Colorado Mule Deer Elk Moose Bear

Unit 41 (Montrose / Ridgway)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk, Moose, Bear

Unit 41 lies in Mesa and Delta counties and covers about 327 square miles. Ground runs from 4,764 to 10,305 feet. CPW bounds it by Colorado River and Colo. 65 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 42%. Federal land covers about 66% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

66%

Public Land

⛰️

4,764–10,305 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 41

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 41 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.

Mule Deer guide Elk guide Moose guide Bear guide

Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 41

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 41

What CPW publishes for unit 41 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 Mesa and Delta counties. It runs to about 327 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colorado River, Colo. 65 and Lands End Rd

CPW has unit 41 bounded on the north by Colorado River and Colo. 65; on the east by Colo. 65, Lands End Rd., Flowing Park Rd. and Mesa-Delta Co. line; on the west by U.S. 50. 69 cpw.state.co.us. 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: West Bench, Lands End and Indian Point

Named high points inside the unit include West Bench at 10,043 feet, Lands End at 9,942 feet, Indian Point at 9,855 feet, Palisade Point at 9,794 feet and Spruce Point at 9,347 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: The Blowout, King Gulch and Shire Gulch

Below them sit The Blowout at 5,916 feet, King Gulch at 5,129 feet, Shire Gulch at 5,082 feet, Plateau Valley at 5,071 feet and Halls Basin at 5,058 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Franklin Island SWA, Orchard Mesa Wildlife Area and Tilman Bishop SWA

CPW lists Franklin Island SWA, Orchard Mesa Wildlife Area and Tilman Bishop 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 66% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Kruzen Springs

The water inside the unit line comes to 2,086 mapped stream reaches, 29 lakes, 275 stock tanks and 1 springs. Named sources include Kruzen Springs. 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-12

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-12, and unit 41 is one piece of it. The rest of D-12 is unit 42 and unit 421. 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

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 17%, BLM 15% 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 4,764 to 10,305 feet, averaging 6,753 — a sample rather than a survey, so read the ends as approximate. That is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.

Unit 41 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,764–10,305 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,753 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
327.4 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

275 tanks
1 springs
2,086 stream segments
29 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: West Bench (10,043 ft), Lands End (9,942 ft), Indian Point (9,855 ft), Palisade Point (9,794 ft)

Holding ground: Flowing Park (10,079 ft), Coal Creek Basin (8,240 ft), Whitewater Basin (8,071 ft), Franklin Island 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 41

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 41 at archery 35% and rifle 42%. 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 Plunge Point, Horse Mountain and Purdy Mesa

Take a position on one of Plunge Point (6,721 ft), Horse Mountain (5,972 ft), Purdy Mesa (5,930 ft) and Bailey Point (5,879 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. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 2,086 mapped stream reaches and 275 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. Check the ground around it before you commit an evening to it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 81/55°F, Oct 67/42°F and Nov 53/31°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.3 in. in Sep, 1.2 in. in Oct and 0.8 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CO 65 and CS.2

CO 65 and US 50 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. FR 109 needs clearance, and that is usually where the boot tracks thin out. There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter. One mapped public entry point falls inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 41 sits inside D-12

Across D-12, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 53% in unit 42, 43% in unit 421 and 39% in unit 41. Unit 41 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 42 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

The map above marks West Bench, Lands End, Indian Point and Palisade Point as places to see from, and Flowing Park, Coal Creek Basin, Whitewater Basin and Franklin Island 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 41

Named routes and what they need

CO 65 — 12.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CS.2 — 8.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Bridgeport Road — 5.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 50 — 4.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Blair Road — 4.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 109 — 4 mi · High-clearance

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

Palisade — 7.6 mi · no services listed
Clifton — 11 mi · groceries
Fruitvale — 13.1 mi · groceries, gear
Orchard Mesa — 15.5 mi · groceries, gear
Grand Junction — 16.4 mi · groceries, gear

Developed camps

Jumbo Lake Campground · reservable
Spruce Grove Campground - Grand Valley RD

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 20° · 0.6" precip
Aug90° / 63° · 0.9" precip
Sep81° / 55° · 1.3" precip
Oct67° / 42° · 1.2" precip
Nov53° / 31° · 0.8" precip
Dec40° / 21° · 0.6" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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.

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 take39%

Archery35%

Rifle42%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 41 at 39% — 235 animals taken by 606 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 — 35% success, 32 taken by 91 hunters
Rifle — 42% success, 192 taken by 459 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
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	169	686	24.6%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	56	338	16.6%	1
Archery — 5th Season either sex (resident)	25	98	25.5%	—
Archery — 5th Season either sex (nonresident)	21	24	87.5%	—
Archery — 5th Season doe only (resident)	28	50	56.0%	—
Archery — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	6	160	3.8%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	17	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	138	324	42.6%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	48	166	28.9%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	5	569	0.9%	4
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	30	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	5	479	1.0%	3
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	10	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	324	1,057	30.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	116	599	19.4%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	393	1,492	26.3%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	147	706	20.8%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	54	256	21.1%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	84	157	53.5%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	54	371	14.6%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	58	161	36.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	82	753	10.9%	2
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	30	214	14.0%	4

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

DM041O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 1,492 applicants for 393 licences, 26.3% drawn, no preference points needed
DM041O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 1,057 applicants for 324 licences, 30.7% drawn, no preference points needed
DM041O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Buck Only, resident: 753 applicants for 82 licences, 10.9% drawn, 2 preference points needed
DM041O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 706 applicants for 147 licences, 20.8% 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 19 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 41

Unit 41 lies in Mesa and Delta counties and covers about 327 square miles. Ground runs from 4,764 to 10,305 feet. CPW bounds it by Colorado River and Colo. 65 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 23%. Federal land covers about 66% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 41

What CPW publishes for unit 41 is a boundary, not a elk map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Mesa and Delta counties. It runs to about 327 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colorado River, Colo. 65 and Lands End Rd

CPW has unit 41 bounded on the north by Colorado River and Colo. 65; on the east by Colo. 65, Lands End Rd., Flowing Park Rd. and Mesa-Delta Co. line; on the west by U.S. 50. 69 cpw.state.co.us. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. What it does give you is the way in: the rivers and highways you cross, and the divides that decide which drainage you end up in.

High ground inside the line: Chalk Mountain, Barney Hill and Plunge Mesa

Named high points inside the unit include Chalk Mountain at 8,074 feet, Barney Hill at 7,121 feet, Plunge Mesa at 6,812 feet, Plunge Point at 6,721 feet and Horse Mountain at 5,972 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: Lockhart Draw, Flowing Park and Coal Creek Basin

Below them sit Lockhart Draw at 5,032 feet, Flowing Park at 10,079 feet, Coal Creek Basin at 8,240 feet, Whitewater Basin at 8,071 feet and Windger Flats at 6,157 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: Franklin Island SWA, Orchard Mesa Wildlife Area and Tilman Bishop SWA

Water: Kruzen Springs

The herd this unit belongs to: E-14

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-14, and unit 41 is one piece of it. The rest of E-14 is unit 42, unit 52, unit 411, unit 421 and unit 521. 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.

Unit 41 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,764–10,305 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,753 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
327.4 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

275 tanks
1 springs
2,086 stream segments
29 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: West Bench (10,043 ft), Lands End (9,942 ft), Indian Point (9,855 ft), Palisade Point (9,794 ft)

Holding ground: Flowing Park (10,079 ft), Coal Creek Basin (8,240 ft), Whitewater Basin (8,071 ft), Franklin Island 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 Elk in Unit 41

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 41 at archery 9%, muzzleloader 15% and rifle 23%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. 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 Reeder Mesa, Long Mesa and East Orchard Mesa

Take a position on one of Reeder Mesa (5,837 ft), Long Mesa (5,607 ft), East Orchard Mesa (4,887 ft) and Central Orchard Mesa (4,800 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, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

There are 2,086 mapped stream reaches and 275 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

Getting past the roads: CO 65 and CS.2

Where unit 41 sits inside E-14

Across E-14, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 20% in unit 42, 19% in unit 411, 18% in unit 41, 17% in unit 421 and 15% in unit 521. That puts unit 41 behind 2 of the 5 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 42 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

The map above marks West Bench, Lands End, Indian Point and Palisade Point as places to see from, and Flowing Park, Coal Creek Basin, Whitewater Basin and Franklin Island SWA 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 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 41

Named routes and what they need

CO 65 — 12.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CS.2 — 8.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Bridgeport Road — 5.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 50 — 4.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Blair Road — 4.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 109 — 4 mi · High-clearance

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

Palisade — 7.6 mi · no services listed
Clifton — 11 mi · groceries
Fruitvale — 13.1 mi · groceries, gear
Orchard Mesa — 15.5 mi · groceries, gear
Grand Junction — 16.4 mi · groceries, gear

Developed camps

Jumbo Lake Campground · reservable
Spruce Grove Campground - Grand Valley RD

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 20° · 0.6" precip
Aug90° / 63° · 0.9" precip
Sep81° / 55° · 1.3" precip
Oct67° / 42° · 1.2" precip
Nov53° / 31° · 0.8" precip
Dec40° / 21° · 0.6" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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 take18%

Archery9%

Muzzleloader15%

Rifle23%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 41 at 18% — 306 animals taken by 1,685 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 — 9% success, 43 taken by 485 hunters
Muzzleloader — 15% success, 17 taken by 110 hunters
Rifle — 23% success, 246 taken by 1,090 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	58	156	37.2%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	128	206	62.1%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	76	188	40.4%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	32	41	78.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	123	676	18.2%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	34	199	17.1%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	112	224	50.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	31	42	73.8%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	164	244	67.2%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	23	26	88.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	304	835	36.4%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	559	1,084	51.6%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	136	341	39.9%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	65	108	60.2%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	62	209	29.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	11	23	47.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	34	138	24.6%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	5	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	168	381	44.1%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	74	163	45.4%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	213	344	61.9%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	268	533	50.3%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	561	756	74.2%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	915	1,509	60.6%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	21	43	48.8%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	80	134	59.7%	—

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

EE041O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 1,509 applicants for 915 licences, 60.6% drawn, no preference points needed
EM041O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 1,084 applicants for 559 licences, 51.6% drawn, no preference points needed
EM041O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 835 applicants for 304 licences, 36.4% drawn, no preference points needed
EE041O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 756 applicants for 561 licences, 74.2% 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 22 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Moose Hunting in Unit 41

Unit 41 lies in Mesa and Delta counties and covers about 327 square miles. Ground runs from 4,764 to 10,305 feet. CPW bounds it by Colorado River and Colo. 65 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 0%. Federal land covers about 66% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 41

What CPW publishes for unit 41 is a boundary, not a Shiras moose map. 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 Mesa and Delta counties. It runs to about 327 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colorado River, Colo. 65 and Lands End Rd

CPW has unit 41 bounded on the north by Colorado River and Colo. 65; on the east by Colo. 65, Lands End Rd., Flowing Park Rd. and Mesa-Delta Co. line; on the west by U.S. 50. 69 cpw.state.co.us. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. What it does give you is the way in: the rivers and highways you cross, and the divides that decide which drainage you end up in.

High ground inside the line: Purdy Mesa, Bailey Point and Reeder Mesa

Named high points inside the unit include Purdy Mesa at 5,930 feet, Bailey Point at 5,879 feet, Reeder Mesa at 5,837 feet, Long Mesa at 5,607 feet and East Orchard Mesa at 4,887 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Moose want willow, water and shade, and they rarely leave the drainage that has all three.

Holding ground: Cobert Flats, The Blowout and King Gulch

Below them sit Cobert Flats at 6,094 feet, The Blowout at 5,916 feet, King Gulch at 5,129 feet, Shire Gulch at 5,082 feet and Plateau Valley at 5,071 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: Franklin Island SWA, Orchard Mesa Wildlife Area and Tilman Bishop SWA

Water: Kruzen Springs

The herd this unit belongs to: M-5

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-5, and unit 41 is one piece of it. The rest of M-5 is unit 42, unit 43, unit 52, unit 53, unit 54, unit 63, unit 64 and unit 411 and 2 more. 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 41 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,764–10,305 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,753 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
327.4 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

275 tanks
1 springs
2,086 stream segments
29 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: West Bench (10,043 ft), Lands End (9,942 ft), Indian Point (9,855 ft), Palisade Point (9,794 ft)

Holding ground: Flowing Park (10,079 ft), Coal Creek Basin (8,240 ft), Whitewater Basin (8,071 ft), Franklin Island 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 Shiras Moose in Unit 41

CPW's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 41 at 0% across all manners of take. A number that low means most hunters here go home empty, and the ones who don't put the days in first. 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 Orchard Mesa, West Bench and Lands End

Take a position on one of Orchard Mesa (4,759 ft), West Bench (10,043 ft), Lands End (9,942 ft) and Indian Point (9,855 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CO 65 and CS.2

Where unit 41 sits inside M-5

Across M-5, CPW's 2023 Shiras moose success runs 100% in unit 53, 100% in unit 54, 80% in unit 521, 75% in unit 43 and 60% in unit 42. That puts unit 41 behind 6 of the 7 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 53 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

The map above marks West Bench, Lands End, Indian Point and Palisade Point as places to see from, and Flowing Park, Coal Creek Basin, Whitewater Basin and Franklin Island SWA 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 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 41

Named routes and what they need

CO 65 — 12.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CS.2 — 8.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Bridgeport Road — 5.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 50 — 4.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Blair Road — 4.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 109 — 4 mi · High-clearance

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

Palisade — 7.6 mi · no services listed
Clifton — 11 mi · groceries
Fruitvale — 13.1 mi · groceries, gear
Orchard Mesa — 15.5 mi · groceries, gear
Grand Junction — 16.4 mi · groceries, gear

Developed camps

Jumbo Lake Campground · reservable
Spruce Grove Campground - Grand Valley RD

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 20° · 0.6" precip
Aug90° / 63° · 0.9" precip
Sep81° / 55° · 1.3" precip
Oct67° / 42° · 1.2" precip
Nov53° / 31° · 0.8" precip
Dec40° / 21° · 0.6" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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.

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 take0%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 41 at 0% — 0 animals taken by 8 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside it.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	4	269	1.5%	3
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	6	16.7%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	10	1,442	0.7%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	2	429	0.5%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	13	182	7.1%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	6	16.7%	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 41, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM041O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 1,442 applicants for 10 licences, 0.7% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MM041O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 429 applicants for 2 licences, 0.5% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF041L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 269 applicants for 4 licences, 1.5% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF041O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 182 applicants for 13 licences, 7.1% 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. 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.

Bear Hunting in Unit 41

Unit 41 lies in Mesa and Delta counties and covers about 327 square miles. Ground runs from 4,764 to 10,305 feet. CPW bounds it by Colorado River and Colo. 65 among others. CPW publishes no per-unit black bear success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 66% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Black Bear in Unit 41

CPW's material on unit 41 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its black bear live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Mesa and Delta counties. It runs to about 327 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colorado River, Colo. 65 and Lands End Rd

CPW has unit 41 bounded on the north by Colorado River and Colo. 65; on the east by Colo. 65, Lands End Rd., Flowing Park Rd. and Mesa-Delta Co. line; on the west by U.S. 50. 69 cpw.state.co.us. 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: Central Orchard Mesa, Orchard Mesa and West Bench

Named high points inside the unit include Central Orchard Mesa at 4,800 feet, Orchard Mesa at 4,759 feet, West Bench at 10,043 feet, Lands End at 9,942 feet and Indian Point at 9,855 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Bears follow food, which in early autumn means oakbrush, chokecherry and serviceberry on south slopes.

Holding ground: Halls Basin, Lockhart Draw and Flowing Park

Below them sit Halls Basin at 5,058 feet, Lockhart Draw at 5,032 feet, Flowing Park at 10,079 feet, Coal Creek Basin at 8,240 feet and Whitewater Basin at 8,071 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Franklin Island SWA, Orchard Mesa Wildlife Area and Tilman Bishop SWA

Water: Kruzen Springs

The herd this unit belongs to: B-17

CPW does not manage black bear unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit B-17, and unit 41 is one piece of it. The rest of B-17 is unit 42, unit 52, unit 53, unit 63, unit 411, unit 421 and unit 521. 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 41 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,764–10,305 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,753 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
327.4 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

275 tanks
1 springs
2,086 stream segments
29 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: West Bench (10,043 ft), Lands End (9,942 ft), Indian Point (9,855 ft), Palisade Point (9,794 ft)

Holding ground: Flowing Park (10,079 ft), Coal Creek Basin (8,240 ft), Whitewater Basin (8,071 ft), Franklin Island 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 Black Bear in Unit 41

CPW publishes no black bear success figure for unit 41 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. The plan: find the berry crop first, then glass it morning and evening until something is in it.

Glassing from Palisade Point, Spruce Point and Chalk Mountain

Take a position on one of Palisade Point (9,794 ft), Spruce Point (9,347 ft), Chalk Mountain (8,074 ft) and Barney Hill (7,121 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. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, September hunts coincide with the feeding push before denning.

Water against feed

There are 2,086 mapped stream reaches and 275 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

Getting past the roads: CO 65 and CS.2

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks West Bench, Lands End, Indian Point and Palisade Point as places to see from, and Flowing Park, Coal Creek Basin, Whitewater Basin and Franklin Island SWA 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

327 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Palisade, about 8 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 5,541 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

Getting in and staying out: unit 41

Named routes and what they need

CO 65 — 12.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CS.2 — 8.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Bridgeport Road — 5.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 50 — 4.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Blair Road — 4.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 109 — 4 mi · High-clearance

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

Palisade — 7.6 mi · no services listed
Clifton — 11 mi · groceries
Fruitvale — 13.1 mi · groceries, gear
Orchard Mesa — 15.5 mi · groceries, gear
Grand Junction — 16.4 mi · groceries, gear

Developed camps

Jumbo Lake Campground · reservable
Spruce Grove Campground - Grand Valley RD

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 20° · 0.6" precip
Aug90° / 63° · 0.9" precip
Sep81° / 55° · 1.3" precip
Oct67° / 42° · 1.2" precip
Nov53° / 31° · 0.8" precip
Dec40° / 21° · 0.6" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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.

Bear: 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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Bear Success Rates

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no black bear row for unit 41 that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. CPW's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.

Bear Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	107	131	81.7%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	57	73	78.1%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident)	21	32	65.6%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	17	25	68.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	637	801	79.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	131	151	86.8%	—

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 black bear in unit 41, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

BE041O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 801 applicants for 637 licences, 79.5% drawn, no preference points needed
BE041O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 151 applicants for 131 licences, 86.8% drawn, no preference points needed
BE041O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 131 applicants for 107 licences, 81.7% drawn, no preference points needed
BE041O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 73 applicants for 57 licences, 78.1% 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

⛺

Camp Sites

2 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Jumbo Lake Campground and Spruce Grove Campground - Grand Valley RD.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CO 65, CS.2 and Bridgeport Road are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 33 mi paved, 14 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

4,764–10,305 ft, averaging 6,753. More than 4,000 feet of relief, so plan the pack-out before the shot.

👥

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.

🌦️

Weather

Season normals: Sep 81/55°F, 1.3 in.; Oct 67/42°F, 1.2 in.; Nov 53/31°F, 0.8 in..

📱

Cell Service

Verizon 21%, AT&T 14%, T-Mobile 7% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Palisade (8 mi), Clifton (11 mi), Fruitvale (13 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 41?

Unit 41 lies in Mesa and Delta counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Colorado River and Colo. 65; on the east by Colo. 65, Lands End Rd., Flowing Park Rd. and Mesa-Delta Co. line; on the west by U.S. 50. 69 cpw.state.co.us. It covers about 327 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 41?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 41 at 39% across all manners of take, and archery 35% and rifle 42% 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 41 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 41 are at Palisade, about 8 miles from the unit's centre, with Clifton at about 11 miles. There are also 2 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the elk success rate in unit 41?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 41 at 18% across all manners of take, and archery 9%, muzzleloader 15% and rifle 23% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 41?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 41 at 0% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the black bear success rate in unit 41?

CPW publishes no black bear success figure we can tie to unit 41 on its own — the 2023 harvest tables either omit the unit or report it in a grouping we could not read back to it reliably. Rather than quote a statewide average as though it were measured here, we say so. Check CPW's current harvest estimates before you apply.

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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 Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 41, 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 Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 41, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Moose Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for Shiras moose in unit 41, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22