Mule deer verse whitetails

I

iccyman001

New member
Apr 30, 2014
5,489
In an effort to learn more about mule deer, what do you find different about them over a whitetail?


Are they more skiddish?
Do they have different patterns or habits?
Can you get closer to them?


Etc etc etc


Please let me know anything and everything that you have learned about them.
We have a lot of western deer hunters in here, so I am excited to hear what you have to say.




P.S WILL, I looked at the giant drop tine buck again that you had posted.... PLEASE GO KILL HIM.
 
I\'ve never hunted whitetails, so I can\'t give you a solid comparison there, but what I can tell you is that they are not real skittish in my experience. I have literally seen deer that will be feeding right by a road on public land and you can drive by and they won\'t even care. If you are out in the woods and you do bump them, they might bound off, but they will typically always stop and turn back around to look at you. If you are hunting with a rifle, this will normally give you a chance to pull the trigger. If you are hunting with a bow, well, you might be out of luck :D

As far as patterns and habits, again I can\'t compare them to whitetail, but I would tell you that they seem to hang out in the same types of locations that elk do. The good thing about this is that deer don\'t typically herd up like elk do, so you are far more likely to see deer than you are elk. :upthumb:
 
\"cohunter14\" said:
I\'ve never hunted whitetails, so I can\'t give you a solid comparison there, but what I can tell you is that they are not real skittish in my experience. I have literally seen deer that will be feeding right by a road on public land and you can drive by and they won\'t even care. If you are out in the woods and you do bump them, they might bound off, but they will typically always stop and turn back around to look at you. If you are hunting with a rifle, this will normally give you a chance to pull the trigger. If you are hunting with a bow, well, you might be out of luck :D
Click to expand...

I like the possibility of them running a bit and stopping to look around.
Most of the whitetail I deal with like to sprint 1000 yards before they even think of slowing down :downthumb:
 
Most of us grew up hunting whities. This makes the transition to hunting mule deer pretty darn easy. They are far more tolerant, have worse noses, less skittish, and frankly, flat out dumb compared to WT.

Dan, truth be told, I\'ve put some friends on that giant velvet buck. I used to draw the unit every year as a second choice. The last few years I\'ve missed and I have a bunch of points now. I\'m holding out for a unit that I\'ve been scouting, lots of good deer. If I wasn\'t so hopelessly addicted to elk I\'d probably put in the time and hunt that guy.
 
\"otcWill\" said:
Dan, truth be told, I\'ve put some friends on that giant velvet buck.
Click to expand...

I\'ll be your friend Will...and I promise, I won\'t miss if you put me on him!! :lol:
 
\"otcWill\" said:
Most of us grew up hunting whities. This makes the transition to hunting mule deer pretty darn easy. They are far more tolerant, have worse noses, less skittish, and frankly, flat out dumb compared to WT.

Dan, truth be told, I\'ve put some friends on that giant velvet buck. I used to draw the unit every year as a second choice. The last few years I\'ve missed and I have a bunch of points now. I\'m holding out for a unit that I\'ve been scouting, lots of good deer. If I wasn\'t so hopelessly addicted to elk I\'d probably put in the time and hunt that guy.
Click to expand...


That makes me excited about mule deer hunting then this year.
I drew a very cool unit that holds some nice bucks, this should be interesting.



That\'s also very cool you put your friends on that deer. I hope someone is able to get him :upthumb:
 
The only whitetail I\'ve hunted is the Couse. That animal might be the most cynical beast on the planet. Super wily. If you bump a Couse it won\'t run a straight line. It will run down a hill, disappear and will not come up the next hill like a mulie. Hell mulie will stop on that second hill to look back. Not saying mulie are dumb, just more confident. If you find a sleeping Couse it wakes up running at full speed. Haha. I don\'t think you can make that \"baah \" sound to stop a Couse. It would just start sprinting.
 
\"elky McElkerson\" said:
The only whitetail I\'ve hunted is the Couse. That animal might be the most cynical beast on the planet. Super wily. If you bump a Couse it won\'t run a straight line. It will run down a hill, disappear and will not come up the next hill like a mulie. Hell mulie will stop on that second hill to look back. Not saying mulie are dumb, just more confident. If you find a sleeping Couse it wakes up running at full speed. Haha. I don\'t think you can make that \"baah \" sound to stop a Couse. It would just start sprinting.
Click to expand...


I will definitely try my chances with some couse some year here soon!
 
Then biggest thing to remember when hunting MD is that they seem to always stop and look back at you just before they crest up over a ridge.
Knowing this, be patient and hold on target and dust him when he stops.
Took a few bucks by doing just this.
 
I took this buck many years ago.
I spotted him bedded on the slope in the background and I was on the opposite side of the draw.
My first shot was just high, racked another and he never stood up again.

I have shot dozens and dozens of WT and I don\'t think there is a close comparison between the two.
 

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