CO / Small Game
Colorado
Small Game.
A practical guide to Colorado rabbit, hare, squirrel, and other current small game, with licensing, HIP, Walk-In Access, identification, safe shooting, recovery, and field care.
Official small game page ↗01 / Overview
Start with the shape of the hunt.
Colorado small game includes cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, tree squirrel, prairie species, and other animals with exact classifications, seasons, limits, and methods.
A small-game license, Habitat Stamp, HIP, land access, and species-specific rules can apply even when the outing looks simple.
Small game is a strong first-hunt pathway because it builds identification, movement, access, safe shooting, recovery, field care, cooking, and useful notes.
02 / Opportunity
Is this a good state for this hunt?
Rabbit and selected squirrel opportunity can be less equipment-intensive than big game, but habitat, season, and access remain specific.
Walk-In properties can include small game, but only current signed properties are open and access is on foot.
Dogs can be restricted where regular deer, elk, pronghorn, or moose seasons are underway, so verify overlap.
04 / Planning strategy
Use one species to learn the complete process.
Choose one legal species and one short legal route, then confirm license, HIP, dates, limits, land, and backstops.
Move slowly, study tracks, droppings, feeding sign, cover, weather, and pressure, and write down what produces sightings.
Treat identification, shot selection, recovery, field care, cooling, transport, cooking, and notes as one sequence.
05 / Seasons
Learn the categories. Check the dates.
Colorado publishes small game opportunity through the exact brochure, hunt code or license, GMU, legal animal, method, dates, and eligibility. Those details can change between cycles.
Use the current CPW brochure and corrections, issued license, Hunting Atlas, live status or closure report, property signs, and controlling land manager for authoritative dates, boundaries, methods, access, and reporting duties.
Open the current official digest ↗06 / Habitat
Where they live.
Sagebrush and brush edge
Rabbits use escape cover near feeding areas, but roads, homes, livestock, and heat matter.
Mountain forest and snow
Hares and squirrels use conifer, aspen, young cover, food, and snow where tracks help scouting.
Plains grass and farm edge
Signed access, shelter, crops, roads, homes, weather, and safe directions control opportunity.
07 / Methods
Match the method to the exact hunt.
Still-hunting
Move quietly, identify the entire animal, and wait for a safe backstop.
Shotgun where legal
Confirm ammunition and method rules, pattern the load, and avoid low unsafe shots.
Rimfire or air gun where legal
Use only where current rules allow with a proven backstop and precise conservative range.
Current legal methods, ammunition rules, and hunt-specific restrictions come from CDFW and the applicable land manager.
08 / Beginner strategy
If I wanted to start, what would I actually do?
- 01
Read the current Colorado rules
Begin with the current official brochure and species page for small game. Write down the license, hunt code, GMU, dates, legal animal, method, limit, and reporting requirements.
Official resource ↗ - 02
Confirm how the license works
Determine whether the exact hunt uses the primary draw, preference or weighted points, secondary draw, leftover or reissue sale, over-the-counter purchase, special permit, stamp, HIP, or another current authorization.
- 03
Prove the GMU and access
Confirm the legal boundary, public and private parcels, signed Walk-In enrollment, SWA or state-trust rules, roads, vehicles, fire restrictions, weather, closures, and a backup route.
- 04
Scout the real constraints
Record exact species, tracks, droppings, feeding sign, water, cover, look-alikes, roads, homes, livestock, signed boundaries, weather, backstops, and recovery.
- 05
Practice the complete sequence
Practice species identification, muzzle control, close-range shooting, backstop judgment, follow-up, field care, cooling, transport, cooking, and field notes.
- 06
Recheck, tag, inspect, and report
Immediately before hunting, recheck the brochure, access, weather, roads, live status, and documents. Afterward, complete every tag validation, report, inspection, seal, CWD sample, and transport duty on time.
09 / Current information
Official resources.
Official 2026 small-game, migratory-bird, waterfowl, upland, HIP, permit, stamp, and furbearer resources.
Official source ↗Colorado Walk-In AccessOfficial annually enrolled private-land access, signed-boundary, foot-travel, season, and property rules.
Official source ↗Colorado Hunting AtlasOfficial GMU, species, public-land, access, and planning layers for Colorado hunters.
Keep learning
Useful before a small game hunt.
Existing Sportsman’s Illustrated lessons are connected by slug, so this section can grow without duplicating article content.
Rifle HuntingHow to Read a Rifle Scope
What the numbers mean, which other specifications matter, and how to make sense of your first hunting optic.
Hunter EducationWhat an Ammunition Box Tells You
A beginner’s guide to cartridge names, bullet weight, shotshell markings, and the information worth checking on factory ammunition.
FieldcraftA Beginner’s Scouting Notebook
Five observations worth recording every time you walk a piece of hunting country.