Unit 94 (Sterling / South Platte)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer

Unit 94 lies in Larimer, Adams and Weld counties and covers about 735 square miles. Ground runs from 4,634 to 5,107 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 14 and U.S. 85 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 59%. No federal land falls inside it, so every acre is a permission question. 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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4,634–5,107 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 94

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 94 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

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 94

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 94

CPW's material on unit 94 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule deer 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, Adams and Weld counties. It runs to about 735 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 14, U.S. 85 and Weld CR 49 (Hudson-Keenesburg Cutoff)

CPW has unit 94 bounded on the north by Colo. 14; on the east by U.S. 85 & 34, Weld CR 49 (Hudson-Keenesburg Cutoff) and I-76; on the south by Colo. 7; on the west by I-25. 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: Riley Mound, Smith Mound and The Sand Hills

Named high points inside the unit include Riley Mound at 5,188 feet, Smith Mound at 5,187 feet, The Sand Hills at 4,977 feet, Antelope Hill at 4,945 feet and Wildcat Mound at 4,928 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Sequine Gulch, Sheep Draw and Bebee Draw

Below them sit Sequine Gulch at 4,957 feet, Sheep Draw at 4,699 feet, Bebee Draw at 4,676 feet, Ashcroft Draw at 4,666 feet and Eaton Draw at 4,647 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: Brower SWA, Frank SWA and Webster SWA

CPW lists Brower SWA, Frank SWA and Webster 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 274 mapped stream reaches, 225 lakes, 754 stock tanks and 2 springs. 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-44

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-44, and unit 94 is one piece of it. The rest of D-44 is unit 91, unit 92, unit 96 and unit 951. 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.

Reading the land status

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 4,634 to 5,107 feet, averaging 4,873 — a sample rather than a survey, so read the ends as approximate. There is not much relief, so the animals move laterally rather than up and down.

Unit 94 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,634–5,107 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,873 ft ; peaks can run higher.
734.6 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

754 tanks
2 springs
274 stream segments
225 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: Riley Mound (5,188 ft), Smith Mound (5,187 ft), The Sand Hills (4,977 ft)

Holding ground: Sequine Gulch (4,957 ft), Sheep Draw (4,699 ft), Bebee Draw (4,676 ft), Brower SWA, Frank SWA, Webster SWA

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

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How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 94

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 94 at archery 59% and rifle 38%. 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 Antelope Hill, Wildcat Mound and Riley Mound

Take a position on one of Antelope Hill (4,945 ft), Wildcat Mound (4,928 ft), Riley Mound (5,188 ft) and Smith Mound (5,187 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, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 274 mapped stream reaches and 754 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 81/47°F, Oct 67/35°F and Nov 53/24°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 1.2 in. in Sep, 1.1 in. in Oct and 0.7 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: I 25 and I 76

I 25, I 76 and US 85 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 94 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. Unit 94 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 Riley Mound, Smith Mound and The Sand Hills as places to see from, and Sequine Gulch, Sheep Draw, Bebee Draw and Brower 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 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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 94

Named routes and what they need

I 25 — 17 mi · Paved (all rigs)
I 76 — 14.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 85 — 10.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 49 — 9.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
County Road 70 — 6.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
East I-25 Frontage Road — 4.5 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

Gilcrest — 1.8 mi · no services listed
Milliken — 4.2 mi · fuel, groceries
Platteville — 4.4 mi · no services listed
Johnstown — 6.5 mi · fuel, groceries
La Salle — 7.6 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan44° / 16° · 0.5" precip
Aug88° / 56° · 1.6" precip
Sep81° / 47° · 1.2" precip
Oct67° / 35° · 1.1" precip
Nov53° / 24° · 0.7" precip
Dec44° / 16° · 0.5" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% 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 take43%

Archery59%

Rifle38%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 94 at 43% — 99 animals taken by 231 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 — 59% success, 36 taken by 61 hunters
Rifle — 38% success, 59 taken by 156 hunters

These are the agency's own printed figures for this unit, not a modelled estimate and not a state average. They describe one season, so check CPW's current harvest estimates before you read a trend into them.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	102	220	46.4%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	5	8	62.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	25	62	40.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	11	26	42.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	49	119	41.2%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	1	100.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	42	107	39.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	1	4	25.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	3	12	25.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 2nd 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 mule deer in unit 94, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DE094O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 220 applicants for 102 licences, 46.4% drawn, no preference points needed
DM094L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 119 applicants for 49 licences, 41.2% drawn, no preference points needed
DF094L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 62 applicants for 25 licences, 40.3% drawn, no preference points needed
DF094O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 26 applicants for 11 licences, 42.3% 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 4 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

3 developed campgrounds 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, I 76 and US 85 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 79 mi paved, 23 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

4,634–5,107 ft, averaging 4,873. Gentle ground — distance rather than climbing is the day's cost.

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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 81/47°F, 1.2 in.; Oct 67/35°F, 1.1 in.; Nov 53/24°F, 0.7 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 26%, AT&T 17%, T-Mobile 9% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

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Nearest Town

Gilcrest (2 mi), Milliken (4 mi), Platteville (4 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 94?

Unit 94 lies in Larimer, Adams and Weld counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Colo. 14; on the east by U.S. 85 & 34, Weld CR 49 (Hudson-Keenesburg Cutoff) and I-76; on the south by Colo. 7; on the west by I-25. It covers about 735 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 94?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 94 at 43% across all manners of take, and archery 59% and rifle 38% 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 94 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 94 are at Gilcrest, about 2 miles from the unit's centre, with Milliken at about 4 miles. There are also 3 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

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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 94, 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