Colorado

Colorado uses preference points for most big game draws, with some species using a hybrid system that combines a preference-point queue with a random component. Our projections are based on five years of official CPW draw statistics (2021-2025), weighted to favor recent seasons: 2025 accounts for 45% of the projection, 2024 for 25%, 2023 for 15%, 2022 for 10%, and 2021 for 5%.

This weighting gives more importance to recent applicant demand and quota changes while smoothing out single-year swings. Projections cover the full preference point range (0-35 points) for all points-based species. Desert Bighorn Sheep is projected at zero points only, since it uses a purely random draw.

The underlying data comes from Colorado's official draw statistics and spans over 1.3 million records across nine species: elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, moose, bear, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and desert bighorn. We project separate odds for residents, nonresidents, and youth applicant pools.

Hunts that use the hybrid draw method, where some tags go to the highest-point applicants and the rest are drawn at random, are identified and labeled so users understand the specific mechanics behind their hunt.