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Colorado Mule Deer Elk

Unit 31

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 31 lies in Mesa, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties and covers about 701 square miles. Ground runs from 4,778 to 8,963 feet. CPW bounds it by Colorado-White River divide and Roan Creek-Parachute Creek divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 58%. Federal land covers about 58% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

🏔️
58%
Public Land
⛰️
5,209–8,494 ft
Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 31

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 31 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 31

Unit 31 lies in Mesa, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties and covers about 701 square miles. Ground runs from 4,778 to 8,963 feet. CPW bounds it by Colorado-White River divide and Roan Creek-Parachute Creek divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 58%. Federal land covers about 58% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 31

CPW's material on unit 31 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule deer live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Mesa, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties. It runs to about 701 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colorado-White River divide, Roan Creek-Parachute Creek divide and Kelly Gulch

CPW has unit 31 bounded on the north by Colorado-White River divide; on the east by Roan Creek-Parachute Creek divide and Kelly Gulch; on the south by Colorado River; on the west by Bookcliffs, Little Salt Wash-Roan Creek divide, Big Salt Wash-Roan Creek divide and East Salt Creek-Roan Creek divide. 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: Upper 4A Mountain, Brush Mountain and Horse Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Upper 4A Mountain at 8,963 feet, Brush Mountain at 8,892 feet, Horse Ridge at 8,804 feet, Chimney Rock Point at 8,742 feet and 4A Ridge at 8,668 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Sawmill Gulch, Indian Park and Pole Bridge Canyon

Below them sit Sawmill Gulch at 7,043 feet, Indian Park at 6,997 feet, Pole Bridge Canyon at 6,994 feet, Corral Canyon at 6,924 feet and Boyd Gulch at 6,914 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: Bill Patterson SWA

CPW lists Bill Patterson 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 58% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Kaiser Spring, Huntley Spring and Sheep Corral Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 4,162 mapped stream reaches, 11 lakes and 198 stock tanks. Named sources include Kaiser Spring, Huntley Spring, Sheep Corral Spring, First Water Spring, Little Water Spring and Third Water 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: D-41

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-41, and unit 31 is one piece of it. The rest of D-41 is unit 32. 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.

Unit 31 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

  • 5,209–8,494 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,738 ft ; peaks can run higher.
  • 701 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

  • Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

  • 198 tanks
  • 4,162 stream segments
  • 11 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: Brush Mountain (8,892 ft), Sleepy Ridge (8,632 ft), Bear Point (8,604 ft), Cow Ridge (8,598 ft)

Holding ground: The Saddle (7,413 ft), Buck Canyon (7,048 ft), Indian Park (6,997 ft), Bill Patterson 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 Mule Deer in Unit 31

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take52%
Archery34%
Rifle58%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 31 at 52% — 260 animals taken by 495 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 — 34% success, 23 taken by 69 hunters
  • Rifle — 58% success, 217 taken by 374 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

SeasonTagsApplicantsDraw %Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident) 7516445.7% —
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) 3517320.2% 1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident) 628969.7% —
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident) 397452.7% 1
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident) 10136727.5% —
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident) 3322314.8% 2
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident) 10452719.7% 1
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident) 3829013.1% 3
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident) 153641.7% —
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident) 192673.1% —
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident) 224252.4% —
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident) 273479.4% —
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident) 2819514.4% 2
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident) 98310.8% 5

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 31, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

  • DM031O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 527 applicants for 104 licences, 19.7% drawn, 1 preference point needed
  • DM031O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 367 applicants for 101 licences, 27.5% drawn, no preference points needed
  • DM031O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 290 applicants for 38 licences, 13.1% drawn, 3 preference points needed
  • DM031O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 223 applicants for 33 licences, 14.8% drawn, 2 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 10 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

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 31?
Unit 31 lies in Mesa, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Colorado-White River divide; on the east by Roan Creek-Parachute Creek divide and Kelly Gulch; on the south by Colorado River; on the west by Bookcliffs, Little Salt Wash-Roan Creek divide, Big Salt Wash-Roan Creek divide and East Salt Creek-Roan Creek divide. It covers about 701 square miles.
What is the mule deer success rate in unit 31?
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 31 at 52% across all manners of take, and archery 34% and rifle 58% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 31 hunt?
The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 31 are at De Beque, about 12 miles from the unit's centre, with Parachute at about 19 miles. No developed campground falls inside the unit in our data, so plan on dispersed camping.
What is the elk success rate in unit 31?
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 31 at 24% across all manners of take, and archery 8%, muzzleloader 25% and rifle 28% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-23.

  1. 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
  2. 2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 31, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
  3. 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
  4. 2023 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 31, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22