Unit research · Colorado · GMU 48

GMU 48 — Colorado

89% public hunting land across 191,931 ac. Real backcountry here — 35% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. No landlocked public land.

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Deer draw odds (6)Elk draw odds (10)Pronghorn draw odds (6)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 48Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

8,840–14,360 ft

elevation range

89%

public hunting land

35%

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

1.36

road miles per mi²

303 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

22 limited-entry deer, elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on GMU 48: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 6 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 10 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident

Pronghorn tag · 6 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 83%■ BLM 5%■ Wildlife refuge 2%□ Private 11%

Unit area191,931 ac

Public hunting land170,583 ac (89%)

Parks & other public45 ac · State parks

Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)

Deer draw pressure2.8 tags/mi² public (2.5 of total area)

Elk draw pressure1.2 tags/mi² public (1.1 of total area)

Pronghorn draw pressure0.29 tags/mi² public (0.26 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)408 mi

Mapped trails on public land303 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road60,066 ac (35% of public)

Road density1.36 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 159k ac · BLM 10k ac · Wildlife refuge 3k ac

Elevation8,840–14,360 ft

Median elevation11,170 ft

Median slope16°

Where the ground sits

8,840 ft14,360 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 25%

E 35%

S 26%

W 13%

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

8,075 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, 71 km from the unit’s center and ~4,700 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

27% success

93 taken by 339 hunters · 1,887 days afield

58 bulls · 32 cows · 3 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 28% → 27%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	57%	27	48
2nd rifle	22%	13	62
3rd rifle	22%	7	31
4th rifle	29%	10	34
Archery	15%	14	95
Muzzleloader	23%	14	60

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

Deer · 2024

29% success

54 taken by 187 hunters · 773 days afield

54 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 12% → 29%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	18%	8	43
Muzzleloader	20%	7	34

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

Pronghorn · 2024

15% success

4 taken by 29 hunters · 126 days afield

4 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 13% → 15%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	5%	1	26
Muzzleloader	100%	2	2

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-15 · 2025: 441 harvested (CI 396–491) · 42% success

elk · DAU E-17 · 2025: 430 harvested (CI 400–463) · 26% success

pronghorn · DAU A-39 · 2025: 31 harvested (CI 26–37) · 29% 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 4971% public · 20% remote GMU 47190% public · 25% remote GMU 4791% public · 42% remote GMU 48179% public · 41% remote GMU 4589% public · 31% remote GMU 5589% public · 17% remote

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