Unit research · Colorado GMU 23

GMU 23 — Colorado

45% public across 271,006 ac. Road access is easy — only 2% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Watch the checkerboard: 5,938 ac of public land has no public route in.

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Deer draw odds (5)Elk draw odds (5)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 23Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

6,130–10,100 ft

elevation range

45%

public land

of public >1 mi from a road

5,938 ac

landlocked public

1.41

road miles per mi²

295 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

10 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 23: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 5 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 5 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 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 →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

■ USFS 32%■ BLM 8%■ SFW 5%□ Private 55%

Unit area271,006 ac

Public land120,857 ac (45%)

Landlocked public5,938 ac (4.9%)

Deer draw pressure1.3 tags/mi² public (0.54 of total area)

Elk draw pressure0.24 tags/mi² public (0.10 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)595 mi

Maintained trails295 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road2,362 ac (2% of public)

Road density1.41 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 85k ac · BLM 21k ac · SFW 14k ac

Elevation6,130–10,100 ft

Median elevation7,780 ft

Median slope10°

Where the ground sits

6,130 ft10,100 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 28%

E 22%

S 17%

W 33%

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

17,956 ac of this gmu has burned — 7% 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, 81 km from the unit’s center and ~1,300 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

23% success

423 taken by 1,870 hunters · 8,655 days afield

246 bulls · 159 cows · 18 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 16% → 23%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	32%	93	287
2nd rifle	6%	26	425
3rd rifle	13%	49	375
4th rifle	22%	29	130
Archery	26%	112	431
Muzzleloader	20%	17	88

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

Deer · 2024

26% success

150 taken by 565 hunters · 2,857 days afield

146 bucks · 4 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 24% → 26%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	6%	7	117
Muzzleloader	7%	4	60

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

Pronghorn · 2024

21% success

2 taken by 7 hunters · 20 days afield

2 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 46% → 21%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	6

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-7 · 2025: 2,363 harvested (CI 2,242–2,490) · 52% success

elk · DAU E-6 · 2025: 4,321 harvested (CI 4,084–4,572) · 20% success

pronghorn · DAU A-34 · 2025: 42 harvested (CI 37–48) · 64% 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, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby GMUs

GMU 3375% public · 12% remote GMU 2493% public · 57% remote GMU 1253% public · 51% remote GMU 21145% public · 5% remote GMU 2277% public · 2% remote GMU 3238% public · 3% remote

Ready to scout it?

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