Hunt code E-F-041-O3-R: 2026 Colorado cow elk, 3rd rifle

E-F-041-O3-R (printed on a license as EF041O3R) is a limited cow elk rifle license for the 3rd rifle season, November 7, 2026 to November 15, 2026, valid in unit 41.

Read left to right: E is elk, F is cow, 041 is the hunt area number (it names the license, and is not always a unit number), O3 is the 3rd rifle season and R is rifle. How to read any hunt code.

EF041O3R season dates and units

• Dates: November 7, 2026 to November 15, 2026
• Valid in: unit 41
• How it is issued: limited: issued through the draw, with any left over sold afterwards

Read from the 2026 Colorado Big Game brochure. Your license and the current brochure are the authority: check both with Colorado Parks and Wildlife before you hunt.

How many preference points did EF041O3R take in the 2026 draw?

In Colorado's 2026 primary draw, all 52 resident and 9 nonresident first-choice applicants for EF041O3R drew a license, so no preference points were needed.

"Drew out at" is CPW's own figure: the preference point level of the last license the draw gave that group. "2nd+ choice" means every first-choice applicant drew and the rest went to applicants who listed it lower; "leftover" means licenses were still left after the draw. Source: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 2026 Primary ELK Post Draw Report; 2025 Primary ELK Post Draw Report; 2024 Primary ELK Post Draw Report.

What was EF041O3R's hunter success in 2025?

CPW's 2025 harvest survey estimates that 74 hunters held EF041O3R and took 8 cows: 10.8% success, over 411 days in the field.

CPW's estimates for this license alone (2025 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates), the first year CPW reports by hunt code rather than by unit.

EF041O3R: elk hunters in unit 41, 2024 and 2023

Every 3rd rifle elk hunter in each unit, whatever license they held: CPW's survey does not report hunters by hunt code or by sex of license. Estimates from Colorado Parks and Wildlife's 2024 and 2023 harvest surveys, not counts: CPW rounds each figure, so the parts can differ from a total by one or two, and success here (animals taken divided by hunters, as on the unit pages) can sit a point from the percentage CPW prints. How to read these tables.

What the numbers say about EF041O3R

• Unit 41 had 273 elk hunters in the 3rd rifle season in 2024, who took 61 elk: 22% success. In 2023 it was 15% from 234 hunters, so success is up 7 points on the year before and hunter numbers went from 234 to 273.
• Across all 129 Colorado units with an estimate, elk hunters in the 3rd rifle season ran at 20% in 2024 (6,048 elk from 29,935 hunters). Unit 41 was 2 points above it, and held 0.9% of the state's hunters for that season.
• This is a cow license. Of the 61 elk taken, 21 were cows and 0 were calves (34% of the elk taken). The 2023 and 2024 unit surveys count animals by sex but not hunters by license; CPW's 2025 report gives this license's own success, above.
• The 3rd rifle season drew 273 of the 1,152 rifle elk hunters in unit 41 in 2024 (24%). The busiest rifle season there was 2nd rifle, with 411.
• That is 83 hunters for every 100 square miles of the unit, public and private land together, and 4.2 days in the field per hunter.
• Unit 41 is 27.3% national forest and 33.9% BLM land, about 201 of its 328 square miles. Every unit by public land.

The ground in unit 41, and legal light on November 7

Land shares are measured inside the unit boundary and count ownership, not access. Legal light is half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, worked out for the middle of each unit on the Colorado clock: the state's printed sunrise and sunset table is the rule.

Open the map on unit 41, with unit boundaries switched on. Land ownership, roads and State Wildlife Areas are layers on the same map.

See unit 41 on the map

• The unit boundaries for unit 41, over a topo map or an aerial photo.
• Who owns the ground: public and private land, parcel lines and the owner on record.
• Where elk live: the published summer and winter range maps.
• How much of each unit is public.

Other elk licenses valid in unit 41

• 1st rifle, Oct 14 to Oct 18: E-F-041-O1-R (cow, 5 units) · E-M-041-O1-R (bull, 6 units)
• 2nd rifle, Oct 24 to Nov 1: E-F-041-O2-R (cow) · E-M-000-U2-R (bull, 90 units)
• 3rd rifle, Nov 7 to Nov 15: E-M-000-U3-R (bull, 90 units)
• 4th rifle, Nov 18 to Nov 22: E-F-041-O4-R (cow) · E-M-041-O4-R (bull, 6 units)

Deer in the same season and ground: D-F-041-O3-R (doe, 3 units) · D-M-041-O3-R (buck, 3 units)

Other 2026 elk codes that include unit 41 (other methods, late and private-land seasons), with no page here: E-F-041-P5-R (rifle, cow, Sep 1 to Jan 31, private land only) · E-E-041-P1-R (rifle, either-sex, Nov 18 to Nov 22, private land only) · E-E-041-P4-R (rifle, either-sex, Nov 18 to Nov 22, private land only) · E-E-441-W1-R (rifle, either-sex, Nov 28 to Dec 7). Dates are given only where they could be read from the brochure with confidence.

State Wildlife Areas and State Trust Lands in unit 41

Orchard Mesa Wildlife Area, 148 acresTilman Bishop SWA, 113 acresColorado River Island SWA, 67 acresFranklin Island SWA, 38 acres

Each has its own printed rules and closures, and some list no elk hunting: look up any CPW property.