Second rifle elk in Colorado, 2026: an OTC unit planning guide

Second rifle is the Colorado elk season any hunter can count on. The bull license is over the counter, so there is no draw and no preference points, and it covers about 90 units across the western half of the state. The ease of getting a tag is also the catch: tens of thousands of hunters hold the same license, the rut is done, and the elk have been hunted for seven weeks by opening morning.

This guide covers the 2026 dates and rules, how late October differs from first rifle, how to narrow 90 units to two or three, and a plan from today to October 24. It ends with the packout, the part that gets the least planning and costs a solo hunter the most.

Second rifle is one of those seasons where I think having multiple options matters more than having one spot you’re convinced will hold elk. By the time you get there, those elk have already lived through archery, muzzleloader and first rifle pressure. Weather can change the unit in a matter of days, and hunting pressure can change it in a matter of hours.

What are the 2026 dates, and what’s over the counter?

The 2026 elk rifle seasons, from CPW’s 2026 Big Game Brochure:

The second and third season bull licenses (hunt codes E-M-000-U2-R and E-M-000-U3-R) are unlimited. They went on sale August 4 and can be bought online, by phone or from a license agent, before and during the season. By our count of CPW’s 2026 hunt-code list, the second season license is valid in 90 units.

What changed for 2026. CPW moved second and third season rifle bull licenses in units 54, 55 and 551 (the Gunnison Basin) from unlimited over the counter to limited. If you hunted those units on an OTC tag before, that option is gone this year. The brochure’s OTC map (page 40) is the reference for any unit on your list.

What didn’t change, but trips people up:

• Nonresident archery elk west of I-25 (and unit 140) moved to the draw in 2025. That change was archery only. Nonresidents can still buy the second and third rifle OTC bull license.
• Antler point restriction. In most units a legal bull has four or more points on one antler, or a brow tine at least 5 inches long. The brochure lists the units.
• Fluorescent orange or pink. At least 500 square inches of solid fluorescent orange or pink, plus an orange or pink hat, visible from all angles, for any firearm elk license.
• Legal hours run from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset. On October 24 in Denver that is 6:50 a.m. to 6:38 p.m.; the western slope runs a few minutes later.
• CWD testing. In 2026, CPW requires heads from elk harvested during the rifle seasons in select units to be submitted for chronic wasting disease testing, at no charge. The hunt-code tables (pages 41–52) mark which ones.

How is second rifle different from first rifle?

Three things change between the middle of October and the end of it.

The rut is over. CPW’s species account puts it plainly: mating is over by mid-October. By second rifle, bulls are recovering from September, often alone or in small groups. I consider calling another tool in the bag rather than the foundation of the hunt. You can absolutely still hear a bull or get a response, but I’m much more interested in glassing, fresh sign, security cover and figuring out how elk are reacting to pressure than trying to recreate an archery-season hunt.

The elk have been hunted since September 2. Archery, muzzleloader and first rifle all come before you, and first rifle ends just six days before your opener. The research on how elk respond to that pressure is consistent:

• In a Starkey Experimental Forest study in Oregon, male elk moved more during rifle hunts than before them, from 11% more in daylight to 22% more at night, and they avoided open roads (Smith et al., 2022).
• In Idaho’s Clearwater drainage, adult bulls in roaded country survived the year at 41%, against 78% in relatively unroaded country (Unsworth and Kuck, 1991, summarized by McCorquodale, 2013).
• In a northwest Colorado field experiment, the timing of the archery opener shifted when elk moved onto private land by about 10 days (Conner et al., 2001). In Montana’s mixed public and private country, elk tended to shift toward ground hunters could not reach once seasons opened (Proffitt et al., 2013).

The pattern that runs through all of it: distance from open roads, and from the places hunters can easily reach, matters more in late October than in any other part of the year. Elk managers have long described security as blocks of cover of roughly 250 acres or more, at least half a mile from a road open to motor vehicles (Hillis et al., 1991). I don’t treat half a mile from a road as a magic number. In heavily hunted country, I use it as a starting point for thinking about security. Sometimes a relatively short distance with steep terrain or a nasty barrier eliminates most hunters; somewhere else you may need to go much farther. I’m looking for places that are difficult enough to reach that most people won’t bother — not just measuring straight-line distance from a road.

Weather starts to matter. Late October can bring the first snow that sticks. A 16-year study of nine Yellowstone-area herds found that snow accumulation and exposure to hunting both influenced when elk left summer range, and that arrival on winter range had shifted almost 50 days later since 2001 (Rickbeil et al., 2019). The practical reading for second rifle: the calendar alone does not move elk down. In a dry, mild October, elk often stay on summer and transition range at elevation. A storm that leaves real snow on the ground can change that over a few days, cow groups first.

That’s why I wouldn’t build a second-rifle plan around the assumption that “late October means the elk will be low.” Look at what the weather has actually done. If it’s been warm and dry, I’m keeping high-country options alive. If meaningful snow arrives, I’m looking at how that changes access, feed and where elk can comfortably travel.

How do you choose among 90 OTC units?

The measurable things come first, and every number is a relative signal, not a prediction.

Harvest and hunter numbers, read with care

CPW’s 2025 harvest report lists over-the-counter licenses by hunt code, not by unit. For the second rifle OTC bull license that means one number for all of its units: 23,668 hunters, 4,558 bulls, 19.3% success. Third rifle OTC: 17,371 hunters, 2,096 bulls, 12.1%. Those are useful statewide anchors, but they cannot tell one OTC unit from another.

Unit-level figures still exist in CPW’s earlier reports and in its all-seasons summaries. They work for comparing units against each other, not as odds. A unit with a high success rate and a high hunter count may be more crowded per square mile of public ground than one with modest numbers on a large block of national forest.

Huntable public land

What matters is the share of the unit you can legally hunt and reach, not the share that is public on a map. Landlocked public parcels, private inholdings and ranches along the valley floors can make a unit with a large public share feel much smaller. Colorado’s ownership maps cover federal and state land well. Anything else stays unverified until checked.

Access by vehicle

The forest roads you can drive in late October decide where your hunt starts. The Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Maps show which roads are open to which vehicles and when; many close or change status in the fall. Two numbers are worth writing down for each candidate area: how far it sits from the nearest open road, and how long it takes to get there with your truck and your legs. The first is your security buffer, the second is your packout.

I also wouldn’t automatically equate “farther” with “better.” Pressure doesn’t move elk according to a mileage ruler. Roads, trailheads, ATV access, steepness, private-land boundaries and the shape of the terrain all affect where hunters actually go. Sometimes the overlooked pocket is closer than everyone thinks because people are driving past it trying to get deep.

This year’s conditions

Three free sources cover most of it. SNOTEL stations (USDA NRCS) give snow depth against normal for the high country. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows how dry each part of the state ran this summer and fall. Fire perimeters from the national interagency feeds show recent burns, which change forage and cover for years after a fire. All three are worth a second look in the week before you leave, not only when you pick the unit.

A planning timeline from now to October 24

Today is October 6. That leaves about two and a half weeks.

This week (Oct 6–11): the shortlist. The first job is comparing the OTC units within your drive range on the measures above, then e-scouting two or three finalists: public land and access, the roads you can drive, the elevation band and aspects, burns, water and the pressure proxies. Our guide to e-scouting a Colorado elk unit walks through each pass. This is also where a planning tool earns its keep. Glassline ranks the over-the-counter units that fit your weapon, dates and residency, with the factors behind each rank, then drafts hunt areas, camps and plays for the unit you pick. The rest of this timeline doesn’t depend on it.

First rifle week (Oct 12–18): access and camp. This week goes to confirming that the roads to each area are open on your dates, checking county and forest fire restrictions, and settling on a camp with water and reasonable drive times to two or more areas. It’s also the week to buy the license if you haven’t, and to see whether your unit is on the mandatory CWD testing list. Offline maps for everything you might drive or hike belong on the phone now; most of these units have long stretches with no signal.

The week before (Oct 19–23): conditions and meat. SNOTEL and the forecast for your areas show what the first days may bring, and it’s worth deciding now what a fresh snow or a warm, dry week would change in the plan. The meat side gets lined up before you leave: game bags, a way to keep quarters cool, and a processor with room in late October. Arriving a day or two early buys time to look at the country before opening morning.

Opening day: October 24. Legal light comes before sunrise, and the morning works back from it: in position by legal light means leaving camp in the dark, and the drive and hike set how early.

What does the packout look like for a solo rifle hunter?

A mature bull boned out runs a little over 200 pounds of meat, and an older bull more (University of Wyoming’s carcass bulletin, 2003), before the head, cape and antlers. A solo hunter carrying 60 to 80 pounds a trip is looking at three to five trips.

I’m guilty of looking at country on a map and thinking, “I’d go in there,” without immediately thinking through what happens if I kill at the far end of it. Second rifle makes that calculation even more important because you’re potentially dealing with snow, shorter days and colder overnight temperatures.

The math is worth doing before the hunt, not after the shot. Take a bull 2 miles from the truck and 1,000 feet above it. Loaded, much of that walk goes at about a mile and a half an hour; unloaded, back up the hill, perhaps two. That is roughly two and a half hours a round trip, and four trips is a full day of hard work, plus the time to break the animal down. Double the distance and it becomes two days. A partner roughly halves the trips.

Meat care adds a clock. Late October nights are usually cold, but afternoons in the sun can be warm. Colorado State University Extension’s guidance is to skin the carcass if the night is expected to stay above freezing, keep the meat off the ground so heat can escape, and keep it shaded and clean. Quartered, bagged and hung in the shade, meat cools far faster than a whole carcass on the ground.

None of this means hunting close to the road. It means knowing, for each area you plan to hunt, what the way out costs, so that the decision to go deeper is made at the desk with the numbers in front of you.

The short version

Second rifle 2026 runs October 24 to November 1, over the counter in 90 units, but no longer in 54, 55 or 551. It is a post-rut, pressured hunt where access, security, current conditions and your ability to get an elk out matter at least as much as finding good-looking habitat on a map. Every hunter is a first-timer in a unit they’ve never seen. Two and a half weeks is enough to arrive with a plan.