Editor’s Note: This is a regular monthly column from Colorado Parks and Wildlife about wildlife issues in the Falcon area by a career wildlife officer.
Aaron Berscheid is a district wildlife officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Aaron covers the “wild” side of Northeast El Paso County, including Black Forest, Falcon, Peyton and Calhan. He also covers some of Elbert County, north of U.S. Highway 24 and south of State Highway 86, including the towns of Elbert, Kiowa, Ramah, Simla, Matheson and a small portion of the Limon area.
Hunters: Be ready when the Big Game Draw starts March 1
By Aaron Berscheid
District Wildlife Manager, CPW
Sure it’s still the dead of winter and you probably still have deer steaks or elk tenderloins in your deep freezer to eat. But the big game draw is here — it starts March 1 — so I want to give hunters a heads-up, and maybe a tip or two.
For starters, let me help with the hardest thing about hunting: understanding the draw process. There are many questions, like how to get a hunting license while still banking preference points you need to get to the harder-to-draw areas.
The first place to start is with Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s 2025 Big Game Brochure. It is available online at cpw.state.co.us and at anywhere that hunting and fishing licenses are sold. The online version can be viewed or downloaded to your mobile device, which is my personal favorite so that I have it handy wherever I am.
A new brochure comes out each year, so don’t rely on your 2024 copy. Once you get your 2025 brochure, please pay attention to the section titled: “What’s New.” This is very important.
This section gives you the high-level changes from previous years. Sometimes, the changes are small. But often the changes are significant, so please read this section carefully.
The easiest option for buying a hunting license is the Over-the-Counter (OTC) elk licenses for archery season, second season and third season. These licenses cover a wide range of Game Management Units (GMU) in the state. Hunting with these licenses can be productive or it can be frustrating until you find your groove.
The best way to start the OTC license journey is to find a place in the state to hunt — either on public land or on private land for which you have a landowner’s permission to hunt. Then stick with it. The more you get to know an area, the more you can effectively hunt it. If you’re finding elk signs, it is worth it to stay and learn where and when the elk are there.
The biggest benefit to the OTC licenses is that you can put in for preference points in the draw. Eventually, these points will get you into units that are more desirable and get you more or better opportunities.
Now here’s a tip I promised: In order to know how many points a unit takes, go to cpw.state.co.us and type “hunt statistics” in the search bar. This will bring you the draw and harvest statistics for all big game species and every single GMU in the state going back many years.
Here you can find out how many points it takes to draw and what your chances of harvest are if you were to draw that unit. This can give you a goal to reach for when you have enough preference points.
There’s a lot more to say about planning your 2025 hunts. On our website, you can find much more information and a You Tube video on hunting:https://cpw.state.co.us.
Without knowing each of your preferences, I can’t get too specific, but I’m more than willing to help any of you with questions that you might have with your specific draw plan.
Feel free to email your questions. But please do it well before the deadline. This will give you and me plenty of time to work out what will work for you.
In the coming months, I’ll share more stories as I write about wildlife issues in our community. Got a question, problem or column idea? Please email me at aaron.berscheid@state.co.us or call me at 719-227-5231.
I might even answer your question in a future installment of “Wildlife Matters.”
