Unit research · Colorado · GMU 50

GMU 50 — Colorado

42% public hunting land across 320,140 ac. Road access is easy — only 2% 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 (4)Elk draw odds (12)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 50Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

7,920–11,470 ft

elevation range

42%

public hunting land

of public >1 mi from a road

1,170 ac

landlocked public

2.29

road miles per mi²

108 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

16 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 50: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 4 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 12 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 23%■ BLM 10%■ State wildlife 9%▨ Parks & other public 6%□ Private 52%

Unit area320,140 ac

Public hunting land133,795 ac (42%)

Parks & other public19,770 ac · Water district, State trust, Nonprofit preserve

Landlocked public1,170 ac (0.9%)

Deer draw pressure1.4 tags/mi² public (0.58 of total area)

Elk draw pressure3.1 tags/mi² public (1.3 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,145 mi

Mapped trails on public land108 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road2,609 ac (2% of public)

Road density2.29 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 72k ac · BLM 33k ac · State wildlife 29k ac

Elevation7,920–11,470 ft

Median elevation9,320 ft

Median slope4°

Where the ground sits

7,920 ft11,470 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 22%

E 31%

S 20%

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 · Pro, $5 a month or $49 a year

1,015 ac of this gmu has burned — 0% 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 USAF ACADEMY AIRSTRIP AIRPORT, 84 km from the unit’s center and ~2,700 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

32% success

273 taken by 850 hunters · 4,202 days afield

117 bulls · 136 cows · 20 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 24% → 32%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	11%	3	29
2nd rifle	30%	72	236
3rd rifle	25%	58	230
4th rifle	58%	90	156
Archery	26%	19	73
Muzzleloader	7%	5	73

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

Deer · 2024

34% success

74 taken by 220 hunters · 1,121 days afield

74 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 28% → 34%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	6%	4	60
Muzzleloader	15%	3	17

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

Pronghorn · 2024

31% success

17 taken by 56 hunters · 227 days afield

15 bucks · 3 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 62% → 31%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	10%	2	22
Muzzleloader	0%	0	10

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-38 · 2025: 244 harvested (CI 224–265) · 46% success

elk · DAU E-18 · 2025: 562 harvested (CI 516–613) · 28% success

pronghorn · DAU A-30 · 2025: 106 harvested (CI 98–116) · 40% 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 50068% public · 13% remote GMU 50189% public · 36% remote GMU 4971% public · 20% remote GMU 5847% public · 12% remote GMU 4618% public · 12% remote GMU 58139% public · 13% remote

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