Colorado Parks and Wildlife has approved the most significant overhaul to the state's big game draw system in decades. Effective with the 2028 draws, the pure preference point system that has governed deer, elk, pronghorn, and bear hunting in Colorado for years is being replaced by a Split Draw, a fundamentally different structure that changes who can draw, when they can draw, and what your accumulated points are actually worth.
This isn't a rumor or a proposal still working through the regulatory process. It is approved and scheduled. CPW has set 2028 as the implementation date specifically because the system changes require time to rebuild the application infrastructure. The clock is running.
If you hold Colorado preference points, or if you've been sitting Colorado out because the math never worked, this post is the briefing you need. And if you want to see exactly where your Colorado points stand right now under the current system, our Colorado draw odds reports give you that number filtered to your species and point level. Here's what the current system looks like, exactly what's changing, and what it means for your strategy between now and the first Split Draw.
What Colorado's System Looks Like Today
Colorado currently runs a pure preference point system for deer, elk, pronghorn, and black bear. Tags are awarded to the highest point holders first, working down through the applicant pool until the quota is filled. If you don't have enough points to reach the draw floor for your target hunt, you don't draw, full stop. There is no random component, no floor that guarantees every applicant a shot, no consolation pool. The system is a strict meritocracy of accumulated patience, and the engine behind why point creep hits Colorado hunters harder than any other state in this group.
There is a partial exception called the Hybrid Draw. For hunt codes that have required ten or more resident preference points to draw on a rolling three-year average, up to 20% of tags go into a random draw, but only for applicants with at least five preference points who enter the hybrid code as their first choice. For nonresident hunters on deer and elk, the Hybrid Draw is largely irrelevant: the nonresident tag quota is typically filled before the hybrid pool is even reached, meaning NR hunters rarely see any benefit from it. On antelope, there's occasionally some nonresident opportunity in the Hybrid Draw, but it's the exception.
The current resident/nonresident allocation gives most hunt codes a 75% resident / 25% nonresident split, with high-demand codes (requiring 6+ resident points) bumped to 80% resident / 20% nonresident. That two-tier allocation structure is also going away in 2028.
What's Actually Changing in 2028
The Split Draw replaces both the pure preference system and the Hybrid Draw for deer, elk, pronghorn, bear, and turkey. The mechanics are straightforward in concept and significant in impact.
50% of tags → Preference Point Draw. Highest point holders drawn first, exactly as the current system works. If you have the most points, you draw first. This half is unchanged in structure.
50% of tags → Bonus-Style Random Draw. Open to all applicants regardless of point total. Points improve your odds in the bonus half, but no point total guarantees a draw. A zero-point hunter has a real shot at this half of the tags. So does a twenty-point hunter. Per the CPW Commission meeting recap from January 8–9, 2025, CPW describes this as a “bonus split” draw, and the formula is now confirmed in Chapter W-2 §206(B)(4): every preference point equals one extra entry in the bonus drawing, plus one. Linear odds, not Nevada-style squared weighting.
When a tag quota is odd, the extra tag goes to the preference point side. The resident/nonresident allocation is flattened to a straight 75% resident / 25% nonresident across all hunt codes: no more high-demand premium that pushed NR hunters to a 20% share.
To put this in plain terms: starting in 2028, zero-point hunters will have a real shot at 50% of the available tags in Colorado for the first time in the state's modern draw history. That is not a small change. For a state that has been effectively closed to low-point hunters on premium units for more than a decade, opening half the pool to a random draw is a structural transformation.
It also means the hunters who have been accumulating points for years are not being displaced: their points still govern the preference half entirely. What changes is that the preference half is now half, not the whole.
| Element | Current (through 2027) | 2028 and Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Draw system | Pure preference (top-down) | 50/50 Split Draw New |
| Random component | None (Hybrid Draw limited exception) | 50% of tags in bonus-style random draw New |
| Zero-point access | None on most hunts | Real odds on 50% of tags New |
| Hybrid Draw | Up to 20% on qualifying hunt codes | Retired New |
| NR allocation | 25% standard / 20% high-demand | 25% flat across all hunt codes New |
| Point fee | None | $15 resident / $30 NR per species/year New |
| Desert bighorn | Fully random | Unchanged Same |
| Youth preference | 100% in Secondary Draw | Unchanged Same |
The Sheep, Goat, and Moose Wrinkle
The 2028 changes treat deer, elk, pronghorn, bear, and turkey as one group and sheep, goat, and moose as another. The changes for the latter group are different and worth understanding separately if you're in that game.
Currently, sheep, goat, and moose use a weighted point draw, a system where applicants earn regular preference points for the first three years, then transition to weighted preference points that function like additional random entries. It's a hybrid of preference and random mechanics, and it requires opting in and paying a separate fee to accumulate weighted points.
In 2028, that weighted system is replaced by a 100% bonus draw. The regular points and weighted points are merged into a single point total. The 3-point minimum entry requirement stays: you must hold at least three species-specific preference points to be eligible to draw ram, bull moose, or either-sex mountain goat. But the draw itself becomes fully bonus-style rather than the current weighted hybrid.
CPW is also introducing a once-in-a-lifetime harvest bag limit for bull moose, ram sheep, and either-sex mountain goat beginning in 2028. If you draw and harvest one of these animals, you are not eligible to draw that species again. This is a meaningful constraint for hunters who have been planning multiple attempts over a lifetime.
What This Means If You're Holding Points Right Now
The strategic implications of this change are different depending on where you currently sit in the Colorado point landscape. Here are the three scenarios that cover most hunters in the system.
This is the scenario where the 2028 change creates the most urgency to act before it arrives. If you're at or near the point level required to draw your target unit under the current pure preference system, you want to draw before 2028, not because the change hurts you, but because the preference half of the Split Draw will be drawing from a smaller pool of tags. Under the current system, 100% of the tags are preference-distributed. Starting in 2028, only 50% are. A hunter who can draw at 22 points today under pure preference may need more points to draw in the preference half of the split, depending on how the field distributes. Use your points while the full quota is in the preference pool.
2028 is your inflection point, and it's worth building toward deliberately. The random half of the Split Draw gives you real odds on 50% of available tags, something that doesn't exist for you at all under the current system. Keep accumulating through 2027. Every point you add between now and then improves your position in both halves: it moves you closer to the preference threshold on the preference side, and it gives you more random entries on the bonus-style side. Don't stop building because the change is coming. Build harder.
The case for entering Colorado now is stronger than it has been in years. Two applications between now and 2028 puts you at two points: modest in the preference half, but meaningful as bonus entries in the random half. A hunter with two points on opening day of the 2028 draw is not a zero-point applicant. If Colorado has been off your list because it felt permanently closed, the window to get started at a meaningful cost is right now. The entry fee is low and the compounding starts immediately.
Percival watched this happen once before, in a different country and a different commodity, but the same human drama. The territorial government changed the claim staking rules mid-rush. Miners who'd been working the same ground for three seasons under the old rules woke up one morning to a new set of regulations: some of which favored them, some of which opened their adjacent ground to fresh competition. Half the camp spent a week complaining about it. The other half spent that same week re-staking their claims under the new rules and identifying the ground that was now accessible that hadn't been before.
The complaining half and the re-staking half both ended up living under the same new rules. Only one of them was positioned well when the new season opened.
Colorado 2028 is a rule change, not a catastrophe. Your points don't disappear. The preference half still rewards accumulation. The random half opens a door that's been bolted shut. The hunters who treat this as a planning problem rather than a grievance will be better positioned on the first day of the new system than the ones who spent two years grumbling about it.
The New Point Fee
One element of the 2028 change that hasn't gotten as much attention as the draw mechanics is the introduction of an annual point fee. Starting in 2028, accumulating Colorado points for elk, deer, antelope, and bear will cost $15 per species per year for residents and $30 per species per year for nonresidents, on top of the application fee.
This is a meaningful shift. Currently, building a Colorado point stack costs only the application fee. Under the new system, a nonresident holding points in all three primary species (deer, elk, antelope) will pay an additional $90 per year just to maintain their position. Over a decade, that's $900 in point fees before a single tag is purchased.
The fee changes the calculus for hunters who have been accumulating points speculatively: building a position in a state without a clear target unit or timeline in mind. That approach made sense when points were essentially free to hold. It makes less sense when there's a real annual cost to carry them. The 2028 change is a good forcing function to get deliberate about which Colorado species and units you're actually building toward, and whether the investment has a realistic payoff in your hunting timeline. If you haven't mapped out Colorado's role in your broader multi-state plan, the draw portfolio framework is worth working through before the next application window.
The One Thing Most Hunters Are Getting Wrong About 2028
The most common misread of the Split Draw is that the random half will feel like a pure lottery: that points won't matter in it, and that a zero-point hunter and a thirty-point hunter will have equal odds. That is not how it works.
The random half is a bonus-style random draw. Points improve your odds in the bonus half: CPW has confirmed the formula in Chapter W-2 §206(B)(4): each preference point adds one entry in the bonus drawing, plus one, so more points means linearly better odds. What is confirmed: a zero-point hunter has a real shot (something they don't have today at all), but the experienced, high-point applicant remains better positioned in both halves of the draw, not just one.
This matters strategically because it means the hunters who stop accumulating points in anticipation of 2028 (reasoning that the random half will level the playing field anyway) are making an error. Every point accumulated between now and 2028 improves your position in both the preference half and the random half. The return on accumulation doesn't disappear. It is redistributed across two pools instead of concentrated in one.
Keep building. The 2028 system rewards the hunters who treated the transition as a reason to stay disciplined, not a reason to coast. If you're newer to the multi-state accumulation game, the free western draw strategy guide covers the foundation you need to make the most of those points between now and 2028.
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⛏ Know Where Your Colorado Points Stand
The Tag Prospector's Colorado reports show your current draw odds under the existing system, filtered to your species, residency, and point level. Understanding your position now is how you plan the transition to 2028 with real numbers, not guesswork.
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