Find Your GMU

Which is the best Game Management Unit (GMU) to hunt for elk in Colorado?  That is a question I get all the time, and it really depends on what your preferences are for an ideal elk hunt.  Are you interested in hunting wilderness areas, or would you prefer a GMU that has designated ATV trails?  Heavily forested or open meadowed?  Opportunities for solitude away from roads and other hunters, or just a place to set up camp and kick back for a few days?  I break down each GMU based upon these characteristics and many more and provide you a report that ranks the GMUs based upon your preferences.

I can help you find your GMU. I have developed a system that can answer these questions and find the GMU that fits your needs.  By filling in the fields below, I will send you a GMU report that ranks the top 50 GMUs based upon your choices.   I will be offering this report for $30.00 and it will be emailed to you in PDF format.  Give it a try and see what you think.

Some of the questions were fairly straight forward and relatively easy to generate the different categories.  However, there were some that were extremely complex.  For example, generating the categories for the terrain proved to be a long process.  This was not quite as simple as figuring out the slope within each GMU.  For instance, GMU 082 is generally flat and open over 70% of the GMU.  However, the remaining 30% of the GMU (the areas you would actually be hunting for elk) is very rugged, so assigning a terrain difficulty level of “Low” to this GMU would be misleading.  What I had to do was to look at each GMU separately and determine which areas within the GMU were the most likely areas where a person would be elk hunting based upon other factors like land ownership and quality elk habitat.  As a result, GMU 082 was assigned a rating of “Extreme” for the terrain category because most of the huntable area was some pretty rough country.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that just because a GMU may be categorized as above average or below average for a certain characteristic does not mean that you may not run into areas that are exactly opposite of the rating.  GMU 073 would be a good example.  The terrain ranking is “Low” because the majority of the northern part of this GMU is relatively flat.  However, the south half is extremely rugged, but it is on Reservation Land that would require a special license.  For that reason, the southern portion was not factored into the ranking process.  This same logic would apply to all the questions.  In many cases, it depends on where you hunt within the GMU.

The link below will give you an idea of what your GMU report will look like upon delivery.  Your report will contain the top 50 GMUs that most closely match your answers to the questions below.  The blue shaded areas represent the category, the orange are the possible choices, the green would be the choices submitted by you, and the red on the right ranks the GMUs based on your preferences.  The higher the number in the red column, the more your choices matched with this particular GMU.  To view an example of what the GMU report will look like, click on the image below (please note that this sample report is meant only to show the format of what you will receive by email and the data displayed may not be accurate).

Also, please keep in mind that the questions for the GMU report are not meant to offend any one type of hunter.  I am an equal opportunity offender.  So, in order for me to provide the most accurate GMU report, please answer the questions honestly. To answer the questions and order your personalized GMU Report, click here.