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Colorado Draw Odds

What can I draw with my points?

Your best Colorado elk hunts, sorted by what you want to do this year. From CPW's 2026 draw and 12 years of history.

Find your elk hunts

1Where do you live?
2How many elk Preference pointCPW gives you one point each year you apply and don't draw your 1st choice. Hunts go to the applicants with the most points first. do you have?
Not sure? Sign in at CPWshop to see your points
3What are you after?
4Weapon (optional)

How to read your odds

Each hunt gets one of five verdicts: the share of 1st-choice applicants with your Preference pointCPW gives you one point each year you apply and don't draw your 1st choice. Hunts go to the applicants with the most points first. who drew in the 2026 draw.

  • Sure thing 99% or more drew.
  • Likely 60% or more drew.
  • Coin flip 25–60% drew. You're right at the cutoff.
  • Long shot Over 2% drew, usually from the random Hybrid drawOn some high-demand hunts, CPW draws up to 20% of licenses at random among 1st-choice applicants with 5 or more points. Everyone eligible has the same chance..
  • Not this year Almost nobody with your points drew.
Hunts drawable at 0 pts (residents)
758
in the 2026 primary draw
Hunts with licenses left over
308
went on to the Secondary drawA smaller June draw for licenses left after the main draw or returned. It doesn't use or award preference points.
Years of draw history
12
2015–2026, from CPW draw recaps

Why points needed keep rising

Popular hunts take more points every year as more hunters save up. That's Point creepWhen the points needed for a hunt rise over the years because more hunters are saving up for it..

Point creep, 2015 → 2026 Resident points needed for the most-applied-for rifle elk hunts
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 E-E-201-E1-R 29 E-E-002-E1-R 28 E-E-010-E1-R 26 E-M-076-E1-R 22 E-M-061-O1-R 15 E-M-061-O2-R 11 E-M-076-O1-R 9

2015 2026 · points needed as a 1st choice

Add-on tags

Find a B or C tag

Pick your A tag and see List B and C elk licenses in the same units you can still get.

 Strategy

Burn a 1st choice, draw 2nd

Keep building points and still hunt this year with a hunt that goes to 2nd choice.

 Explained

The hybrid draw

How residents with 5+ points can draw a premium tag years early — and what it costs.

Common questions

What Colorado elk tags can I draw with 0 points?

In the 2026 draw, 758 elk hunt codes were drawn by residents with zero preference points or went to 2nd-choice and leftover applicants. Set your points to 0 in the Draw Finder to see every one, sorted by your odds.

How are these draw odds calculated?

For each hunt code we use CPW's 2026 primary draw recap: the number of 1st-choice applicants at each preference point level and how many of them drew, split by residents and nonresidents. Your odds are the share of applicants with your points who drew last year.

Do these odds guarantee I will draw?

No. Quotas, applicant numbers and rules change every year, and point creep pushes many hunts higher. Use the trend line on each hunt to see which way it is moving, and confirm every hunt code in the current CPW brochure.