Unit research · Colorado · GMU 63

GMU 63 — Colorado

50% public hunting land across 236,200 ac. Road access is easy — only 15% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

Open in map

Deer draw odds (8)Elk draw odds (10)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 63Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

5,010–11,780 ft

elevation range

50%

public hunting land

15%

of public >1 mi from a road

440 ac

landlocked public

1.63

road miles per mi²

215 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

18 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 63: 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 · 10 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 25%■ BLM 24%■ National Park Service 0%▨ Parks & other public 7%□ Private 43%

Unit area236,200 ac

Public hunting land117,500 ac (50%)

Parks & other public17,321 ac · National Park Service, State parks

Landlocked public440 ac (0.4%)

Deer draw pressure1.9 tags/mi² public (0.92 of total area)

Elk draw pressure2.4 tags/mi² public (1.2 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)600 mi

Mapped trails on public land215 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road17,624 ac (15% of public)

Road density1.63 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 59k ac · BLM 57k ac · National Park Service 1k ac

Elevation5,010–11,780 ft

Median elevation7,780 ft

Median slope8°

Where the ground sits

5,010 ft11,780 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 24%

E 23%

S 22%

W 31%

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

1,395 ac of this gmu has burned — 1% 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 GUNSN-CRSTED BUTTE RGL APT, 60 km from the unit’s center. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

20% success

292 taken by 1,480 hunters · 8,786 days afield

165 bulls · 120 cows · 7 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 19% → 20%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	9%	19	198
2nd rifle	21%	65	304
3rd rifle	25%	45	182
4th rifle	10%	5	55
Archery	20%	114	559
Muzzleloader	19%	10	52

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

Deer · 2024

65% success

257 taken by 393 hunters · 1,919 days afield

215 bucks · 41 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 48% → 65%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	48%	20	42
Muzzleloader	46%	11	24

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

Pronghorn · 2023

0% success

0 taken by 2 hunters · 3 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2021–2023 · 0% → 0%

Season breakdown · 2023

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	2

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-20 · 2025: 607 harvested (CI 579–636) · 70% success

elk · DAU E-5 · 2025: 1,019 harvested (CI 936–1,110) · 19% success

pronghorn · DAU A-27 · 2025: 0 harvested (CI 0–0) · 0% 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 6437% public · 1% remote GMU 5377% public · 48% remote GMU 5248% public · 11% remote GMU 5477% public · 35% remote GMU 6553% public · 35% remote GMU 41162% public · 10% remote

Ready to scout it?

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

Open GMU 63 in the map