Unit research · Colorado GMU 5

GMU 5 — Colorado

60% public across 191,204 ac. Road access is easy — only 9% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Watch the checkerboard: 3,814 ac of public land has no public route in.

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Deer draw odds (10)Elk draw odds (9)Pronghorn draw odds (2)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 5Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

6,520–10,720 ft

elevation range

60%

public land

of public >1 mi from a road

3,814 ac

landlocked public

1.52

road miles per mi²

196 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

21 limited-entry deer, elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on GMU 5: 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 · 9 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident

Pronghorn tag · 2 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

■ USFS 47%■ BLM 12%■ SLB 1%□ Private 40%

Unit area191,204 ac

Public land114,259 ac (60%)

Landlocked public3,814 ac (3.3%)

Deer draw pressure0.54 tags/mi² public (0.31 of total area)

Elk draw pressure1.5 tags/mi² public (0.89 of total area)

Pronghorn draw pressure0.017 tags/mi² public (0.010 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)454 mi

Maintained trails196 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road10,072 ac (9% of public)

Road density1.52 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 89k ac · BLM 23k ac · SLB 2k ac

Elevation6,520–10,720 ft

Median elevation8,230 ft

Median slope10°

Where the ground sits

6,520 ft10,720 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 30%

E 20%

S 20%

W 30%

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

3,373 ac of this gmu has burned — 2% 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 LARAMIE REGIONAL AIRPORT, 127 km from the unit’s center and ~1,000 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

36% success

316 taken by 874 hunters · 3,613 days afield

230 bulls · 84 cows · 3 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 36% → 36%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	39%	40	104
2nd rifle	19%	47	249
3rd rifle	10%	9	85
4th rifle	26%	3	12
Archery	27%	43	155
Muzzleloader	55%	11	21

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

Deer · 2024

47% success

129 taken by 275 hunters · 1,077 days afield

99 bucks · 29 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 71% → 47%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	16%	16	104
Muzzleloader	12%	2	15

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

Pronghorn · 2024

92% success

24 taken by 26 hunters · 104 days afield

24 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 79% → 92%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	3
Muzzleloader	0%	0	2

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-2 · 2025: 2,161 harvested (CI 2,044–2,284) · 60% success

elk · DAU E-2 · 2025: 2,286 harvested (CI 2,163–2,415) · 26% success

pronghorn · DAU A-9 · 2025: 271 harvested (CI 267–276) · 67% 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 448% public · 19% remote GMU 21424% public · 22% remote GMU 44133% public · 23% remote GMU 1486% public · 46% remote GMU 16175% public · 24% remote GMU 1323% public · 3% remote

Ready to scout it?

Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.

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