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Units / Colorado / GMU 80

Unit research · Colorado GMU 80

GMU 80 — Colorado

59% public across 567,707 ac. Road access is easy — only 6% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. No landlocked public land.

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Deer draw odds (9)Elk draw odds (9)Pronghorn draw odds (3)Odds and pins: free, no account
GMU 80Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
7,510–13,190 ft

elevation range

59%

public land

6%

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

1.72

road miles per mi²

621 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 80: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 9 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident
Elk tag · 9 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident
Pronghorn tag · 3 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)

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 44%BLM 11%FWS 3%■ Other public 2%□ Private 41%
Unit area567,707 ac
Public land336,878 ac (59%)
Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)
Deer draw pressure1.7 tags/mi² public (1.0 of total area)
Elk draw pressure5.3 tags/mi² public (3.2 of total area)
Pronghorn draw pressure0.047 tags/mi² public (0.028 of total area)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,526 mi
Maintained trails621 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road18,770 ac (6% of public)
Road density1.72 mi/mi²
Managed byUSFS 250k ac · BLM 60k ac · FWS 17k ac
Elevation7,510–13,190 ft
Median elevation8,480 ft
Median slope

Where the ground sits

7,510 ft13,190 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 29%
E 29%
S 20%
W 22%

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

9,167 ac of this gmu has burned — 2% of the unit. USGS migration corridors cover 2%. 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

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F36° high3° lowJFMAMJJASOND

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at SAN LUIS VALLEY REGIONAL AIRPORT, 40 km from the unit’s center and ~900 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

21% success

673 taken by 3,213 hunters · 18,497 days afield

465 bulls · 183 cows · 25 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 13% → 21%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
1st rifle47%102214
2nd rifle17%1931,166
3rd rifle21%132627
4th rifle46%55121
Archery13%118899
Muzzleloader13%1182

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

Deer · 2024

48% success

304 taken by 633 hunters · 3,214 days afield

275 bucks · 28 does · 1 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 29% → 48%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery19%26137
Muzzleloader17%1272

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

Pronghorn · 2024

59% success

21 taken by 36 hunters · 127 days afield

13 bucks · 8 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 93% → 59%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery0%05

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-35 · 2025: 594 harvested (CI 548644) · 51% success

elk · DAU E-32 · 2025: 1,298 harvested (CI 1,2181,384) · 18% success

pronghorn · DAU A-16 · 2025: 94 harvested (CI 88101) · 72% 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)

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 7912% public · 1% remoteGMU 8171% public · 18% remoteGMU 7974% public · 2% remoteGMU 7863% public · 43% remoteGMU 8270% public · 35% remoteGMU 7694% public · 43% remote

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Watch this unit — freeReturned and leftover tags, new legal closures, fire near the unit, weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.