Unit research · Colorado GMU 40

GMU 40 — Colorado

62% public across 475,151 ac. Road access is easy — only 18% 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 (8)Elk draw odds (16)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 40Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

4,330–9,690 ft

elevation range

62%

public land

18%

of public >1 mi from a road

660 ac

landlocked public

1.47

road miles per mi²

494 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

24 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 40: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 8 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 16 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

■ BLM 56%■ NPS 4%■ USFS 2%□ Private 38%

Unit area475,151 ac

Public land295,637 ac (62%)

Landlocked public660 ac (0.2%)

Deer draw pressure0.61 tags/mi² public (0.38 of total area)

Elk draw pressure0.92 tags/mi² public (0.57 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,094 mi

Maintained trails494 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road52,614 ac (18% of public)

Road density1.47 mi/mi²

Managed byBLM 266k ac · NPS 20k ac · USFS 7k ac

Elevation4,330–9,690 ft

Median elevation6,730 ft

Median slope7°

Where the ground sits

4,330 ft9,690 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 28%

E 27%

S 19%

W 26%

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

31,722 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 GRAND JUNCTION REGIONAL AIRPORT, 31 km from the unit’s center and ~1,900 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

60% success

308 taken by 518 hunters · 2,645 days afield

152 bulls · 156 cows · 0 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 52% → 60%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	50%	32	63
2nd rifle	54%	31	57
3rd rifle	54%	30	54
4th rifle	66%	40	60
Archery	70%	44	63
Muzzleloader	39%	16	41

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

Deer · 2024

74% success

268 taken by 363 hunters · 1,700 days afield

268 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 69% → 74%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	58%	39	67
Muzzleloader	76%	23	30

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

Pronghorn · 2024

33% success

2 taken by 5 hunters · 27 days afield

2 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 0% → 33%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	33%	2	5

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-18 · 2025: 263 harvested (CI 245–283) · 71% success

elk · DAU E-19 · 2025: 356 harvested (CI 327–387) · 58% success

pronghorn · DAU A-99 · 2025: 6 harvested (CI 3–12) · 21% 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 3075% public · 6% remote GMU 4162% public · 16% remote GMU 6082% public · 9% remote GMU 3158% public · 7% remote GMU 6185% public · 4% remote GMU 6270% public · 9% remote

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