Colorado Mule Deer Elk

Unit 741 (Cortez / Ute Mountain Foothills)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 741 lies in La Plata County. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Animas River among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 50%. Federal land covers about 2% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

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Public Land

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Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 741 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

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 741

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 741

CPW draws an exact line around unit 741 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 La Plata County.

The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Animas River and Montezuma-La Plata Co. line

CPW has unit 741 bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Animas River; on the south by NM; on the west by Montezuma-La Plata Co. line. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. Its value is practical — those are the features you will navigate by, and the ridges that separate one day's country from another's.

High ground inside the line: Maggie Rock, Basin Mountain and Red Mesa

Named high points inside the unit include Maggie Rock at 8,639 feet, Basin Mountain at 8,208 feet, Red Mesa at 7,865 feet, Black Ridge at 7,803 feet and Round Top Mountain at 7,344 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Roberts Canyon, Spring Gulch and Spring Gulch

Below them sit Roberts Canyon at 7,419 feet, Spring Gulch at 7,394 feet, Spring Gulch at 7,292 feet, Devils Canyon at 7,231 feet and Deadman Gulch at 7,209 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Bodo SWA

CPW lists Bodo 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 2% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Soda Springs and Houston Well

Named sources include Soda Springs and Houston Well. 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-52

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-52, and unit 741 is one piece of it. The rest of D-52 is unit 74. 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 741 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Holding ground: Ridges Basin (6,884 ft), Red Horse Gulch (6,512 ft), Silva Draw (6,372 ft), Bodo SWA, Soda Springs, Houston Well

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 741

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 741 at rifle 50%. 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 Cinder Butte, North Cinder Butte and South Cinder Butte

Take a position on one of Cinder Butte (6,629 ft), North Cinder Butte (6,558 ft), South Cinder Butte (6,555 ft) and Pinkerton Mesa (6,530 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. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Where unit 741 sits inside D-52

Across D-52, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 47% in unit 741 and 33% in unit 74. Unit 741 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.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Ridges Basin, Red Horse Gulch, Silva Draw and Bodo 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

484 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

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 take47%

Rifle50%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 741 at 47% — 175 animals taken by 372 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.

Rifle — 50% success, 156 taken by 316 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)	17	26	65.4%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	22	38	57.9%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	1	8	12.5%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	7	16	43.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	12	12	100.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	14	48	29.2%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	13	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	5	44	11.4%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	1	4	25.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (resident)	8	26	30.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (nonresident)	1	5	20.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	20	70	28.6%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	20	65	30.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	16	76	21.1%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	3	40	7.5%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	9	70	12.9%	1
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	3	47	6.4%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	34	66	51.5%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	45	59	76.3%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	33	90	36.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	43	68	63.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	18	84	21.4%	1
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	12	64	18.8%	1

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for mule deer in unit 741, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM741P3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 90 applicants for 33 licences, 36.7% drawn, no preference points needed
DM741P4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Buck Only, resident: 84 applicants for 18 licences, 21.4% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM741O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 76 applicants for 16 licences, 21.1% drawn, no preference points needed
DM741O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 70 applicants for 20 licences, 28.6% 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 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 741

Unit 741 lies in La Plata County. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Animas River among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 43%. Federal land covers about 2% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 741

CPW's material on unit 741 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in La Plata County.

The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Animas River and Montezuma-La Plata Co. line

CPW has unit 741 bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Animas River; on the south by NM; on the west by Montezuma-La Plata Co. line. 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: Round Top, Long Mountain and Rocky Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Round Top at 7,114 feet, Long Mountain at 7,078 feet, Rocky Ridge at 6,763 feet, Cinder Butte at 6,629 feet and North Cinder Butte at 6,558 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.

Holding ground: Soldiers Draw, Barnes Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon

Below them sit Soldiers Draw at 7,149 feet, Barnes Canyon at 7,116 feet, Cottonwood Canyon at 7,099 feet, Schoolhouse Canyon at 7,086 feet and Pine Gulch at 7,063 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Bodo SWA

Water: Soda Springs and Houston Well

Named sources include Soda Springs and Houston Well. 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 741 is one piece of it. The rest of E-30 is unit 74. 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 741 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Holding ground: Ridges Basin (6,884 ft), Red Horse Gulch (6,512 ft), Silva Draw (6,372 ft), Bodo SWA, Soda Springs, Houston Well

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 741

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 741 at archery 33%, muzzleloader 43% 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 Cinder Bluffs, Smelter Mountain and Bridge Timber Mountain

Take a position on one of Cinder Bluffs (6,211 ft), Smelter Mountain, Bridge Timber Mountain and Maggie Rock (8,639 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. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Where unit 741 sits inside E-30

Across E-30, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 36% in unit 741 and 17% in unit 74. Unit 741 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.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Ridges Basin, Red Horse Gulch, Silva Draw and Bodo 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 a day here costs you

484 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 take36%

Archery33%

Muzzleloader43%

Rifle36%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 741 at 36% — 123 animals taken by 344 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 — 33% success, 23 taken by 70 hunters
Muzzleloader — 43% success, 6 taken by 14 hunters
Rifle — 36% success, 94 taken by 260 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	4	9	44.4%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	2	3	66.7%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	34	156	21.8%	1
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	7	16	43.8%	1
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	3	4	75.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	1	1	100.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	6	10	60.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	4	6	66.7%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	6	8	75.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	1	1	100.0%	—

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

EF741P5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Cow Only, resident: 156 applicants for 34 licences, 21.8% drawn, 1 preference point needed
EF741P5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 16 applicants for 7 licences, 43.8% drawn, 1 preference point needed
EF741O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 10 applicants for 6 licences, 60% drawn, no preference points needed
EF741O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 9 applicants for 4 licences, 44.4% drawn, no preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 4 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Trailer Access

Yes — US 491, US 160 paved; BLM roads off McElmo Canyon handle rigs dry.

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Water

Limited. Dolores River, McElmo Creek, scattered stock tanks.

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Road Conditions

Paved main routes; BLM roads gumbo when wet. 4WD for two-tracks.

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Terrain Difficulty

Moderate. Elevations 5,500-8,500 feet with canyon breaks.

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Hunting Pressure

Moderate.

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Weather

Warm early-season, cold nights late. Snow possible late November.

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Cell Service

Good near Cortez; drops in canyons.

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Nearest Town

Cortez (population ~8,700) for full services.

📋

Permit Notes

Unit 741 limited draw. Ute Mountain Tribal land closed — verify boundaries on CPW Atlas.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 741?

Unit 741 lies in La Plata County, and CPW has it bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Animas River; on the south by NM; on the west by Montezuma-La Plata Co. line.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 741?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 741 at 47% across all manners of take, and rifle 50% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 741?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 741 at 36% across all manners of take, and archery 33%, muzzleloader 43% and rifle 36% 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 Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 741, 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 741, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22

Unit 741 (Cortez / Ute Mountain Foothills)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 741

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 741

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 741

The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Animas River and Montezuma-La Plata Co. line

High ground inside the line: Maggie Rock, Basin Mountain and Red Mesa

Holding ground: Roberts Canyon, Spring Gulch and Spring Gulch

Public ground to start from: Bodo SWA

Water: Soda Springs and Houston Well

The herd this unit belongs to: D-52

Unit 741 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 741

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Elk Hunting in Unit 741

Where to Find Elk in Unit 741

The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Animas River and Montezuma-La Plata Co. line

High ground inside the line: Round Top, Long Mountain and Rocky Ridge

Holding ground: Soldiers Draw, Barnes Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon

Public ground to start from: Bodo SWA

Water: Soda Springs and Houston Well

The herd this unit belongs to: E-30

Unit 741 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 741

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources & Verification