Colorado OTC elk units 2026, by the numbers

Name: Colorado OTC elk units 2026: harvest, crowding and public land
Creator: FilledTag
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

All 90 units where a 2026 over-the-counter rifle bull elk license is valid, with Colorado Parks and Wildlife's own 2024 figures for 2nd and 3rd rifle, how much of each unit is public land, and how high it runs. Tap any column to sort by it.

Most bulls taken across 2nd and 3rd rifle in 2024: units 70, 77, 78, 62 and 81. More bulls usually means more elk and more hunters both, so read the hunters and the hunters per square mile beside it.


70	281	1,069	32	349	1,062	42	1.41	63.8	5,200	12,500
77	229	1,057	22	201	782	28	3.3	81.9	6,900	12,100
78	235	871	28	163	588	29	1.91	61.7	6,600	12,100
62	224	1,567	18	72	832	15	1.74	68.2	4,800	9,600
81	201	1,411	17	88	582	21	1.64	61.6	7,500	12,100
80	176	1,166	17	89	627	21	2.02	54.2	7,500	12,100
22	161	716	25	82	489	23	1.22	69.4	5,700	8,500
12	141	482	33	77	346	31	1.68	48.4	6,300	11,100
65	119	687	25	81	414	31	1.64	48.8	6,000	12,900
711	110	631	19	88	595	17	1.5	56.1	5,700	9,000
18	78	1,026	11	104	927	19	3.03	62.8	7,600	12,300
11	100	582	18	75	670	17	2.05	60.5	5,600	7,700
31	87	327	27	83	336	27	0.94	56.2	4,900	8,800
13	74	219	39	90	196	56	1.15	6.2	6,200	8,000
211	70	457	21	79	453	22	2.11	37.6	6,000	8,300
71	120	789	16	23	376	7	2.24	83.9	7,500	12,400
42	61	716	15	78	639	25	2.24	50.9	4,900	10,500
68	88	695	14	48	406	14	1.83	78.6	7,600	12,400
75	88	408	24	46	259	23	1.03	42.2	6,200	13,000
421	81	886	13	52	370	19	2.32	63.9	5,400	10,800
43	85	791	19	46	384	28	2.23	71.9	6,100	12,500
85	107	605	18	21	345	8	0.81	12.5	6,200	11,500
751	78	372	24	48	305	17	1.46	70.5	6,300	12,900
4	53	408	13	60	368	17	1.66	40.4	6,300	10,100
74	74	370	20	31	205	16	0.97	81.8	6,600	12,900
521	58	531	11	35	246	19	1.53	74.1	5,700	11,600
17	29	408	11	59	314	29	2.56	54.4	8,100	11,200
33	48	743	13	38	443	16	2.85	72.9	5,400	11,000
82	42	526	11	44	392	18	0.84	28.6	7,500	12,800
52	55	506	16	26	226	19	2.76	47.2	5,200	10,800
15	45	982	9	31	685	9	3.39	61.1	6,900	10,400
21	55	544	12	21	283	9	0.93	86.1	5,200	8,800
53	62	442	16	14	183	14	1.58	76.2	5,500	11,600
41	36	411	14	39	273	22	2.09	61.2	4,700	10,500
444	52	430	17	22	171	19	1.62	63	6,000	12,100
681	32	411	8	42	325	13	1.66	86	7,800	11,800
63	39	304	21	32	182	25	1.32	48.2	5,200	10,900
86	49	461	12	18	216	8	1.36	53.9	6,600	12,900
6	32	935	8	34	453	15	3.92	29.4	7,900	11,400
581	36	373	11	30	272	11	0.94	32.4	5,400	10,000
44	55	411	17	10	216	14	1.66	77.3	6,400	12,200
35	45	280	17	17	198	12	1.78	69	6,300	10,500
37	27	343	9	35	262	15	1.15	68.7	7,400	13,100
3	37	295	13	23	351	8	0.76	43.5	5,900	7,200
30	36	180	22	18	241	12	0.48	73.4	4,500	8,500
45	46	339	17	8	144	16	1.44	87.5	7,600	12,800
5	47	249	19	6	85	10	1.12	57.8	6,700	10,100
25	32	394	11	20	249	11	2.77	82.5	6,400	11,700
161	19	662	6	30	566	13	3.01	65.3	7,900	11,200
36	23	325	10	25	178	18	1.83	81.2	7,200	12,300
771	19	167	13	28	191	15	0.98	17.9	6,100	8,500
32	39	146	27	7	84	14	0.76	37.3	5,100	9,000
64	26	231	19	20	162	21	1.46	36.4	5,000	9,300
741	22	75	30	24	76	33	0.31	2	6,100	8,500
34	30	230	13	14	150	12	1.97	91.3	5,800	11,100
171	23	437	5	21	236	16	2.63	51.2	8,100	11,800
23	21	425	6	22	375	13	1.89	38.6	6,300	9,600
47	32	257	17	11	74	18	1.13	90.8	7,100	12,900
72	36	186	20	7	87	8	0.28	28.2	4,800	8,100
441	19	194	12	22	72	30	1.37	19.6	6,300	9,600
851	24	87	27	17	65	26	0.35	0.7	6,200	12,600
861	33	95	35	7	48	15	0.69	33.3	7,500	12,600
73	29	265	12	10	152	8	0.47	25.4	5,200	11,100
14	33	167	21	4	33	12	0.49	84.9	6,900	11,400
140	33	49	66	4	27	14	0.17	0	5,500	9,300
181	16	254	8	20	245	17	2.74	48.1	7,400	11,000
411	19	213	10	17	123	17	1.46	60.9	5,000	10,700
26	23	275	8	11	180	9	1.9	47.7	6,700	11,800
60	16	139	14	18	138	20	1.16	81.5	4,600	8,200
28	20	647	4	13	465	5	1.68	65.5	7,600	12,300
131	25	207	16	7	97	32	1.58	8.8	6,600	8,800
371	13	182	9	18	162	14	2	84.7	8,000	12,800
214	7	96	8	17	72	32	0.73	19.7	6,600	9,700
24	23	482	5	0	166	5	1.48	92.5	7,300	11,600
16	19	480	6	3	217	18	2.18	45.5	8,000	11,200
511	13	451	4	7	156	6	1.68	60.4	6,200	9,300
38	7	195	4	10	148	9	0.75	20	5,200	12,100
59	13	126	10	4	78	11	0.32	29.5	4,900	12,300
431	13	70	32	3	23	34	0.42	72.5	7,200	13,200
27	10	484	5	4	228	11	3.61	40.4	7,300	10,300
231	12	300	9	2	93	13	2.21	62.3	7,400	11,500
591	10	89	11	4	34	11	0.57	0	5,400	6,600
361	10	70	16	3	76	16	1.76	66.7	6,900	11,100
141	6	10	66	6	10	63	0.08	0.2	5,100	5,800
133	10	23	42	0	7	0	0.05	0.3	4,900	6,500
142	10	46	21	0	8	0	0.15	0.1	4,600	5,800
301	0	85	0	8	141	6	0.62	10.8	6,100	7,200
134	7	13	50				0.03	0.2	5,000	6,300
471	3	60	5	4	9	55	0.66	87.8	8,000	13,100
691	3	36	9	4	41	9	0.31	41.5	5,700	8,200

Bulls, hunters and success: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 2024 Elk Harvest Survey, by season (success counts every license in that season, not only bull licenses). Hunters per square mile: 2nd and 3rd rifle hunters together over the unit's area. Public land: Forest Service and BLM land measured inside the unit boundary from the national surface management data; State Wildlife Areas and State Trust Land are not counted. OTC list: the 2026 Colorado Big Game brochure. Download this table (CSV). Free to use; please name the source.

How to use this table

Bulls taken and success say where elk were killed, not where they will be. Units with many bulls taken often have many hunters too.
Hunters per square mile is the crowding: a low number means more room on opening morning.
Public land is the share you can walk on without permission. A unit with little public land can still be good if the public ground is in the right place.
Elevation matters when snow comes: elk move down, and a unit that runs low keeps them reachable.

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