Colorado Archery OTC Units Become Draw Units

[WesternRookie]

How many units went from OTC to Draw for Archery in Colorado in 2020?

How many more do you think will go to Draw in 2021? I have heard some specific units that the outfitters are already being told, but it is not public info yet.....

Seems like they are slowly eliminating OTC archery, which in the meantime is going to make the remaining OTC units even more crowded

 

[nrpate05]

I'd imagine a few more will go OTC. I know they were thinking about GMU 14 near Steamboat, but not sure if that has happened or not. Crowding is becoming a real issue and elk populations are down in a lot of places for various reasons and are not rebounding despite tag limitations.

 

[Bigjay73]

I'd imagine a few more will go OTC. I know they were thinking about GMU 14 near Steamboat, but not sure if that has happened or not. Crowding is becoming a real issue and elk populations are down in a lot of places for various reasons and are not rebounding despite tag limitations.

But they still throw out the 280,000 number as being the state population. They can't keep switching OTC units to draw, the remaining OTC units will not be able to bear the resulting overcrowd at some point. Time to cap all units IMO

 

[Redman]

Just wait for the wolves to start on the elk herd and then OTC will be a thing of the past.

 

[wyoelkfan15]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a single unit in northwest Wyoming going back to a General unit after being put into a limited quota draw. That despite our state biologists saying this would be the case once the elk herd population evened out with the reintroduction.

Sadly I think OTC units will be a thing of the past within the next decade or two.

 

[Jape]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a single unit in northwest Wyoming going back to a General unit after being put into a limited quota draw. That despite our state biologists saying this would be the case once the elk herd population evened out with the reintroduction.

Sadly I think OTC units will be a thing of the past within the next decade or two.

Sadly, I think you are right, especially with bowhunting being in vogue right now.

 

[winmag]

16 flipped from OTC to limited from 2019 to 2020.

I wish they'd get rid of all the OTC hunts and watch trophy quality and quality of experiences increase across the board.

Quality of Hunts > Quantity of Hunts

 

[GrantK]

I'd suspect that even if they make a bunch more limited it won't affect the rest of the OTC units for a while at least, there were a ton of leftover tags for all the new limited units so anyone who wanted to hunt them was... I believe it was said that the number of tags issued would be high initially to gauge demand, assuming they do that with any added units it will be at least a couple of years before anyone gets pushed out of their preferred units, if anyone actually does, I would guess that the only people who won't get tags for most of these hunts will be the ones who miss the draw deadline and try to buy a license at Walmart the night before the season.

 

[Pelican]

Apparently the elk situation in unit 14 is dire as there are only 183 rifle PLO cow tags valid for all of Dec. on the leftover list right now. Best limit the public land hunters before the elk are gone. Sarcasm above.
I live in a state with a game agency that spends (or did at one time) money (presumably raised from selling licenses) to advertise the fact that they will sell anyone on planet earth older than 11 years an elk tag. They employ people to help nonresidents plan their hunt here. Now, the same agency is saying there are too many hunters and to few elk in some places. They could stop trying to attract hunters or limit NR OTC tags, but then they wouldn’t be able to pay the people that attracted the hunters in the first place or the people that count the hunters or tell us there aren’t enough elk because the hunters the other people brought here killed too many elk. Good thing CO has about 100 OTC units so CPW should be able to drag this out for another 20-30 years. Job security^^^.

 

[Bigjay73]

16 flipped from OTC to limited from 2019 to 2020.

I wish they'd get rid of all the OTC hunts and watch trophy quality and quality of experiences increase across the board.

Quality of Hunts > Quantity of Hunts

Biggest hurdle will be the fact that CPW will need to increase permit fees to compensate for the loss of NR tag sales. A vocal mass of residents will lose their shit if the dept raises fees more than a nickel.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Sadly I think OTC units will be a thing of the past within the next decade year or two.

Fixed that for ya!

 

[Pelican]

Biggest hurdle will be the fact that CPW will need to increase permit fees to compensate for the loss of NR tag sales. A vocal mass of residents will lose their shit if the dept raises fees more than a nickel.

Our resident fees are now on the higher end while nonresident fees are not. CO NR deer tag is ~$400 vs MT $600+. If (big if) CO ever limits NR elk tags, demand throughout the west will increase dramatically as we are the biggest supplier by far, which means our chitty elk tags will be more valuable. Any funding shortfall could be made up by raising NR fees. Sorry nonresidents. The same groups that are fighting changes to the R vs. NR allocation will fight that also though.

 

[Bigjay73]

I'm all for raising NR fees, but R fees will more than likely have to go up as well. Co resident tag fees are a bargain imo, but im from AZ where a resident elk tag was $160 i believe?

 

[Pelican]

I'm all for raising NR fees, but R fees will more than likely have to go up as well. Co resident tag fees are a bargain imo, but im from AZ where a resident elk tag was $160 i believe?

Yeah, resident fees would maybe need to go up also. I don’t see how we ever get out of this situation with unlimited NRs and high NR allocation if we aren’t willing to force CPW to take some financial hit along with an associated decrease in services. Whether that is less CPW personnel, less fish stocking, etc. I don’t know. The price differential between R and NR tags is too great for there not to be financial impacts, but the alternative is to accept the increased crowding or hunting less frequently.

 

[winmag]

Decreasing NR allocation, reducing OTC tags, and introducing wolves (with the implementation and livestock depredation payment offsets paid for by tag sales) paints a pretty dire financial situation for CPW.

Biggest hurdle will be the fact that CPW will need to increase permit fees to compensate for the loss of NR tag sales. A vocal mass of residents will lose their shit if the dept raises fees more than a nickel.

Totally agree with this. Kill a bull elk and get 150lb+ of boneless meat for $55 ($0.37 per pound). But propose to make that $60 ($0.40 per pound) and people lose their minds. They need to double or triple the resident tag fee. I have NEVER paid more for resident tags than I have for gasoline to hunt those tags.