deer is through that first season and having some licenses in there.”

The Parks and Wildlife Commission also approved a few changes to rifle season lengths and dates.

• The first rifle season will start the first Wednesday after Oct. 8 and be a five-day season followed by a five-day break before the second season.
• The second rifle season will be nine days long, followed by a five-day break before the third season. Hunters will have two weekends to hunt the second season.
• The third season will be nine days, followed by a two-day break before the fourth season. Hunters will have two weekends to hunt the third season.
• Fourth season will be a five-day season beginning on the Wednesday following the third season.

“Generally, there will be shorter breaks between seasons than in the previous five-year structure, which results in seasons not going as late into the year and overlapping with Thanksgiving,” Grigg said. “We heard from hunters that seasons were too late in some geographic areas and people had issues with the Thanksgiving overlap. Some folks liked that, but the majority of input was that season dates were too late and there was more interest in season dates not going quite so late. The tradeoff is not having quite as long of breaks between seasons now.

“The third season is also now longer to help those who can only hunt on weekends get a second weekend to hunt that season.”

More Changes

A few more changes to BGSS were also approved, such as the addition of an optional “late” season cow moose hunt that would span through the regular rifle seasons rather than the traditional rifle moose season that takes place during the first two weeks of October. To see all of the approved BGSS, go to the CPW website and be sure to closely look at the 2025 Big Game Brochure when it is published in February 2025.

What is BGSS?

Big game management in Colorado is built on two main planning processes: Herd Management Plans and BGSS. Herd Management Plans establish population objectives and sex ratios for each of the state’s big game herds. BGSS defines a framework for achieving those objectives through hunting seasons for different species and methods.

These two processes inform big game license recommendations through the annual rule-making process. The BGSS planning process is a critical component of big game management and big game hunting regulation development and determines:

1. What, when, and where various types of big game hunting opportunities are available.
2. How the timing of these opportunities are divided among hunters.

On the heels of this planning process, CPW will continue striving to maintain healthy wildlife populations by managing to established objectives. While BGSS provides a standardized set of management sideboards, there can also be extenuating circumstances that prompt local managers to evaluate novel approaches in consultation with the CPW Commission.

In those situations, hunting opportunities (seasons and license distribution) can be limited or modified geographically to meet biological or social management objectives.

“I want to thank all of our local partners that participated in the BGSS process,” Diamond said. “Some of your friends and neighbors went well above and beyond to advocate for our community’s big game resources. A lot of serious discussion took place that I anticipate will continue into the coming year. Those discussions included the potential for limiting OTC bull licenses during the second and third rifle seasons in the northern Gunnison Basin, and the potential for Regional season structures.

“Things don’t always turn out exactly as folks hope for, but now more than ever, we need our local communities to stay engaged and participate in processes and on issues that impact our local wildlife resources.”

Written by John Livingston. John is the Southwest region public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Related