Unit research · Nevada Unit 163
Unit 163 — Nevada
99% public across 753,369 ac. Road access is easy — only 19% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.
Computed from primary government data by the open pipeline. See the code →
Tags & season
Draw hunts on this ground.
3 limited-entry pronghorn hunts are drawn on Unit 163: apply in the Nevada draw, by the agency's deadline below.
Season dates: see Nevada Department of Wildlife's regulations
NDOW — Apply & Buy: hunting licences, tags and application fees ↗
Fees and draw dates from Nevada Department of Wildlife, 2026, verified 2026-08-15 — past its verify-by date, confirm with the agency. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a unit that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: NDOW — Apply & Buy: hunting licences, tags and application fees · NDOW — Big game application FAQ 2026 · NDOW — How do bonus points work in Nevada? · NBWC CR-26-01 — 2026 Application Deadlines and Draw Result Dates (approved January 2026).
Land & access
Backcountry
Where the ground sits
Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band
Slope mix
Which way the slopes face
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
4,143 ac of this unit has burned — 1% of the unit. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.
Season conditions — measured, not vibes
Historical temperatures · 2000–2025
Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month
Measured at TONOPAH AIRPORT, 98 km from the unit’s center and ~1,500 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.
Harvest — agency survey estimates
Deer · 2021 · draw hunts
100% success
3 taken by 3 hunters · 8 days afield
Elk · 2025 · draw hunts
reported for unit group 161-164
17.4% success
28 taken by 161 hunters · 824 days afield
Elk hunter success · 2021–2025 · 21% → 17%
Pronghorn · 2025 · draw hunts
reported for unit group 131, 145, 163-164
79.2% success
19 taken by 24 hunters · 73 days afield
Pronghorn hunter success · 2021–2025 · 72% → 79%
Bighorn sheep · 2025 · draw hunts
reported for unit group 162-163
50% success
1 taken by 2 hunters · 8 days afield
Bighorn sheep hunter success · 2021–2025 · 100% → 50%
NDOW's per-hunt workbook, the richest single table any agency gives us: one row per hunt class, weapon, residency and unit group, carrying both draw and harvest. Hunter success is published by NDOW and carried verbatim; nothing here is derived. Keyed by UNIT GROUP, not a single unit — Nevada draws many hunts across several units at once ("012-014", "021/022"), and splitting a group across its member units would attribute one hunt's harvest to each of them. Hunt days are converted from NDOW's published average-per-hunter to total days afield, so the column means the same thing it does in every other state. That is a unit conversion between two published figures, not an estimate. FIVE SEASONS, 2021-2025, from two publications of the same table. The workbook only ever holds the current season, so the prior four come from NDOW's per-species "Harvest by Unit Group" reports — the identical columns in PDF form, one file per species per season. The two forms disagree in ways that are invisible if you trust either: the PDFs spell residency Res/NonRes in 2022 and 2024 but R/NR in 2023, publish one applicant column in 2022 where later seasons publish two, and re-lay out their columns on EVERY PAGE so a page of narrow figures sits two columns left of page one — and 2021 both renames Hunter Success to Success Rate and abbreviates the three sheep to "<herd> BHS". Each of those, read naively, produces a complete file of confidently wrong numbers rather than an error. The reader therefore derives columns per page and cross-checks NDOW's published success rate against its own hunters and harvest on every row, failing the build on a mismatch. Source: NDOW Hunt Statistics — Big Game Hunt Data workbook · NDOW Harvest by Unit Group (per-species season reports).
How these numbers are made
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.
Harvest quality — how big, not how many
Deer · 2025 · bucks four points or better
33%
8% below the state (41% statewide)
reported for unit group 161-164
Deer bucks four points or better · 2013–2025 · 39% → 33% · dashed = state
THE ONLY STATE WE CARRY THAT PUBLISHES THIS. Every agency reports how many animals were killed; NDOW also reports how big they were, per unit group, per season — the figure that separates two units with identical success rates. These are shares of the animals NDOW MEASURED, at check stations and from hunter reports, not of every animal taken. A unit group with a small harvest can therefore swing hard between seasons on a handful of animals, which is why the card draws the whole series and the statewide line beside it rather than a single year's number. Percentages and the average beam length are published by NDOW and carried verbatim; nothing here is derived. Keyed by unit GROUP, exactly as the harvest artifacts are, because that is the ground the hunt was drawn for. The series run LONGER than the harvest series beside them — back to 2013 for deer and pronghorn against 2021 for harvest — because each trend table republishes a full decade rather than one season. Where the tables overlap they disagree in the last place NDOW revised: the newest file wins, since prior seasons are corrected in place (the 2023 elk tables were reissued a month later as "-Updated").
Elk · 2025 · average main beam
45"
1" below the state (46" statewide)
reported for unit group 161-164, 171-173
Elk average main beam · 2022–2025 · 44" → 45" · dashed = state
THE ONLY STATE WE CARRY THAT PUBLISHES THIS. Every agency reports how many animals were killed; NDOW also reports how big they were, per unit group, per season — the figure that separates two units with identical success rates. These are shares of the animals NDOW MEASURED, at check stations and from hunter reports, not of every animal taken. A unit group with a small harvest can therefore swing hard between seasons on a handful of animals, which is why the card draws the whole series and the statewide line beside it rather than a single year's number. Percentages and the average beam length are published by NDOW and carried verbatim; nothing here is derived. Keyed by unit GROUP, exactly as the harvest artifacts are, because that is the ground the hunt was drawn for. The series run LONGER than the harvest series beside them — back to 2013 for deer and pronghorn against 2021 for harvest — because each trend table republishes a full decade rather than one season. Where the tables overlap they disagree in the last place NDOW revised: the newest file wins, since prior seasons are corrected in place (the 2023 elk tables were reissued a month later as "-Updated").
Elk · 2025 · bulls with 50-inch main beams
27%
4% below the state (31% statewide)
reported for unit group 161-164, 171-173
Elk bulls with 50-inch main beams · 2014–2025 · 44% → 27% · dashed = state
THE ONLY STATE WE CARRY THAT PUBLISHES THIS. Every agency reports how many animals were killed; NDOW also reports how big they were, per unit group, per season — the figure that separates two units with identical success rates. These are shares of the animals NDOW MEASURED, at check stations and from hunter reports, not of every animal taken. A unit group with a small harvest can therefore swing hard between seasons on a handful of animals, which is why the card draws the whole series and the statewide line beside it rather than a single year's number. Percentages and the average beam length are published by NDOW and carried verbatim; nothing here is derived. Keyed by unit GROUP, exactly as the harvest artifacts are, because that is the ground the hunt was drawn for. The series run LONGER than the harvest series beside them — back to 2013 for deer and pronghorn against 2021 for harvest — because each trend table republishes a full decade rather than one season. Where the tables overlap they disagree in the last place NDOW revised: the newest file wins, since prior seasons are corrected in place (the 2023 elk tables were reissued a month later as "-Updated").
Pronghorn · 2025 · bucks 15 inches or better
30%
8% above the state (22% statewide)
reported for unit group 131, 145, 163, 164
Pronghorn bucks 15 inches or better · 2013–2025 · 27% → 30% · dashed = state
THE ONLY STATE WE CARRY THAT PUBLISHES THIS. Every agency reports how many animals were killed; NDOW also reports how big they were, per unit group, per season — the figure that separates two units with identical success rates. These are shares of the animals NDOW MEASURED, at check stations and from hunter reports, not of every animal taken. A unit group with a small harvest can therefore swing hard between seasons on a handful of animals, which is why the card draws the whole series and the statewide line beside it rather than a single year's number. Percentages and the average beam length are published by NDOW and carried verbatim; nothing here is derived. Keyed by unit GROUP, exactly as the harvest artifacts are, because that is the ground the hunt was drawn for. The series run LONGER than the harvest series beside them — back to 2013 for deer and pronghorn against 2021 for harvest — because each trend table republishes a full decade rather than one season. Where the tables overlap they disagree in the last place NDOW revised: the newest file wins, since prior seasons are corrected in place (the 2023 elk tables were reissued a month later as "-Updated").
Ready to scout it?
Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.
Take Unit 163 into the field
Download Nevada’s pack and this unit works with no signal — boundaries, ownership, roads, elevation. Record your hunt with the screen off. Check what’s visible from any ridge.
Scan to install OpenHunt for Android. Open this page on the phone afterwards and it lands in the app.
