Unit research · Colorado · GMU 27

GMU 27 — Colorado

53% public hunting land across 126,154 ac. Road access is easy — only 3% 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 (5)Elk draw odds (9)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 27Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

7,040–10,760 ft

elevation range

53%

public hunting land

of public >1 mi from a road

49 ac

landlocked public

1.85

road miles per mi²

83 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

14 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 27: 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 · 9 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

■ Forest Service 34%■ State wildlife 13%■ BLM 6%▨ Parks & other public 2%□ Private 45%

Unit area126,154 ac

Public hunting land67,282 ac (53%)

Parks & other public2,558 ac · State trust

Landlocked public49 ac (0.1%)

Deer draw pressure3.1 tags/mi² public (1.7 of total area)

Elk draw pressure1.2 tags/mi² public (0.66 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)364 mi

Mapped trails on public land83 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road1,908 ac (3% of public)

Road density1.85 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 44k ac · State wildlife 16k ac · BLM 8k ac

Elevation7,040–10,760 ft

Median elevation8,600 ft

Median slope8°

Where the ground sits

7,040 ft10,760 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 25%

E 47%

S 18%

W 10%

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

17,262 ac of this gmu has burned — 14% 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, 70 km from the unit’s center and ~2,100 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

7% success

113 taken by 1,523 hunters · 7,378 days afield

47 bulls · 59 cows · 8 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 12% → 7%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	10%	10	99
2nd rifle	5%	25	484
3rd rifle	11%	24	228
4th rifle	12%	7	59
Archery	4%	17	391
Muzzleloader	11%	15	138

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

Deer · 2024

24% success

53 taken by 223 hunters · 913 days afield

41 bucks · 8 does · 4 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 29% → 24%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	37%	4	12
Muzzleloader	0%	0	32

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

Pronghorn · 2024

22% success

31 taken by 142 hunters · 435 days afield

19 bucks · 11 does · 2 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 39% → 22%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	9%	2	21
Muzzleloader	20%	8	42

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-9 · 2025: 1,084 harvested (CI 979–1,200) · 31% 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 18159% public · 6% remote GMU 1565% public · 23% remote GMU 36174% public · 0% remote GMU 1762% public · 9% remote GMU 2649% public · 37% remote GMU 1651% public · 21% remote

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