Colorado Elk Mule Deer Pronghorn

Unit 80 (Craig / Hayden)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer, Pronghorn

Unit 80 lies in Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Rio Grande among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 19%. Federal land covers about 56% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

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56%

Public Land

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 80

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 80 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 Pronghorn guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 80

Where to Find Elk in Unit 80

CPW's material on unit 80 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. 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 Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties.

The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Rio Grande and La Jara Creek

CPW has unit 80 bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Rio Grande; on the south by La Jara Creek, Alamosa River, USFS 250 & 380 and Elwood Pass; on the west by Continental Divide. 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: Bennett Peak, Pintada Mountain and North Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Bennett Peak at 13,203 feet, Pintada Mountain at 12,818 feet, North Mountain at 12,743 feet, Grayback Mountain at 12,612 feet and Windy Mountain at 12,588 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: Big Park, Ruston Park and Big Hollow

Below them sit Big Park at 10,606 feet, Ruston Park at 10,591 feet, Big Hollow at 10,492 feet, Horseshoe Park at 10,377 feet and Alberta Park at 10,357 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: Alberta Park Reservoir SWA, American Gulch STL and Beaver Creek Reservoir SWA

CPW lists Alberta Park Reservoir SWA, American Gulch STL, Beaver Creek Reservoir SWA, Chiquito Peak STL and Dry 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 56% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch Spring

Named sources include Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch 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-32

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-32, and unit 80 is one piece of it. The rest of E-32 is unit 81. 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 80 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Bennett Peak (13,203 ft), Pintada Mountain (12,818 ft), North Mountain (12,743 ft), Grayback Mountain (12,612 ft)

Holding ground: Blowout Pass (11,762 ft), Willow Park (11,287 ft), Bonito Pass (11,269 ft), Alberta Park Reservoir SWA, American Gulch 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 80

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 80 at archery 11%, muzzleloader 19% and rifle 14%. 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 Lookout Mountain, Silver Mountain and Del Norte Peak

Take a position on one of Lookout Mountain (12,462 ft), Silver Mountain (12,429 ft), Del Norte Peak (12,399 ft) and Hogback Mesa (12,262 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, 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 80 sits inside E-32

Across E-32, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 18% in unit 81 and 13% in unit 80. Unit 80 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 81 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: U.S. 160 and USFS 250

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: U.S. 160 and USFS 250. 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. Check each of them on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a line on a boundary description is not a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Bennett Peak, Pintada Mountain, North Mountain and Grayback Mountain as places to see from, and Blowout Pass, Willow Park, Bonito Pass and Alberta Park Reservoir 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

887 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.

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 take13%

Archery11%

Muzzleloader19%

Rifle14%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 80 at 13% — 421 animals taken by 3,200 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 — 11% success, 93 taken by 847 hunters
Muzzleloader — 19% success, 17 taken by 89 hunters
Rifle — 14% success, 311 taken by 2,264 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
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	50	223	22.4%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	13	136	9.6%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	76	190	40.0%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	28	228	12.3%	6
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	88	408	21.6%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	15	112	13.4%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	73	366	19.9%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	10	51	19.6%	1
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	72	279	25.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	16	39	41.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	22	84	26.2%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	2	8	25.0%	1
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	292	1,328	22.0%	1
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	111	1,124	9.9%	3
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	27	369	7.3%	1
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	9	137	6.6%	1
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	447	1,020	43.8%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	1461	3,009	48.6%	—

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

EE080O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 3,009 applicants for 1,461 licences, 48.6% drawn, no preference points needed
EM080O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 1,328 applicants for 292 licences, 22% drawn, 1 preference point needed
EM080O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 1,124 applicants for 111 licences, 9.9% drawn, 3 preference points needed
EE080O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 1,020 applicants for 447 licences, 43.8% 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 14 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 80

Unit 80 lies in Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Rio Grande among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 57%. Federal land covers about 56% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 80

What CPW publishes for unit 80 is a boundary, not a mule deer 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 Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties.

The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Rio Grande and La Jara Creek

CPW has unit 80 bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Rio Grande; on the south by La Jara Creek, Alamosa River, USFS 250 & 380 and Elwood Pass; on the west by Continental Divide. 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: Cropsy Mountain, South Mountain and Sheep Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Cropsy Mountain at 12,573 feet, South Mountain at 12,539 feet, Sheep Mountain at 12,490 feet, Lookout Mountain at 12,462 feet and Silver Mountain at 12,429 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: Fivemile Park, Upper Beaver Meadow and Meadow Pass

Below them sit Fivemile Park at 10,332 feet, Upper Beaver Meadow at 10,305 feet, Meadow Pass at 10,242 feet, Palmer Gulch at 10,211 feet and Campo Molino at 10,153 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Gerrard STL, Playa Blanca SWA and Shaw Creek STL

CPW lists Gerrard STL, Playa Blanca SWA, Shaw Creek STL, Terrace Reservoir SWA and Alberta Park Reservoir 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 56% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch Spring

Named sources include Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch 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-35

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-35, and unit 80 is one piece of it. The rest of D-35 is unit 81. 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 80 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Bennett Peak (13,203 ft), Pintada Mountain (12,818 ft), North Mountain (12,743 ft), Grayback Mountain (12,612 ft)

Holding ground: Blowout Pass (11,762 ft), Willow Park (11,287 ft), Bonito Pass (11,269 ft), Alberta Park Reservoir SWA, American Gulch 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 80

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 80 at archery 15% and rifle 57%. 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 Prospect Mountain, Bonito Mountain and Marble Mountain

Take a position on one of Prospect Mountain (12,251 ft), Bonito Mountain (12,167 ft), Marble Mountain (12,119 ft) and Burro Mountain (12,110 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

Where unit 80 sits inside D-35

Across D-35, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 46% in unit 80 and 44% in unit 81. Unit 80 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: U.S. 160 and USFS 250

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Bennett Peak, Pintada Mountain, North Mountain and Grayback Mountain as places to see from, and Blowout Pass, Willow Park, Bonito Pass and Alberta Park Reservoir 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

887 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.

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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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take46%

Archery15%

Rifle57%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 80 at 46% — 275 animals taken by 604 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 — 15% success, 16 taken by 111 hunters
Rifle — 57% success, 220 taken by 385 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	147	475	30.9%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	50	482	10.4%	2
Archery — 1st Season doe only (resident)	10	149	6.7%	2
Archery — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	3	101	3.0%	2
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	111	373	29.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	41	244	16.8%	2
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	13	112	11.6%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	3	33	9.1%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	162	1,130	14.3%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	57	364	15.7%	3
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	164	1,401	11.7%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	56	447	12.5%	4
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	29	629	4.6%	6
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	10	217	4.6%	12
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	17	505	3.4%	3
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	1	36	2.8%	3
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	19	447	4.3%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	52	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 80, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM080O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 1,401 applicants for 164 licences, 11.7% drawn, 2 preference points needed
DM080O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 1,130 applicants for 162 licences, 14.3% drawn, 2 preference points needed
DM080O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Buck Only, resident: 629 applicants for 29 licences, 4.6% drawn, 6 preference points needed
DF080O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Doe Only, resident: 505 applicants for 17 licences, 3.4% drawn, 3 preference points needed

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 80

Unit 80 lies in Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Rio Grande among others. CPW publishes no per-unit pronghorn success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 56% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 80

CPW draws an exact line around unit 80 and says nothing about where the pronghorn 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 Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties.

The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Rio Grande and La Jara Creek

CPW has unit 80 bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Rio Grande; on the south by La Jara Creek, Alamosa River, USFS 250 & 380 and Elwood Pass; on the west by Continental Divide. 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: Del Norte Peak, Hogback Mesa and Prospect Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Del Norte Peak at 12,399 feet, Hogback Mesa at 12,262 feet, Prospect Mountain at 12,251 feet, Bonito Mountain at 12,167 feet and Marble Mountain at 12,119 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: Pond Park, Witney Gulch and Smallpox Gulch

Below them sit Pond Park at 10,049 feet, Witney Gulch at 9,918 feet, Smallpox Gulch at 9,890 feet, Model T Park at 9,857 feet and Scherer Gulch at 9,776 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: American Gulch STL, Beaver Creek Reservoir SWA and Chiquito Peak STL

CPW lists American Gulch STL, Beaver Creek Reservoir SWA, Chiquito Peak STL, Dry Creek STL and Gerrard 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 56% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch Spring

Named sources include Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch 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-16

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-16, and unit 80 is one piece of it. The rest of A-16 is unit 81 and unit 83. 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 80 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Bennett Peak (13,203 ft), Pintada Mountain (12,818 ft), North Mountain (12,743 ft), Grayback Mountain (12,612 ft)

Holding ground: Blowout Pass (11,762 ft), Willow Park (11,287 ft), Bonito Pass (11,269 ft), Alberta Park Reservoir SWA, American Gulch 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 80

CPW publishes no pronghorn success figure for unit 80 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. 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 Sheepshead, Poison Mountain and Handkerchief Mesa

Take a position on one of Sheepshead (12,006 ft), Poison Mountain (11,988 ft), Handkerchief Mesa (11,825 ft) and Elephant Mountain (11,817 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, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Getting past the roads

The way in: U.S. 160 and USFS 250

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Bennett Peak, Pintada Mountain, North Mountain and Grayback Mountain as places to see from, and Blowout Pass, Willow Park, Bonito Pass and Alberta Park Reservoir 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

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. We have no pronghorn success figure for this unit that survives checking against CPW's own harvest and hunter counts, and we would rather say so than print a statewide average as though it were measured here.

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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Pronghorn Success Rates

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no pronghorn row for unit 80 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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	6	32	18.8%	3
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	25	4.0%	4
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	7	300	2.3%	11
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	68	1.5%	12
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	10	25	40.0%	—
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 pronghorn in unit 80, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM080O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 300 applicants for 7 licences, 2.3% drawn, 11 preference points needed
AM080O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 68 applicants for 1 licences, 1.5% drawn, 12 preference points needed
AM080O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 32 applicants for 6 licences, 18.8% drawn, 3 preference points needed
AM080O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 25 applicants for 1 licences, 4% 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 1 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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RV Sites

Availability varies across the unit; check USFS and BLM district sites for developed campgrounds and dispersed camping rules in advance.

⛺

Camp Sites

Dispersed camping is allowed on most public BLM and USFS land subject to local rules. Developed campgrounds may require reservations.

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Trailer Access

Trailer suitability depends on specific access routes inside the GMU. Verify road condition and width before hauling.

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Water

Water availability varies by elevation and season. Filter or treat surface water.

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Road Conditions

Colorado mountain and plains roads range from paved to rough two-track. 4WD and high clearance are recommended for back-country routes.

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Terrain Difficulty

Terrain inside the GMU spans a mix of Colorado Rocky Mountain and/or high-plains habitat. Match fitness and gear to chosen zones.

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Hunting Pressure

Hunting pressure scales with access; roadless parcels see less pressure than areas near major trailheads.

🌦️

Weather

Expect Colorado's full seasonal range: warm fall days, cold nights, and the possibility of early snow at elevation. Pack layered systems.

📱

Cell Service

Cell service is inconsistent across Colorado public land. Carry a satellite communicator for back-country hunts.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Use CPW Hunting Atlas and mapping tools to identify nearest services for your planned access point.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 80?

Unit 80 lies in Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Rio Grande; on the south by La Jara Creek, Alamosa River, USFS 250 & 380 and Elwood Pass; on the west by Continental Divide.

What is the elk success rate in unit 80?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 80 at 13% across all manners of take, and archery 11%, muzzleloader 19% and rifle 14% 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 80?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 80 at 46% across all manners of take, and archery 15% and rifle 57% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 80?

CPW publishes no pronghorn success figure we can tie to unit 80 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 80, 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 80, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22