Youth Elk Hunt Colorado: How to get a Limited Colorado youth elk tag
Youth elk hunters looking for a Colorado non-resident youth elk tag or resident youth elk tag have a great opportunity for a limited tag with the upcoming Colorado Secondary Big Game draw. The Secondary draw replaces the leftover draw of previous years and gives 100% preference to Youth hunters! It also gives preference to resident youth hunters over nonresident.
Elk, deer, pronghorn, and bear licenses not issued in the primary draw will be available in the secondary draw. The Secondary draw is open to anyone, whether you applied in the Primary draw or not. Any limited licenses with quota from the primary draw will be available. Note that tags requiring 5 or more points are first reissued through a process that gives up to five applicants in line a chance at the tag. If no one takes the license or for license requiring less than 5 points that were returned, they will be available in the Secondary draw. This means some quality units requiring 1-5 points could be drawn this go around without using points or having to wait those years required to acquire the points. With this new draw and without knowing the tags available, the odds of drawing are hard to guess.
The Secondary draw has no connection to preference points. You will neither use nor gain preference points if you apply in the second draw. In previous years, to get a leftover tag, you would have been required to first be in the primary draw.
Starting June 5th through July 7th you can apply in the Secondary draw. Results will be available July 17th.
Prerequisites only include a qualifying license and hunter education certificate.
You cannot apply as a group in the secondary draw.
The non-resident application fee of $9 applies. The cost of a qualifying youth license is only $1.26.
The CPW website states, “the list of eligible hunt codes will be posted online on June 5th”, but talking to a CPW representative on the phone, he advised we might see it as early as 8-10 days sooner.
Any licenses remaining after the second draw will be placed on the leftover list and available for purchase at 9am on leftover day, Aug. 4th.
If you don’t get a tag in the draw, don’t sweat it. Colorado still has many Elk hunting units with OTC(over the counter) tags available.
Good luck in the secondary draw! I hope the kids draw some great Elk tags this season and have a Youth Outdoor Adventure. Thanks to Colorado for giving youth resident and non-resident alike preference to youth hunters!
