Colorado Parks and Wildlife ‘Leftover Day’
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- More than 37,000 hunting licenses were on the leftover list for 'Leftover Day' at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, known as the Black Friday for hunters.
Leftover Day is for hunting licenses that were not sold in the first two draws that went on sale to the public.
At the Southeast region office, some people camped out since July 29 to ensure they locked in their desired license.
Tuesday morning, 30 people lined up outside of the office in hopes of getting a hunting license, however, that line represented only three percent of CPW's sales.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Southeast region office says most of their sales were online, exceeding 9,000 licenses sold by 10 a.m., that's nearly a quarter of available licenses.
Hunters snapped up Colorado Parks and Wildlife hunting licenses for elk, deer, pronghorn, bear, and more.
Colorado hunter, James Marty has been camping out every year for Leftover Day to be one of the first in line to get a hunting license.
"I tried to do it online and found it difficult and so the last couple years, the only way we've been able to get tags is to camp out early," said Marty.
The physical line for a license this year wasn't as long as it had been in previous years, since people had a number of ways to apply.
"Folks had a whole lot of options, they can come into any licensing agency, like our office or any local sporting goods store, or online by going to our portal," Said Tim Kroening with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
But for Marty, he said he wouldn't take a chance on losing out on the deer tag he wanted, so camping out was a small risk for a big reward.
"I actually use it to feed my family, we prefer to eat what we hunt and like last year our stuff lasted for a few months. "
While Marty was able to get a hunting license, several were left empty-handed.
Chris Higler, a Colorado Hunter pressed his luck getting to the office an hour before everything went on sale, but learned the hard way even an hour early was too late.
"I figured if I got here an hour early I might get something that I wanted, but I was wrong," said Higler. "I had six different tags that I applied for and nothing."
There were more than 37,000 licenses on the leftover list ranging from a variety of species -- but essentially this is a game of supply and demand--the most desired tags are the first to be gone.
"We have a limited number of those licenses that are given out and that is because we have a specific quota, we want to make sure those populations are stable," explained Kroening. "That is why they (licenses) are limited. When there is only one license, only one person is going to get that license and other people are going to go without one."
For more information on getting a hunting license through CPW, click here.
