Unit 123
Colorado Hunting Guide — Pronghorn
Unit 123 lies in El Paso and Pueblo counties and covers about 544 square miles. Ground runs from 4,644 to 5,453 feet. CPW bounds it by Hanover Rd and Finch Rd among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 43%. No federal land falls inside it, so every acre is a permission question. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
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Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 123
Unit 123 lies in El Paso and Pueblo counties and covers about 544 square miles. Ground runs from 4,644 to 5,453 feet. CPW bounds it by Hanover Rd and Finch Rd among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 43%. No federal land falls inside it, so every acre is a permission question. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 123
What CPW publishes for unit 123 is a boundary, not a pronghorn map. 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 El Paso and Pueblo counties. It runs to about 544 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Hanover Rd, Finch Rd and Myers Rd
CPW has unit 123 bounded on the north by Hanover Rd., Finch Rd. and Myers Rd.; on the east by Boone Rd.; on the south by Colo. 96 (E of Colo. 96/U.S. 50 intersection) and U.S. 50 (W of the Colo. 96/U.S. 50 intersection); on the west by I-25. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.
High ground inside the line: Baculite Mesa, Beacon Hill and Boone Hill
Named high points inside the unit include Baculite Mesa at 5,392 feet, Beacon Hill at 5,041 feet, Boone Hill at 4,806 feet and Smelter Hill at 4,723 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Pronghorn live in the open and trust their eyes, which is the whole problem.
Holding ground: Young Hollow, Steele Hollow and Tom Hollow
Below them sit Young Hollow at 5,099 feet, Steele Hollow at 4,931 feet, Tom Hollow at 4,843 feet and Gnat Hollow at 4,834 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.
Public ground to start from: Runyon/Fountain Lakes SWA
CPW lists Runyon/Fountain Lakes 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.
The herd this unit belongs to: A-8
CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-8, and unit 123 is one piece of it. The rest of A-8 is unit 110, unit 111, unit 118, unit 119 and unit 124. So the objective behind your tag was written for that whole area, and a neighbouring unit in the same herd is a fairer comparison than the statewide figure.
Reading the land status
Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as Private / Other 100%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. A grid sample of the unit reads 4,644 to 5,453 feet, averaging 5,026 — a sample rather than a survey, so read the ends as approximate. There is not much relief, so the animals move laterally rather than up and down.
Unit 123 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Baculite Mesa (5,392 ft), Beacon Hill (5,041 ft), Boone Hill (4,806 ft)
Holding ground: Young Hollow (5,099 ft), Steele Hollow (4,931 ft), Runyon/Fountain Lakes SWA
Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.
How to Hunt Pronghorn in Unit 123
Pronghorn Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 123 at 43% — 99 animals taken by 234 hunters. The hunter count is large enough for the percentage to mean something and small enough that a good or bad year still moves it.
These are the agency's own printed figures for this unit, not a modelled estimate and not a state average. They describe one season, so check CPW's current harvest estimates before you read a trend into them.
Pronghorn Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident) | 20 | 102 | 19.6% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident) | 0 | 7 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident) | 58 | 114 | 50.9% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident) | 26 | 30 | 86.7% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident) | 95 | 162 | 58.6% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident) | 1 | 2 | 50.0% | — |
Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineCPW's 2026 draw recap for pronghorn in unit 123, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- AF123L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 162 applicants for 95 licences, 58.6% drawn, no preference points needed
- AM123O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 114 applicants for 58 licences, 50.9% drawn, no preference points needed
- AF123O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 102 applicants for 20 licences, 19.6% drawn, no preference points needed
- AM123O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 30 applicants for 26 licences, 86.7% drawn, no preference points needed
No preference points were needed for the codes above in that year, which can change the moment applicant numbers do. There are 2 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Colorado unit 123?
What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 123?
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Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-23.
- Colorado Big Game Hunting Brochure — Game Management Unit (GMU) Descriptions (pp. 79-80-81-82) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in, Data analysis unit (DAU) the unit belongs to · accessed 2026-10-22
- 2023 Colorado Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 123, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
- CPW CPWAdminData feature service — GMU and sheep/goat unit boundaries — Colorado Parks and Wildlife GIS Unit · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-22