Last verified Jul. 2026

Hunting Colorado as a non-resident

What's different for non-residents

Three things separate the out-of-state experience from the resident one:

• Price. A non-resident elk license is $845.16 versus $70.40 for residents, and every species costs more. The full fee tables lay out deer, pronghorn, bear and the qualifying-license add-ons.
• OTC archery elk was cut. Non-residents can no longer buy over-the-counter archery elk for GMUs west of I-25 or GMU 140 — those are now draw-only for non-residents, though OTC rifle elk remains. This is the change most out-of-state hunters haven't heard about. What changed and why.
• Draw caps. Limited licenses are allocated with a non-resident cap (broadly, up to 25% of a hunt code's licenses, dropping to 20% for the hardest-to-draw codes), so non-residents draw against each other, not against residents. How the point pools work.

Start here

• Non-resident elk hunting

  The full out-of-state elk plan: costs, tag strategy, OTC status, points.

• Colorado vs. other Western states

  Colorado vs. Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and New Mexico, honestly.

• Planning your first elk hunt

  A step-by-step plan for your first Colorado elk hunt.

The honest version of "can I just come hunt elk?"

For a rifle elk hunt, largely yes — over-the-counter rifle elk tags are still sold to non-residents, and Colorado has more elk than any other state. For an archery elk hunt in the classic western-slope units, you now need to draw a limited tag, which means building preference points. Either way, the non-resident elk guide walks the whole decision, and if you'd rather hunt with someone who knows the unit, our outfitter directory shows each guide's Colorado registration number so you can vet them before you send a deposit.