Unit 129

CPW draws an exact line around unit 129 and says nothing about where the pronghorn stand inside it. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Crowley, Otero and Pueblo counties.

The lines of the unit: U.S. 50 (W of Colo. 96, U.S. 50 intersection) and Colo. 96 (E of Colo. 96

CPW has unit 129 bounded on the north by U.S. 50 (W of Colo. 96 & U.S. 50 intersection) and Colo. 96 (E of Colo. 96 & U.S. 50 intersection); on the east by Colo. 71 and U.S. 50; on the south by Colo. 10, Colo. 167, U.S. 50 (E of Avondale) and U.S. 50 business (W of Avondale); on the west by I-25. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Apishapa Bluff

Named high points inside the unit include Apishapa Bluff at 4,662 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn live in the open and trust their eyes, which is the whole problem.

Holding ground: Smith Hollow, Hungerford Hollow and Patterson Hollow

Below them sit Smith Hollow at 4,295 feet, Hungerford Hollow at 4,288 feet and Patterson Hollow at 4,191 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

The herd this unit belongs to: A-7

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-7, and unit 129 is one piece of it. The rest of A-7 is unit 128, unit 133, unit 134, unit 135, unit 140, unit 141, unit 142 and unit 147. That matters twice over: the population objective and the licence numbers are set for the whole area, and the animals move across unit lines inside it without noticing them.

Before you apply: who owns this unit

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private.

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 129 at 59% 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 Apishapa Bluff

Take a position on Apishapa Bluff (4,662 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Getting past the roads

There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter. 6 mapped public entry points fall inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 129 sits inside A-7

Across A-7, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 75% in unit 140, 59% in unit 129, 59% in unit 141, 53% in unit 134 and 50% in unit 142. That puts unit 129 behind 1 of the 8 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 140 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: U.S. 50, Colo. 96 and Colo. 71

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: U.S. 50, Colo. 96, Colo. 71, Colo. 10 and Colo. 167. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Check each of them on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a line on a boundary description is not a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Apishapa Bluff as places to see from, and Smith Hollow, Hungerford Hollow, Walk-In Access 214 — G and Walk-In Access 219 — G 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

352 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. 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.