White, black, mule?

[Sean Gadhar]

I have never killed a white tail or black tail deer :shocked2: but I've been a (mule) deer hunter for 35 years.

Just wanted to know who out there has hunted what deer?

And do you have a favorite?

 

[wattlebuster]

Sean I hunt the only deer we have in my neck of the woods which is whitetail. Been hunting them for 35 yrs now an still get outsmarted by them on a daily basis. I dont know if they are real smart or Im real dumb :idunno:

 

[BrownBear]

Mule deer, Columbia blacktail, Sitka blacktail here. Only whitetail I've ever hunted was the Coues in the Southwest when I was growing up. Never got around to hunting Eastern whitetail, but spent a lot of time around them.

Toughest to hunt by far was the Coues, even with modern rifles. A guy might put in years to take one with a muzzleloader. Nearly as tough is a trophy Columbia blacktail. They can live in the thick stuff as well as any Eastern whitetail, but they don't "pattern" worth a dang with their huge territories and random habits. Worse yet for trophy score watchers, a 3x4 is "typical" for big bucks, and that fourth point on a 4x4 is usually nowhere near the size of its mate on the other side. Lotta deductions when scoring most, no matter how long the points and how wide the spread.

Sitka blacktail share the "point" issues for trophy hunters. The love the deep tangles too, but frequently venture into open country you'd expect for mule deer, as well as the high stuff you'd expect for Dall sheep or mountain goats. Add in tough weather and big bears, and they're my favorites to hunt, if not nearly so tough as Columbia blacktail and Coues whitetail.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

My Idea of thick stuff was oak brush. If I couldn't see 30 yards it was thick stuff, until I bear hunted in Nova Scotia :redface: I was turned around within 20 minutes of being in the woods (in my defense it was dark and the guide jogged me down the twisting trail). When he started up his truck after I was in my stand, the sound of the truck was at 10 O'clock and I was expecting it at 6 O'clock :redface: I thought "Dorothy, your not in Kansas :shocked2:

 

[jamesthomas]

Whitetail deer here, but not very often in the past 16 or so years( working 2 jobs or 1 job 7 days a week) didn't leave me much time to hunt. But now I plan on going more often. I hunt in deep woods or over a clear cut spot. Most shots will be 75 yards or less in the clear cut, less than 30 in the woods. My bucket list does have a mule deer hunt on it. I would like a nice set of horns to make knife handles an powder measures from. I'm not a trophy hunter hang'em on the wall type guy.

 

[FishDFly]

I have hunted whitetail and mule deer only.

I have found the whitetail harder to pattern and the mule deer are not as smart. Any deer that runs up hill and stops to look back at the top of the hill is dumb and dead if within range.

Coues deer from my reading is the ultimate challenge.

Okay, favorite, in Texas we sit in box blinds and shoot deer, mule deer are hunted in other states, Coues are hunted and black tail are hunted.

You decide.

 

[BrownBear]

Any deer that runs up hill and stops to look back at the top of the hill is dumb.

Boy I'd see that now and then when I was a kid on the ranch back in the 50's and 60's, but haven't seen one do it in the last 40 years.

The "modern" mule deer is a different critter by miles from those in old stories. When a mule deer starts moving, it keeps moving until it's over the ridge, and probably the next one after that. Maybe like rattlesnakes that rattle, a whole lot of the "dumb" ones have been shot out of the gene pool? :idunno:

 

[FishDFly]

"Boy I'd see that now and then when I was a kid on the ranch back in the 50's and 60's, but haven't seen one do it in the last 40 years.

The "modern" mule deer is a different critter by miles from those in old stories. When a mule deer starts moving, it keeps moving until it's over the ridge, and probably the next one after that. Maybe like rattlesnakes that rattle, a whole lot of the "dumb" ones have been shot out of the gene pool? :idunno: [/quote]"

The stop at the top of the hill earned me a 36 1/2" ten(10) point mule deer, thanks to my father educating me.

Times do change, snakes here who rattle are eaten by feral hogs. They say that some day, pheasants will not fly, only the runners will survive.


I missed a top 10 B/C antelope in Wyoming at near dark. The antelope was at 500 yards with a stiff wind blowing. I judged the wind perfect and the hold over was off. He moved about 30 feet and laid down unhurt.

The guide said if I was willingly to spend the night where we were, we could get up about midnight and move forward about 300 yards to it.
He assured me the antelope would be in the exact same spot the next morning and it would be a chip shot.

I laid where I was a-bit and decided that was not in my definition of fair chase, the guide was willingly to cheat, not me.

 

[Patocazador]

I haven't hunted mule deer in over 20 years and only hunted blacktails 3 times (blacktails 3 Me 0). I've killed about 7 or 8 mule deer bucks and over 125 whitetails but blacktails were the toughest hunting I ever did for deer. All those mountains and ferns and all that cold rain made it truly miserable hunting. :surrender:

 

[hanshi]

I've been hunting whitetails for, I guess, 47 years. That's the only game in town - outside the game ranches - here in the east. I'm satisfied.

 

[Kapow]

Smallest to largest: Hog deer, Chital deer, Fallow deer, Rusa deer, Red deer, Sambar deer. Hard to pick a favourite. Maybe red deer because they are so vocal and majestic. Good chewing too! Fair few miles between them all though.

Tell you what I'd really like to have on the wall, is a nice whitetail buck. Hunted them once in Saskatchewan but came home empty handed. Bit colder up there than I'm used to!

 

[BrownBear]

Tell you what I'd really like to have on the wall, is a nice whitetail buck.

If memory serves, don't they have them in parts of New Zealand? Might just be on farms, but I think I recall a friend down there hunting them.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Whitetail. And a million-to-one chance fallow deer that was an introduced escapee that wandered onto my property.

Did not taste near as good as whitetail.

I only hunt as far as I can walk from my back door so it limits me a bit. Happily, whitetail like fields and woodlots just fine.

 

[KHickam]

Mulies, blacktails and whitetails - hunted/killed all those species - just whitetails now in TX though - But if I lived in Washington again - I would go after all of them again

 

[stinkyfeet]

Man I have been trying forever to get a few of my western friends to take me elk, muley, and pronghorn hunting but i have yet to go. But i sure take them to shoot whitetails i need better friends

 

[mccarthy.tf]

Coues are tough. They don't pattern hardly at all. Big change for an Western NY boy. It's either spot and stalk or wait for them near water when it is scarce. Other problem is there are not alot of them around. Lot's of lions in the area and they keep the numbers down.

 

[FishDFly]

I read a lot and Jack O'Connor considered hunting Coues one of the hardest to successfully hunt.

I always wanted to come to Arizona to hunt them, but just never did make it.

My goal was a whitetail, mule deer, Coues and black tail, I made it half way.

 

[Walks with fire]

Whitetails here in Crawford County PA. I look forward to the 3 week after Christmas flintlock only season. I am a meat hunter not a trophy hunter. I even pass on the bucks waiting for a nice fat freezer doe. Last year a nice eight ran up to me and stopped about 30 yards and just looked at me. My brothers wife was shooting at it and was ****** I didn't shoot. I didn't want the dang thing so I just watched it move off.

I got a nice doe during a drive a couple days later. The flint season is all I hunt anymore. I love it.

 

[Spikebuck]

While I have always dreamed of hunting muley bucks, I've never made it.

I have hunted whitetails in several states for 40 years. From the time I started until 2000, it was bow and arrow only, much of it with traditional equipment. Then I got bitten with this muzzleloader bug and have been hunting them with bow and traditional muzzleloader.

I started going for mature bucks in 2006. I still shoot does in the late season to help with herd management and fill the freezer with tasty venison, but focus all my early season and rut time on mature bucks. They are almost a different breed in their cunning and ability to avoid you.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

ff in my own Topic :blah:

You white Tail hunter getting to hunt 3-4-5 or MORE deer. Wow! Out west we get between 1 tag a year and one tag every 2 or 3 years :shocked2: Depending on the unit you want/are willing to hunt.