Unit 92 (Karval)

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 92 at archery 31% and rifle 24%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Finding a view in unit 92

No named high ground falls inside this unit, which changes the method rather than ruling it out. Use the edges instead of the elevation — a field margin, a shelterbelt, the lip of a draw. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat. Cover ground slowly and stop more often than feels sensible.

Water against feed

There are 16 mapped stream reaches and 28 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

Season normals here run Sep 79/49°F, Oct 64/35°F and Nov 51/24°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 1.4 in. in Sep, 1.4 in. in Oct and 0.5 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: I 76 and US 138

I 76, US 138 and CO 59 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter.

Where unit 92 sits inside D-44

Across D-44, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 43% in unit 94, 32% in unit 91, 23% in unit 92 and 22% in unit 96. That puts unit 92 behind 2 of the 3 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 94 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Pony Express SWA, Red Lion Ranch STL, Sedgwick Bar SWA and I 76 @ 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 a day here costs you

57 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Sedgwick, about 4 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. 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.