AmmoSight

Colorado Elk — GMU 54

Colorado GMU 54 covers 374,043 acres and lies 42 miles east of Montrose and 53 miles east of Delta. 79% of it is public land, mostly national forest (60%) and BLM (11%). In 2024, 2,242 people hunted elk here and took 498 — 22% of them killed something. The 2026 draw put up 471 tags here for 129 first-choice applicants.

Tags (2026):1,779 Nonresident share:capped at 25% Applicants:773 Hunter success (2024):22% Public land:79% Size:374,043 acres

Your chance of drawing here

Every elk license type on offer in GMU 54, with the prior-draw chance for a first-choice nonresident applicant. Type your points in to see your own number.

22 licenses on offer · 1,779 tags · 773 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
  • EE054O1A elk either-sex archery season 1 GMU 54 [54] 67 tags · 209 applicants · needed 4 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EE054O1A elk either-sex archery season 1 GMU 54 [54] 9 tags · 4 applicants · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O1M elk female muzzleloader season 1 GMU 54 [54] 7 tags · 6 applicants · Standard
    100% Likely draw 22% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O1R elk female rifle season 1 GMU 54 18 tags · 14 applicants · Standard
    67% Real chance 26% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O1R elk female rifle season 1 GMU 54 5 tags · 1 applicants · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed 67% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O2R elk female rifle season 2 GMU 54 [54] 8 tags · 6 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    80% Likely draw 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O2R elk female rifle season 2 GMU 54 [54] 1 tags · 2 applicants · needed 0 pts · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O3R elk female rifle season 3 GMU 54 10 tags · 20 applicants · needed 2 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O3R elk female rifle season 3 GMU 54 1 tags · 1 applicants · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O4R elk female rifle season 4 GMU 54 9 tags · 6 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 20% as 2nd choice
  • EF054O4R elk female rifle season 4 GMU 54 60 tags · 1 applicants · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed 100% as 2nd choice
  • EF054P5R elk female rifle private-land-only GMU 54 [54 - area bounded on the N by South Castle Creek, CR 730, Carbon Creek and Red Gulch; on the E by Colo 135; on S by U.S.] 117 tags · 6 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 61% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O1M elk male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 54 [54] 14 tags · 80 applicants · needed 8 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O1M elk male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 54 [54] 2 tags · 1 applicants · Youth
    0% Point builder
  • EM054O1R elk male rifle season 1 GMU 54 47 tags · 171 applicants · needed 3 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O1R elk male rifle season 1 GMU 54 5 tags · 9 applicants · needed 3 pts · Youth
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O2R elk male rifle season 2 GMU 54 471 tags · 129 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 58% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O2R elk male rifle season 2 GMU 54 335 tags · 7 applicants · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed 22% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O3R elk male rifle season 3 GMU 54 [54] 304 tags · 56 applicants · Standard
    88% Likely draw 35% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O3R elk male rifle season 3 GMU 54 [54] 251 tags · 3 applicants · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed 40% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O4R elk male rifle season 4 GMU 54 35 tags · 40 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    74% Real chance 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM054O4R elk male rifle season 4 GMU 54 3 tags · 1 applicants · 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 $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

Montrose Glenwood Springs Grand Junction Cañon City Durango
GMU 54 within Colorado
471 52 521 53 55 551 63 64 67 Montrose
GMU 54 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 225,062 ac · 60%
  • Private 79,574 ac · 21%
  • BLM 42,011 ac · 11%
  • County or city land 14,760 ac · 4%
  • National Park Service 12,350 ac · 3%
  • State land 267 ac · 0%
  • Bureau of Reclamation 17 ac · 0%

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 2,242 498 22%
2023 2,299 425 18%
2022 2,266 573 25%
2021 2,205 417 19%

What people carried (2024 harvest)

  • Rifle 429 · 86% · 1,978 hunters, 22% success
  • Archery 52 · 10% · 191 hunters, 27% success
  • Muzzleloader 17 · 3% · 74 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