GMU 28 GMU 28 — Grand Co.

The marquee tag and a true over-the-counter volume unit — 2nd and 3rd rifle bull licenses are unlimited, hunter numbers are high, and success sits in the single digits (recently around 8%). Herds are here but heavily pressured; this is opportunity hunting, not a trophy unit.

• →Break far from the road and trailhead corridors — the beetle-kill regen and dark spruce-fir pockets that most hunters walk past hold the elk that survive opening weekend.
• →Hunt the timbered transition benches between the valley private and the wilderness, especially north-facing dark timber where elk hole up under pressure.
• →An OTC archery hunt in the September rut is far less crowded and more productive than the rifle grind — locate bugling bulls in the high basins.

A limited-draw mule deer unit with respectable success (recently around 22%). Bucks use the aspen and mountain-shrub edges and the forest-meadow transitions rather than the high alpine, and tags require preference points.

• →Glass aspen stringers and shrub-fringed parks at first and last light where bucks feed out of the dark timber.
• →Focus the transition zone between the valley floor and the conifer — mule deer here favor the mid-elevation edge over the peaks.
• →Later hunts and cold snaps pull bucks lower toward the private benches; hunt the public timber just above them.

Middle Park's Shiras moose herd has expanded into GMU 28's willow bottoms and high creek drainages. Tags are extremely scarce and among the most sought-after draws in Colorado, but the animals are here and mature bulls are quality.

• →Work willow-choked creek bottoms and beaver-pond complexes in the St. Louis and Vasquez drainages at dawn and dusk.
• →Glass wet meadows and riparian willow at the forest edge — moose stay tight to water and browse.
• →Treat this as a once-in-a-lifetime point-heavy draw, not a hunt to plan around annually.

A very thin Middle Park pronghorn allocation — a handful of limited tags on the open sage parks, with low harvest (roughly a dozen animals recently). Incidental here, not a reason to draw the unit.

• →Focus the open sage and grassland parks on the lower, more open edges of the unit.
• →Glass long from vantage points and use terrain folds to close distance in wide-open Middle Park country.
• →Best paired with scouting for elk rather than a standalone trip.

Black bears work the aspen, oak-shrub, and berry pockets throughout the forested mid-country. A limited-draw fall opportunity, typically taken incidentally by elk and deer hunters.

• →Glass oak brush, chokecherry, and serviceberry patches in late summer and early fall when bears are feeding hard.
• →Watch aspen edges and creek bottoms in the mornings and evenings.
• →Cover ground with optics — spot-and-stalk on feeding bears in the shrub zones.