Colorado Mule Deer Elk Pronghorn

Unit 79

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk, Pronghorn

Unit 79 lies in Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties. CPW bounds it by USFS trails 787 and USFS 676 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 73%. Federal land covers about 62% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

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Public Land

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 79

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 79 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 79

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 79

What CPW publishes for unit 79 is a boundary, not a mule deer map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties.

The lines of the unit: USFS trails 787, USFS 676 and Saguache CRs 41G

CPW has unit 79 bounded on the north by USFS trails 787 & 796, USFS 676 & 675 and Saguache CRs 41G & G; on the east by U.S. 285; on the south by Colo. 112 & U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 149, USFS 600 & 600-3A and La Garita Stock Driveway (ATV trail). Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. What it does give you is the way in: the rivers and highways you cross, and the divides that decide which drainage you end up in.

High ground inside the line: Mesa Mountain, Boot Mountain and Pool Table Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Mesa Mountain at 12,957 feet, Boot Mountain at 12,416 feet, Pool Table Mountain at 12,220 feet, Blue Mountain at 11,322 feet and Agua Ramon Mountain at 10,878 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: Dyers Park, Milk Cow Pass and Groundhog Park

Below them sit Dyers Park at 11,010 feet, Milk Cow Pass at 11,008 feet, Groundhog Park at 10,938 feet, Deer Park at 10,933 feet and Long Park at 10,757 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: Agua Ramon STL, Little La Garita Creek STL and Old Woman Creek STL

CPW lists Agua Ramon STL, Little La Garita Creek STL and Old Woman 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 62% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Shaw Springs and Barrel Spring

Named sources include Shaw Springs and Barrel 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-36

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-36, and unit 79 is one piece of it. The rest of D-36 is unit 76 and unit 791. 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 79 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Mesa Mountain (12,957 ft), Boot Mountain (12,416 ft), Pool Table Mountain (12,220 ft), Blue Mountain (11,322 ft)

Holding ground: Divide Park (11,675 ft), Pool Table Park (11,069 ft), Milk Cow Pass (11,008 ft), Agua Ramon STL, Little La Garita Creek STL

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 79

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 79 at archery 0% and rifle 73%. 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 Eagle Mountain, Cyclone Mountain and Lone Rock

Take a position on one of Eagle Mountain (10,452 ft), Cyclone Mountain (10,161 ft), Lone Rock (9,637 ft) and Eagle Rock (9,361 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. 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.

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 79 sits inside D-36

Across D-36, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 69% in unit 79 and 47% in unit 76. Unit 79 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 676, Saguache CRs 41G and U.S. 285

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 676, Saguache CRs 41G, U.S. 285, Colo. 112 and U.S. 160. 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 Mesa Mountain, Boot Mountain, Pool Table Mountain and Blue Mountain as places to see from, and Divide Park, Pool Table Park, Milk Cow Pass and Agua Ramon STL 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

426 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.

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 take69%

Archery0%

Rifle73%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 79 at 69% — 192 animals taken by 276 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 — 0% success, 0 taken by 8 hunters
Rifle — 73% success, 181 taken by 247 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
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	44	103	42.7%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	2	4	50.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	59	430	13.7%	3
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	22	185	11.9%	6
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	60	499	12.0%	4
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	22	189	11.6%	9
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	7	252	2.8%	14
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	1	75	1.3%	23
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	6	58	10.3%	1
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	64	3.1%	4
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	16	66	24.2%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	5	39	12.8%	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 79, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM079O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 499 applicants for 60 licences, 12% drawn, 4 preference points needed
DM079O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 430 applicants for 59 licences, 13.7% drawn, 3 preference points needed
DM079O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Buck Only, resident: 252 applicants for 7 licences, 2.8% drawn, 14 preference points needed
DM079O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 189 applicants for 22 licences, 11.6% drawn, 9 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 8 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 79

Unit 79 lies in Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties. CPW bounds it by USFS trails 787 and USFS 676 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 15%. Federal land covers about 62% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 79

What CPW publishes for unit 79 is a boundary, not a elk 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 Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties.

The lines of the unit: USFS trails 787, USFS 676 and Saguache CRs 41G

CPW has unit 79 bounded on the north by USFS trails 787 & 796, USFS 676 & 675 and Saguache CRs 41G & G; on the east by U.S. 285; on the south by Colo. 112 & U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 149, USFS 600 & 600-3A and La Garita Stock Driveway (ATV trail). 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: Pine Cone Knob, Twin Mountains and Cathedral Rock

Named high points inside the unit include Pine Cone Knob at 10,757 feet, Twin Mountains at 10,542 feet, Cathedral Rock at 10,480 feet, Eagle Mountain at 10,452 feet and Cyclone Mountain at 10,161 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: Round Park, Long Gulch and Blue Park

Below them sit Round Park at 10,691 feet, Long Gulch at 10,660 feet, Blue Park at 10,368 feet, Raven Park at 10,147 feet and La Garita Park at 10,131 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Agua Ramon STL, Little La Garita Creek STL and Old Woman Creek STL

Water: Shaw Springs and Barrel Spring

Named sources include Shaw Springs and Barrel 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-34

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-34, and unit 79 is one piece of it. The rest of E-34 is unit 76. 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 79 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Mesa Mountain (12,957 ft), Boot Mountain (12,416 ft), Pool Table Mountain (12,220 ft), Blue Mountain (11,322 ft)

Holding ground: Divide Park (11,675 ft), Pool Table Park (11,069 ft), Milk Cow Pass (11,008 ft), Agua Ramon STL, Little La Garita Creek STL

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 79

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 79 at archery 8%, muzzleloader 0% and rifle 15%. 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 East Butte, Indian Head and Elephant Rocks

Take a position on one of East Butte (8,806 ft), Indian Head (8,388 ft), Elephant Rocks (8,202 ft) and Peñascito (7,795 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.

Getting past the roads

Where unit 79 sits inside E-34

Across E-34, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 32% in unit 76 and 12% in unit 79. Unit 79 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 76 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: USFS 676, Saguache CRs 41G and U.S. 285

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Mesa Mountain, Boot Mountain, Pool Table Mountain and Blue Mountain as places to see from, and Divide Park, Pool Table Park, Milk Cow Pass and Agua Ramon STL 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

426 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.

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 take12%

Archery8%

Muzzleloader0%

Rifle15%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 79 at 12% — 140 animals taken by 1,136 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 — 8% success, 32 taken by 388 hunters
Muzzleloader — 0% success, 0 taken by 36 hunters
Rifle — 15% success, 107 taken by 712 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	11	28	39.3%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	7	16	43.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	9	39	23.1%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	3	50	6.0%	2
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	17	92	18.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	16	65	24.6%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	55	126	43.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	22	47	46.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	74	200	37.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	12	37	32.4%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	49	107	45.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	9	19	47.4%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	68	204	33.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	64	188	34.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season bull only (resident)	47	132	35.6%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season bull only (nonresident)	36	87	41.4%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season bull only (resident)	55	213	25.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season bull only (nonresident)	17	72	23.6%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	86	209	41.1%	—

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 elk in unit 79, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EM079O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Bull Only, resident: 213 applicants for 55 licences, 25.8% drawn, no preference points needed
EE079V1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 209 applicants for 86 licences, 41.1% drawn, no preference points needed
EM079O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 204 applicants for 68 licences, 33.3% drawn, no preference points needed
EF079O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 200 applicants for 74 licences, 37% 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 15 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 79

Unit 79 lies in Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties. CPW bounds it by USFS trails 787 and USFS 676 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 70%. Federal land covers about 62% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 79

What CPW publishes for unit 79 is a boundary, not a pronghorn map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties.

The lines of the unit: USFS trails 787, USFS 676 and Saguache CRs 41G

CPW has unit 79 bounded on the north by USFS trails 787 & 796, USFS 676 & 675 and Saguache CRs 41G & G; on the east by U.S. 285; on the south by Colo. 112 & U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 149, USFS 600 & 600-3A and La Garita Stock Driveway (ATV trail). 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: Lone Rock, Eagle Rock and East Butte

Named high points inside the unit include Lone Rock at 9,637 feet, Eagle Rock at 9,361 feet, East Butte at 8,806 feet, Indian Head at 8,388 feet and Elephant Rocks at 8,202 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: Raspberry Gulch, Shorty Gulch and Horse Canyon

Below them sit Raspberry Gulch at 9,568 feet, Shorty Gulch at 9,367 feet, Horse Canyon at 9,169 feet, Pine Cone Gulch at 8,808 feet and Cañada Hondo at 8,757 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Agua Ramon STL, Little La Garita Creek STL and Old Woman Creek STL

Water: Shaw Springs and Barrel Spring

Named sources include Shaw Springs and Barrel 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-14

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-14, and unit 79 is one piece of it. The rest of A-14 is unit 68, unit 82, unit 681, unit 682 and unit 791. 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 79 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Mesa Mountain (12,957 ft), Boot Mountain (12,416 ft), Pool Table Mountain (12,220 ft), Blue Mountain (11,322 ft)

Holding ground: Divide Park (11,675 ft), Pool Table Park (11,069 ft), Milk Cow Pass (11,008 ft), Agua Ramon STL, Little La Garita Creek STL

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 79

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 79 at 70% 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 Mesa Mountain, Boot Mountain and Pool Table Mountain

Take a position on one of Mesa Mountain (12,957 ft), Boot Mountain (12,416 ft), Pool Table Mountain (12,220 ft) and Blue Mountain (11,322 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Getting past the roads

Where unit 79 sits inside A-14

Across A-14, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 72% in unit 82, 70% in unit 79, 51% in unit 68 and 42% in unit 681. That puts unit 79 behind 1 of the 3 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 82 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: USFS 676, Saguache CRs 41G and U.S. 285

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 676, Saguache CRs 41G, U.S. 285, Colo. 112 and U.S. 160. 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 Mesa Mountain, Boot Mountain, Pool Table Mountain and Blue Mountain as places to see from, and Divide Park, Pool Table Park, Milk Cow Pass and Agua Ramon STL 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

426 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.

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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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Pronghorn Success Rates

All manners of take70%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 79 at 70% — 26 animals taken by 37 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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	12	62	19.4%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	3	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	7	335	2.1%	18
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	75	1.3%	18
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	7	57	12.3%	4
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	5	20.0%	5

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for pronghorn in unit 79, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM079O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 335 applicants for 7 licences, 2.1% drawn, 18 preference points needed
AM079O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 75 applicants for 1 licences, 1.3% drawn, 18 preference points needed
AF079P5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Doe Only, resident: 62 applicants for 12 licences, 19.4% drawn, no preference points needed
AM079O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 57 applicants for 7 licences, 12.3% drawn, 4 preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 2 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 79?

Unit 79 lies in Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by USFS trails 787 & 796, USFS 676 & 675 and Saguache CRs 41G & G; on the east by U.S. 285; on the south by Colo. 112 & U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 149, USFS 600 & 600-3A and La Garita Stock Driveway (ATV trail).

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 79?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 79 at 69% across all manners of take, and archery 0% and rifle 73% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 79?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 79 at 12% across all manners of take, and archery 8%, muzzleloader 0% and rifle 15% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 79?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 79 at 70% across all manners of take. 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 79, 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 79, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 79, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22