Unit 143
Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer
Unit 143 lies in Las Animas County. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Baca-Las Animas Co. line among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 34%. Federal land covers about 4% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 143
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 143 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.
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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 143
Unit 143 lies in Las Animas County. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Baca-Las Animas Co. line among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 34%. Federal land covers about 4% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 143
What CPW publishes for unit 143 is a boundary, not a mule deer map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Las Animas County.
The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Baca-Las Animas Co. line and Colo. 389
CPW has unit 143 bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Baca-Las Animas Co. line; on the south by OK & NM; on the west by Colo. 389. 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: Mesa de Maya, The Corona and Lone Butte
Named high points inside the unit include Mesa de Maya at 6,835 feet, The Corona at 6,816 feet, Lone Butte at 6,685 feet, Seven L Buttes at 6,569 feet and Fallas Mesa at 6,278 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.
Holding ground: Honeymoon Canyon, Steel Trap Canyon and Gotera Rincon
Below them sit Honeymoon Canyon at 5,840 feet, Steel Trap Canyon at 5,672 feet, Gotera Rincon at 5,629 feet, Hart Canyon at 5,627 feet and Pacheco Canyon at 5,561 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.
Public ground to start from: East Carrizo Creek STL, Poitrey Creek STL and Tecolote Creek STL
CPW lists East Carrizo Creek STL, Poitrey Creek STL and Tecolote Creek STL 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 4% of the unit on top of those.
Water: Dripping Springs, Fallas Spring and Hart Spring
Named sources include Dripping Springs, Fallas Spring, Hart Spring, Little Colorado Spring, Wilcox Spring and John Hart Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
The herd this unit belongs to: D-33
CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-33, and unit 143 is one piece of it. The rest of D-33 is unit 137, unit 138 and unit 144. 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.
Unit 143 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Miners Peak (5,736 ft), Mesa de Maya (6,835 ft), Lone Butte (6,685 ft), Seven L Buttes (6,569 ft)
Holding ground: The Narrows (6,621 ft), George Canyon (5,937 ft), East Carrizo Creek STL, Poitrey Creek STL, Tecolote Creek STL
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 Mule Deer in Unit 143
CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 143 at rifle 33%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.
Glassing from Dalerose Mesa, Tecolote Mesa and Cobert Mesa
Take a position on one of Dalerose Mesa (6,076 ft), Tecolote Mesa (6,043 ft), Cobert Mesa (6,005 ft) and The Hogback (6,001 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.
Where unit 143 sits inside D-33
Across D-33, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 56% in unit 137, 47% in unit 144, 36% in unit 138 and 34% in unit 143. Unit 143 is the lowest of them, so whatever drives success in this herd is happening somewhere else in it. If the draw lets you choose, unit 137 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. 160 and Colo. 389
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. 160 and Colo. 389. 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. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.
A first plan from the pins on this page
The map above marks Miners Peak, Mesa de Maya, Lone Butte and Seven L Buttes as places to see from, and The Narrows, George Canyon, East Carrizo Creek STL and Poitrey Creek STL as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.
What a day here costs you
690 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.
What we can't tell you
Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.
Colorado rules that decide your day
Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.
Legal shooting hours
Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.
Motorized retrieval
Colorado has no general off-road retrieval allowance. Travel stays on designated routes, so plan to pack every animal out on your back or with stock. Check the forest or BLM travel map for the roads that are actually open in hunting season.
Tagging
Validate and attach your carcass tag before the animal is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached until the carcass reaches your home or a processor.
Leaving meat
Abandoning edible meat is illegal. CPW counts the four quarters and the loins.
Where you may not shoot
- Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a developed campsite, and never toward an occupied building.
- Roads — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting from a motor vehicle.
Mule Deer: where to put the shot
Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.
Shots to refuse
- Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
- Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
- Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.
Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.
Mule Deer Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 143 at 34% — 19 animals taken by 55 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.
- Rifle — 33% success, 18 taken by 53 hunters
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.
Mule Deer Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident) | 14 | 41 | 34.1% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident) | 5 | 10 | 50.0% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident) | 6 | 15 | 40.0% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident) | 1 | 9 | 11.1% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident) | 4 | 11 | 36.4% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident) | 5 | 19 | 26.3% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident) | 0 | 2 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident) | 13 | 51 | 25.5% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident) | 0 | 2 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident) | 1 | 6 | 16.7% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident) | 2 | 3 | 66.7% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident) | 0 | 1 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident) | 10 | 34 | 29.4% | 1 |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident) | 5 | 11 | 45.5% | 1 |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident) | 26 | 118 | 22.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident) | 9 | 54 | 16.7% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident) | 20 | 40 | 50.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident) | 34 | 41 | 82.9% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident) | 19 | 49 | 38.8% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) | 11 | 34 | 32.4% | — |
| Archery — 3rd Season either sex (resident) | 5 | 11 | 45.5% | — |
| Archery — 3rd Season either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 7 | 0.0% | — |
| Archery — 3rd Season doe only (resident) | 0 | 2 | 0.0% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 3rd Season either sex (resident) | 1 | 5 | 20.0% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 3rd Season either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 2nd Season doe only (resident) | 5 | 11 | 45.5% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 2nd Season buck only (resident) | 8 | 17 | 47.1% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident) | 4 | 7 | 57.1% | — |
Data from 2021 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineCPW's 2021 draw recap for mule deer in unit 143, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- DM143O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 118 applicants for 26 licences, 22% drawn, no preference points needed
- DM143O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 54 applicants for 9 licences, 16.7% drawn, no preference points needed
- DF143O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 51 applicants for 13 licences, 25.5% drawn, no preference points needed
- DE143O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 49 applicants for 19 licences, 38.8% drawn, no preference points needed
Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 23 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 143?
What is the mule deer success rate in unit 143?
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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & Verification
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 Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 143, 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