Colorado Elk — GMU 96

Colorado GMU 96 covers 157,974 acres and lies 8 miles north-east of Fort Morgan and 33 miles south-west of Sterling. 9% of it is public land, mostly county or city land (5%) and state land (2%). In 2024, 15 people hunted elk here and took 3 — 17% of them killed something.

Hunter success (2024):17% Public land:9% Size:157,974 acres

Your chance of drawing here

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has not offered an elk license in GMU 96 in any draw we hold. It has a page because the agency still publishes harvest for it — the Colorado elk hunts that are on offer are drawn elsewhere.

The country

Fort Morgan Sterling Commerce City Wellington Parker
GMU 96 within Colorado
87 90 89 88 91 95 97 951 99 100 101 Fort Morgan Sterling
GMU 96 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 144,078 ac · 91%
  • County or city land 8,035 ac · 5%
  • State land 3,739 ac · 2%
  • Bureau of Reclamation 1,673 ac · 1%
  • BLM 448 ac · 0%

Source: BLM Colorado Surface Management Agency

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 15 3 17%
2023 20 6 29%
2022 10 0 0%
2021 5 0 0%

What people carried (2024 harvest)

  • Rifle 3 · 100% · 15 hunters, 20% 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