Colorado Elk Mule Deer Moose

Unit 74 (Silverton)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer, Moose

Unit 74 lies in La Plata and San Juan counties. CPW bounds it by Ouray-San Juan Co. line and San Juan- Hinsdale Co. line among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 18%. Federal land covers about 87% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

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87%

Public Land

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 74

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 74 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.

Elk guide Mule Deer guide Moose guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 74

Where to Find Elk in Unit 74

CPW draws an exact line around unit 74 and says nothing about where the elk 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 La Plata and San Juan counties.

The lines of the unit: Ouray-San Juan Co. line, San Juan- Hinsdale Co. line and Animas River

CPW has unit 74 bounded on the north by Ouray-San Juan Co. line; on the east by San Juan- Hinsdale Co. line and Animas River; on the south by U.S. 160; on the west by Montezuma-La Plata Co. line, Dolores-San Juan Co. line, San Miguel-San Juan Co. line and Ouray-San Juan Co. line. 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: Fuller Peak, Golden Horn and Grizzly Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Fuller Peak at 13,742 feet, Golden Horn at 13,729 feet, Grizzly Peak at 13,713 feet, Rolling Mountain at 13,658 feet and Lookout Peak at 13,629 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: Mineral Basin, Cataract Basin and Alaska Basin

Below them sit Mineral Basin at 12,566 feet, Cataract Basin at 12,513 feet, Alaska Basin at 12,445 feet, Ice Lake Basin at 12,387 feet and Ross Basin at 12,254 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Andrews Lake SWA, Haviland Lake SWA and Perins Peak SWA

CPW lists Andrews Lake SWA, Haviland Lake SWA, Perins Peak SWA, Perins Peak SWA - Decker Tract and Sultan Creek STL inside this unit as ground open to public hunting. Each property sets its own restrictions, and the agency's page for it is where they are written down. Federal land covers about 87% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Caviness Spring and Valley View Spring

Named sources include Caviness Spring and Valley View 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-30

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-30, and unit 74 is one piece of it. The rest of E-30 is unit 741. 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 74 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Fuller Peak (13,742 ft), Grizzly Peak (13,713 ft), Rolling Mountain (13,658 ft), Lookout Peak (13,629 ft)

Holding ground: Denver Pass (12,925 ft), McCarty Basin (12,583 ft), Mineral Basin (12,566 ft), Andrews Lake SWA, Haviland Lake 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 74

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 74 at archery 14%, muzzleloader 16% and rifle 18%. A number that low means most hunters here go home empty, and the ones who don't put the days in first. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

Glassing from Hurricane Peak, South Lookout Peak and Sultan Mountain

Take a position on one of Hurricane Peak (13,404 ft), South Lookout Peak (13,392 ft), Sultan Mountain (13,359 ft) and Beattie Peak (13,337 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. 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.

Getting past the roads

There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter. 2 mapped public entry points fall inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 74 sits inside E-30

Across E-30, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 36% in unit 741 and 17% in unit 74. Unit 74 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 741 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 Fuller Peak, Grizzly Peak, Rolling Mountain and Lookout Peak as places to see from, and Denver Pass, McCarty Basin, Mineral Basin and Andrews Lake SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.

What a day here costs you

595 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.

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 take17%

Archery14%

Muzzleloader16%

Rifle18%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 74 at 17% — 276 animals taken by 1,635 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 — 14% success, 71 taken by 490 hunters
Muzzleloader — 16% success, 26 taken by 157 hunters
Rifle — 18% success, 179 taken by 988 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.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	21	29	72.4%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	49	66	74.2%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	13	83	15.7%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	6	94	6.4%	—
Archery — 1st Season bull only (resident)	114	311	36.7%	—
Archery — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	330	893	37.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	9	65	13.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	2	23	8.7%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	56	137	40.9%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	117	293	39.9%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	11	151	7.3%	2
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	52	1.9%	3
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	7	99	7.1%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	1	43	2.3%	4
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	5	27	18.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	4	12	33.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	8	23	34.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	15	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	21	266	7.9%	1
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	11	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	121	337	35.9%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	139	392	35.5%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	15	65	23.1%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	23	49	46.9%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	3	23	13.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	10	60	16.7%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	3	12	25.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	6	26	23.1%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	8	93	8.6%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	25	0.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	7	64	10.9%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	1	4	25.0%	—

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for elk in unit 74, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EM074O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 893 applicants for 330 licences, 37% drawn, no preference points needed
EM074O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 392 applicants for 139 licences, 35.5% drawn, no preference points needed
EM074O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 337 applicants for 121 licences, 35.9% drawn, no preference points needed
EM074O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 311 applicants for 114 licences, 36.7% 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 26 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 74

Unit 74 is the Silverton unit, 595 square miles of the San Juan Mountains in San Juan and La Plata Counties, part of herd D-52. It's big, vertical country with a long list of 13,000-foot summits. CPW publishes no per-unit mule deer breakdown, so nobody has handed you a hotspot. What decides the hunt is fitness, altitude and scouting time, not a tip.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 74: Silverton's High Basins and the U.S. 160 Edge

Start with what we don't have. CPW's unit material gives a boundary description for 74 and nothing else: no mule deer narrative, no named winter range, no list of drainages. We won't invent a hotspot. What follows comes from the boundary, the terrain and the water we can see on the map. Treat it as a scouting plan, not a promise.

The frame: U.S. 160, the Animas and the county lines

CPW describes the unit as bounded on the south by U.S. 160 and on the east by the San Juan–Hinsdale county line and the Animas River. The north edge is the Ouray–San Juan county line. The west edge follows the Montezuma–La Plata, Dolores–San Juan and San Miguel–San Juan lines. That's a legal description, not a map of where deer stand. It does tell you the unit is long north to south, with the Animas on its east side and U.S. 160 as the obvious southern approach.

The San Juan County high country

Most of the named relief sits in San Juan County, and it's all high: Sultan Mountain (13,359 feet), Twin Sisters (13,410), Rolling Mountain (13,658), Tower Mountain (13,497), Storm Peak (13,317), Emery Peak (13,297), Bonita Peak (13,258) and the three Twilight summits near 13,100. The lower named tops are Denver Hill (12,279), Jura Knob (12,550), Ohio Peak (12,667) and Treasure Mountain (12,885). By our terrain read, the basins and benches tucked under those summits are where an early-season mule deer hunt gets built. We can't tell you which drainage holds the biggest bucks. Nobody has counted them for us.

The La Plata side: West Needle Mountains

The West Needle Mountains (13,089 feet) are the one named range in La Plata County. That's the southern, U.S. 160 end of the unit. If you want a place to compare against the San Juan County basins, start here.

Caviness Spring and Valley View Spring

Two named springs show on the map, Caviness and Valley View. We can't place them for you or call them reliable, and in this much snowmelt country water isn't usually the limit. Mark them anyway. Check them against current maps and treat them as places to look, not as proof of where deer are.

Skip the idea that every summit is a deer spot. The tops above 13,000 are glassing platforms and weather, not feed. The deer are below them.

Unit 74 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Fuller Peak (13,742 ft), Grizzly Peak (13,713 ft), Rolling Mountain (13,658 ft), Lookout Peak (13,629 ft)

Holding ground: Denver Pass (12,925 ft), McCarty Basin (12,583 ft), Mineral Basin (12,566 ft), Andrews Lake SWA, Haviland Lake 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 74: Glass the Basins, Work the Benches

This is a glassing-and-legwork unit. With no agency harvest numbers and no named deer concentrations, your edge is time on the ground before the season and a willingness to climb.

Scout from the summits' shoulders

The peaks are glassing platforms. Sultan Mountain, Snowdon Peak, Engineer Mountain and Twin Sisters give you long views, but you don't need to stand on top. Get to a shoulder or bench at the base of one and look down into the basins around it. Glass from first light until the sun is well up, then again for the last two hours of daylight. Mule deer bed in the middle of the day. Midday is for moving to the next glassing spot, not for pushing through bedded country.

Altitude sets the pace

This unit runs from low country along the Animas and U.S. 160 up past 13,000 feet. Plan every day around the climb. Sleep high if you can, carry less than you think you need, and plan your pack-out before you shoot. A buck killed in a basin under Rolling Mountain or Tower Mountain is a long haul out. Make sure you can get it down.

Weather can end a hunt

Above treeline, a storm can build fast. Pack rain gear and a warm layer every day. An early snow can also move deer down. If a storm hits, glass lower, around the likes of Denver Hill and Jura Knob, and expect the deer to be below the high country.

Beating the crowd

Easy access is the thing everyone uses, so go where it takes work. Pick a basin that needs a long walk from the road. Be glassing before dawn so you aren't walking in on deer you could have watched. U.S. 160 on the south edge and the Animas on the east are the obvious access lines. Most hunters will use them, so move off them quickly.

A realistic day

Up in the dark. Reach your glassing bench by first light. Glass until the deer bed, then decide: stalk what you've found or move on. Back to glass in the evening. If you've seen no bucks by the third day, change basins. Don't keep staring at an empty one. And before you leave home, check CPW's current regulations for your season dates, weapon rules and any access restrictions, because we haven't got those for this unit.

Colorado rules that decide your day

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

Legal shooting hours

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

Motorized retrieval

Tagging

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

Leaving meat

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

Where you may not shoot

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

Mule Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take33%

Archery16%

Rifle39%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 74 at 33% — 107 animals taken by 326 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 — 16% success, 13 taken by 81 hunters
Rifle — 39% success, 70 taken by 179 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	27	213	12.7%	5
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	8	75	10.7%	16
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	62	211	29.4%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	38	150	25.3%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	41	205	20.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	15	138	10.9%	3
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	8	124	6.5%	2
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	2	56	3.6%	6
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	1	4	25.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	2	7	28.6%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	4	8	50.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	2	3	66.7%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	76	183	41.5%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	25	166	15.1%	2
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	63	127	49.6%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	21	114	18.4%	2

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

DM074E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 213 applicants for 27 licences, 12.7% drawn, 5 preference points needed
DM074O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 211 applicants for 62 licences, 29.4% drawn, no preference points needed
DM074O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 205 applicants for 41 licences, 20% drawn, no preference points needed
DM074O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 183 applicants for 76 licences, 41.5% 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 12 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 74

Unit 74 is the Silverton unit, a 595-square-mile block of high San Juan country in La Plata and San Juan Counties, with U.S. 160 on the south and the Animas River on the east. CPW's unit material doesn't break it down for moose, so there are no named hot spots to chase. This is a hunt you build from terrain and scouting, and the altitude and distances decide how it goes.

Where to look for moose in unit 74: frame, drainages and glassing peaks

What CPW doesn't tell you

CPW's unit material for 74 gives a boundary description and a herd code (M-4). It doesn't say where the moose are. No drainage, basin or pond gets named as moose country, so we won't name one. Anyone who hands you a "sure spot" in this unit is working from their own scouting, not from the agency. Everything below is our read of the terrain.

The frame: U.S. 160, the Animas and the county lines

The legal description gives you the edges. U.S. 160 is the south line. The east side runs along the San Juan-Hinsdale county line and the Animas River. The north line follows the Ouray-San Juan county line. The west side is a string of county lines: Montezuma-La Plata, Dolores-San Juan and San Miguel-San Juan. That's a description of where the unit stops, not where moose stand. It does tell you how you'll arrive. Coming up from the south, you're entering on the U.S. 160 line. Coming in along the Animas, you're on the east edge.

At 595 square miles, you can't cover this unit. Pick one drainage system, learn it, and stay with it.

Peaks to glass from, not to hunt

The high country here is a wall of 13,000-footers, mostly in San Juan County: Storm Peak (13,317), Emery Peak (13,297), Twin Sisters (13,410), Sultan Mountain (13,359), Dome Mountain (13,333), Tower Mountain (13,497) and Rolling Mountain (13,658). The West Needle Mountains (13,089) represent La Plata County. Bonita Peak (13,258) and Engineer Mountain (12,951) are on the list too.

Moose aren't summit animals. Use these peaks to navigate and to understand which valleys drain where. The lower summits, Denver Hill (12,279), Jura Knob (12,550) and Ohio Peak (12,667), are the easier lookouts. Even those are well above any willow flat. Plan to glass down from a shoulder or bench, not to hunt the tops.

Reading the country for moose

Shiras moose want willow, wet ground and nearby timber. In a unit this steep, that means the valley floors and benches below the peaks, wherever a creek slows down and spreads out. Spend your map time looking for flat, wet bottoms with brush, not for the high basins.

Two springs are named in our terrain read, Caviness Spring and Valley View Spring. We can't tell you how big either is or whether it holds moose. Treat them as places to check, not as destinations.

Skip the long, dry, rocky ridges and the steep avalanche-chute sides. They look good on a map and hold little for a moose. Save your days for the wet ground.

Unit 74 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Fuller Peak (13,742 ft), Grizzly Peak (13,713 ft), Rolling Mountain (13,658 ft), Lookout Peak (13,629 ft)

Holding ground: Denver Pass (12,925 ft), McCarty Basin (12,583 ft), Mineral Basin (12,566 ft), Andrews Lake SWA, Haviland Lake 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 moose in unit 74 without a map of where they live

Scout the wet bottoms first

Because the agency doesn't point you anywhere, your first days are for finding moose, not for hunting one. Pick a few willow bottoms you can reach from U.S. 160 or the Animas side. Walk them in the middle of the day and look for tracks, droppings, browsed willow and beds. A bull that's feeding there will leave plenty of sign even if you never see him.

Glass at first and last light

Moose feed and move when it's cool, then bed in timber. Be on a bench overlooking the willows before there's enough light to see, and glass until the sun is hard on the slope. Come back in the last two hours of light. A bull standing still in willow is easy to miss at midday. Look for the dark body and the pale legs, and for antler tips above the brush.

Move slowly. At 595 square miles with big vertical relief, the temptation is to hike to a distant basin. A good bench you can reach before dawn beats a better spot you reach after sunrise.

Wind and thermals

In steep country, morning air drifts down the drainages and afternoon air climbs back up. Plan your approach to the willows with that in mind. Come from above or across in the morning, and hold a position uphill of the feed in the evening. A moose's nose and ears are better than its eyes, so don't expect distance to cover a poor wind.

Weapons

Willow bottoms are thick, and shots are often close or short windows. Whatever you carry, practice from field positions out to the range you'll accept. Bowhunters will find the cover helpful but should expect a very tight approach. Rifle hunters can use the benches to set up across a drainage, but the longest shots in this country rarely come with a clean rest.

Before you shoot

Know what you're doing with a bull this big. A mature Shiras bull is hundreds of pounds of boned meat, and this unit has steep ground and few easy retrieval routes. Check CPW's current rules and the San Juan National Forest travel map for motorized access before you rely on an ATV or truck for the pack-out. Shoot only where you can get the animal out. We'd rather you pass a bull in a bad spot than lose the meat.

A realistic day: up before light, glass from a bench, walk the willow edge once the light is good, and glass again in the evening. Expect to see no moose some days.

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

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no Shiras moose row for unit 74 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.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	1	329	0.3%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull 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 Shiras moose in unit 74, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM074O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 329 applicants for 1 licences, 0.3% drawn, 3 preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

🚐

RV Sites

Limited near Silverton. Some NF campgrounds along US 550 with smaller rig sites. Durango has full services.

⛺

Camp Sites

Dispersed camping on San Juan NF throughout. Developed campgrounds at Molas Pass and South Mineral.

🛻

Trailer Access

Not recommended. US 550 is steep with tight switchbacks. Short trailers only.

💧

Water

Animas River and alpine tributaries. Abundant water. Always filter.

🛣️

Road Conditions

US 550 is paved but steep and narrow. Forest roads rough. 4WD required for spur roads. Early closures possible.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Very strenuous. Elevation 7,000-13,000+ feet. Extreme alpine terrain. Altitude acclimation critical.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Moderate near US 550 and Silverton. Low in wilderness fringe.

🌦️

Weather

Expect 5-35F during rifle season. Heavy snow common. Hypothermia and altitude sickness are real dangers.

📱

Cell Service

Spotty in Silverton. None in backcountry. Satellite communicator essential.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Silverton

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 74?

Unit 74 lies in La Plata and San Juan counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Ouray-San Juan Co. line; on the east by San Juan- Hinsdale Co. line and Animas River; on the south by U.S. 160; on the west by Montezuma-La Plata Co. line, Dolores-San Juan Co. line, San Miguel-San Juan Co. line and Ouray-San Juan Co. line.

What is the elk success rate in unit 74?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 74 at 17% across all manners of take, and archery 14%, muzzleloader 16% and rifle 18% 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 74?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 74 at 33% across all manners of take, and archery 16% and rifle 39% 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 74?

CPW publishes no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to unit 74 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 Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 74, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
CPW CPWAdminData feature service — GMU and sheep/goat unit boundaries — Colorado Parks and Wildlife GIS Unit · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 74, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22

Unit 74 (Silverton)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 74

Elk Hunting in Unit 74

Where to Find Elk in Unit 74

The lines of the unit: Ouray-San Juan Co. line, San Juan- Hinsdale Co. line and Animas River

High ground inside the line: Fuller Peak, Golden Horn and Grizzly Peak

Holding ground: Mineral Basin, Cataract Basin and Alaska Basin

Public ground to start from: Andrews Lake SWA, Haviland Lake SWA and Perins Peak SWA

Water: Caviness Spring and Valley View Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: E-30

Unit 74 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 74

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 74

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 74: Silverton's High Basins and the U.S. 160 Edge

The frame: U.S. 160, the Animas and the county lines

The San Juan County high country

The La Plata side: West Needle Mountains

Caviness Spring and Valley View Spring

Unit 74 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 74: Glass the Basins, Work the Benches

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Moose Hunting in Unit 74

Where to look for moose in unit 74: frame, drainages and glassing peaks

What CPW doesn't tell you

The frame: U.S. 160, the Animas and the county lines

Peaks to glass from, not to hunt

Reading the country for moose

Unit 74 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to hunt moose in unit 74 without a map of where they live

Moose Success Rates

Moose Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 76 — Elk

Unit 77 — Elk

Unit 74 — Mule Deer

Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources & Verification