AmmoSight

Colorado Elk — 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, 1,521 people hunted elk here and took 196 — 13% of them killed something. The 2026 draw put up 305 tags here for 11 first-choice applicants.

Tags (2026):1,370 Nonresident share:capped at 25% Applicants:219 Hunter success (2024):13% Public land:44% Size:440,670 acres

Your chance of drawing here

Every elk 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.

19 licenses on offer · 1,370 tags · 219 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
  • EE059V1A elk either-sex archery nonresident-only GMU 59 [59, 511, 581, 591] 163 tags · 79 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 52% as 2nd choice
  • EE059V1A elk either-sex archery nonresident-only GMU 59 [59, 511, 581, 591] 220 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 100% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O1M elk female muzzleloader season 1 GMU 59 [59, 511, 581, 591] 6 tags · 4 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 17% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O1M elk female muzzleloader season 1 GMU 59 [59, 511, 581, 591] 120 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 50% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O1R elk female rifle season 1 GMU 59 1 tags · 1 applicants · needed 1 pts · Standard
    0% Undersubscribed 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O1R elk female rifle season 1 GMU 59 50 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O2R elk female rifle season 2 GMU 59 [59, 581] 13 tags · 12 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    82% Likely draw 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O2R elk female rifle season 2 GMU 59 [59, 581] 3 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O3R elk female rifle season 3 GMU 59 9 tags · 9 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    43% Real chance 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF059O3R elk female rifle season 3 GMU 59 3 tags · 1 applicants · needed 0 pts · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed
  • EF059O4R elk female rifle season 4 GMU 59 1 tags · 2 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    50% Real chance 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF059V1A elk female archery nonresident-only GMU 59 [59, 511, 581, 591] 10 tags · 1 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF581P5R elk female rifle private-land-only GMU 581 [581] 305 tags · 11 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 0% as 2nd choice
  • EF581P5R elk female rifle private-land-only GMU 581 [581] 300 tags · 1 applicants · needed 0 pts · Youth
    100% Undersubscribed
  • EM059O1M elk male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 59 [59, 511, 581, 591] 26 tags · 52 applicants · needed 1 pts · Standard
    0% Point builder 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM059O1M elk male muzzleloader season 1 GMU 59 [59, 511, 581, 591] 1 tags · 3 applicants · needed 1 pts · Youth
    0% Point builder
  • EM059O1R elk male rifle season 1 GMU 59 32 tags · 41 applicants · needed 0 pts · Standard
    24% Long shot 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM059O1R elk male rifle season 1 GMU 59 7 tags · 0 applicants · Youth
    100% No first-choice applicants 0% as 2nd choice
  • EM059O4R elk male rifle season 4 GMU 59 [59, 581] 100 tags · 2 applicants · Standard
    100% Undersubscribed 57% 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 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 1,521 196 13%
2023 1,609 183 11%
2022 1,508 151 10%
2021 1,581 174 11%

What people carried (2024 harvest)

  • Rifle 172 · 88% · 1,124 hunters, 15% success
  • Archery 10 · 5% · 352 hunters, 3% success
  • Muzzleloader 14 · 7% · 46 hunters, 30% 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