Colorado Pronghorn Elk Mule Deer

Unit 5 (Hahns Peak)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Pronghorn, Elk, Mule Deer

Unit 5 lies in Moffat and Routt counties. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Little Snake-Elk River divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 100%. Federal land covers about 58% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

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58%

Public Land

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Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 5

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 5

What CPW publishes for unit 5 is a boundary, not a pronghorn 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 Moffat and Routt counties.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42

CPW has unit 5 bounded on the north by WY; on the east by Continental Divide; on the south by Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42; on the west by USFS 150, Routt CR 82 and Moffat CR 1. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Hahns Peak, Dome Peak and Diamond Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Hahns Peak at 10,821 feet, Dome Peak at 10,505 feet, Diamond Peak at 10,406 feet, Nipple Peak at 10,303 feet and Columbus Mountain at 10,234 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn stay on the open rolling ground and leave the timber alone.

Holding ground: Crane Park, Slater Park and Butter Hill

Below them sit Crane Park at 8,322 feet, Slater Park at 8,285 feet, Butter Hill at 7,962 feet, South Fork Park at 7,897 feet and Maria Bottoms at 7,372 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement)

CPW lists Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement) 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: Cold Spring

Named sources include Cold Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: A-9

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-9, and unit 5 is one piece of it. The rest of A-9 is unit 3, unit 4, unit 13, unit 14, unit 131, unit 214, unit 301 and unit 441. 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 5 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Hahns Peak (10,821 ft), Dome Peak (10,505 ft), Diamond Peak (10,406 ft), Nipple Peak (10,303 ft)

Holding ground: Dead Mexican Park (8,541 ft), Whiskey Park (8,365 ft), Crane Park (8,322 ft), Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement), Cold 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 Pronghorn in Unit 5

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 5 at 100% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

Glassing from Elkhorn Mountain, City Mountain and Piney Mountain

Take a position on one of Elkhorn Mountain (9,536 ft), City Mountain (9,514 ft), Piney Mountain (9,275 ft) and Long Mountain (9,255 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, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Where unit 5 sits inside A-9

Across A-9, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 100% in unit 5, 86% in unit 4, 62% in unit 3, 42% in unit 441 and 41% in unit 301. Unit 5 is the best of them on that measure, which usually means fewer tags rather than more animals. Success inside one herd moves with tag numbers and season length as much as with animals, so read the licence count alongside it.

The way in: USFS 42, USFS 150 and Routt CR 82

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 42, USFS 150, Routt CR 82 and Moffat CR 1. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Hahns Peak, Dome Peak, Diamond Peak and Nipple Peak as places to see from, and Dead Mexican Park, Whiskey Park, Crane Park and Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement) as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.

What a day here costs you

299 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. One good position held through the whole of first light beats three visited in a hurry.

What we can't tell you

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

Colorado rules that decide your day

Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Colorado has no general off-road retrieval allowance. Travel stays on designated routes, so plan to pack every animal out on your back or with stock. Check the forest or BLM travel map for the roads that are actually open in hunting season.

Tagging

Validate and attach your carcass tag before the animal is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached until the carcass reaches your home or a processor.

Leaving meat

Abandoning edible meat is illegal. CPW counts the four quarters and the loins.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a developed campsite, and never toward an occupied building.
Roads — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting from a motor vehicle.

Pronghorn: where to put the shot

Broadside, straight up the front leg, a third of the way into the body. Pronghorn are shallow-chested and the lungs sit forward.

Shots to refuse

Range it, then range it again. Open country makes 400 yards look like 250.
Wait for the buck to stop. Nobody kills a running pronghorn cleanly on purpose.
Mind the backdrop. A miss carries a long way across a flat.

Plan the carry: roughly 30– 45 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — one large cooler with ice already in it. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Pronghorn Success Rates

All manners of take100%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 5 at 100% — 26 animals taken by 26 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.

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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	1	68	1.5%	14
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	1	43	2.3%	6
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	1	165	0.6%	28
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	2	83	2.4%	26
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

Data from 2023 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 pronghorn in unit 5, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM005W1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 165 applicants for 1 licences, 0.6% drawn, 28 preference points needed
AM005W2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 83 applicants for 2 licences, 2.4% drawn, 26 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.

Elk Hunting in Unit 5

Unit 5 lies in Moffat and Routt counties. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Little Snake-Elk River divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 36%. Federal land covers about 58% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 5

What CPW publishes for unit 5 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 Moffat and Routt counties.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42

CPW has unit 5 bounded on the north by WY; on the east by Continental Divide; on the south by Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42; on the west by USFS 150, Routt CR 82 and Moffat CR 1. 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: Shield Mountain, Brush Mountain and Twin Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Shield Mountain at 9,938 feet, Brush Mountain at 9,857 feet, Twin Mountain at 9,745 feet, Elkhorn Mountain at 9,536 feet and City Mountain at 9,514 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: Beeler Gulch, Deadman Draw and Cherry Draw

Below them sit Beeler Gulch at 7,169 feet, Deadman Draw at 7,135 feet, Cherry Draw at 6,922 feet, Road Gulch at 6,708 feet and Spring Gulch at 6,666 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: Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement)

Water: Cold Spring

Named sources include Cold Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: E-2

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-2, and unit 5 is one piece of it. The rest of E-2 is unit 3, unit 4, unit 14, unit 214, unit 301 and unit 441. 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 5 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Hahns Peak (10,821 ft), Dome Peak (10,505 ft), Diamond Peak (10,406 ft), Nipple Peak (10,303 ft)

Holding ground: Dead Mexican Park (8,541 ft), Whiskey Park (8,365 ft), Crane Park (8,322 ft), Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement), Cold 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 5

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 5 at archery 15%, muzzleloader 29% and rifle 36%. 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 Circle Ridge, Three Forks Mountain and Middle Mountain

Take a position on one of Circle Ridge (9,173 ft), Three Forks Mountain (9,056 ft), Middle Mountain (9,039 ft) and Tumble Mountain (8,696 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 bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Where unit 5 sits inside E-2

Across E-2, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 32% in unit 5, 32% in unit 441, 26% in unit 214, 21% in unit 4 and 9% in unit 3. Nothing in the herd beat unit 5 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.

The way in: USFS 42, USFS 150 and Routt CR 82

A first plan from the pins on this page

What a day here costs you

299 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the 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.

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 take32%

Archery15%

Muzzleloader29%

Rifle36%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 5 at 32% — 326 animals taken by 1,014 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 — 15% success, 29 taken by 189 hunters
Muzzleloader — 29% success, 11 taken by 37 hunters
Rifle — 36% success, 286 taken by 788 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	7	53	13.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	2	19	10.5%	1
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	13	244	5.3%	17
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident)	12	98	12.2%	6
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	69	121	57.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	27	66	40.9%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	6	73	8.2%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	35	103	34.0%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	15	160	9.4%	6
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	34	49	69.4%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	49	165	29.7%	3
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 6th Season cow only (resident)	9	36	25.0%	1
Rifle — 6th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	36	78	46.2%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	12	19	63.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	5	21	23.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	5	23	21.7%	—

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

EE005W1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 244 applicants for 13 licences, 5.3% drawn, 17 preference points needed
EF005W5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Cow Only, resident: 165 applicants for 49 licences, 29.7% drawn, 3 preference points needed
EF005W3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 160 applicants for 15 licences, 9.4% drawn, 6 preference points needed
EF005O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 121 applicants for 69 licences, 57% 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 9 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 5

Unit 5 lies in Moffat and Routt counties. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Little Snake-Elk River divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 59%. 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 5

CPW draws an exact line around unit 5 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 Moffat and Routt counties.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42

High ground inside the line: Piney Mountain, Long Mountain and Circle Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Piney Mountain at 9,275 feet, Long Mountain at 9,255 feet, Circle Ridge at 9,173 feet, Three Forks Mountain at 9,056 feet and Middle Mountain at 9,039 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: Tree Culture Gulch, East Sweetwater Gulch and Coal Bank Draw

Below them sit Tree Culture Gulch at 6,660 feet, East Sweetwater Gulch at 6,610 feet, Coal Bank Draw at 6,596 feet, Kilgore Gulch at 6,592 feet and McIntosh Draw at 6,573 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: Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement)

Water: Cold Spring

Named sources include Cold Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: D-2

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-2, and unit 5 is one piece of it. The rest of D-2 is unit 3, unit 4, unit 14, unit 214, unit 301 and unit 441. 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 5 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Hahns Peak (10,821 ft), Dome Peak (10,505 ft), Diamond Peak (10,406 ft), Nipple Peak (10,303 ft)

Holding ground: Dead Mexican Park (8,541 ft), Whiskey Park (8,365 ft), Crane Park (8,322 ft), Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement), Cold 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 5

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 5 at archery 13% and rifle 59%. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from East Gibraltar Peak, Petite Tetons and Deadhorse Ridge

Take a position on one of East Gibraltar Peak (8,671 ft), Petite Tetons (8,532 ft), Deadhorse Ridge (8,489 ft) and Twin Buttes (8,486 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-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Where unit 5 sits inside D-2

Across D-2, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 47% in unit 4, 45% in unit 301, 39% in unit 3, 38% in unit 5 and 36% in unit 441. That puts unit 5 behind 3 of the 6 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 4 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: USFS 42, USFS 150 and Routt CR 82

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 42, USFS 150, Routt CR 82 and Moffat CR 1. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Park on the boundary and walk; a unit you can only enter from its rim rewards whoever is willing to leave the truck at the rim.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Hahns Peak, Dome Peak, Diamond Peak and Nipple Peak as places to see from, and Dead Mexican Park, Whiskey Park, Crane Park and Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement) 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 a day here costs you

299 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.

What we can't tell you

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

Colorado rules that decide your day

Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

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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Unlock tactics for Unit 5

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take38%

Archery13%

Rifle59%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 5 at 38% — 80 animals taken by 213 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 — 13% success, 11 taken by 89 hunters
Rifle — 59% success, 65 taken by 110 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	3	4	75.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	5	14	35.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident)	7	59	11.9%	13
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	8	75	10.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	1	13	7.7%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	6	56	10.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	2	11	18.2%	1
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	1	34	2.9%	14
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	1	66	1.5%	5
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (resident)	1	17	5.9%	2
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 6th Season doe only (resident)	1	16	6.3%	2
Rifle — 6th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	23	143	16.1%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	7	130	5.4%	6
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	10	78	12.8%	3
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	3	79	3.8%	11
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	10	41	24.4%	2
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	3	41	7.3%	11
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	3	141	2.1%	23
Rifle — 1st Season buck 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 mule deer in unit 5, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM005O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 143 applicants for 23 licences, 16.1% drawn, 2 preference points needed
DM005W1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 141 applicants for 3 licences, 2.1% drawn, 23 preference points needed
DM005O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 130 applicants for 7 licences, 5.4% drawn, 6 preference points needed
DM005O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 79 applicants for 3 licences, 3.8% drawn, 11 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 12 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

🚐

RV Sites

Campgrounds near Steamboat Springs and along CR 129. Hahns Peak has limited services.

⛺

Camp Sites

Dispersed camping on Routt NF land. Developed campgrounds near Steamboat Lake.

🛻

Trailer Access

CR 129 paved. Easy terrain for trailers near main roads.

💧

Water

Mountain streams and stock ponds. Steamboat Springs nearby for water.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CR 129 paved. BLM and county roads gravel but maintained.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Easy to moderate. Elevation 6,800-8,000 feet. Sage parks, mountain meadows.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Low. Limited tags keep pressure minimal.

🌦️

Weather

Expect 25-60F during pronghorn season. Cooler than plains units. Early snow possible.

📱

Cell Service

Spotty near Steamboat Springs and CR 129. None in remote areas.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Steamboat Springs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 5?

Unit 5 lies in Moffat and Routt counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by WY; on the east by Continental Divide; on the south by Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42; on the west by USFS 150, Routt CR 82 and Moffat CR 1.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 5?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 5 at 100% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 5?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 5 at 32% across all manners of take, and archery 15%, muzzleloader 29% and rifle 36% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 5?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 5 at 38% across all manners of take, and archery 13% and rifle 59% 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.

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 Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 5, 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 5, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 5, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22

Unit 5 (Hahns Peak)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 5

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 5

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 5

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42

High ground inside the line: Hahns Peak, Dome Peak and Diamond Peak

Holding ground: Crane Park, Slater Park and Butter Hill

Public ground to start from: Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement)

Water: Cold Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: A-9

Unit 5 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Pronghorn in Unit 5

Pronghorn Success Rates

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Elk Hunting in Unit 5

Where to Find Elk in Unit 5

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42

High ground inside the line: Shield Mountain, Brush Mountain and Twin Mountain

Holding ground: Beeler Gulch, Deadman Draw and Cherry Draw

Public ground to start from: Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement)

Water: Cold Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: E-2

Unit 5 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 5

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 5

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 5

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Little Snake-Elk River divide and USFS 42

High ground inside the line: Piney Mountain, Long Mountain and Circle Ridge

Holding ground: Tree Culture Gulch, East Sweetwater Gulch and Coal Bank Draw

Public ground to start from: Grieve Ranch (Conservation Easement)

Water: Cold Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: D-2

Unit 5 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 5

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

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Sources & Verification