You may have heard or read or seen video about winter kill and the affect it has had on the CO elk, deer and antelope herds.  It's not as bad as it seems.  Only the Northwestern part of the state was affected.  Herd sizes were reported as dropping about 20% on average from CO Parks & Wildlife herd estimates in Spring of 2023 as compared to the previous year.  However 2024 counts in the NW were only about 500 animals off of the difference from 2023 counts.  Antelope got it the worst, mule deer faired pretty well and the elk migrated into Utah, farther than normal and just came back later than normal.  Due to initial estimates they dropped the number of licenses by as much as 90%, usually for cow and doe licenses.  So if you have a draw license most likely you won't see many hunters from Craig north and west.

The 2nd and 3rd rifle seasons are still over the counter for bull elk but have been reduced to the first 5 days rather than 9 for 2nd and 7 for 3rd rifle.

2024 they changed the draw to be private/public land license and the over the counter licenses is private land only.  We do have hunts on private for 2024.  Contact us using our outfitter info request form on the website to find a hunt.