Colorado Moose Mule Deer Elk

Unit 17

Colorado Hunting Guide — Moose, Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 17 lies in Jackson County and covers about 282 square miles. Ground runs from 8,176 to 11,813 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 125 and Colo. 14 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 77%. Federal land covers about 54% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

54%

Public Land

⛰️

8,176–9,894 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 17

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 17 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.

Moose guide Mule Deer guide Elk guide

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Moose Hunting in Unit 17

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 17

CPW draws an exact line around unit 17 and says nothing about where the Shiras moose stand inside it. 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 Jackson County. It runs to about 282 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 125 and Colo. 14

CPW has unit 17 bounded on the north and east by Colo. 125; on the south by Continental Divide (Jackson-Grand Co. line); on W and N by Colo. 14. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Sheep Mountain, Hyannis Peak and Arapaho Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Sheep Mountain at 11,813 feet, Hyannis Peak at 11,567 feet, Arapaho Ridge at 11,565 feet, Haystack Mountain at 11,485 feet and Red Hill at 11,446 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Moose want willow, water and shade, and they rarely leave the drainage that has all three.

Holding ground: Case Flats, Troublesome Pass and Bundy Park

Below them sit Case Flats at 8,130 feet, Troublesome Pass at 10,044 feet, Bundy Park at 9,532 feet, Buffalo Pass at 8,776 feet and Horseshoe Bend Draw at 8,379 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: MacFarlane Reservoir STL and Seymour Lake SWA

CPW lists MacFarlane Reservoir STL and Seymour Lake 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 54% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Case Spring and Antelope Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 84 mapped stream reaches, 31 lakes and 163 stock tanks. Named sources include Case Spring and Antelope Spring. 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: M-1

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-1, and unit 17 is one piece of it. The rest of M-1 is unit 6, unit 16, unit 161 and unit 171. 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.

Reading the land status

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 32% and State Trust 8%, 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 8,176 to 9,894 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 8,130 to 11,813 feet — take 8,176 to 11,813 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and walks past summits. With 3,637 feet between the two ends, there is enough relief to separate summer range from winter range.

Unit 17 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

The lay of it

8,176–9,894 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,949 ft ; peaks can run higher.
281.5 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

163 tanks
84 stream segments
31 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sheep Mountain (11,813 ft), Hyannis Peak (11,567 ft), Arapaho Ridge (11,565 ft), Haystack Mountain (11,485 ft)

Holding ground: Troublesome Pass (10,044 ft), Bundy Park (9,532 ft), MacFarlane Reservoir STL, Seymour Lake SWA, Case Spring

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 Shiras Moose in Unit 17

CPW's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 17 at 77% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: walk the willow bottoms slowly at first and last light and look for fresh browse before you look for the animal.

Glassing from Dennis Hump, Spicer Peak and Buffalo Ridge

Take a position on one of Dennis Hump (9,848 ft), Spicer Peak (9,646 ft), Buffalo Ridge (9,636 ft) and Buffalo Peak (9,441 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

There are 84 mapped stream reaches and 163 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 68/33°F, Oct 54/24°F and Nov 39/15°F. By Nov the lows are around 15°F, and the first hard storm after that moves animals off the high ground — a late tag is a bet on that storm arriving. Precipitation runs about 1.7 in. in Sep, 1.3 in. in Oct and 1.1 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CO 14 and CO 125

CO 14 and CO 125 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 17 sits inside M-1

Across M-1, CPW's 2023 Shiras moose success runs 77% in unit 17, 77% in unit 161, 76% in unit 16, 69% in unit 6 and 67% in unit 171. Nothing in the herd beat unit 17 on that measure and one unit matched it, which on a hunt this small says more about tag numbers than about 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 Sheep Mountain, Hyannis Peak, Arapaho Ridge and Haystack Mountain as places to see from, and Troublesome Pass, Bundy Park, MacFarlane Reservoir STL and Seymour Lake 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

Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.

Getting in and staying out: unit 17

Named routes and what they need

CO 14 — 17.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CO 125 — 13 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Walden — 18.2 mi · groceries
Steamboat Springs — 27.1 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Kremmling — 28.6 mi · fuel
Hot Sulphur Springs — 29.4 mi · fuel
Grand Lake — 30 mi · groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan28° / 6° · 1" precip
Aug75° / 40° · 1.4" precip
Sep68° / 33° · 1.7" precip
Oct54° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Nov39° / 15° · 1.1" precip
Dec29° / 8° · 1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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.

Moose: where to put the shot

Broadside, behind the shoulder and a third up. Moose look slow to react — the first shot has to count.

Shots to refuse

Where it falls decides your next two days. Avoid shots that drop a moose in water or a bog.
A .30-06 class cartridge minimum, with a bullet built for heavy bone.

Plan the carry: roughly 350– 500 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — four or more large coolers, or a processor. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Moose Success Rates

All manners of take77%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 17 at 77% — 10 animals taken by 13 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside 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.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	7	130	5.4%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	19	5.3%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	5	656	0.8%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	1	324	0.3%	3

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for Shiras moose in unit 17, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM017O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 656 applicants for 5 licences, 0.8% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MM017O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 324 applicants for 1 licences, 0.3% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF017O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 130 applicants for 7 licences, 5.4% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF017O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 19 applicants for 1 licences, 5.3% drawn, 3 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. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 17

Unit 17 lies in Jackson County and covers about 282 square miles. Ground runs from 8,176 to 11,813 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 125 and Colo. 14 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 11%. Federal land covers about 54% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 17

CPW draws an exact line around unit 17 and says nothing about where the mule deer 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 Jackson County. It runs to about 282 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 125 and Colo. 14

High ground inside the line: Poison Ridge, Little Haystack Mountain and Green Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Poison Ridge at 11,406 feet, Little Haystack Mountain at 10,673 feet, Green Ridge at 9,974 feet, Dennis Hump at 9,848 feet and Spicer Peak at 9,646 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer bed on broken ground with a view and feed on the brush below it.

Holding ground: Friend Draw, Case Flats and Troublesome Pass

Below them sit Friend Draw at 8,227 feet, Case Flats at 8,130 feet, Troublesome Pass at 10,044 feet, Bundy Park at 9,532 feet and Buffalo Pass at 8,776 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: MacFarlane Reservoir STL and Seymour Lake SWA

Water: Case Spring and Antelope Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: D-3

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-3, and unit 17 is one piece of it. The rest of D-3 is unit 6, unit 16, unit 161 and unit 171. 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.

Reading the land status

Unit 17 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

The lay of it

8,176–9,894 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,949 ft ; peaks can run higher.
281.5 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

163 tanks
84 stream segments
31 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sheep Mountain (11,813 ft), Hyannis Peak (11,567 ft), Arapaho Ridge (11,565 ft), Haystack Mountain (11,485 ft)

Holding ground: Troublesome Pass (10,044 ft), Bundy Park (9,532 ft), MacFarlane Reservoir STL, Seymour Lake SWA, Case Spring

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 17

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 17 at archery 0% and rifle 11%. A number that low means most hunters here go home empty, and the ones who don't put the days in first. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from Ironclad Mountain, Sheep Mountain and Hyannis Peak

Take a position on one of Ironclad Mountain (9,343 ft), Sheep Mountain (11,813 ft), Hyannis Peak (11,567 ft) and Arapaho Ridge (11,565 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. 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, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CO 14 and CO 125

Where unit 17 sits inside D-3

Across D-3, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 41% in unit 6, 34% in unit 161, 19% in unit 16, 15% in unit 171 and 9% in unit 17. Unit 17 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 6 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

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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 17

Named routes and what they need

CO 14 — 17.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CO 125 — 13 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Walden — 18.2 mi · groceries
Steamboat Springs — 27.1 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Kremmling — 28.6 mi · fuel
Hot Sulphur Springs — 29.4 mi · fuel
Grand Lake — 30 mi · groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan28° / 6° · 1" precip
Aug75° / 40° · 1.4" precip
Sep68° / 33° · 1.7" precip
Oct54° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Nov39° / 15° · 1.1" precip
Dec29° / 8° · 1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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

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.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take9%

Archery0%

Rifle11%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 17 at 9% — 10 animals taken by 107 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.

Archery — 0% success, 0 taken by 9 hunters
Rifle — 11% success, 10 taken by 89 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	29	103	28.2%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	4	56	7.1%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	19	66	28.8%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	1	9	11.1%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	9	59	15.3%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	3	15	20.0%	5
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	8	48	16.7%	1
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	13	15.4%	1

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for mule deer in unit 17, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM017E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 103 applicants for 29 licences, 28.2% drawn, no preference points needed
DM017O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 66 applicants for 19 licences, 28.8% drawn, no preference points needed
DM017O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 59 applicants for 9 licences, 15.3% drawn, no preference points needed
DM017E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 56 applicants for 4 licences, 7.1% 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 4 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Elk Hunting in Unit 17

Unit 17 lies in Jackson County and covers about 282 square miles. Ground runs from 8,176 to 11,813 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 125 and Colo. 14 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 7%. Federal land covers about 54% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 17

CPW draws an exact line around unit 17 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Jackson County. It runs to about 282 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 125 and Colo. 14

CPW has unit 17 bounded on the north and east by Colo. 125; on the south by Continental Divide (Jackson-Grand Co. line); on W and N by Colo. 14. 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: Buffalo Ridge, Buffalo Peak and Ironclad Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Buffalo Ridge at 9,636 feet, Buffalo Peak at 9,441 feet, Ironclad Mountain at 9,343 feet, Sheep Mountain at 11,813 feet and Hyannis Peak at 11,567 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk want timber to bed in and open ground to feed on, within a short walk of each other.

Holding ground: Horseshoe Bend Draw, Friend Draw and Case Flats

Below them sit Horseshoe Bend Draw at 8,379 feet, Friend Draw at 8,227 feet, Case Flats at 8,130 feet, Troublesome Pass at 10,044 feet and Bundy Park at 9,532 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: MacFarlane Reservoir STL and Seymour Lake SWA

Water: Case Spring and Antelope Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: E-3

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-3, and unit 17 is one piece of it. The rest of E-3 is unit 6, unit 16, unit 161 and unit 171. 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.

Reading the land status

Unit 17 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

The lay of it

8,176–9,894 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,949 ft ; peaks can run higher.
281.5 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

163 tanks
84 stream segments
31 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sheep Mountain (11,813 ft), Hyannis Peak (11,567 ft), Arapaho Ridge (11,565 ft), Haystack Mountain (11,485 ft)

Holding ground: Troublesome Pass (10,044 ft), Bundy Park (9,532 ft), MacFarlane Reservoir STL, Seymour Lake SWA, Case Spring

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 Elk in Unit 17

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 17 at archery 5%, muzzleloader 7% and rifle 7%. A number that low means most hunters here go home empty, and the ones who don't put the days in first. 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 Haystack Mountain, Red Hill and Poison Ridge

Take a position on one of Haystack Mountain (11,485 ft), Red Hill (11,446 ft), Poison Ridge (11,406 ft) and Little Haystack Mountain (10,673 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. 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 84 mapped stream reaches and 163 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. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CO 14 and CO 125

Where unit 17 sits inside E-3

Across E-3, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 12% in unit 16, 9% in unit 6, 7% in unit 17, 5% in unit 161 and 3% in unit 171. That puts unit 17 behind 2 of the 4 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 16 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

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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 17

Named routes and what they need

CO 14 — 17.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CO 125 — 13 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Walden — 18.2 mi · groceries
Steamboat Springs — 27.1 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Kremmling — 28.6 mi · fuel
Hot Sulphur Springs — 29.4 mi · fuel
Grand Lake — 30 mi · groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan28° / 6° · 1" precip
Aug75° / 40° · 1.4" precip
Sep68° / 33° · 1.7" precip
Oct54° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Nov39° / 15° · 1.1" precip
Dec29° / 8° · 1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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

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.

Elk: 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. That is lungs, and on a quartering-away angle it picks up the far shoulder.

Shots to refuse

No straight-on and no straight-away shots. An elk's chest is deep and the margin is small.
Nothing standing behind or overlapping the animal you picked. A pass-through kills the elk behind it too.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have put three shots in a paper plate off the sticks you are actually carrying. Not the farthest you have ever hit anything.
Scope on 3–4x. A herd fills a 12x field of view and you lose the animal you picked.

Identification:On an antlerless tag, legal means no antler of any kind through the skin. A spike looks exactly like a cow until it turns its head. If you can't see the head, don't shoot.

Plan the carry: roughly 150– 220 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two to four large coolers, plus bagged ice from town. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Elk Success Rates

All manners of take7%

Archery5%

Muzzleloader7%

Rifle7%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 17 at 7% — 149 animals taken by 2,238 hunters. That is a lot of hunters in one unit, and the percentage is what it looks like after all of them have been through it.

Archery — 5% success, 33 taken by 670 hunters
Muzzleloader — 7% success, 7 taken by 97 hunters
Rifle — 7% success, 109 taken by 1,471 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	18	45	40.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	4	9	44.4%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	107	165	64.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	12	16	75.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	32	80	40.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	3	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	1	2	50.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for elk in unit 17, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EF017O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 165 applicants for 107 licences, 64.8% drawn, no preference points needed
EF017O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Cow Only, resident: 80 applicants for 32 licences, 40% drawn, no preference points needed
EE017O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Either Sex, resident: 45 applicants for 18 licences, 40% drawn, no preference points needed
EF017O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 16 applicants for 12 licences, 75% 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

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

3 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, none of them named in the mapping data we hold — find them on a current forest map before you plan a camp.

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Road Conditions

CO 14 and CO 125 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 31 mi paved, 4 mi gravel and 1 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

8,176–9,894 ft, averaging 8,949. Gentle ground — distance rather than climbing is the day's cost.

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Hunting Pressure

Our land-status read for this unit is approximate, so treat any pressure estimate from it with suspicion and check a current ownership layer.

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Weather

Season normals: Sep 68/33°F, 1.7 in.; Oct 54/24°F, 1.3 in.; Nov 39/15°F, 1.1 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 15%, AT&T 10%, T-Mobile 5% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

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Nearest Town

Walden (18 mi), Steamboat Springs (27 mi), Kremmling (29 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 17?

Unit 17 lies in Jackson County, and CPW has it bounded on the north and east by Colo. 125; on the south by Continental Divide (Jackson-Grand Co. line); on W and N by Colo. 14. It covers about 282 square miles.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 17?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 17 at 77% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 17 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 17 are at Walden, about 18 miles from the unit's centre, with Steamboat Springs at about 27 miles. There are also 3 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 17?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 17 at 9% across all manners of take, and archery 0% and rifle 11% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 17?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 17 at 7% across all manners of take, and archery 5%, muzzleloader 7% and rifle 7% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Colorado Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

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Sources & 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 Moose Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for Shiras moose in unit 17, 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
2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 17, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 17, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22