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Whitetails in the Gila?

Are there whitetail deer in the Gila? Been told no by a couple of locals, just Coues and Mulies, but was down there elk hunting and saw a few really nice bucks, too big to be coues, looked just like a regular whitetail except the ears were a bit big. Hybrid between coues and mulies? If they’re coues, I saw several booners..

Pure mule deer. Until a mule deer gets past a certain point, the antlers will look similar to a whitetail rack and you'd swear it was a hybrid or whitetail. Definitely mule deer. Of course I'm not saying it's not possible, but highly unlikely. Whitetails are very distinguishable with that tail. If you saw that then I'd say yes you indeed saw whitetail

The answer would be yes there are whitetail deer in the Gila. Coues is a subspecies of whitetail deer so yes there are whitetail deer in the Gila. If you mean eastern whitetails I would have to say yes but very few. I have seen 4 does of what I consider eastern whitetails if 40 years of hunting the Gila.

I live in Missouri, so I definitely know what a whitetail looks like. These were not mule deer, and too big to be coues. I was surprised to see them, have hunted the same area in the past and never saw these before, granted it’s been several years since I’ve been there. Just curious.

"Monster Coues's" doesn't alliterate, so they gotta be muley's.

Lol great responses! There are Coues deer in the Gila and I imagine some quality bucks as well, the unknown for all of us is just how big was the deer that was sighted. The Coues deer I was after last year in a different unit was a long tined buck, I couldn't believe it was a Coues but it surely was.

I say Coues and you will never see another one like it!!

I wish I would’ve taken pictures, there were a couple bachelor groups of bucks. They weren’t spooky like coues and had the coloring and tail of a white tail, in the 150lb range. Like I said, I know the difference between a whitetail and a mule deer, just too big for coues and racks in the 130”-140” range on the biggest bucks.

I can tell you I have seen first hand a rack on a Coues deer that would blow your mind.

Regardless of the size, Boone and Crockett would classify them as Coues based on the boundary description posted on their website.

I think this deserves further investigation. Just PM me those coordinates and I will go with my camera and get pics for you.

Red sparky, sent you a pm

Got it and responded.

If it was the Gila, you saw big Coues. I saw a couple pics this week of a couple giants killed by a coworker and his daughter. They were giants and could easily be mistaken for their eastern cousins but were in fact Coues

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