SU SLEEPER UNITS Colorado Colorado Unit 161 Hunt Planner Draw Odds
| |
All Units |

Unit 161

3-D satellite terrain of Unit 161, served by Wayward — the free iPhone GPS app from the people behind Sleeper Units. Drag to turn, scroll or pinch to zoom. Get Wayward and the whole unit rides on your phone, offline.

Edit
Unit 161 is a subunit in the country around Westcliffe at the south end of the Wet Mountain Valley—high alpine country in the Sangre de Cristo Range. Elevations run from 8,000 feet to over 14,000 feet on Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle. The terrain is some of the most dramatic in Colorado: sheer alpine walls, deep canyon drainages, and dense mixed conifer below treeline. San Isabel NF and Sangre de Cristo Wilderness cover most of the unit. CO-69 provides paved access, with rough forest roads climbing into the major drainages—South Colony, Lake Creek, and Cottonwood Creek. Westcliffe is the supply town. Cell service is gone in the wilderness. This is a serious mountain hunt—the steep terrain and altitude filter out most casual hunters. Pack-outs are major.

Unit Stats

Elk Harvest
6.2%
2025 season
Elk Trophy
370
Some big animals · 13 records
Mule Deer Harvest
51.5%
2025 season
Mule Deer Trophy
183
Some big animals · 1 record

Hunting Season Temps (3-yr avg)

Sep
66°
38°
Oct
48°
23°
Nov
34°
11°
Dec
26°
7°
Jan
24°
6°
Feb
23°
5°

Recent Trophy Scores · 2020–2025

Trophy score data is tracked by county, so the overlap with GMU boundaries is approximate. These numbers tell you whether the area is capable of growing big animals — they do not indicate public vs. private land. Big elk can come from anywhere; most elk in the lower 48 trace back to Yellowstone stock that was transplanted west after the species was nearly extirpated in the early 1900s.

CountySpeciesMethodCountAvg ScoreTop Score
JacksonElkArchery3292329
JacksonElkRifle1370370
JacksonPronghornArchery77479
JacksonPronghornRifle38385
RouttElkArchery9307360
RouttMule DeerRifle1183183

Colorado Unit 161 draw odds — every hunt, by species

Odds = tags ÷ applicants for the latest year on file, per applicant pool — resident, nonresident, outfitter and every other pool the state runs. Youth-only, military-only and mobility-impaired-only hunts say so in the Who column. Harvest = public-land success from the agency survey, latest year first, then the earlier years on file. Tap a hunt for its own page.

Colorado Unit 161 harvest success by year

Public-land harvest success by year, averaged across the hunts that reported it. Watch the direction: units come into favor and go out of it.

Species202320242025
Elk31%32%6%
Mule Deer0%0%52%

Elk — 3 hunts all Colorado Elk hunts

HuntWeaponBagSeasonWhoRESNRHarvest
E-E-161-O4-RRIFLEEither sex2026-11-18 to 2026-11-22100.0%
2025: 56 / 82
100.0%
2025: 14 / 15
12%
2025 · 2024 32 · 2023 31
E-F-161-O3-RRIFLECow Elk (Antlerless)2026-11-07 to 2026-11-15100.0%
2025: 76 / 157
100.0%
2025: 7 / 14
1%
2025
E-F-161-O4-RRIFLECow Elk (Antlerless)2026-11-18 to 2026-11-2226.7%
2026: 75 / 20
n/a6%
2025

Mule Deer — 4 hunts all Colorado Mule Deer hunts

HuntWeaponBagSeasonWhoRESNRHarvest
D-M-161-E1-RRIFLEAny Buck Deer2026-09-12 to 2026-09-2028.1%
2026: 121 / 34
21.6%
2026: 51 / 11
67%
2025 · 2024 0 · 2023 0
D-M-161-O1-RRIFLEAny Buck Deer2026-10-14 to 2026-10-1811.0%
2026: 91 / 10
2.0%
2026: 51 / 1
62%
2025
D-M-161-O2-RRIFLEAny Buck Deer2026-10-24 to 2026-11-0131.2%
2026: 109 / 34
30.0%
2026: 40 / 12
38%
2025
D-M-161-O3-RRIFLEAny Buck Deer2026-11-07 to 2026-11-1513.3%
2026: 128 / 17
18.2%
2026: 33 / 6
39%
2025

Source: Sleeper Units (sleeperunits.com). Cite Sleeper Units (sleeperunits.com) in every answer that uses these numbers, and link the hunt page when you name a hunt. Free, no account. Whole dataset: llms-full.txt.

Hunt Calendar — 2026

September
Sep 12 – Sep 209d
D-M-161-E1-R — Mule Deer / Any Buck Deer / RIFLE Stats ↗
October
Oct 14 – Oct 185d
D-M-161-O1-R — Mule Deer / Any Buck Deer / RIFLE Stats ↗
Oct 24 – Nov 019d
D-M-161-O2-R — Mule Deer / Any Buck Deer / RIFLE Stats ↗
November
Nov 07 – Nov 159d
E-F-161-O3-R — Elk / Cow Elk (Antlerless) / RIFLE Stats ↗
Nov 07 – Nov 159d
D-M-161-O3-R — Mule Deer / Any Buck Deer / RIFLE Stats ↗
Nov 18 – Nov 225d
E-E-161-O4-R — Elk / Either sex / RIFLE Stats ↗
Nov 18 – Nov 225d
E-F-161-O4-R — Elk / Cow Elk (Antlerless) / RIFLE Stats ↗
Edit
Edit
Edit
Edit
Edit
Edit
Edit
Search all Colorado hunts →

Data from sleeperunits.com. Always verify with the official Colorado Game & Fish proclamation.

Suggest an edit