Unit research · Colorado · GMU 15

GMU 15 — Colorado

65% public hunting land across 314,999 ac. Road access is easy — only 23% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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Deer draw odds (10)Elk draw odds (14)Pronghorn draw odds (4)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 15Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

6,700–10,780 ft

elevation range

65%

public hunting land

23%

of public >1 mi from a road

1,029 ac

landlocked public

1.39

road miles per mi²

264 mi

trails on public land

Computed from primary government data by the AGPL pipeline. See the code →

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

28 limited-entry deer, elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on GMU 15: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 10 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 14 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident

Pronghorn tag · 4 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Plus: Qualifying license (annual small game, cheapest adult route)$38.49 resident · $104.86 nonresident

Season dates: see Colorado Parks & Wildlife's regulations

2026 Colorado Big Game brochure (rev. 2026-03-18) ↗

Colorado Parks & Wildlife — licenses and tags ↗Draw odds for Colorado deer →Draw odds for Colorado elk →Draw odds for Colorado pronghorn →How the Colorado draw works →

Fees and draw dates from Colorado Parks & Wildlife, 2026, verified 2026-08-05 — past its verify-by date, confirm with the agency. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a gmu that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: 2026 Colorado Big Game brochure (rev. 2026-03-18) · CPW primary draw · CPW refunds, reversals and exchanges · Chapter W-2 (2 CCR 406-2), approved 2025-05-07.

Land & access

■ Forest Service 51%■ BLM 10%■ State wildlife 3%▨ Parks & other public 1%□ Private 34%

Unit area314,999 ac

Public hunting land205,258 ac (65%)

Parks & other public3,967 ac · State trust, County

Landlocked public1,029 ac (0.5%)

Deer draw pressure3.5 tags/mi² public (2.3 of total area)

Elk draw pressure2.9 tags/mi² public (1.9 of total area)

Pronghorn draw pressure0.097 tags/mi² public (0.063 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)685 mi

Mapped trails on public land264 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road46,545 ac (23% of public)

Road density1.39 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 162k ac · BLM 33k ac · State wildlife 11k ac

Elevation6,700–10,780 ft

Median elevation8,790 ft

Median slope11°

Where the ground sits

6,700 ft10,780 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 22%

E 22%

S 28%

W 29%

Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing

North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.

USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →

Unit intelligence report · Pro, $5 a month or $49 a year

11,459 ac of this gmu has burned — 4% of the unit. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.

Open the report →

Season conditions — measured, not vibes

Historical temperatures · 2000–2025

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at EAGLE CO REGIONAL AIRPORT, 58 km from the unit’s center and ~2,300 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

11% success

407 taken by 3,738 hunters · 20,026 days afield

194 bulls · 198 cows · 15 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 9% → 11%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	17%	66	378
2nd rifle	9%	85	982
3rd rifle	9%	62	685
4th rifle	18%	33	180
Archery	6%	73	1,120
Muzzleloader	16%	36	223

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Deer · 2024

34% success

502 taken by 1,460 hunters · 7,087 days afield

286 bucks · 204 does · 12 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 30% → 34%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	15%	17	118
Muzzleloader	14%	23	163

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Pronghorn · 2024

50% success

7 taken by 14 hunters · 42 days afield

7 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 26% → 50%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	50%	2	4

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-8 · 2025: 1,566 harvested (CI 1,447–1,695) · 39% success

elk · DAU E-7 · 2025: 335 harvested (CI 288–389) · 9% success

pronghorn · DAU A-37 · 2025: 133 harvested (CI 113–156) · 26% success

CPW’s stratified-survey estimates for the whole herd unit (DAU) this GMU belongs to — published with the uncertainty the per-GMU tables can’t carry.

CPW estimates harvest, hunters, success and recreation days from its Big Game Harvest Survey. Unit tables run 2019-2024; the 2025 report switched to per-hunt-code tables without unit totals, so unit series end at 2024 and 2025 success rates appear on the draw-odds tables instead. Source: CPW Statewide Harvest Estimates (per species-year PDFs on the species statistics pages).

How these numbers are made

public_land_pct = public_area / unit_area
landlocked = public ∖ reachable(roads, corners)
remote = public ∖ buffer(roads, 1 mi)
# AGPL — read the pipeline →

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, tell us at support@openhuntmaps.com — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby GMUs

GMU 2753% public · 3% remote GMU 2649% public · 37% remote GMU 18159% public · 6% remote GMU 23164% public · 24% remote GMU 13110% public · 15% remote GMU 36174% public · 0% remote

Ready to scout it?

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