How many only hunt muleys?
Contributors to this thread:Mule Deer
From: Kicker
27-May-16
How many of you guys only hunt mule deer and leave out the rest? What led you to your decision to do so? Thanks.
From: rick allison
27-May-16
I love mulie hunting and hunted Wyoming for years. It started due to cheaper license fees but grew to a true passion...being in Wisconsin, kind of a poor man's "elk" hunt.
From: jims
28-May-16
I used to be a muley scouting, shed, hunting fanatic until CWD and the die off/winterkill/drought years here in Colo. There just aren't the size and number of bucks there were 10 years ago during the "glory days". The number of tags issued has decreased dramatically with the drop in muley population in Colo and throughout the Western US. Generally speaking it currently takes more years to draw decent muley tags. It's tough to be a die-hard muley hunter if you can't draw tags! They seem to be slowly but surely recovering in scattered areas throughout the West so keep your fingers crossed.
Not to cause a ruckus but I'm not sure I'd call monster muley hunting a poor man's elk hunt with what outfitters want for true trophy class muley excursions? The going rate for guided trophy caliber muley hunts start at around $10,000 and governor's tags go for as much as the price of my house plus truck combined! I'd say turkeys are more like a poor man's elk hunt!
From: rick allison
28-May-16
No ruckus here Jims...we hunted DIY in Wyoming's central Bighorns. My best hunting bud moved out there in 1976 so I/we had a huge advantage over most non-residents.
My first 2 years was while I was in college...50 bucks for a tag! When I was telling my instructors why I'd be out of class for a week or so, my physics/chemistry instructor said, "Only if I'm going along!" Good guy and a great teacher.
From: wkochevar
28-May-16
I grew up hunting only Mulies...Didn't really know what a whitetail was. It is now much more difficult to find good mulie hunting without waiting forever for a tag or having to pay to get on them like we used to. Since I'm a relative newbie to whities, I have really enjoyed them the last few years...Still love the Mulies tho!
From: soloman
28-May-16
Mule deer is where it's at.
From: EmbryOklahoma
28-May-16
I'm the opposite of the question at hand. I've hunted whitetails my entire life. I hope some of what I know about hunting and getting close, transitions over to my first mule deer hunt, this fall. Looking forward to it!
From: Jaquomo
28-May-16
I love hunting plains muleys after elk season is over. I love hunting mountain elk before plains deer season starts.
From: IdyllwildArcher
28-May-16
Muleys were the only thing I hunted for the first couple years I hunted and are still a passion, although elk have taken over my primary focus. I can't imagine going a year without hunting muleys.
I should draw a pretty nice muley tag in CA this year that won't be a top tier tag, but will be the best muley tag I've had yet and I'm super excited about the hunt.
From: Charlie Rehor
28-May-16
Muleys are fun when you can't hunt Whities:)
From: cmbbulldog
28-May-16
You can go on some very good guided hunts for well under 10K.
From: BOHNTR
28-May-16
I'm a mule deer guy and always have been....beside, those whitetails are too darn easy.
From: jims
28-May-16
cmbbulldog, I was just making a point that muley hunts aren't a poor man's sport for top tier guided hunts. There are obviously loads of guided hunts that are in the $4,000+ range which is still pretty pricey for average blue collar guys. Guided gobbler hunts are in the $500-1,000+ range which is more like a poor man's elk hunt.
From: 'Ike' (Phone)
28-May-16
True Blacktails and Mule Deer, especially when I can draw a choice tag for them! ;-)
From: Jaquomo
29-May-16
Ike, the cool thing about hunting them there in CA is you can hunt a muley on one side of the highway, and then hunt a blacktail after he crosses the center median.
;-)
From: Ermine
29-May-16
I like mule deer. But I'm not a mule deer fantic like some guys I know. I like to hunt elk, bear, antelope coues deer you name it. Not just mule deer
From: LUNG$HOT
29-May-16
Yup I'm a Muley guy for sure. Grew up hunting them with a rifle and have taken a couple with a bow. I guess you hunt what you have where a guy lives unless your fortunate enough to have the time and money to travel and hunt multiple species which is great. I really have no desire to go after white tails as I'm sure I'd go crazy after the first 2 hours of sitting on my ass in a tree stand waiting for "Diesel" the 10 point on my "hit list" to walk by! ;) I prefer the run-n-gun of elk hunting and the spot-n-stalk of chasing muley bucks.
From: Charlie Rehor
29-May-16
Jaquomo: There is a $100 dollar genetic test now that any hunter can have performed to determine whether their deer is a Mule Deer or Columbian Blacktail so there is now a 100% test. No guessing these days. C
From: Dooner
29-May-16
I like Elk & Antelope hunting also, but Muleys are my current favorite. I think it's the spot & stalk that can really get my blood pumping. Sneaking into a bedded dear like this and waiting for him to stand up, while trying to keep my cool, has been a peak experience.
From: Jaquomo
29-May-16
Charlie, how does one get the buck to stand still long enough to do the genetic test, then convince him to stick around until the results come back? And what happens if he crosses the Interstate while we're both waiting around?
;-)
From: creed
29-May-16
It doesn't get much better than hunting muleys in the low desert of AZ in January. Big rutting bucks, beautiful weather, OTC tags in most units. Life is good!
From: mon$ter99!
29-May-16
Donner ...nice Buck where did you get him
From: Jaquomo
29-May-16
For you muley freaks, there's a great book called "A Mule Deer Retrospective" published by the B&C club that is basically a history of mule deer hunting, along with tons of fabulous old time photos of giant muleys with the stories behind them. 47" muleys boggle my mind... Great read, even for those of you who don't read but just look at pictures. Some of the hand written notes on the photos and old time score sheets are classic.
From: EmbryOklahoma
29-May-16
Whitetails are easy? Yea, if you want to kill young deer or the first 2.5 year old buck, yep, it's easy.
From what I see, mule deer look pretty darn easy too, if I want to kill the first young buck that stands and stares at me.
From: BOHNTR
29-May-16
Sorry.....they're easy. :)
From: Jaquomo
29-May-16
Remember that '80s sci-fi movie called "Earth Girls Are Easy"?
From: EmbryOklahoma
29-May-16
Lou... There's also a book called "Kansas whitetails are Easy". Funny book.
From: BOHNTR
30-May-16
EO.....you might be right, my friend. KS has a way of spoiling a person. :)
From: HDE
30-May-16
Not me - if that's all I chased, I'd rarely get to go hunting at all.
From: jims
30-May-16
Back when I was a tried and true muley fanatic there were a couple books that I pretty much memorized from cover to cover. One book being Kirt Darner's "How to find giant bucks". Although things with Darner are controvercial I learned more from that book alone than pretty much all others combined. Another book to drool over is Colo Bucks and Bulls.
From: billygoat
31-May-16
Sadly, I've NEVER hunted mulies despite living in CO since '07. I'm very elkcentric. I plan to burn all those points (12, right?) in 2019, but it's almost a shame to without having any prior experience other than incidental encounters while elk hunting.
So as not to compromise my archery elk time, I plan to do a 3rd or 4th rifle season. I think the bucks look better in their winter coats and muscled up for the rut anyway.
From: Jaquomo
31-May-16
"Controversial" doesn't begin to describe Darner. Kirt Darner was good at finding big bucks, and then shooting them on the winter range after the season was closed. He was also good at buying big racks and claiming them as his own, then he finally was caught stealing big trophy heads and pled guilty to it. He also operated a high-fence shooting operation where he grew giant bucks.
He was one of the worst of the big-time poachers. Some close to the story believe he may have stolen or poached all of the "trophies" he supposedly killed legally to become famous.
From: Matte
31-May-16
Well I grew up in Mule Deer country and always thought of them as stupid, that was until I really started hunting for the older wiser bucks. After years of shooting monster Whitetails and not really getting to excited about seasons I switched over to Mule Deer Hunting. At first I thought this would be easy and then I went to Cabelas in KC to their Mule Deer Records Taxidermy display. Then and only then did I realize I had never really seen a Trophy Class Mule Deer. That was 16 years ago and now after figuring out when to hunt them and where to find them it is my passion to spot and stalk a great buck every year. It tends better to my personality after spending weeks of September chasing Elk to be out walking every Canyon trying to find Mr. Right.
From: APauls
31-May-16
Wow, just read some articles on Darner. Is there some mental instability at that point? Yikes, sorry not to derail the thread.
I've hunted mulies 3 times and each time was just as fun if not more than the last. I would trade them for whitetails straight up. What a blast!
