Unit 122

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 122 at archery 13% and rifle 53%. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Finding a view in unit 122

No named high ground falls inside this unit, which changes the method rather than ruling it out. Height comes from the vehicle or from a bank above a watercourse, and either is enough at first light. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat. Cover ground slowly and stop more often than feels sensible.

Water against feed

There are 15 mapped stream reaches and 24 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 82/51°F, Oct 68/37°F and Nov 55/26°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 1.1 in. in Sep, 1.3 in. in Oct and 0.4 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CO 96 and US 40

CO 96, US 40 and US 287 / CR 40 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. 3 mapped public entry points fall inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 122 sits inside D-28

Across D-28, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 47% in unit 129, 43% in unit 126, 42% in unit 139, 40% in unit 130 and 40% in unit 145. That puts unit 122 behind 5 of the 8 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 129 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Chivington Hill, Walk-In Access 59 — G, Walk-In Access 60 — G and Walk-In Access 1 — G_W as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

987 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Cheyenne Wells, about 13 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.