I live and hunt in CO and while not ideal I don't have too many complaints about it. 100% of our Division of Wildlife funding comes from the sale of hunting/fishing licenses, stamps, park fees, and fines. They do the best they can with that money and it doesn't just go to managing game animals but it goes as well to the study of other thing such as the Mountain Plover, which has been going on for several years now out where my father farms and ranches.
It seems however the outfitters/guide services have an in with the DOW that a average joe can't get. I remember a few years back calling the DOW offices on the Western slope trying to find a landowner who might be having a problem with nuisance elk as I was looking for a cow to fill the freezer. All the DOW did was direct me to a guide service! They told me that they didn't keep a list of landowners who complained about too many animals on their property. Just didn't sound right to me, called one of the outfitters and they said to hunt an elk unguided they could get me on a property for a trespass fee of $500.
I apply for landowner tags every year on my fathers property, and this year I struck the lottery. I picked up 6 tags for pronghorn 2 for Mule deer and 4 for Whitetail. I drew both buck mule deer and buck pronghorn tags so I can't use any of them for myself, although this is the first year I've drew any deer tags. Landowner tags can only be transferred once so by law they can't be transferred to the outfitter/guide and then to the hunter. I'm not going to say it doesn't happen but it isn't supposed to work that way.
As far as landowner tags go I don't sell mine, they go to family and friends first then to other hunters. Then if there are any left over I give them first to a youth who wants to hunt. If you sell a landowner tag for more than $75 you are not entitled to compensation if wildlife damages your property from the State. Plus the problem with landowner tags and selling them to anyone for a lot of money, you never know who you are going to get on your property, since you have to give them reasonable access to your land if they get a landowner tag.
I like the Ranching for Wildlife hunts, as it allows me to access private property to hunt elk where I normally couldn't afford. The RFW requires landowners to improve their property for the benefit of the wildlife they are trying to get tags for. When a property is given RFW status they get more tags than they could normally draw in the landowner voucher system, in trade they have to open their property up for CO residents to hunt for at least one season. I've had nothing but a great experience hunting RFW properties, and I think they are a great place to take a youth hunter for their first hunt. Now I know some people have heartburn that the tags are only for CO residents, but I feel there are plenty of opportunities for a NR to hunt CO.
I know some hunters hate the point system. I personally like it, I feel it is a much better system to the hunter than a pure lottery draw. I did like the year where CO allowed you to put in for a draw and if you were successfully the only took the points you needed to draw that tag. Say you had 5 preference points and the area you wanted to hunt too 3, then after the draw you had 2 points left over. CO DOW only tried that one year, I really liked it but they decided not to keep that kind of draw in effect.
Things I really don't like are the new modified draw for the premium elk and deer areas. The point creep is where you will never draw a certain area that you want to hunt because you'll never have enough preference points. I know that is what the new modified draw is intended to help with but I feel it has shortchanged the people who have waited enough years to draw those premium areas.
The big game access program needs to be more closely monitored as well. While I think the big game access program could be a good thing the biggest complaint I here from the landowners participating in it is they can't reduce the number of hunters on their property and they are worried about an accident. I've heard of hunters never being able to get out of eyesight of another hunter on the Big Game Access properties, but of course I've had that same problem before on pubic lands.
AFAIKI there are no Outfitter/Guide tags in CO, but there are a few raffle and auction tags. That doesn't stop them from getting their customers some premium tags however through RFW properties and Landowner vouchers. Again not perfect but at least the DOW doesn't require NR hunters to use a guide/outfitter service to hunt here.
Just to answer your question on landowner tags and to save posting again. You get your first landowner tag with a minimum of 160 acres (IIRC), and you max out with 6 vouchers somewhere around 3000 acres. It cost me $3 per application for processing and then whoever redeems the voucher pays the price of the tag.
Another thing is CO publishes all there hunting regulations online and they are pretty easy to follow. You can apply for a license as well online, and the great thing about it is if you mess up it will not allow you to continue your application until you fix it. Biggest thing to remember is our legal methods of hunting as we have we have a lot more restrictions on the equipment being used for Archery, Muzzle Loader, and Firearm seasons. Everything else is pretty much standard stuff you learn in Hunters Ed, which is required if you after 1945. Plus the Colorado DOW web site has a wealth of knowledge on planning a hunt to CO, and as far as I know we are still the only State with OTC elk tags. 