AmmoSight

Colorado Deer — GMU 581

Colorado GMU 581 covers 440,670 acres and lies 22 miles north of Cañon City and 32 miles west of Colorado Springs. 44% of it is public land, mostly BLM (22%) and national forest (11%). In 2024, 572 people hunted deer here and took 292 — 51% of them killed something. The 2026 draw put up 129 tags here for 263 first-choice applicants, and the last tag went to someone with 2 points.

Tags (2026):457 Nonresident share:capped at 25% Applicants:729 Hunter success (2024):51% Public land:44% Size:440,670 acres

Your chance of drawing here

Every deer license type on offer in GMU 581, with the prior-draw chance for a first-choice nonresident applicant. Type your points in to see your own number.

14 licenses on offer · 457 tags · 729 applicants in the 2026 draw

Chances are from the 2026 draw (the most recent) for a first-choice nonresident. "Points needed" = the cut in the last draw.

Simple view Odds at every point level
  • DE049O1A deer either-sex archery season 1 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 58 tags · 90 applicants · needed 1 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DE049O1A deer either-sex archery season 1 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 16 tags · 7 applicants · needed 0 pts · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed 0% as 2nd choice
  • DF049O1M deer female muzzleloader season 1 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 1 tags · 1 applicants · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DF049O1M deer female muzzleloader season 1 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 35 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 0% as 2nd choice
  • DF058O2R deer female rifle season 2 GMU 58 [58, 581] 0 tags · 3 applicants · Standard
    — Not open to nonresidents 0% as 2nd choice
  • DF058O2R deer female rifle season 2 GMU 58 [58, 581] 30 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 0% as 2nd choice
  • DF058O3R deer female rifle season 3 GMU 58 [58, 581] 1 tags · 3 applicants · needed 4 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DF069L1R deer female rifle late season GMU 69 [on the S by a straight] 0 tags · 0 applicants · Standard
    — Not open to nonresidents
  • DM049O1M deer male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 37 tags · 68 applicants · needed 2 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DM049O1M deer male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 7 tags · 3 applicants · needed 2 pts · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DM049O2R deer male rifle season 2 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 129 tags · 263 applicants · needed 2 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DM049O2R deer male rifle season 2 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 25 tags · 13 applicants · needed 2 pts · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DM049O3R deer male rifle season 3 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 106 tags · 261 applicants · needed 2 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • DM049O3R deer male rifle season 3 GMU 49 [49, 57, 58, 581] 12 tags · 17 applicants · needed 2 pts · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
What these columns mean
Your odds
—
the share of applicants at your point level who drew this tag in the 2026 draw. Not a forecast: quotas and demand move every year.
The badge
—
plain language for that number. Likely draw 75% or better · Real chance 40%+ · Long shot 15%+ · Point builder below that, so you are applying mainly to bank a point · Undersubscribed means fewer first-choice applicants than tags, so everyone who applied drew.
As 2nd choice
—
Colorado lets you name more than one hunt on the application. Miss on your first choice and you go into the pot for whatever tags are left, alongside everyone else's second choices. Points never help a lower choice, so this number is the same whatever you have banked — it is usually worth naming a hunt that goes undersubscribed.
Points needed
—
the lowest point total that still got a tag in the 2026 draw, and how that cut has moved since the earliest draw we hold.
Tags / applicants
—
tags on offer and first-choice applicants for them, as the agency published them. Under five tags we print counts instead of a percentage, because one applicant either way swings it.

What it costs to apply (2026 nonresident fees)

License Up front Gone if you miss If you draw
Standard license $129.11 $129.11 $636.03
Youth license $129.11 $129.11 $636.03

Application window: opens Mar 1, closes Apr 7, 2027 (expected). Full fee breakdown.

The country

Cañon City Colorado Springs Castle Rock Lakewood Boulder
GMU 581 within Colorado
110 118 123 48 481 49 50 501 51 511 512 551 56 561 57 58 59 591 681 69 691 86 Cañon City Colorado Springs Monument Fountain Pueblo
GMU 581 and its neighbours
Zoomable USGS topo, aerial imagery and shaded relief, with the neighboring areas drawn on.

Boundaries are drawn for orientation only — the written boundary description in the regulations governs.

Who owns the ground

  • Private 246,798 ac · 56%
  • BLM 99,049 ac · 22%
  • National Forest 50,557 ac · 11%
  • County or city land 28,374 ac · 6%
  • State land 9,619 ac · 2%
  • National Park Service 6,271 ac · 1%

Source: BLM Colorado Surface Management Agency

Nearby areas

How the hunting has gone

What Colorado Parks and Wildlife publishes for this area after each season — harvest statistics for everyone who hunted it, not draw odds and not a forecast. Colorado's figures come from CPW's post-season hunter survey. CPW's 2025 report dropped the per-GMU table in favour of hunt-code rows, so the newest year shown here is 2024.

Season Hunters Harvest Success
2024 572 292 51%
2023 540 266 49%
2022 537 317 59%
2021 518 248 48%

What people carried (2024 harvest)

  • Rifle 256 · 88% · 450 hunters, 57% success
  • Archery 28 · 10% · 96 hunters, 29% success
  • Muzzleloader 7 · 2% · 26 hunters, 27% success

Boundary: CPW GMU Boundary (Big Game)

Harvest: 2024 Statewide Deer Harvest

Harvest: 2023 Statewide Deer Hunting Harvest Estimates

Harvest: 2022 Statewide Deer Harvest

How we compute draw odds · All Colorado deer hunts