BANKING POINTS
Preference-point banking was an option last year, and it allowed hunters to keep the excess points not required to draw the license they applied for. This year, any first-choice license received will use all of the hunter's points. Purging of preference points will also begin for hunters who are inactive in 2007.

The change came about as a series of initiatives by a group looking at how to deal with preference-point issues.

The problem is, you could spend 13 preference points waiting for an elk tag for GMU 201, for example. That means you were waiting 13 years to draw. Or you put in for 12, and every year it got to be one more. You were always one behind the curve.

Then you got someone new who moved to Colorado and had no points. He'd think he'd never get a chance to hunt here.

"We had to take a look at the system and try to correct that," Hampton said. "Part of the way to do that is to make sure people are actively using their points, not sitting on an account and thinking 'I have 14 points, but I don't want to go this year, next year, the year after that. I'll just sit back for five years and see what I can do with the points down the road.' "

TROPHY DEER
GMUs 10 and 201 in the northwest corner of the state are considered trophy GMUs. In 10, 105 hunters harvested 92 bucks for a hunter-

uccess percentage of 88 in 2006. In 201, 40 hunters harvested 35 bucks for another 88 percent success.

"We have units that are managed for quality," Hampton said, "and some units that are managed for quantity. These units are one of those situations where you might find yourself needing some preference points and putting in for a couple of different years."

The state doesn't actually define what a "trophy deer" is, and they manage populations, not individual critters. They have quality units as defined by the buck-doe ratios.

"The closest we get to defining 'trophy' would be in our Samson Law, where anything over 23 inches (inside spread) is considered to be a Samson quality," said Hampton.

The Samson Law is Colorado's anti-poaching law. The only time the division defines a trophy is when it comes to poaching cases. If you poach a trophy animal, you incur an extra fine.

Quantity and quality are the key words in describing the mule deer hunting in Colorado. GMUs 11, 211, 12, 22, 23, 24, 32, 42, 13, 131 and 231 are associated with quantity.

Mule deer from GMUs 10 and 201 are synonymous with quality, though quality deer are taken from 11, 211, 12, 22, 23, 24, 32, 42, 13, 131 and 231 as well. If you don't have these GMUs on your hunting calendar this year, make a note to definitely try these units in 2008.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION
Here's some help to get started on your way to a Colorado mule deer hunt.

• Meeker Chamber of Commerce. Call (970) 878-5510, or e-mail them at info@meekerchamber.com.
• U.S. Forest Service, White River National Forest. Call (970) 878-4039, or visit www.fs.fed.us /r2/whiteriver.
• Colorado Division of Wildlife, Meeker office. Call (970) 878-6090, or visit www.wildlife.state.co.us.
• Bureau of Land Management, White River Field Office. Visit www.co.blm.gov/wrra/index.htm, or call (970) 878-3800.
• Timberline Sporting Goods, in Rifle, Colo. Call (970) 625-4868.