I use to live in Colorado and never had any of the problems that you are having. It was easy to get tags for elk. In fact we always got out limited cow tag and our OTC bull tag and if we wanted to we could get unlimited left over PLO tags. Mule deer went to a drawing system but it was easy to get a PLO tag for antlerless deer that spans the entire hunting season into Janruary.

Archery season spans 5 weekends in Colorado so you have ample time to hunt elk or mulies. How much more time do you need?

Then you have the big game access program that allows hunters to access private land in Eastern Colorado for wing shooting and deer hunting and the ranching for wild life program. It was easy to hunt Eastern Colorado for prong horn antelope and phesants.

Sounds to me that you don't know the licensing system as well as you could.