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Colorado GMU 3 mule deer: terrain, access and seasons

Unit 3's terrain, access, seasons and CPW mule deer figures, with Conditions rebuilt nightly.

By Bryson, co-founder Updated

2026 season

Second rifle Oct 24–Nov 1

Every section below follows this season.

Decide

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

At a glance

Second rifle runs Oct 24–Nov 1, 2026; CPW's 2024 harvest survey put success at 58% for 280 hunters.

Size
849 sq mi
CPW unit boundary, 2025
County
Moffat
Elevation
5,760–7,370 ft
USGS 3DEP, 2026-10-19
Huntable public land
54%
COMaP, 2026-10-12
Second rifle license, 2026
Draw buck, doe
CPW 2026 big game brochure. Colorado has no OTC mule deer license
Success
58%
CPW harvest survey, 2024
Hunters
280
CPW harvest survey, 2024
Hunter-days per sq mi
1.1
CPW, 2024
Road miles, any vehicle
486 mi
MVUM + CDOT, open on the Oct 24 opener
Median Habitat Score
2.2 of 5
Ranks 41st of 156 for second rifle. Glassline, v4, 2026-10-19

In short

A low-elevation, open draw-only unit with less far-from-road ground than most units. Almost all of Unit 3 sits between 6,000 and 7,000 feet, mostly shrubland with grass and meadow after it. Just over half of the unit is huntable public land, and almost none of that ground is more than an hour and a half on foot from a drivable road. CPW's survey counted 867 hunters across all seasons in 2024, down from 2,278 in 2022, while second rifle success fell from 71% to 58%. Every license here is drawn, as for all Colorado mule deer.

Licenses and draw

Second rifle in Unit 3, 2026: a draw buck license (D-M-003-O2-R) and a draw doe license (D-F-003-O2-R).

  • D-M-003-O2-R buck, draw 2026 draw: drawn out at 0 points for residents and nonresidents
  • D-F-003-O2-R doe, draw 2026 draw: residents drawn out at 3 points; nonresidents none drawn

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 3 sits among its neighbors.

301 4 2 211 11 3

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; severe drought (D2) on the US Drought Monitor over 45.5% 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 D2, Severe droughtShare of the unit: D0 or worse 100% · D1 or worse 100% · D2 or worse 45.5% USDM 2026-10-13 USDM 2026-10-13
Greenness vs normal, Sep 14–29 143% of the September normal (2014–2023), MODIS 16-day composite 2026-09-29 2026-09-29

7-day forecast

Access

Unit 3 has no mapped trailhead and about 486 miles of road any vehicle may drive on the second rifle opener, plus 27 more that need high clearance. Nearly all 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, second rifle opener Oct 24–Nov 1, by the smallest vehicle allowed. MVUM plus county and state roads.
Vehicle Miles
Any vehicle
486 mi
High clearance
27 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
97.1%
30–60 min
2.1%
60–90 min
0.7%
Over 90 min
0.2%

Hunt codes and draw results

2 hunt codes for second 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-003-O2-R buck 2024 300 306 159 0 points 127 56 1 point
2025 420 338 230 0 points 154 84 0 points
2026 600 331 317 0 points 202 148 0 points
D-F-003-O2-R doe 2024 10 126 8 2 points 9 0 None Drawn
2025 10 124 6 3 points 4 0 None Drawn
2026 10 105 6 3 points 4 0 None Drawn

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 3.

  • Across Utah and Nevada, GPS-collared mule deer avoided high-severity burns at fine scale for up to 30 years after a fire.

    Mills et al., 2026 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

Build a plan for Unit 3, free.

Start free

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

5,760–7,370 ft; shrubland 83.8% and grass & meadow 7.1%; burns: Iron Fire (2023).

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

Elevation Acres per 1,000 ft band. USGS 3DEP.
  1. 5k–6k ft 28,450 ac
  2. 6k–7k ft 460,940 ac
  3. 7k–8k ft 49,720 ac
Table view
BandAcres
5,000–6,000 ft28,450 ac
6,000–7,000 ft460,940 ac
7,000–8,000 ft49,720 ac
Slope Share of the unit per slope class.
  1. Under 5° 54.6%
  2. 5–15° 41%
  3. 15–25° 3.7%
  4. 25–35° 0.6%
  5. 35°+ 0.1%
Table view
Slope classShare
Flat (under 5°)54.6%
Gentle (5–15°)41%
Moderate (15–25°)3.7%
Steep (25–35°)0.6%
Very steep (35° and up)0.1%
Aspect Share of non-flat ground facing each way.
  1. N 12.3%
  2. NE 8.1%
  3. E 13.5%
  4. SE 13.6%
  5. S 11.2%
  6. SW 10.1%
  7. W 14.4%
  8. NW 16.9%
Table view
AspectShare
North12.3%
Northeast8.1%
East13.5%
Southeast13.6%
South11.2%
Southwest10.1%
West14.4%
Northwest16.9%
Vegetation LF2024 existing vegetation, groups of 1% or more.
  1. Shrubland 83.8%
  2. Grass & meadow 7.1%
  3. Pinyon-juniper 4.9%
  4. Farmland 1.2%
Table view
Vegetation groupShare
Shrubland83.8%
Grass & meadow7.1%
Pinyon-juniper4.9%
Farmland1.2%
Item Value Data
Burned 0–3 years ago 7,200 acIron Fire (2023), 7,200 ac NIFC since 2020 NIFC since 2020
Openings in timber 235 openings of 1–40 ac, from lidar covering 100% of the unit 2026-10-19 2026-10-19
Habitat Score, second rifle Share of 290,500 ac of huntable public ground in each score band. Median 2.2. Scoring v4, computed 2026-10-19.
Table view
ScoreShare of scored ground
0–0.50%
0.5–10.9%
1–1.56.5%
1.5–228%
2–2.538.4%
2.5–323.4%
3–3.52.9%
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 2022–2024 for the chosen season and all seasons, the Bears Ears herd (D-2) estimate for 2025 and hunter density, 2024.

Second rifle success fell from 71% to 58% between 2022 and 2024, while the season's hunters fell by just under two-thirds. Across all seasons, hunters fell by about three-fifths between 2022 and 2024. Unit 3 is one of 7 units in CPW's Bears Ears mule deer herd (DAU D-2), estimated at about 25,000 mule deer after the 2025 hunt, with 26 bucks per 100 does.

Hunters, harvest and success
Season Year Hunters Harvest Success
Second rifle 2022 775 549 71%
2023 343 141 41%
2024 280 161 58%
All seasons 2022 2,278 1,570 69%
2023 981 380 39%
2024 867 486 56%

CPW deer harvest reports, 2022–2024. A dash: not reported.

Item Value Data
Hunter density 4 hunter-days per sq mi, all seasons CPW 2024 CPW 2024
Herd estimate (Bears Ears, D-2) 24,620 post-hunt · 38,660 in 2019 CPW 2025 CPW 2025
Buck:doe ratio 26 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, 2022–2024.

Herd numbers cover the whole Bears Ears herd unit (D-2), which also takes in Units 4, 5, 14, 214, 301 and 441: CPW manages herds, not units. Source: CPW post-hunt population estimate, 2025.

Neighbors

Units 301, 4, 2, 211 and 11, 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

22 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. 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.
  8. 3DEP lidar point clouds (canopy height model) — U.S. Geological Survey
  9. COTREX: Colorado Trail Explorer — Colorado Parks and Wildlife On the map: trailheads, 2024.
  10. 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.
  11. Highways and major roads — Colorado Department of Transportation On the map: highways, mapped 2026-07-31.
  12. U.S. Drought Monitor — National Drought Mitigation Center, 2026-10-13
  13. MOD13Q1 vegetation indices (NDVI), 250 m 16-day — NASA LP DAAC, 2026-09-29
  14. Influence of well pad activity on winter habitat selection patterns of mule deer — Sawyer, Kauffman and Nielson, Journal of Wildlife Management 73(7), 2009
  15. Long-term benefits of burns for large mammal habitat undermined by large, severe fires in the American West — Mills, Leclerc, Ditmer, Steel, Stoner, Sexton and others, Ecography 2026 (read via the Northern Rockies Fire Science Network summary), 2026
  16. Sex-specific behaviors of hunted mule deer during rifle season — Rodgers, Sawyer, Mong, Stephens and Kauffman, Journal of Wildlife Management 85(2), 2021
  17. Ungulate migrations of the western United States, volume 4 — Kauffman, Lowrey, Beaupre and others, USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5006, 2024
  18. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) fact sheet — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Colorado, Fact sheet, March 2000, 2000
  19. Timing of seasonal migration in mule deer: effects of climate, plant phenology, and life-history characteristics — Monteith, Bleich, Stephenson, Pierce, Conner, Klaver and Bowyer, Ecosphere 2(4), 2011
  20. SNOTEL network: daily snow depth and snow water equivalent — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service On the map: SNOTEL stations.
  21. Gazetteer files, places — U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 On the map: towns, 2024.
  22. Species Activity Mapping: mule deer seasonal ranges — Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 2025 On the map: CPW mapped ranges, 2025.

Build a plan for Unit 3, free.

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