DeerKing

WV Hunter
Yep its true, unless you have a few preference points you won't hunt the eastern plains in Colorado with a rifle, resident or nonresident. All deer licenses in Colorado are now on the draw system. Can't go to the local Walmart and buy one. Now it your a landowner you have a lot better chance of drawing a tag, but this also is not a guarantee. They've got a system here called the Landowner Preference System where basically the landowner can sign over a tag to anyone if his land meets certain qualifications. I use this system every year to draw an antelope tag and sometimes a deer tag. Deer tags are a little tougher to come by but its still your best odds of getting a tag.

In most units of Colorado you can buy an over the counter bull elk tag but there are a lot of areas that also require preference points, some require up to 15 points to draw....which means you've been putting in for a license for 15 years and not drawn. If you are unsuccessful you can still buy an over the counter tag in an open unit.

A lot of the northeast units of Colorado are getting hit hard by Chronic Wasting Disease, so if you come out stay away from the NE area and focus on the east or southeast. The area I hunt in the northeast has seen the deer population plummet. Also its a known fact the DOW has shot dozens of animals out here to try to curtail the spreading disease. This past year 2 out of 3 deer my friends shot deer that tested postive for CWD.