By Matt Robbins
Special to The SUN
Colorado Parks and Wildlife suspended sales of leftover limited licenses and over-the-counter with caps licenses for nearly three hours on August 5. An unprecedented volume of hunters purchasing various tags caused stress on the system and forced CPW officials to halt sales statewide. As sales resumed at noon, a record number of licenses were sold by 2 p.m. and continue to grow with time.
While the direct cause is still under investigation, Matt Robbins, spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said, “We recognize the inconvenience of today and appreciate everyone’s patience while the licensing system was restored.”
As of 5 p.m. last year on leftover day, CPW had sold 12,629 licenses statewide. This year, as of 4:30 p.m., statewide sales ballooned to 14,887. Even with record first-day sales, more than 28,000 leftover licenses are still available.
The current Total Licensing System is more than ten years old and efforts are underway to build a more robust licensing system to handle the growing demand.
For more information about big-game hunting in Colorado and license availability, visit http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/BigGame.aspx.
