The Western Units Where Hunters Fill Tags

Most hunters plan around one number: draw odds. How competitive is the application? How many points does it take? Those questions matter, but they're only half the picture. The other half is what happens after you draw: how often do hunters who get that tag actually fill it?

Hunter success rate is state-reported harvest data: the percentage of licensed hunters who killed an animal during a given season. It's collected every year across all five western states, broken down by unit and species. And with some regularity, it surfaces combinations that are genuinely surprising. Some hunts have expected payoffs higher than the draw pressure would suggest, and a few are the opposite.

Draw results are back. If you drew, the question shifts to what your tag is actually worth. If you did not draw, there is more to work with than most hunters realize. The Zero to One Report maps every realistic hunting opportunity at zero and one points across all five states: leftover draw windows, OTC seasons, and first-come-first-served tags. Free, no email required, and it lives on the main page. Either way, the metric most hunters skip is hunter success rate.

This post covers standout units from two seasons of harvest data (2024 and 2025) across Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. Tables show both years side by side with a year-over-year change column. A minimum hunter threshold filters out statistical noise. A unit with 12 hunters and 100% success does not tell you much. A unit with 400 hunters at 60% does.

Elk

The gap between states on elk success is significant. Wyoming's average across units with meaningful hunter counts is around 41%. Colorado's is closer to 24%. That gap doesn't mean Wyoming is always the better hunt; it reflects the different character of the two states' elk populations, seasons, and hunt types. Worth keeping in mind when you're comparing tags across state lines.

Arizona is an outlier in any honest discussion of elk success rates. The state manages its elk hunts with very limited permit numbers and long, flexible seasons, which produces harvest rates that would look implausible anywhere else. Several Arizona elk hunts came in at or near 100% in 2024: that's not a fluke, it's by design.

A few things worth noting in the elk data. Nevada Units 111–115 combining 75–81% success with moderate draw pressure is a real opportunity: if you have 7–12 non-resident points in Nevada, this zone is in range and the success rate is on par with premium Wyoming units. Colorado GMU 061 at 56% with 1,296 hunters is probably the most reliable single data point in the table: that sample size makes the number meaningful in a way that a 22-hunter unit at 95% isn't.

Deer

Utah's Limited Entry mule deer units are in a class of their own on success rates. The Henry Mountains, South Slope/Diamond Mountain, and Book Cliffs corridor all post figures in the 85–96% range with hunter counts that hold up statistically. These are legitimately excellent hunts; they just require meaningful point investments for non-residents: the Utah draw odds breakdown covers what the floors look like across all three species. The draw pressure on these units has been building as word has spread about the quality.

Wyoming deer success looks more modest on paper, but the units drawing over 70% here involve hundreds of hunters. Pole Mountain at 74% with 293 hunters is a very different data point than a small-quota unit at the same percentage. Colorado's GMU 021 (79%, 420 hunters) and GMU 070 (69%, 1,249 hunters) tell a similar story: high volume with consistently above-average success.

Nevada Unit 031 at 74% with 76 hunters is worth flagging specifically. Nevada is consistently underrated in deer draw planning. The success rates are real, the draw pressure is lower than Utah or Wyoming on comparable units, and the point requirements are manageable for non-residents in the 4–7 range. It's not a glamour draw, but the numbers make a case.

Pronghorn

Wyoming dominates this species so completely that the state-by-state comparison feels slightly unfair. Wyoming's pronghorn herd is the largest in North America, the permit numbers are high, the terrain is purpose-built for the animal, and success rates across much of the state run in the 90–100% range with hunter counts in the hundreds or thousands. For pronghorn, Wyoming is simply in a different category.

The units at the top of the table (Shirley Basin, Bates Creek, Crook) have been consistent multi-year producers. Wyoming pronghorn showed a broad pullback in 2025, with most top units dropping 8–12 points from 2024. Even at those reduced rates, 84–90% success across hunter counts in the hundreds or thousands is still the best pronghorn hunting anywhere in the West. The question remains the same: terrain type and trophy quality, not whether you'll fill the tag.

Nevada pronghorn for non-residents at 4–7 points and 94–100% success rates (2024 figures) in units like 043–046 and 061–073 is the combination this post was built to surface. Those units are unconfirmed in our 2025 data at this time, so treat the 2024 figures as the current reference. The draw accessibility hasn't changed. Hunters who get the tag fill it at rates comparable to premium Wyoming units, and most of the hunting community hasn't caught on yet. That's the kind of vein that doesn't stay quiet forever.

Pairing Success Data With Draw Accessibility

Success rate alone doesn't tell you which hunts to pursue. A 90% success unit that requires 25 non-resident points is a different planning exercise than one that draws at 6 points. The full picture requires both dimensions, and that's where the draw strategy hub and the individual state draw odds posts come in. Cross-referencing the two datasets gives you the combination most hunters don't think to calculate: how easy it is to get the tag AND how likely you are to fill it.

The broader draw strategy guide walks through how to sequence multi-state applications using both metrics (draw odds, success rates, and point costs) as part of a longer-range planning framework. If you're building points in multiple states simultaneously, that's the starting point.

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