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Colorado Big Game Hunting Licenses Go on Sale August 5 at 9 A.M.—Leftover and OTC Tags Available


Description: Colorado Parks and Wildlife Announced Remaining Big Game Hunting Licenses Go on Sale August 5, 2025 at 9 a.m. (CPW Courtesy Image)

Remaining Big Game Hunting Licenses Go on Sale August 5 at 9 a.m.

DENVER — Hunters, mark your calendars so you don’t miss your shot! Big game hunting licenses not sold in the primary and secondary draws will go on sale next week and there are plenty of hunting opportunities still available.

Remaining licenses for 2025 have been placed on the leftover list and will become available for purchase on August 5 at 9 a.m. MT. Over-the-counter (OTC) licenses for elk, bear, archery pronghorn, and whitetail deer will go on sale at the same time.

Licenses go on sale online, over the phone at 1-800-244-5613, and in-person at CPW offices and sales locations all at once. This is the first opportunity of the year to get a limited big game hunting license outside of the application and draw process. 

Licenses that will become available include:

  • Limited licenses leftover after the primary and secondary draws for elk, deer, pronghorn and bear.

  • Limited elk, deer, pronghorn, and bear licenses that someone drew but surrendered or did not pay for during the secondary draw that took fewer than five resident preference points to draw.

  • Limited licenses that were returned for refund/preference point restoration since the opening of the secondary draw but prior to July 30 and took fewer than five resident preference points to draw

  • OTC licenses for elk, archery pronghorn, whitetail deer, and bear

Preparing for sales day
CPW locations and sales agents will be very busy that morning, so try to get prepared ahead of time.

Log into the online system a few days prior to sales day to ensure your information, such as email and mailing address, is up-to-date. If you have any problems getting into your account, contact CPW ahead of time for assistance. 

Have your hunt codes and credit/debit card number ready. Check the leftover list, write down all hunt codes you are interested in, and list them with your most desired licenses first.

If you call the CPW sales line for your purchase, be prepared for extended wait times and have all of your information ready, including hunt codes. The sales line representatives will not be able to look up hunt codes for you.   

Inventory held in shopping cart
When you enter a hunt code and confirm it, that license is “held” for you in the cart for 15 minutes or until you process the transaction, whichever comes first. If the time is allowed to expire, the license will be released to another customer. Keep the inventory hold system in mind when attempting to purchase licenses from multiple species. 

Queuing system
While products go on sale at 9 a.m., customers can log into their account as early as 8 a.m. Do not go further than the residency page until 9 a.m. 

CPW’s licensing vendor Aspira utilizes a virtual queuing program, called Queue-It, to mitigate the load on the system. The queuing program will engage when the number of users on the system meets established thresholds. Once you've entered the queue, do not close your browser, or navigate away from the queue page or you will have to re-enter at the back of the queue.

Additional information
For each species, hunters are limited to one list A and one list B, or two list B licenses. A hunter can purchase an unlimited number of list C licenses and they do not impact list A or B license purchases. If you received a list A license from the primary or secondary draw, you are only eligible for a list B or list C license. If you received a list B or list C from the primary or secondary draw, you are eligible for either a list A, list B or list C license. Hunters planning to redeem a landowner voucher should keep these rules in mind before purchasing a leftover license that could make them ineligible to redeem an additional license.

Because the online leftover list updates every five to 10 minutes, a hunt code may still be listed as available, even if it was already sold during that time.

Nonresidents can no longer purchase OTC archery elk licenses for game management units (GMUs) west of I-25 and GMU 140. New limited archery elk hunt codes for these units were created specifically for nonresidents. Residents are not eligible to purchase these licenses and should instead purchase the standard OTC archery elk license.

Where to purchase
CPW strongly suggests hunters purchase their licenses online at cpwshop.com. CPW offices and sales locations use the same system as you do at home. If going in person, please call ahead to determine the leftover day sales procedures at the specific location you plan to go to.

Head to cpwshop.com and get logged in to your account up to an hour before 9 a.m. on August 5 so you’re ready to purchase when the licenses go on sale. You can call in and purchase at 1-800-244-5613, but you cannot call in early and must wait until 9 a.m., and know there will be long wait times for phone purchases.

More information on the leftover list and over-the-counter licenses is available on the CPW website. 

A preview list of additional licenses will become available on August 12 as part of the license reissue process. Reissue license sales will begin August 13 at 11 a.m. MT.