For updates on Colorado Parks & Wildlife's Refund, Reissue and Exchange policies, please visit the Refund, Reissue & Exchange page.
For OTC and Leftover information, please visit the Big Game Hunting page.
Buy a leftover license online.
To learn more about creating an account, or how to buy a hunting license in our new integrated purchasing system, please visit our online purchasing FAQs page.
The 2018 license year runs from 4/1/2018 - 3/31/2019. 2018 annual, one-day, mountain lion, and spring turkey license sales began March 21, 2018.
Customers may use Visa, MasterCard or Discover credit cards. Visa, MasterCard, or Discover debit cards work if they can be used without a PIN. Licenses are mailed the business day following the purchase.
Customers must have completed all the requirements for Hunter Education before applying for or buying a hunting license or before applying for a preference point.
In most cases, licenses purchased online or over the phone will reach you by mail within 10 days or you may pick up your license at a license agent location or Colorado Parks and Wildlife office.
Except for big game, Turkey licenses, and the Colorado Waterfowl Stamp, a temporary authorization number (TAN) may be substituted for the license(s) purchased for 14 days from the date of purchase. Please print or write down (must be legible) the TAN and carry it with you while hunting or fishing until you receive your license. If the license OR all of the licenses you purchase in this transaction expire in less than 7 days, you will NOT receive anything in the mail. A temporary authorization number (TAN) is all you need for 1 or 5 day fishing or small game hunting licenses.
When you receive your license, review it for accuracy and sign it to validate it. If there are any issues, please contact the call center at (303) 297-1192 or a CPW office.
Telephone sales representatives at 1-800-244-5613 are trained to sell licenses and do not know specific wildlife-related information for Colorado. For questions not related to the sale of licenses, call Colorado Parks and Wildlife at (303) 297-1192.
CPW has been inventorying deer populations, as well as other species such as elk, from the air for over 50 years. The aerial inventory helps CPW understand fawn reproductive rates and set wildlife population goals as well as the number of hunting licenses offered every year.
Learn more about how CPW calculates mule deer population.
