Unit 104

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 104 at 62% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

Glassing from True Mountain, Rattlesnake Butte and Best Butte

Take a position on one of True Mountain (7,788 ft), Rattlesnake Butte (7,555 ft), Best Butte (7,555 ft) and Corner Mountain (7,464 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Water against feed

There are 2,738 mapped stream reaches and 2,657 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 77/48°F, Oct 64/36°F and Nov 53/26°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.4 in. in Sep, 1 in. in Oct and 0.6 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: I 25 and I 25 EXPR

I 25, I 25 EXPR and CO 83 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter.

Where unit 104 sits inside A-35

Across A-35, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 62% in unit 104 and 58% in unit 105. Unit 104 is the best of them on that measure, which usually means fewer tags rather than more animals. Success inside one herd moves with tag numbers and season length as much as with animals, so read the licence count alongside it.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Bald Mountain, Rattlesnake Butte and Best Butte as places to see from, and Iron Gulch, Neffs Gulch and Whitehorse SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What we can't tell you

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private. Settle access before the season rather than during it. Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.

CPW's material on unit 104 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Elbert counties. It runs to about 1,452 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 7, Adams CR 25N and Colo. 79

CPW has unit 104 bounded on the north by Colo. 7, I-76, 152nd Ave., Adams CR 25N and 144th Ave.; on the east by Colo. 79, Colo. 36 (Arapahoe CR 137), Kiowa-Bennett Mile Rd., Elbert CRs 53, 166 & 45–49, Colo. 86 and Elbert CR 25–41; on the south by Elbert-Douglas-El Paso Co. lines; on the west by I-25. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. Its value is practical — those are the features you will navigate by, and the ridges that separate one day's country from another's.

High ground inside the line: Castle Rock, Bald Mountain and True Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Castle Rock at 6,551 feet, Bald Mountain at 7,880 feet, True Mountain at 7,788 feet, Rattlesnake Butte at 7,555 feet and Best Butte at 7,555 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.

Holding ground: Timber Claim Gulch, Cabin Gulch and Mitchell Gulch

Below them sit Timber Claim Gulch at 6,125 feet, Cabin Gulch at 6,117 feet, Mitchell Gulch at 6,059 feet, Hay Gulch at 6,043 feet and McMurdo Gulch at 5,997 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Whitehorse SWA

CPW lists Whitehorse SWA inside this unit as ground open to public hunting. Each property sets its own restrictions, and the agency's page for it is where they are written down. Federal land covers about 0% of the unit on top of those.

Water in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 2,738 mapped stream reaches, 157 lakes and 2,657 stock tanks. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.

The herd this unit belongs to: E-51

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-51, and unit 104 is one piece of it. The rest of E-51 is unit 51, unit 105, unit 106, unit 110 and unit 111. Read a neighbour in the same herd before you read the state average — the herd, not the unit line, is what the agency is steering.

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 104 at archery 17% and rifle 56%. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

Glassing from Nemrick Butte, Larkspur Butte and Bucks Mountain

Take a position on one of Nemrick Butte (7,461 ft), Larkspur Butte (7,454 ft), Bucks Mountain (7,428 ft) and Lincoln Mountain (7,392 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

There are 2,738 mapped stream reaches and 2,657 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 77/48°F, Oct 64/36°F and Nov 53/26°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.4 in. in Sep, 1 in. in Oct and 0.6 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: I 25 and I 25 EXPR

I 25, I 25 EXPR and CO 83 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter.

Where unit 104 sits inside E-51

Across E-51, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 53% in unit 104, 36% in unit 105, 35% in unit 106, 30% in unit 110 and 28% in unit 51. Unit 104 is the best of them on that measure, which usually means fewer tags rather than more animals. Success inside one herd moves with tag numbers and season length as much as with animals, so read the licence count alongside it.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Bald Mountain, Rattlesnake Butte and Best Butte as places to see from, and Iron Gulch, Neffs Gulch and Whitehorse SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What we can't tell you

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private. Settle access before the season rather than during it. Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.