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Colorado GMU 120 mule deer: terrain, access and seasons

Unit 120's terrain, access, seasons and CPW mule deer figures, with Conditions rebuilt nightly.

By Bryson, co-founder Updated

2026 season

First rifle Oct 24–Nov 3

Every section below follows this season.

Decide

The season's licenses, draw results and harvest figures.

At a glance

First rifle runs Oct 24–Nov 3, 2026.

Size
519 sq mi
CPW unit boundary, 2025
Counties
Lincoln, Crowley, Kiowa
Elevation
4,270–5,380 ft
USGS 3DEP, 2026-10-19
Huntable public land
1%
COMaP, 2026-10-12
First rifle license, 2026
Draw buck, doe
CPW 2026 big game brochure. Colorado has no OTC mule deer license
Road miles, any vehicle
354 mi
MVUM + CDOT, open on the Oct 24 opener
Median Habitat Score
0.2 of 5
Ranks 56th of 72 for first rifle. Glassline, v4, 2026-10-19

In short

A low-elevation, open draw-only unit with less far-from-road ground than most units and more hunters than in 2021. Most of Unit 120 sits between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, mostly grass and meadow with shrubland after it. Almost none of the unit is huntable public land. CPW's survey counted 96 hunters across all seasons in 2024, up from 79 in 2021. Every license here is drawn, as for all Colorado mule deer.

Licenses and draw

First rifle in Unit 120, 2026: a draw buck license (D-M-120-O1-R) and a draw doe license (D-F-120-O1-R).

  • D-M-120-O1-R buck, draw 2026 draw: residents drawn on choice 2; nonresidents drawn out at 0 points
  • D-F-120-O1-R doe, draw 2026 draw: licenses left over for residents and nonresidents

CPW 2026 big game brochure; CPW primary-draw recap and drawn-out-at reports, 2024–2026, adult licenses. Every year of draw results is under Hunt codes and draw results.

Plan

The map, Conditions, access, hunt codes and draw results for the season, and what the research says.

Map

The interactive map (public land by manager, roads by vehicle class, burns, trailheads, SNOTEL stations, terrain and CPW's mapped ranges) needs JavaScript. The outline shows where Unit 120 sits among its neighbors.

119 124 121 125 113 120

Public data only. The plan lives in the app. Map sources

Conditions

As of Oct 21: no SNOTEL station sits within 6 mi of the unit; abnormally dry (D0) on the US Drought Monitor over 100% of the unit.

Rebuilt nightly; sources at the end of the page.

Item Value Data
SNOTEL No SNOTEL station within 6 mi of the unit
Drought D0, Abnormally dryShare of the unit: D0 or worse 100% USDM 2026-10-13 USDM 2026-10-13
Greenness vs normal, Sep 14–29 142% of the September normal (2014–2023), MODIS 16-day composite 2026-09-29 2026-09-29

7-day forecast

Access

Unit 120 has no mapped trailhead and about 354 miles of road any vehicle may drive on the first rifle opener, plus 2 more that need high clearance. About nine-tenths of the huntable public ground is within a 30-minute walk of a drivable road, and almost none is more than an hour and a half away.

Trailheads
0
COTREX, computed 2026-10-19
Road miles open, first rifle opener Oct 24–Nov 3, by the smallest vehicle allowed. MVUM plus county and state roads.
Vehicle Miles
Any vehicle
354 mi
High clearance
2 mi
4x4
0 mi
Walking time from a drivable road Share of huntable public ground by foot time from the nearest drivable road. Foot time at a standard pace on Glassline's travel model (slope, vegetation, trails), from the nearest highway, road a high-clearance vehicle can drive, or trailhead, with every road open.
Walking time Share
Within 30 min
88.6%
30–60 min
8.9%
60–90 min
2.4%
Over 90 min
0%

Hunt codes and draw results

2 hunt codes for first rifle, 2026, with CPW's primary-draw results for 2024–2026.

Hunt code Year Licenses Residents Nonresidents
1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at 1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at
D-M-120-O1-R buck 2024 100 48 47 0 points 10 10 0 points
2025 100 52 50 0 points 18 13 0 points
2026 100 49 57 Choice 2 8 8 0 points
D-F-120-O1-R doe 2024 70 30 37 Leftover 0 0 Leftover
2025 70 18 29 Leftover 0 2 Leftover
2026 70 14 20 Leftover 0 0 Leftover

Hunt codes from the CPW 2026 big game brochure. A code valid in several units counts every hunter in all of them.

Draw results are CPW's primary-draw recap and drawn-out-at reports, 2024–2026, adult licenses. "Drawn out at" is the lowest preference-point level that drew a license; "Leftover" means licenses remained after the draw. A code valid in several units counts every applicant for all of them. Source: CPW draw reports, 2024–2026.

What the research says for this season

Findings from published studies and agency work, as tendencies. They describe how mule deer have behaved where they were studied, not where they are in Unit 120.

  • In a Wyoming study, mule deer avoided well pads more as vehicle traffic grew; cutting the traffic shrank the ground the deer avoided.

    Sawyer et al., 2009 Single study

  • In a south-central Wyoming herd, mature bucks moved away from motorized routes into roadless cover during a rifle season while does stayed on their usual forage, and hunting barely changed when deer migrated.

    Rodgers et al., 2021 Single study

  • In Colorado's Gunnison Basin, GPS-collared mule deer made their fall migration from late October into early November, along corridors averaging about 17 miles.

    Kauffman et al., 2024 Single study

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POIs are terrain candidates — places worth checking, not animal locations.

Reference

Terrain, the multi-year numbers, neighbors and sources. Each opens in place.

Terrain and habitat

4,270–5,380 ft; grass & meadow 90.6% and shrubland 4.6%; no mapped burns since 2020.

Unit-wide figures, computed 2026-10-19.

Elevation Acres per 1,000 ft band. USGS 3DEP.
  1. 4k–5k ft 236,180 ac
  2. 5k–6k ft 94,470 ac
Table view
BandAcres
4,000–5,000 ft236,180 ac
5,000–6,000 ft94,470 ac
Slope Share of the unit per slope class.
  1. Under 5° 98.4%
  2. 5–15° 1.6%
  3. 15–25° 0%
  4. 25–35° 0%
  5. 35°+ 0%
Table view
Slope classShare
Flat (under 5°)98.4%
Gentle (5–15°)1.6%
Moderate (15–25°)0%
Steep (25–35°)0%
Very steep (35° and up)0%
Aspect Share of non-flat ground facing each way.
  1. N 6.5%
  2. NE 12.6%
  3. E 24.9%
  4. SE 10.9%
  5. S 7.3%
  6. SW 13.2%
  7. W 17.1%
  8. NW 7.5%
Table view
AspectShare
North6.5%
Northeast12.6%
East24.9%
Southeast10.9%
South7.3%
Southwest13.2%
West17.1%
Northwest7.5%
Vegetation LF2024 existing vegetation, groups of 1% or more.
  1. Grass & meadow 90.6%
  2. Shrubland 4.6%
  3. Developed 2%
  4. Farmland 1.3%
Table view
Vegetation groupShare
Grass & meadow90.6%
Shrubland4.6%
Developed2%
Farmland1.3%
Item Value Data
Burns No burned acres in the unit since 2020 NIFC NIFC
Openings in timber 0 openings of 1–40 ac, from lidar covering 99.9% of the unit 2026-10-19 2026-10-19
Habitat Score, first rifle Share of 3,200 ac of huntable public ground in each score band. Median 0.2. Scoring v4, computed 2026-10-19.
Table view
ScoreShare of scored ground
0–0.595.7%
0.5–14.3%
1–1.50%
1.5–20%
2–2.50%
2.5–30%
3–3.50%
3.5–40%
4–4.50%
4.5–50%

Glassline's Habitat Score grades terrain and habitat for the season on food, water, breeding and shelter. Shown here as one distribution for the whole unit, never a map: it grades ground, not animal locations.

The numbers

CPW harvest estimates 2021–2024 for the chosen season and all seasons, the Big Sandy herd (D-46) estimate for 2025 and hunter density, 2024.

CPW reports no first rifle harvest figures for the unit. Across all seasons, hunters rose by about a fifth between 2021 and 2024. Unit 120 is one of 7 units in CPW's Big Sandy mule deer herd (DAU D-46), estimated at about 3,900 mule deer after the 2025 hunt, with 37 bucks per 100 does.

Hunters, harvest and success
Season Year Hunters Harvest Success
All seasons 2021 79 41 52%
2022 119 70 59%
2024 96 14 15%

CPW deer harvest reports, 2021–2024. A dash: not reported.

Item Value Data
Hunter density 1 hunter-days per sq mi, all seasons CPW 2024 CPW 2024
Herd estimate (Big Sandy, D-46) 3,930 post-hunt · 2,910 in 2019 CPW 2025 CPW 2025
Buck:doe ratio 37 bucks per 100 does CPW 2025 CPW 2025

CPW harvest figures are survey estimates, not counts, and they cover the whole unit, private land included. Source: CPW harvest reports, 2021–2024.

Herd numbers cover the whole Big Sandy herd unit (D-46), which also takes in Units 107, 112, 113, 114, 115 and 121: CPW manages herds, not units. Source: CPW post-hunt population estimate, 2025.

Neighbors

Units 119, 124, 121, 125 and 113, nearest first.

From each unit's own page; dates there.

What this page can't tell you

Closures, private ground, this year's pressure and animal locations.
  • Closures. Forest, fire and road closure orders change through the season and aren't checked here. The managing agency's current order governs.
  • Private ground. Land with no public hunting access is hunted only with the owner's permission, and the public-land share above leaves it out.
  • This year's pressure. CPW's hunter numbers run a year or more behind the season you're planning.
  • Animal locations. These are terrain, access, harvest and herd figures, and CPW's mapped ranges are range lines; none of them places an animal.

Sources

19 datasets and studies, dated where the source dates them.
  1. Deer statistics: population estimates and harvest reports — Colorado Parks and Wildlife
  2. Colorado big game hunting: brochure, seasons and hunt codes — Colorado Parks and Wildlife
  3. Game Management Unit boundaries (Hunting Atlas) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife On the map: unit boundaries, 2025.
  4. COMaP: Colorado Ownership, Management and Protection — Colorado Natural Heritage Program, 2026-10-12 On the map: public land by manager, mapped 2026-07-29.
  5. 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), 1/3 arc-second — U.S. Geological Survey On the map: shaded relief from 5 m and 10 m lidar elevation, mapped 2026-10-04; elevation bands and slope, mapped 2026-10-04.
  6. LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type (LF 2024) — U.S. Geological Survey / USDA Forest Service, LF2024
  7. 3DEP lidar point clouds (canopy height model) — U.S. Geological Survey
  8. COTREX: Colorado Trail Explorer — Colorado Parks and Wildlife On the map: trailheads, 2024.
  9. Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUM) — USDA Forest Service On the map: roads by vehicle class, drawn as open on the selected season's opener, mapped 2026-08-22.
  10. Highways and major roads — Colorado Department of Transportation On the map: highways, mapped 2026-07-31.
  11. U.S. Drought Monitor — National Drought Mitigation Center, 2026-10-13
  12. MOD13Q1 vegetation indices (NDVI), 250 m 16-day — NASA LP DAAC, 2026-09-29
  13. Influence of well pad activity on winter habitat selection patterns of mule deer — Sawyer, Kauffman and Nielson, Journal of Wildlife Management 73(7), 2009
  14. Sex-specific behaviors of hunted mule deer during rifle season — Rodgers, Sawyer, Mong, Stephens and Kauffman, Journal of Wildlife Management 85(2), 2021
  15. Ungulate migrations of the western United States, volume 4 — Kauffman, Lowrey, Beaupre and others, USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5006, 2024
  16. Wildland Fire Interagency Geospatial Services (WFIGS) fire perimeters — National Interagency Fire Center On the map: burns over 100 acres since 2020, mapped 2026-06-29.
  17. SNOTEL network: daily snow depth and snow water equivalent — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service On the map: SNOTEL stations.
  18. Gazetteer files, places — U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 On the map: towns, 2024.
  19. Species Activity Mapping: mule deer seasonal ranges — Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 2025 On the map: CPW mapped ranges, 2025.

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POIs are terrain candidates — places worth checking, not animal locations.