Colorado Mule Deer Pronghorn Elk

Unit 9

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Pronghorn, Elk

Unit 9 lies in Larimer and Weld counties and covers about 386 square miles. Ground runs from 5,117 to 7,919 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 14 and U.S. 287 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 56%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. 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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5,117–7,561 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 9

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 9 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 Pronghorn guide Elk guide

Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 9

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 9

What CPW publishes for unit 9 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 Larimer and Weld counties. It runs to about 386 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 14 and U.S. 287

CPW has unit 9 bounded on the north by WY; on the east by I-25; on the south by Colo. 14; on the west by U.S. 287. 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: Table Mountain, Little Bald Mountain and Little Twins

Named high points inside the unit include Table Mountain at 7,919 feet, Little Bald Mountain at 7,517 feet, Little Twins at 7,488 feet, Sheep Mountain at 7,289 feet and Red Mountain at 7,098 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: The Horseshoe, Owl Canyon and Wire Draw

Below them sit The Horseshoe at 5,729 feet, Owl Canyon at 5,725 feet, Wire Draw at 5,657 feet, Campbell Valley at 5,520 feet and Haygood Canyon at 6,470 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Douglas Reservoir SWA

CPW lists Douglas 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 0% of the unit on top of those.

Water in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 175 mapped stream reaches, 47 lakes and 105 stock tanks. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.

The herd this unit belongs to: D-4

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-4, and unit 9 is one piece of it. The rest of D-4 is unit 7, unit 8, unit 19 and unit 191. 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.

Before you apply: who owns this unit

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private. Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as Private / Other 100%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. A grid sample of the unit reads 5,117 to 7,561 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 5,520 to 7,919 feet — take 5,117 to 7,919 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and walks past summits. With 2,802 feet between the two ends, there is enough relief to separate summer range from winter range.

Unit 9 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,117–7,561 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,181 ft ; peaks can run higher.
385.8 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

105 tanks
175 stream segments
47 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sheep Mountain (7,289 ft), Table Rock (6,355 ft), Table Mountain (7,919 ft), Little Bald Mountain (7,517 ft)

Holding ground: Haygood Canyon (6,470 ft), Horsethief Pass (5,826 ft), Douglas Reservoir 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 9

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 9 at archery 0% and rifle 56%. 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 Red Nose, Campbell Mountain and Table Rock

Take a position on one of Red Nose (6,886 ft), Campbell Mountain (6,377 ft), Table Rock (6,355 ft) and Bobcat Mountain (6,270 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 175 mapped stream reaches and 105 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 72/43°F, Oct 59/32°F and Nov 47/24°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.8 in. in Sep, 1.2 in. in Oct and 0.8 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: I 25 and US 287

I 25 and US 287 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. There are roughly 9.6 miles of genuine four-wheel-drive road in the unit, and the country past the end of them is the part worth your legs.

Where unit 9 sits inside D-4

Across D-4, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 42% in unit 9, 41% in unit 191, 28% in unit 19, 17% in unit 8 and 15% in unit 7. Unit 9 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 Sheep Mountain, Table Rock, Table Mountain and Little Bald Mountain as places to see from, and Haygood Canyon, Horsethief Pass, Douglas Reservoir SWA and I 25 @ unit boundary 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 we can't tell you

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private. Settle access before the season rather than during it. Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.

Getting in and staying out: unit 9

Named routes and what they need

I 25 — 12 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 287 — 11.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 37 — 9.7 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Northeast Frontage Road — 4.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Interstate Highway 25 Service Road — 2.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Old Ranch Road — 2.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Wellington — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Laporte — 15 mi · no services listed
Fort Collins — 17.8 mi · fuel, groceries, gear
Nunn — 19.9 mi · no services listed
Timnath — 22.8 mi · groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 17° · 0.5" precip
Aug80° / 51° · 1.7" precip
Sep72° / 43° · 1.8" precip
Oct59° / 32° · 1.2" precip
Nov47° / 24° · 0.8" precip
Dec39° / 17° · 0.5" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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 take42%

Archery0%

Rifle56%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 9 at 42% — 100 animals taken by 239 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 33 hunters
Rifle — 56% success, 95 taken by 168 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 — 1st Season doe only (resident)	31	676	4.6%	1
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	8	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	73	785	9.3%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	2	18	11.1%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	61	739	8.3%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	2	25	8.0%	1
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	48	94	51.1%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	117	220	53.2%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	17	24	70.8%	—

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

DF009O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Doe Only, resident: 785 applicants for 73 licences, 9.3% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DF009O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Doe Only, resident: 739 applicants for 61 licences, 8.3% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DF009L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 676 applicants for 31 licences, 4.6% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM009L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 220 applicants for 117 licences, 53.2% 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 6 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 9

Unit 9 lies in Larimer and Weld counties and covers about 386 square miles. Ground runs from 5,117 to 7,919 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 14 and U.S. 287 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 63%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 9

What CPW publishes for unit 9 is a boundary, not a pronghorn map. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Larimer and Weld counties. It runs to about 386 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 14 and U.S. 287

CPW has unit 9 bounded on the north by WY; on the east by I-25; on the south by Colo. 14; on the west by U.S. 287. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Table Mountain, Lovers Leap and Steamboat Rock

Named high points inside the unit include Table Mountain at 7,048 feet, Lovers Leap at 6,982 feet, Steamboat Rock at 6,894 feet, Red Nose at 6,886 feet and Campbell Mountain at 6,377 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Pronghorn live in the open and trust their eyes, which is the whole problem.

Holding ground: Big Hole, Horsethief Pass and Rawhide Flats

Below them sit Big Hole at 6,335 feet, Horsethief Pass at 5,826 feet, Rawhide Flats at 5,805 feet, Spring Gulch at 5,735 feet and The Horseshoe at 5,729 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: Douglas Reservoir SWA

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: A-33

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-33, and unit 9 is one piece of it. The rest of A-33 is unit 191. 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.

Before you apply: who owns this unit

Unit 9 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,117–7,561 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,181 ft ; peaks can run higher.
385.8 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

105 tanks
175 stream segments
47 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sheep Mountain (7,289 ft), Table Rock (6,355 ft), Table Mountain (7,919 ft), Little Bald Mountain (7,517 ft)

Holding ground: Haygood Canyon (6,470 ft), Horsethief Pass (5,826 ft), Douglas Reservoir 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 Pronghorn in Unit 9

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 9 at 63% 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 Gilman Mountain, Grayback Ridge and Round Butte

Take a position on one of Gilman Mountain (6,256 ft), Grayback Ridge (6,138 ft), Round Butte (6,074 ft) and Deadman Butte (6,069 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, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Water against feed

There are 175 mapped stream reaches and 105 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: I 25 and US 287

Where unit 9 sits inside A-33

Across A-33, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 63% in unit 9 and 15% in unit 191. Unit 9 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

What we can't tell you

Getting in and staying out: unit 9

Named routes and what they need

I 25 — 12 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 287 — 11.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 37 — 9.7 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Northeast Frontage Road — 4.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Interstate Highway 25 Service Road — 2.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Old Ranch Road — 2.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Wellington — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Laporte — 15 mi · no services listed
Fort Collins — 17.8 mi · fuel, groceries, gear
Nunn — 19.9 mi · no services listed
Timnath — 22.8 mi · groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 17° · 0.5" precip
Aug80° / 51° · 1.7" precip
Sep72° / 43° · 1.8" precip
Oct59° / 32° · 1.2" precip
Nov47° / 24° · 0.8" precip
Dec39° / 17° · 0.5" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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.

Pro Members Only

Unlock pronghorn tactics for Unit 9

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Pronghorn Success Rates

All manners of take63%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 9 at 63% — 145 animals taken by 230 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 — 1st Season doe only (resident)	70	235	29.8%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	2	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	21	125	16.8%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	2	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	87	199	43.7%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	10	18	55.6%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	3	10	30.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	23	30	76.7%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	4	10	40.0%	—

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

AF009L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 235 applicants for 70 licences, 29.8% drawn, no preference points needed
AM009P1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 199 applicants for 87 licences, 43.7% drawn, no preference points needed
AF009P1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 125 applicants for 21 licences, 16.8% drawn, no preference points needed
AM009O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 30 applicants for 23 licences, 76.7% drawn, no preference points needed

No preference points were needed for the codes above in that year, which can change the moment applicant numbers do. There are 5 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 9

Unit 9 lies in Larimer and Weld counties and covers about 386 square miles. Ground runs from 5,117 to 7,919 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 14 and U.S. 287 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 35%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 9

CPW's material on unit 9 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 Larimer and Weld counties. It runs to about 386 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 14 and U.S. 287

High ground inside the line: Table Rock, Bobcat Mountain and Gilman Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Table Rock at 6,355 feet, Bobcat Mountain at 6,270 feet, Gilman Mountain at 6,256 feet, Grayback Ridge at 6,138 feet and Round Butte at 6,074 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.

Holding ground: Owl Canyon, Wire Draw and Campbell Valley

Below them sit Owl Canyon at 5,725 feet, Wire Draw at 5,657 feet, Campbell Valley at 5,520 feet, Haygood Canyon at 6,470 feet and Big Hole at 6,335 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Douglas Reservoir SWA

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: E-4

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-4, and unit 9 is one piece of it. The rest of E-4 is unit 7, unit 8, unit 19 and unit 191. 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.

Before you apply: who owns this unit

Unit 9 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,117–7,561 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,181 ft ; peaks can run higher.
385.8 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

105 tanks
175 stream segments
47 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sheep Mountain (7,289 ft), Table Rock (6,355 ft), Table Mountain (7,919 ft), Little Bald Mountain (7,517 ft)

Holding ground: Haygood Canyon (6,470 ft), Horsethief Pass (5,826 ft), Douglas Reservoir 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 9

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 9 at archery 24% and rifle 35%. 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 Table Mountain, Little Bald Mountain and Little Twins

Take a position on one of Table Mountain (7,919 ft), Little Bald Mountain (7,517 ft), Little Twins (7,488 ft) and Sheep Mountain (7,289 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. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

There are 175 mapped stream reaches and 105 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: I 25 and US 287

Where unit 9 sits inside E-4

Across E-4, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 31% in unit 9, 11% in unit 191, 10% in unit 8, 10% in unit 19 and 9% in unit 7. Unit 9 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

What we can't tell you

Getting in and staying out: unit 9

Named routes and what they need

I 25 — 12 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 287 — 11.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 37 — 9.7 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Northeast Frontage Road — 4.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Interstate Highway 25 Service Road — 2.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Old Ranch Road — 2.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Wellington — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Laporte — 15 mi · no services listed
Fort Collins — 17.8 mi · fuel, groceries, gear
Nunn — 19.9 mi · no services listed
Timnath — 22.8 mi · groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 17° · 0.5" precip
Aug80° / 51° · 1.7" precip
Sep72° / 43° · 1.8" precip
Oct59° / 32° · 1.2" precip
Nov47° / 24° · 0.8" precip
Dec39° / 17° · 0.5" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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 take31%

Archery24%

Rifle35%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 9 at 31% — 57 animals taken by 185 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 — 24% success, 8 taken by 33 hunters
Rifle — 35% success, 45 taken by 127 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	6	15	40.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	38	65	58.5%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	4	4	100.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	15	18	83.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	7	13	53.8%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season bull only (resident)	11	19	57.9%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season bull only (nonresident)	4	5	80.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season bull only (resident)	8	17	47.1%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season bull only (nonresident)	6	11	54.5%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	6	10	60.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	2	4	50.0%	—

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

EF009P5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Cow Only, resident: 65 applicants for 38 licences, 58.5% drawn, no preference points needed
EM009O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Bull Only, resident: 19 applicants for 11 licences, 57.9% drawn, no preference points needed
EM009O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 18 applicants for 15 licences, 83.3% drawn, no preference points needed
EM009O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Bull Only, resident: 17 applicants for 8 licences, 47.1% drawn, no preference points needed

No preference points were needed for the codes above in that year, which can change the moment applicant numbers do. There are 7 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

⛺

Camp Sites

1 developed campground in or beside the unit, none of them named in the mapping data we hold — find them on a current forest map before you plan a camp.

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Road Conditions

I 25, US 287 and CR 37 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 45 mi paved, 13 mi gravel and 10 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

5,117–7,561 ft, averaging 6,181. Enough relief to separate summer from winter range.

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Hunting Pressure

Our land-status read for this unit is approximate, so treat any pressure estimate from it with suspicion and check a current ownership layer.

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Weather

Season normals: Sep 72/43°F, 1.8 in.; Oct 59/32°F, 1.2 in.; Nov 47/24°F, 0.8 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 21%, AT&T 14%, T-Mobile 7% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Wellington (11 mi), Laporte (15 mi), Fort Collins (18 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 9?

Unit 9 lies in Larimer and Weld counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by WY; on the east by I-25; on the south by Colo. 14; on the west by U.S. 287. It covers about 386 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 9?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 9 at 42% across all manners of take, and archery 0% and rifle 56% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 9 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 9 are at Wellington, about 11 miles from the unit's centre, with Laporte at about 15 miles. There are also 1 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

Can you hunt unit 9 on public land?

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private. Settle access before you apply rather than after you draw.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 9?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 9 at 63% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 9?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 9 at 31% across all manners of take, and archery 24% and rifle 35% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Colorado Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

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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, CPW's private-land note for the unit · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 9, 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 Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 9, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 9, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22