AmmoSight

Colorado Elk — GMU 481

Colorado GMU 481 covers 180,848 acres and lies 64 miles north-west of Cañon City and 75 miles south-east of Glenwood Springs. 80% of it is public land, mostly national forest (75%) and county or city land (4%). In 2024, 494 people hunted elk here and took 179 — 36% of them killed something. The 2026 draw put up 110 tags here for 1 first-choice applicants.

Tags (2026):410 Nonresident share:capped at 25% Applicants:232 Hunter success (2024):36% Public land:80% Size:180,848 acres

Your chance of drawing here

Every elk license type on offer in GMU 481, with the prior-draw chance for a first-choice nonresident applicant. Type your points in to see your own number.

17 licenses on offer · 410 tags · 232 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
  • EE481O1A elk either-sex archery season 1 GMU 481 [481] 26 tags · 61 applicants · needed 2 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EE481O1A elk either-sex archery season 1 GMU 481 [481] 110 tags · 1 applicants · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF481O1M elk female muzzleloader season 1 GMU 481 [481] 1 tags · 1 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 27% as 2nd choice
  • EF481O1M elk female muzzleloader season 1 GMU 481 [481] 35 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF481O2R elk female rifle season 2 GMU 481 12 tags · 7 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 13% as 2nd choice
  • EF481O2R elk female rifle season 2 GMU 481 80 tags · 2 applicants · needed 0 pts · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF481O3R elk female rifle season 3 GMU 481 2 tags · 1 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 17% as 2nd choice
  • EF481O4R elk female rifle season 4 GMU 481 0 tags · 0 applicants · Standard
    — Not open to nonresidents
  • EF481P5R elk female rifle private-land-only GMU 481 [481] 50 tags · 1 applicants · needed 1 pts · Standard
    0% Undersubscribed 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM481O1M elk male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 481 [481] 9 tags · 20 applicants · needed 3 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM481O1M elk male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 481 [481] 40 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM481O1R elk male rifle season 1 GMU 481 16 tags · 71 applicants · needed 5 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM481O1R elk male rifle season 1 GMU 481 2 tags · 2 applicants · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM481O2R elk male rifle season 2 GMU 481 19 tags · 49 applicants · needed 2 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM481O2R elk male rifle season 2 GMU 481 1 tags · 3 applicants · needed 2 pts · Youth
    0% Point builder
  • EM481O3R elk male rifle season 3 GMU 481 5 tags · 7 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    33% Long shot 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM481O4R elk male rifle season 4 GMU 481 [481] 2 tags · 6 applicants · needed 2 pts · Standard
    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 $974.27
Youth license $129.11 $129.11 $974.27

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

The country

Cañon City Gypsum Monument Golden Castle Rock
GMU 481 within Colorado
471 48 49 50 55 56 57 58
GMU 481 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

  • National Forest 135,552 ac · 75%
  • Private 36,551 ac · 20%
  • County or city land 6,610 ac · 4%
  • BLM 1,204 ac · 1%
  • State land 929 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 494 179 36%
2023 493 111 22%
2022 513 143 28%
2021 503 100 20%

What people carried (2024 harvest)

  • Rifle 148 · 83% · 342 hunters, 43% success
  • Archery 18 · 10% · 95 hunters, 19% success
  • Muzzleloader 13 · 7% · 57 hunters, 23% success

Boundary: CPW GMU Boundary (Big Game)

Harvest: 2024 Statewide Elk Harvest

Harvest: 2023 Statewide Elk Hunting Harvest Estimates

Harvest: 2022 Statewide Elk Harvest

How we compute draw odds · All Colorado elk hunts