Mule Deer Hunting and Management in a Changing World

Is a mature mule deer currently the most coveted animal to hunt in the West? It would be tough to suggest that either elk or mule deer are more highly desired, but what I hear so often these days is, “…but I really want to take a big muley.” Perhaps the motivation is something as simple as the human desire to obtain something that is currently more coveted and very difficult to successfully hunt. Big bull elk are, in all reality, easier animals to pursue with success in many more places than big mule deer. That’s not to say one is more difficult to hunt, but the opportunities to find and kill big elk seem to outnumber similar spots and opportunities for truly big mule deer. This is an opinion on my part based on anecdotal information and observation, but I do believe most people with a solid western hunting background would generally agree with this premise.

Mule deer, simply put, are vulnerable. They’re susceptible to habitat loss, roadkill, predation, disease, weather, and most importantly, human hunting pressure. There is no smoking gun when it comes to the general decline and struggle of mule deer populations in different areas. One impactful issue might be the precipitating factor that causes an increased vulnerability to other factors.

For instance, increased tag allotment in some areas of Colorado has resulted in a huge loss of huntable buck numbers in an attempt to manage chronic wasting disease. This same area has a long, frigid winter that sometimes results in substantial winter mortality. Additionally, there are two different high-speed rural highways connecting three different ski towns, leading to a consistently high roadkill issue in the valley. Plus, there is no shortage of predators between coyotes, lions, and fawn-killing black bears in the spring.

Public Pressure

In the late 90’s, a group of concerned sportsmen convened and began lobbying Colorado Parks and Wildlife (formally known as Colorado Division of Wildlife) about the alarming decrease in mule deer numbers, buck numbers, and hunt quality in Colorado. Meetings were held across the state, and the Wildlife Commission, made up of political appointees, was pressured in meetings and in the media to make substantive changes to the then-current management. Population census and modeling were called into question that had suggested that the mule deer population was substantially higher than many believed. Hunting seasons and tag allocations were considered too generous, resulting in what many hunters thought to be an overharvest of Colorado’s mule deer.

The public pressure in Colorado worked, and tag numbers were reduced along with other restrictions put in place to try and limit hunter pressure. Over a couple of years, mule deer buck numbers increased dramatically, and the quality of hunting in Colorado was the best in North America. That was until December of 2007 when it started snowing in the high country and didn’t stop for two months. Winter range was completely covered in deep snow, providing a white landscape devoid of forage.

The snow was so deep that deer stood on plowed asphalt highways just to try and escape the conditions. Massive winter kill was the result with mature bucks and yearling fawns being the first to die. It was also suspected that the conditions were so stressful that does lost their fetus fawns in utero which was evidenced in the lack of the following summer’s fawn crop. Entire age classes of deer were wiped out in the hardest-hit areas.

This record-breaking winter was impactful across the West as other states faced some of the same environmental and weather challenges. This wasn’t an issue limited to Colorado. Idaho faced similar issues with hunting pressure and winter kill, Wyoming was experiencing dramatic natural gas drilling and exploration on deer winter range, and Utah had a burgeoning human population that was exceedingly difficult to manage for hunting numbers. Droughts were an ever-present issue across Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada. Every state in the West had a similar theme with struggling mule deer populations, albeit from many different causes.

No Easy Task

The public sentiment was largely pessimistic regarding mule deer, and the blame was pointed squarely at wildlife managers. These paid professionals had the unenviable task of trying to please everyone, including the opportunity hunter who always has been able to go deer hunting and the selective mule deer hunter who is willing to go with a little less opportunity in hopes of a higher-quality experience.

I was actively involved in the Mule Deer Working Group in the late 90s and attended many meetings involving management by the state. A few of us felt the need to start our own state-based mule deer advocacy group, and we called ourselves the Colorado Mule Deer Association. 25 years later, it’s as if time has stood still and mule deer face the same issues–and now a few more. What we now know is that over two decades of awareness and advocacy by conservation groups is not enough to overcome the natural impacts that mule deer face, and the human pressures that we place upon them through hunting and habitat loss are adding to the struggle that herds face across the West.

What is also quite apparent is there is no single smoking gun to blame. Predators are always high on the blame list because we as hunters see them as direct competition and feel like predator control is a viable option to increase deer populations. Maybe heavy coyote control and a few extra lion tags might make a bit of a difference, but I believe that in certain places, black bear predation on fawns can and does have a major impact on deer populations. It’s a metric that is extremely difficult to measure, as there aren’t going to be many eyewitness accounts, and more likely than not, a bear will devour an entire fawn carcass.

Apex Predators

The long-term impacts of wolf reintroductions on the mule deer population are yet to be fully realized. The voter-approved reintroduction of wolves into western Colorado is on the horizon, and some sportsmen and women suspect a more nefarious intent with this reintroduction than the simple idea of having an alpha predator on the landscape. These hunters feel that the ultimate intent of the pro-wolf advocators is to eliminate the need for hunting to be used as a conservation tool to help manage cervid populations and that there will be enough wolves out there to reduce game populations and eliminate hunting opportunity. Perhaps this is a stretch of the intent, but in reality, anti-hunters are willing to play the long game and accept incremental changes in policy and public perception as steps toward their goals.

Idaho has seen firsthand what an out-of-control wolf population can do. Breeding pairs were reintroduced into the state in 1995 and quickly spread and increased in numbers. Steve Alderman, former president of Deer Hunters of Idaho, a mule deer advocacy group, had this to say about the impact of the burgeoning population of wolves in Idaho:

“Yes, wolves will hunt and kill mule deer, but from what I see, they generally prefer and focus on elk and moose. What I am now realizing is the presence of wolves in what was formerly elk winter range has pushed the elk lower onto mule deer winter range. Now, there is direct competition for food in areas where deer alone used to winter. All the impacts that mule deer face have dramatically reduced their populations statewide, and without exaggerating, I feel as though the statewide deer numbers are less than a quarter of what they were 20 years ago.” In Idaho, the wolves are prolific enough that unlimited wolf tags can be purchased, and a year-round trapping season is in effect on private property.

Invisible Threat

While alpha predators may be the most dramatic and impressive killer of mule deer in the natural world, there is another killer of mule deer that is so small, it can only be seen through an electron microscope. Smaller than an individual virus particle (virion), prions are the culprit behind Chronic Wasting Disease, commonly referred to as CWD. This threat is relatively new to mule deer as far as scientists have theorized, but it is in the center spotlight for wildlife managers across the West.

There could be an entire article dedicated to CWD, the research behind it, and an attempt to mitigate and manage it. Across the West, perhaps millions of dollars are collectively impacted by CWD–be it via research costs or monitoring and management strategies to try and get a hold of its enigmatic impact on mule deer. The fear is that CWD will wipe out deer populations and that it will spread to humans through the consumption of venison.

There has never been a single confirmed case of a species barrier jump by CWD with the resulting infection of a human, yet researchers are heavily cautioning in regard to that potential event. Their advice is that meat from CWD-infected game is not to be consumed and is to be thrown out. This begs the question of how many CWD-positive cervids have been consumed by humans that didn’t get their animals tested. There are still no positive cases in humans.

The current management strategy in play in Colorado involves high buck tag allocation numbers in areas where CWD-positive deer have been found. In simple terms, it is suspected that mature mule deer bucks are potentially the most likely spreaders of CWD as they move from doe group to doe group in the rut. With heavy hunting pressure and high tag allocations, hunters are, in effect, eliminating entire age classes of bucks from CWD management areas.

This “killing deer to save them” management experiment is based primarily on theory, but due to the relatively new presence of CWD in the spotlight, this management practice is strongly criticized by many hunters. This sentiment is understandable, as we have a disease that impacts deer but is harmless to humans, and we are overhunting the deer herds intentionally and killing a majority of the bucks in hopes that the infected deer will die on their own and eliminate the threat of CWD. This is a difficult sell, but it’s also one that hunters must also recognize.

There isn’t a big notation in the hunting regulations that says, “FYI we are giving out lots of tags for this unit, and it will be easy to draw one, but the area will be overcrowded with hunters, and you will have an extremely poor chance of finding a nice buck like the one on the cover of these regulations.” That is the truth, and it’s a truth denied by hunters who think they will be the ones to defy the odds and get the only nice buck left on the mountain. Ego and desire cloud the clarity of common sense. Be informed and be aware with your application intentions.

This year, talking to hunters who had tags for units managed for CWD, I had never heard such a unanimous negative impression of the hunt they had participated in. To the person, the hunters I talked to said it was the worst hunting experience of their lives. Crowding and lack of bucks were the complaints, but these hunters all applied for and drew tags in areas that are managed to control CWD. For the time being, this will be the norm, not the exception, so my advice would be to carefully research the units you apply for. We are in uncharted territory for long-term management of CWD but suffice it to say that these experimental management practices will continue, at least for the next few years. Currently, there is no solution or cure for CWD.

One thing that CWD-managed units show is how efficient hunters are at killing mule deer given the opportunity. I think it’s safe to say that, across the West, a fairly palpable level of discontent amongst mule deer hunters exists, yet it can be argued quite easily that we are the biggest impact on buck numbers and quality. Almost any place in the West that is managed conservatively for hunting pressure can and will produce big bucks. Hunters who want quality hunting also cannot have consistent hunting opportunity.

Can’t Have Both

Different states have different approaches to management, often with a mix of management goals such as “opportunity” versus a “quality” model varying from unit to unit. Generally speaking, the more licenses given out, the more opportunity and revenue are generated for the state wildlife agency. The opposite is true with less opportunity but a dramatic increase in perceived hunt quality and number of older-age-class bucks, and a dramatic decrease in license sale revenues is the result.

Therein lies the rub. We love hunting mule deer and don’t want to give up the opportunity. Ironically, it’s this love and passion that will be the continued downward trend of mule deer. We are loving them to death. The increased scarcity of big mule deer also plays on the natural tendencies of the human psyche. When something is somewhat rare, the tendency is to covet it with increasing intensity. Mule deer are beautiful, big bucks are majestic, and the giant bucks cause people to ache for them on a level that scares their families. No one can be blamed for taking the legal opportunity given to them by the state and taking a buck via a fair chase hunt. But that isn’t always the case.

The competition for big bucks is intense. Men of average means spend tens of thousands of dollars in pursuit, while the wealthy will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on statewide auction tags. Trail camera wars at waterholes have been documented and fist fights have occurred in the field. Now, I did say “men” here because we all know women just aren’t nearly stupid enough to do some of these extreme things!

State wildlife agencies react by looking in the rear-view mirror. Trail camera bans and seasons have been enacted because of all the grown man drama surrounding their use. Shed hunting seasons have been implemented across many states simply because of the increased popularity of picking up antlers and the incessant pressure on deer winter range while the deer are actively in survival mode. The increased and unexpected use powered parachutes to spot and locate giant mule deer resulted in a strict ban and enforcement of using aircraft during open hunting seasons.

Cervid Publicity

Even with the laws in place, the temptation is still more than some can bear, and accusations are generally launched at anyone who happens to be the lucky guy who picks up the sheds of a well-known buck. As I write this, there is an enormous deer on the winter range of Wyoming that has been nicknamed “The King.” An incredible animal, this buck has palmated antlers, fantastic mass, a drop tine, and simply a stunning look to him. According to law, no one can pick up his sheds until May 1st.

He’s being watched and photographed every day with reports of dozens of vehicles parked on the rural snow-packed road shoulders, watching him. Photographers from all over the West have traveled to the frigid winter range of Wyoming to photograph him, and these images are all over social media these days. It remains to be seen how the drama will play out for his giant shed antlers, but I suspect if someone actually sees the antlers fall off his head, Wyoming Fish and Game will be notified and will pick them up to eliminate the buck drama.

Social media has had a palpable impact on mule deer. The term “horn porn” morphed from a cute term for deer hunting magazines to the thumb-swiping fervor of Instagram and big buck pictures. What is quite apparent is that social media gives a distorted view of reality when it comes to the numbers and availability of mule deer in the West. This premise is no surprise to anyone when many, many hunters post photos of both live mule deer and hunter-taken animals, myself included. To someone who isn’t aware of all the issues mule deer face, this ever-updated overload of mule deer images probably gives a false sense of the reality of mule deer in 2023.

The best of the best are posted, re-posted, shared, and seen tens of thousands of times over. Digital photography equipment has caused an explosion in the number of amateur wildlife photographers, and there is no better place to have your images be seen and appreciated than Instagram. 30 years ago, when I was first jumping headlong into mule deer photography, there were a small handful of photographers that pursued big bucks. Names like D. Robert Franz, Albert Ellis, Sam Carpenter, and Colby Olford were associated with images of giant bucks. That all changed about 15 years ago with the digital photography and information age.

There aren’t many secrets, as evidenced by the hordes of photographers who descend on locations known to have big bucks. There is a huge mule deer buck on the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge on the outskirts of Denver that I would dare say is the single most photographed mule deer of all time. He has been the largest buck at this location for the last three years and has attracted hundreds of photographers who have taken hundreds of thousands of images of him. This will be the norm going forth with giant bucks in accessible locations because there simply aren’t any secrets anymore thanks to social media and shared information.

Worsening Odds

Pressure on mule deer comes in many forms, but the most obvious and direct is the hunting pressure we place upon them. The demand far exceeds the supply, and a new unintended consequence of limited licenses and preference points has arisen. In states where the person with the highest point total is the first to draw, there is no reasonable mathematical chance for first-time applicants to draw those tags in their lifetimes. Yet, people continue to apply in ignorance, unaware of the system’s limitations and insurmountable draw odds.

What is even more stunning is that some of these people continue to buy the mandated license and purchase preference points, and game departments are all too happy to take their money. Once again, buyer beware, but this does not solve the preference point conundrum. At some point, there will possibly be an element of informed attrition where people quit throwing money at lottery-type odds, but the demand for big mule deer clouds common sense.

A couple of years ago, Arizona Game & Fish solicited the help of social media influencers to promote deer hunting in Arizona in the winter as somewhat of an off-season escape. What resulted was an influx of non-resident archery hunters who created enough of an impact that a first-come, first-serve license sale quota was implemented. If that wasn’t enough, Arizona had to then create unit harvest quotas for mule deer to try and manage pressure in the most popular areas. When these types of restrictions are implemented, the unintended consequences have a serious impact on the hunt quality and opportunity for resident deer hunters who might not have experienced these changes at this rate without the intentional promotion of the hunt on social media–most likely to increase revenue from nonresident license sales.

Additionally, as a non-resident of Arizona, you could purchase a tag for a unit and have your hunt shut down before you even arrive, with no other option. Archery hunting used to be a way to avoid the crowds and have a more quality experience, albeit with lower odds of success. Now, the rising popularity of archery and the associated appeal and promotion of it through social media have created a bit of a monster, not just in Arizona, but all across the western mule deer states. Liberal tag allocations for archery seasons set the ball in motion for overcrowding, a reduction in the quality of the archery hunting experience, and most importantly, heavy hunting pressure on mule deer bucks that creates a behavior ripple effect. Pressured deer may now become more difficult to hunt in rifle seasons that often follow the archery seasons, leading to more hunter frustration and dissatisfaction.

The Business of Hunting

When it comes to human pressure on mule deer, perhaps no state experiences this on the level that Utah does. Reactionary regulations have been implemented in the last few years that include trail camera bans in the last five months of each year and the elimination of baiting for deer and the apple pile controversies that went with it. Recently, Utah implemented a regulation allowing a hunter to only be able to hire one outfitter, and that outfitter can only have two helpers for the hunt. Forget the fact that a draw tag holder who’s hunting on their own can have 15 buddies glassing and scouting with him or her.

I recently had a conversation with Jason Carter of Epic Outdoors about mule deer hunting, the changes we have both seen, and where things might be headed. Jason and I are contemporaries, being close in age and having a lifelong passion for mule deer hunting. Jason had this to say: “As time passes, we are seeing the unintended consequences to all western big game hunting, including the conservation tags in Utah. These tags are expensive, and the buyers of the tags will hire outfitters and guides to maximize their best chances at taking a great animal.

“This is completely appropriate and understandable. The unintended consequence of this hunt is it becomes commercialized with a professional level of hunting pressure. The additional resources and manpower invested in the pursuit of special animals are far beyond what most draw tag holders have. The guides are good at what they do and create, in essence, a catalog of animals that have been scouted and seen. This all results in higher success on bigger animals and there is a trickle down to draw tag holders also with the information gathered.

“Quite often, ‘governor tag-quality’ animals are found, and this causes an escalation of hunting pressure. Big bucks and bulls get nicknames and garner even more attention through actual direct observation and social media exposure. Something that didn’t exist hardly at all 30 years ago. Ironically, the sale of these special tags raises millions of dollars for wildlife and habitat improvement but comes at the cost of these unintended consequences.”

Rich In Resources

Jason continues when asked about the pressure mule deer face from the modern mule deer hunter. “With all the tools we have in our toolboxes, we as hunters are simply better at being effective. Online mapping for smartphones, amazing all-terrain vehicles, world-class optics, weapon technologies, and an information stream through online and social media have all contributed to hunters being more effective and lethal. We all learn a lot and share in the enthusiasm of successful hunters on Instagram, but it’s also a strange conundrum to wrap our heads around how this all impacts the quality of our field experience and the wildlife itself.”

Like Jason, I share my concerns, and like Jason, I have also been involved in the hunting world for 30 years with magazine articles, I’ve written a “how-to” book on hunting mule deer, and have shared my experiences on many podcasts including a couple on Jason’s own Epic Outdoors podcast. One thing in particular that Jason and I also share is being selective and not just shooting any buck to fill a tag. Jason says, “People think I’m super successful wherever I go, but I eat tags all the time. If I don’t find the type of buck I’m looking for, I am fine to go home empty-handed.” In an era where mule deer are increasingly difficult to manage and propagate, this self-imposed hunting harvest is a model that will hopefully gain traction. There simply aren’t enough mule deer to go around.

When we talk about issues facing mule deer in different states and different climates, there is a common factor that is always consistent and that is us. In my opinion, hunters are the biggest impact on mule deer. We are our own biggest advocates, but also our biggest enemies. The units with the best deer hunting aren’t the most remote, they aren’t the roughest, and they aren’t the most optimal habitat. The best mule deer hunting is in the places where hunter numbers are conservative and controlled.

The mule deer hunter of this day and age is different than the group of guys hunting with our grandparents. They are the most educated, aware, best equipped, and most driven type of hunters we have ever seen. The modern mule deer hunter has optics we didn’t dream of 30-50 years ago. Compare the Swarovski NL Pure to the industry-leading Steiners of the 80s, and it’s like comparing a Tesla to a Ford Pinto. Long-range shooting has evolved from a stunt-like novelty to the industry standard in about a decade. Hunting clothing is designed and built for an active and athletic hunter who covers ground and hunts hard.

Smartphone mapping programs like OnX and Basemap have eliminated the need for time-consuming research and paper map purchases and might be the single biggest game changer outside of optics for hunter success. “How-to” hunting information is now available in short-attention-span video clips and online articles, free of charge. There are, in effect, shortcuts to what was essentially a learning process that took years and years to complete. Hunters are fully equipped to effectively kill mule deer with success, and I think state wildlife agencies have been caught for a few years now not seeing how highly impactful the modern mule deer hunter can be.

A Critical Approach

The toothpaste is out of the tube and can’t be put back. These aren’t the lamentations of an aging deer hunter, but instead observations of the changed world of hunting. What remains to be seen for mule deer and mule deer hunting in the future is uncertain. There are places in the West where, quite frankly, we shouldn’t even be hunting mule deer because the populations are under threat from too much hunting pressure and environmental impacts. There isn’t a single state wildlife agency that is unaware of the concern for mule deer and hunting opportunities by hunters. The problem is not many people are willing to be the ones to be left out of the opportunities.

There are places where mule deer are doing OK. It’s not all doom and gloom, but I think a fair question on the health of a mule deer herd is whether they are at or near carrying capacity for an area and whether there is enough buck-to-doe representation that a few older age-class bucks are still out there. Maybe it’s time for hunters to think twice before pulling the trigger, and maybe that’s wishful thinking. What I do know is that whether you’re a meat hunter, happy with a forkie, or a seasoned big buck hunter that is comfortable eating tag soup, there is an intrinsic value in knowing that there are healthy mule deer herds and a few big bucks out there still ghosting through the quakies. Let's hope we have them for generations still to come.