Colorado Mule Deer Pronghorn

Unit 97

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Pronghorn

Unit 97 lies in Logan, Washington and Morgan counties and covers about 593 square miles. Ground runs from 4,072 to 4,729 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 61 and U.S. 34 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 47%. 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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4,072–4,599 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 97

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 97 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

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 97

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 97

CPW draws an exact line around unit 97 and says nothing about where the mule deer 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 Logan, Washington and Morgan counties. It runs to about 593 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 61, U.S. 34 and I-76 New business/U.S. 34 spur

CPW has unit 97 bounded on the north and east by Colo. 61; on the south by U.S. 34; on the west by I-76 New business/U.S. 34 spur and I-76. 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: Fremont Butte, Eagle Point Hill and South Reiradon Hill

Named high points inside the unit include Fremont Butte at 4,729 feet, Eagle Point Hill at 4,605 feet and South Reiradon Hill at 4,508 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: Jones Flat

Below them sit Jones Flat at 4,242 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Water: Summit Springs

The water inside the unit line comes to 8 mapped stream reaches, 2 lakes and 33 stock tanks. Named sources include Summit Springs. 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-54

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-54, and unit 97 is one piece of it. The rest of D-54 is unit 93, unit 98, unit 99 and unit 100. 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 85% and BLM 15%, 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 4,072 to 4,599 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 4,242 to 4,729 feet — take 4,072 to 4,729 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and walks past summits. With 657 feet between the two ends, there is not much relief, so the animals move laterally rather than up and down.

Unit 97 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,072–4,599 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,381 ft ; peaks can run higher.
592.7 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
Private / Other — 85%

Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

33 tanks
8 stream segments
2 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: Fremont Butte (4,729 ft), Eagle Point Hill (4,605 ft), South Reiradon Hill (4,508 ft)

Holding ground: Jones Flat (4,242 ft), Summit Springs

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 97

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 97 at archery 0% and rifle 47%. 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.

Glassing from Fremont Butte, Eagle Point Hill and South Reiradon Hill

Take a position on one of Fremont Butte (4,729 ft), Eagle Point Hill (4,605 ft) and South Reiradon Hill (4,508 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. 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.

Water decides where you sit

With 33 tanks and only 8 mapped stream reaches, this is ground where standing water is made rather than found. Find the two or three holding water near a glassing position and you have found the only appointment the animals keep. 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 79/49°F, Oct 64/36°F and Nov 51/25°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 1.3 in. in Sep, 1.1 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 CO 61

I 76, CO 61 and US 34 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. 11 mapped public entry points fall inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 97 sits inside D-54

Across D-54, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 45% in unit 97, 42% in unit 98, 33% in unit 99, 33% in unit 100 and 25% in unit 93. Unit 97 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 Fremont Butte, Eagle Point Hill and South Reiradon Hill as places to see from, and Jones Flat, Walk-In Access 97 — G, Walk-In Access 98 — G and Walk-In Access 99 — G 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

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 97

Named routes and what they need

I 76 — 24.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CO 61 — 17.5 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 34 — 16.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 42 — 13.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
County Road 53 — 12.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
County Road 55 — 11.9 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

Merino — 12.7 mi · no services listed
Akron — 12.9 mi · no services listed
Hillrose — 17.6 mi · no services listed
Otis — 18.2 mi · no services listed
Sterling — 19.3 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging

Season weather and signal

Jan41° / 16° · 0.3" precip
Aug87° / 58° · 2.3" precip
Sep79° / 49° · 1.3" precip
Oct64° / 36° · 1.1" precip
Nov51° / 25° · 0.5" precip
Dec41° / 17° · 0.3" 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 take45%

Archery0%

Rifle47%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 97 at 45% — 41 animals taken by 92 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 7 hunters
Rifle — 47% success, 38 taken by 80 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)	19	40	47.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	7	28	25.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	16	75	21.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	5	9	55.6%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	16	67	23.9%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	0	3	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 97, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM097L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 75 applicants for 16 licences, 21.3% drawn, no preference points needed
DM097O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 67 applicants for 16 licences, 23.9% drawn, no preference points needed
DF097L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 40 applicants for 19 licences, 47.5% drawn, no preference points needed
DF097O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 28 applicants for 7 licences, 25% 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 2 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 97

Unit 97 lies in Logan, Washington and Morgan counties and covers about 593 square miles. Ground runs from 4,072 to 4,729 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 61 and U.S. 34 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 55%. 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.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 97

What CPW publishes for unit 97 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 Logan, Washington and Morgan counties. It runs to about 593 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 61, U.S. 34 and I-76 New business/U.S. 34 spur

CPW has unit 97 bounded on the north and east by Colo. 61; on the south by U.S. 34; on the west by I-76 New business/U.S. 34 spur and I-76. 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: Fremont Butte, Eagle Point Hill and South Reiradon Hill

Named high points inside the unit include Fremont Butte at 4,729 feet, Eagle Point Hill at 4,605 feet and South Reiradon Hill at 4,508 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: Jones Flat

Below them sit Jones Flat at 4,242 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.

Water: Summit Springs

The herd this unit belongs to: A-4

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-4, and unit 97 is one piece of it. The rest of A-4 is unit 93, unit 98, unit 101 and unit 102. 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.

Reading the land status

Unit 97 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,072–4,599 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,381 ft ; peaks can run higher.
592.7 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
Private / Other — 85%

Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

33 tanks
8 stream segments
2 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: Fremont Butte (4,729 ft), Eagle Point Hill (4,605 ft), South Reiradon Hill (4,508 ft)

Holding ground: Jones Flat (4,242 ft), Summit Springs

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 97

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 97 at 55% 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 Fremont Butte, Eagle Point Hill and South Reiradon Hill

Take a position on one of Fremont Butte (4,729 ft), Eagle Point Hill (4,605 ft) and South Reiradon Hill (4,508 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.

Water decides where you sit

With 33 tanks and only 8 mapped stream reaches, this is ground where standing water is made rather than found. Find the two or three holding water near a glassing position and you have found the only appointment the animals keep. 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 76 and CO 61

Where unit 97 sits inside A-4

Across A-4, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 55% in unit 97, 46% in unit 98 and 33% in unit 93. Unit 97 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 Fremont Butte, Eagle Point Hill and South Reiradon Hill as places to see from, and Jones Flat, Walk-In Access 97 — G, Walk-In Access 98 — G and Walk-In Access 99 — G 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 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 97

Named routes and what they need

I 76 — 24.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CO 61 — 17.5 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 34 — 16.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 42 — 13.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
County Road 53 — 12.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
County Road 55 — 11.9 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

Merino — 12.7 mi · no services listed
Akron — 12.9 mi · no services listed
Hillrose — 17.6 mi · no services listed
Otis — 18.2 mi · no services listed
Sterling — 19.3 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging

Season weather and signal

Jan41° / 16° · 0.3" precip
Aug87° / 58° · 2.3" precip
Sep79° / 49° · 1.3" precip
Oct64° / 36° · 1.1" precip
Nov51° / 25° · 0.5" precip
Dec41° / 17° · 0.3" 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

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

All manners of take55%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 97 at 55% — 14 animals taken by 26 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)	11	81	13.6%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	14	115	12.2%	3
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	0	6	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 97, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM097O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 115 applicants for 14 licences, 12.2% drawn, 3 preference points needed
AF097L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 81 applicants for 11 licences, 13.6% drawn, no preference points needed
AM097O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 6 applicants for 0 licences, 0% drawn, no preference points needed
AF097L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, nonresident: 1 applicants for 0 licences, 0% 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. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

No developed campground falls inside the unit in our data — plan on dispersed camping and check the land status first.

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Road Conditions

I 76, CO 61 and US 34 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 73 mi paved, 184 mi gravel and 1 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

4,072–4,599 ft, averaging 4,381. 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 79/49°F, 1.3 in.; Oct 64/36°F, 1.1 in.; Nov 51/25°F, 0.5 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

Merino (13 mi), Akron (13 mi), Hillrose (18 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 97?

Unit 97 lies in Logan, Washington and Morgan counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north and east by Colo. 61; on the south by U.S. 34; on the west by I-76 New business/U.S. 34 spur and I-76. It covers about 593 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 97?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 97 at 45% across all manners of take, and archery 0% and rifle 47% 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 97 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 97 are at Merino, about 13 miles from the unit's centre, with Akron at about 13 miles. No developed campground falls inside the unit in our data, so plan on dispersed camping.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 97?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 97 at 55% 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 97, 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 97, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22