Mule Deer Quotas

[MOhunter28]

Taking a look at draw results at a few units over the past few years. Trying to find a unit for archery season where we will see lots of deer. Some units have really high quotas and others have very low quota numbers. In your opinion, is there any correlation between deer numbers and quota numbers? Obviously, trophy units are an exception.

 

[JimP]

What state are you looking at and do you have any points in that state?

I actually don't think that there is any correlation between the two. You can go into one unit and see 100 does to every buck or into another with 20 bucks to those 100 does with the same odds of drawing. What you really need to look at is the buck to doe ratio that is posted for that unit if it is posted. Most trophy units will have a ratio of at least 20:100 and higher.

 

[MOhunter28]

What state are you looking at and do you have any points in that state?

I actually don't think that there is any correlation between the two. You can go into one unit and see 100 does to every buck or into another with 20 bucks to those 100 does with the same odds of drawing. What you really need to look at is the buck to doe ratio that is posted for that unit if it is posted. Most trophy units will have a ratio of at least 20:100 and higher.

Colorado, and we just have a point. We really want to save it if possible. However we want to learn how to hunt high country deer so we are trying to find a target rich environment so we can get some stalks in under our belt. We don't need to shoot a big one; we just want to be able to glass up deer easily and have opportunities.

 

[hoshour]

Most decent units in CO are running 30-40 buckx to does. You can find that in the four regional hunt guides for CO and some years in the population estimates next to the harvest reports. The CPW does their counts by helicopter and they see deer hunters don't normally see.

How many bucks you see can vary a lot by unit, where you are in unit and when. If it's after the shooting starts in some units the bucks will head for private, in others there is no private land and they find gnarly terrain, dark timber or become nocturnal. Either way the bucks to does is going to appear to more like 10, but it's not.

 

[sheephunter]

Seeing "lots of deer" could mean seeing "lots of forkhorns & 2x3's" so you need to decide if that's OK. In CO, deer units are managed as either "Quality Units" where genetics are known to be good, and tags are restricted (sometimes REALLY restricted), therefore a guy has a chance to take an older age class buck; or a unit is managed as an "Opportunity Unit", where there are a relatively high number of tags and if you have a chance to take a forkhorn or other small buck, that's considered a successful hunt.
And that's straight from my Colorado Parks & Wildlife contact guy.

 

[MOhunter28]

Seeing "lots of deer" could mean seeing "lots of forkhorns & 2x3's" so you need to decide if that's OK. In CO, deer units are managed as either "Quality Units" where genetics are known to be good, and tags are restricted (sometimes REALLY restricted), therefore a guy has a chance to take an older age class buck; or a unit is managed as an "Opportunity Unit", where there are a relatively high number of tags and if you have a chance to take a forkhorn or other small buck, that's considered a successful hunt.
And that's straight from my Colorado Parks & Wildlife contact guy.

I figured that would be the case. We hunted in Idaho and saw 3 bucks the whole time (150ish 4x4s). It was an over the counter archery tag and any legal weapon tag during October but a controlled hunt from mid October through November. Buck to doe ratio was 35:100. With all the hiking we did going to glass in different basins, not one time did we jump any deer on the trail. It was pretty disappointing. Unlike our experience elk hunting in Colorado we would bump deer pretty occasionally and it was an easy draw unit with some nice deer there as well.

We definitely aren't looking for a 180"+ deer (although that would be great) but we don't want to shoot a small buck either; just something respectable. I guess in my mind I would I would relate it to the area I hunt for antelope hunting in Wyoming. We see lots and lots of bucks but the one we shoot are after we have looked over a bunch of antelope and they aren't monsters but nice goats.

Not trying to set my expectations too high and I know that some basins can be absent of deer, we just want a fun hunt that we can gain some experience in and potentially harvest a respectable deer.

Specifically speaking, we have looked at units 74, 75/751, and 82. Each unit "claims" to have 30+:100 buck to doe ratio. Its just so hard to determine if these areas are what we are looking for.