Deer Hunting in Colorado GMU 84 - Custer, Fremont, Huerfano, and Pueblo Counties

Bounded on N by US Highway 50; on E by I-25 and County Highway 1; on S by County Highway 69; on W by County Highway 96 and 67.

The access for this unit is good to public lands. Private lands vary from reasonable to no access allowed.

The best place to start is the north end of the Greenhorns. Good hunting can be found on private lands, but permission difficult and needs to be obtained early. Pueblo Reservoir SWA offers opportunities for late season hunts. The unit is large and primarily private land and National Forest with limited whitetail numbers and access.

However, the Pueblo SWA has some opportunities for whitetail hunting and good public access to the Arkansas River corridor, on both the north and south side of the river, west of the Pueblo Reservoir. The Swallows SWA is accessible off Highway 50, has plenty of parking and has many trails that hunters can utilize to get into some quality whitetail cover. A great deal of habitat work has been done in the area this past year and what historically has been impenetrable vegetation now sports wide openings and better visibility. The south SWA can be accessed off of Highway 96 and provides 10+ miles of public land and whitetail habitat.

South of Pueblo between Highway 78 and Burnt Mill Rd holds some whitetail but is dominated by mule deer and private land. Hunting opportunities for non-landowners in this area will be hard to come by. Whitetail are concentrated along waterways within the unit, and nearly exclusively on private property around Rye and Colorado City. Densities increase as you get closer to the interstate and diminish as you get closer to Rye.

HuntScore Tip

Public land and private land percentages can sometime be misleading. A unit may have 80% public land, but a particluar species may only occupy 20% on the entire area. And that 20% species distribution may lie 100% within private lands. Does that sound confusing? Just remember that there are always exceptions to the rule, and land ownership is just one piece of the puzzle.