Mule Deer Assistance

nv-hunter

Veteran member
Feb 28, 2011
1,568
1,292
Reno
Fixed it for you, in the bold type.

The best units in Colorado for a mule deer tag will take 25+ years of points before you can even think of drawing it.
with that being said some states offer a bonus point system and you get your name in the hat more times each year but first name drawn gets the tag over the preference point systems that give most of the tags to those with the most points first then random to those left over ( 10 to 20 % of the tags saved for random)
 

JimP

Administrator
Mar 28, 2016
7,070
8,347
70
Gypsum, Co
with that being said some states offer a bonus point system and you get your name in the hat more times each year but first name drawn gets the tag over the preference point systems that give most of the tags to those with the most points first then random to those left over ( 10 to 20 % of the tags saved for random)
I have worked with Utah's bonus point system for quite a while. My problem is that for the two tags that I have drawn there elk and deer I was at the max points for both tags. I'm still trying for bison 23 points, and pronghorn 11 points, and my second LE deer tag 3 points.

The only state that I have gotten lucky in was Arizona where I drew a coues deer tag two years in a row with the first tag taking max points 9 and the second year with just a loyalty point.
 

Gerald

New Member
Dec 8, 2017
35
26
Colorado
We have the hybrid draw here in Colorado too.. 5 points to get your name in the draw for units that take 10 or more points.. and it changes anyways I've seen units that used to take 13 points that are now only taking 2-3 points to draw and vice versa so it really is a just system that's fair to everyone who puts in
 

ScottR

Eastmans' Staff / Moderator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2014
7,679
2,570
www.eastmans.com
The flatland's have just as good of mule deer as the mountains have. However you might have to work harder for them, perhaps not physically but in just finding them.

Even in the very best mule deer units in the west you have to work hard to find a buck over 200" if that is what you are looking for and I'll even say a buck over 170" is hard to come by very easy.

I have hunted the west for over 55 years and honestly I can say that I have only seen less then 10 200" bucks during the hunt and perhaps 20 or so that would go over 180". In my younger years I would wear out a pair of boots hiking the high country from 10,000' on up. It takes a lot time to figure them out and once you learn what they want in the area that you are hunting the easier it gets, so to speak.
Lots of good info here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4XBOWHUNTER

ScottR

Eastmans' Staff / Moderator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2014
7,679
2,570
www.eastmans.com
I am going to throw this out there on the 200" inch chasing....

200" mule deer are INCREDIBLY hard to find. Even on the winter range finding legitimate holy grail bucks is the challenge of a lifetime. They are truly the top 2-5% of bucks on the mountain and they are that big for a reason, they lived long enough to reach their potential. I am now reaching the point in life where I have legitimately looked over 1000's of bucks, in all kinds of mule deer country. There are still giants out there, we see them every year gracing the covers of both journals. But I am saying all of this to point out that...

170- 180 is a TOP NOTCH buck, anything past 180 is fantastic and 190+ is a huge. Setting your standard at 200" isn't realistic for most of us, but enjoy the process and when you put a 170 on your wall just know that you beat one of the mature bucks on the hill.
 

Bonecollector

Veteran member
Mar 9, 2014
5,852
3,656
Ohio
True.
However you can get away with the flyrod for a few minutes until the crowd starts to gather and the staff wants to know what’s going on,,,, 🐠
 
  • Like
Reactions: JimP

4XBOWHUNTER

New Member
Sep 26, 2018
47
21
Wisconsin
Sorry for being the guy that asks for help and doesn't post how the hunt went so here goes. After 3 road trips to Nebraska approximately 12-13 days of true hunting I'm eating tag soup. We saw some good numbers of deer, mostly whitetail but we saw even better numbers of hunters, In this time span we covered a lot of properties looking for the sign/deer possibly to many properties? With the pressure I could not believe the amount of people we ran into and how they had no respect for where other hunters planned to hunt, I understand its public but if I talk to a guy and know where he is going I do not deliberately go in and cut them off I go to a different area. We typically would not see deer until we hit the 2-3 mile mark which in hindsight makes sense because the average person probably pushed in around a mile or 2, once we were in and seeing some deer we had opportunities at small bucks and doe, funny thing is on some midday drives to different areas we'd be laughing because we would drive by everything we were looking for right off the road on private. Talked to some locals and they stated this was the most hunters they have seen and they were sick of seeing hunters because of the revolving onslaught of hunters asking to hunt there land, good for there economy bad for them getting chores done as one guy put it.

Things I have taken from this years hunt: Do more research and find bigger properties, get deeper on those tracts of land, keep applying for points further West, again I now understand I need to get further away just need to find those areas, get better at starting conversations with locals.

So there is my honest report, we had fun, came home safe and had opportunities to harvest deer. Hindsight 20-20 it was a success!

Thank you for this forum and all the help/hints you have given me thus far.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mallardsx2

ColoradoV

Very Active Member
Oct 4, 2011
797
818
I am going to throw this out there on the 200" inch chasing....

200" mule deer are INCREDIBLY hard to find. Even on the winter range finding legitimate holy grail bucks is the challenge of a lifetime. They are truly the top 2-5% of bucks on the mountain and they are that big for a reason, they lived long enough to reach their potential. I am now reaching the point in life where I have legitimately looked over 1000's of bucks, in all kinds of mule deer country. There are still giants out there, we see them every year gracing the covers of both journals. But I am saying all of this to point out that...

170- 180 is a TOP NOTCH buck, anything past 180 is fantastic and 190+ is a huge. Setting your standard at 200" isn't realistic for most of us, but enjoy the process and when you put a 170 on your wall just know that you beat one of the mature bucks on the hill.
The first time this thread came around I missed it as I was hunting but this post sums a lot up about a true 200" buck on public land.. The genetic rarity added in with the age class necessary to produce a unicorn is just that a unicorn.

I honestly believe my standard is as high as any and I cover a lot of the very best summer range anywhere in the world as well as have a peer group that is as if not more knowledgeable and experienced than anyone hunting giant mulies today.. With that said by my numbers true giants are getting to be less than 1%. This year I saw 3 -4 that were legit 200" bucks and cataloged just over 300 bucks by Sept 1. Pry saw another 300 between sept and end of December just a guess as I dont catalog after Sept. This is over many many units as well as around my house. Of the 3-4 one was killed, one a guided gov tag put a license on, one was wounded then disappeared, and one was a town buck that was hit by a car about a month ago.

What Scott said is true or unless you are in a very small niche or get very lucky the odds of scouting then harvesting a 200'' deer are so low that they are unrealistic for most folks.. The good thing is that a true 175-185" buck on the hoof will take the breath away from most hunters and while lofty is still a more realistic goal for most any muley hunter. Or again my mulie peer group is pretty solid and I can count on 2 maybe 3 fingers the guys I know who scout their own bucks then regularly kill a 200" buck.. Every single one of the instafamous guys producing content is not in this group.. Just something to think about when 200" starts to get thrown around.

Thanks for the update about your hunt - it is a process enjoy it.