Whitetail vs mule deer hunting. Differences?
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sixgun MAK
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I live in Minnesota. I bow exclusively. I feel that hunting whitetails in this state is very difficult compared to the prairie states such as North Dakota, where I'm from. There, it can be sometimes be rather easy.
Basically, my hunting seasons consists of me bowhunting black bear, whitetails, pronghorns, and mule deer. Ranging from Minnesota to Wyoming.
For me, the most challenging of the four with a bow, would be mule deer. The two main reasons are because you can't pattern them as much as whitetail, and where I hunt them, it's wide open country.
Mule deer are by far my favorite animal. I have killed monster whitetails, black bears, and pronghorns, but never a huge mule deer. Even so, I get more excited about killing a 3X3 mulie than I do about any of the other three.
Basically, my hunting seasons consists of me bowhunting black bear, whitetails, pronghorns, and mule deer. Ranging from Minnesota to Wyoming.
For me, the most challenging of the four with a bow, would be mule deer. The two main reasons are because you can't pattern them as much as whitetail, and where I hunt them, it's wide open country.
Mule deer are by far my favorite animal. I have killed monster whitetails, black bears, and pronghorns, but never a huge mule deer. Even so, I get more excited about killing a 3X3 mulie than I do about any of the other three.
My experience with whitetails is somewhat limited but a jumped mulie will 95 plus percent of the time stop in under 200 yards an take a look back at you a few seconds, and there is a good chance a white tail won't. If you know this and wait a mulie will give you a great shot if your ready, unless it is a wise old buck or they have been recently hunted. Good chance deer that have been hunted much recently will keep moving once started
Wise old bucks can disappear with almost mystical qualities. I've watched one lay down and crawl backward into the brush never to be seen again.
Wise old bucks can disappear with almost mystical qualities. I've watched one lay down and crawl backward into the brush never to be seen again.
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I can't say that I prefer either one.
My experience is that whitetails are usually a lot more wary. Mule deer don't seem to be very wary of people in my area, although a lot of the whitetails seem to have a death wish as well.
The GW in my area agrees with that. He said, "They shouldn't call it mule deer hunting. They should call it mule deer shooting."
I've shot a number of them within 35 yards.
I will go along with the patterning thing, though. Sometimes there will be a herd of mulies around for a week or two, then they will be gone for two or three weeks, then back again. If that two weeks they are gone is during the season in my area I just don't get a mulie that year.
My experience is that whitetails are usually a lot more wary. Mule deer don't seem to be very wary of people in my area, although a lot of the whitetails seem to have a death wish as well.
The GW in my area agrees with that. He said, "They shouldn't call it mule deer hunting. They should call it mule deer shooting."
I've shot a number of them within 35 yards.
I will go along with the patterning thing, though. Sometimes there will be a herd of mulies around for a week or two, then they will be gone for two or three weeks, then back again. If that two weeks they are gone is during the season in my area I just don't get a mulie that year.
Lennyjoe
Member
I think Mulie hunting was much more difficult than Whitetails. Then again, I've hunted in Georgia where the deer are like flies and in Arizona where the Mulies are few and far in between. Unless you hunt over water in Arizona, its more glassing and stalking. Very different terrains on both accounts so its hard to judge either way.
omcjf
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I've hunted both many times. The methods for hunting them are basically the same but mulies give you many more opportunities than whitetails. If you spook a mulie the odds are that they will give you another crack at them. Do that to a whitetail and they are gone 99.9% of the time. Whitetail just seem to be a lot smarter than mule deer.
Art Eatman
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I've hunted mulies in SW Texas; whitetails mostly in central Texas west of San Antonio.
Whitetails are far more curious. Move around more. When spooked, they're more prone to circle back toward their home turf. You can cut the circle, sometimes, and get a shot while they're sneaking home. The home territory is generally rather small. They have fairly regular patterns about visiting scrapes, etc.
Mules down here lay up a lot. Not a lot of movement. Gotta know what they prefer as a bedding area, and walk to it. They'll lay up below a crest where they won't be skylined, on the downwind side and generally near a saddle of the ridge. When spooked, they'll head upwind and uphill.
Since desert mule deer bucks only drink every few days, and particularly during the rut, movements are hard to predict. And they're not as aggressive about breeding as whitetails. Horn rattling doesn't work.
Art
Whitetails are far more curious. Move around more. When spooked, they're more prone to circle back toward their home turf. You can cut the circle, sometimes, and get a shot while they're sneaking home. The home territory is generally rather small. They have fairly regular patterns about visiting scrapes, etc.
Mules down here lay up a lot. Not a lot of movement. Gotta know what they prefer as a bedding area, and walk to it. They'll lay up below a crest where they won't be skylined, on the downwind side and generally near a saddle of the ridge. When spooked, they'll head upwind and uphill.
Since desert mule deer bucks only drink every few days, and particularly during the rut, movements are hard to predict. And they're not as aggressive about breeding as whitetails. Horn rattling doesn't work.
Art
skinewmexico
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The mulies I've hunted you spent hours glassing thousands of acres, then tried to get close enough to stalk in. Seems like whitetails always walk in to food or water.
i hunt both quite a bit. far and away my preference is for mule deer. i suppose whitetails are probably in the top-5 or 10, but mature mule bucks are my passion (second is antelope).
i find hunting mature mule bucks to be one of the greatest challenges in hunting. i've never failed to punch out all my whitetail tags - i find whitetails pretty easy, actually, but i have had my share of mule deer tag soup. sure, i could punch tags w/ immature bucks easily enough, but that's not my hunting style.
difference in habits... mule deer don't seem to follow set patterns and times as much, they seem to rut a week or two later than whitetails, the rut seems to last longer but not be as intense, your success rate in mule deer hunting is probably directly tied to the quality of your binos and spotter, whitetails seem to run up from danger while mules seem to run straight away from it...
lots of little differences, not a lot of great big differences.
i find hunting mature mule bucks to be one of the greatest challenges in hunting. i've never failed to punch out all my whitetail tags - i find whitetails pretty easy, actually, but i have had my share of mule deer tag soup. sure, i could punch tags w/ immature bucks easily enough, but that's not my hunting style.
difference in habits... mule deer don't seem to follow set patterns and times as much, they seem to rut a week or two later than whitetails, the rut seems to last longer but not be as intense, your success rate in mule deer hunting is probably directly tied to the quality of your binos and spotter, whitetails seem to run up from danger while mules seem to run straight away from it...
lots of little differences, not a lot of great big differences.
I thought I'd post a few mulie pics for your entertainment. These are NOT photoshops. All were taken with a handheld Canon Powershot.
Youth pre-season for whitetails, which is three weeks before mule deer season opens we pulled up to the farm house and saw this little buck drinking at the tank.
We sat in the truck and watched and he eventually bedded down about 15 yards from the house. So I had my dad take some pics with me and the two oldest boys.
Then my dad said "Why don't you see how close you can get?" So, I did.
Last weekend this doe and her fawn walked up and bedded down about 25 yards from the blind while we were waiting for a whitetail for my 6 year old.
When we were leaving the farm I walked towards a herd of mulies while my dad sat int he truck and took a couple of pics. There were at least 12 in this little herd. Most of them moved into the edge of the trees but still visible to me. You can see one in the open to the left of the big tree in the middle.
Here is a closer one of the same scene. The mulie is at the far left edge of the pic.
We were getting ready to go hunting the opening day of mulie season this year and I opened the door and saw a buck in the driveway. I went back in and we turned out the light and opened the front door and watched the buck eat some weeds in the front yard and rub on a tree in the front yard. We finally lost sight of him in the dark. Just before legal shooting time I went to a little blind in the front yard. I saw this buck wandering around in the field about 200 yards behind the house. Finally, he bedded down. My 8 year old son and I stalked up to about 60 yards of him and my son shot him.
I probably couldn't get pics like these of whitetails outside of a national park. I certainly couldn't get one like the last one.
Youth pre-season for whitetails, which is three weeks before mule deer season opens we pulled up to the farm house and saw this little buck drinking at the tank.
We sat in the truck and watched and he eventually bedded down about 15 yards from the house. So I had my dad take some pics with me and the two oldest boys.
Then my dad said "Why don't you see how close you can get?" So, I did.
Last weekend this doe and her fawn walked up and bedded down about 25 yards from the blind while we were waiting for a whitetail for my 6 year old.
When we were leaving the farm I walked towards a herd of mulies while my dad sat int he truck and took a couple of pics. There were at least 12 in this little herd. Most of them moved into the edge of the trees but still visible to me. You can see one in the open to the left of the big tree in the middle.
Here is a closer one of the same scene. The mulie is at the far left edge of the pic.
We were getting ready to go hunting the opening day of mulie season this year and I opened the door and saw a buck in the driveway. I went back in and we turned out the light and opened the front door and watched the buck eat some weeds in the front yard and rub on a tree in the front yard. We finally lost sight of him in the dark. Just before legal shooting time I went to a little blind in the front yard. I saw this buck wandering around in the field about 200 yards behind the house. Finally, he bedded down. My 8 year old son and I stalked up to about 60 yards of him and my son shot him.
I probably couldn't get pics like these of whitetails outside of a national park. I certainly couldn't get one like the last one.
sixgun MAK
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Reyn,
There is a big difference between a 1 1/2 mulie on private property vs a mature mulie on public. Two completely different animals.
It is also completely different comparing shooting a mulie stopping at 200 yds with a rifle vs killing one at 20 yds with a bow.
Mature whitetails may have a reputation of being extremely difficult to kill. However, it is all relative to hunting pressure ( private land vs public). A heavily hunted mulie can be one of the most challenging animals to hunt.
There is a big difference between a 1 1/2 mulie on private property vs a mature mulie on public. Two completely different animals.
It is also completely different comparing shooting a mulie stopping at 200 yds with a rifle vs killing one at 20 yds with a bow.
Mature whitetails may have a reputation of being extremely difficult to kill. However, it is all relative to hunting pressure ( private land vs public). A heavily hunted mulie can be one of the most challenging animals to hunt.
I was turkey hunting in the winter one year in a makeshift blind i.e. four or five 4' reebars pushed in the ground in a semi-circle next to a big tree with camo cloth hung on it. A 10 point (4x4 plus brow tines for the people that want to argue about eastern count vs. western count) with about a 26 inch spread came up to me with his entourage of 3 smaller bucks and 4 does and started to climb into the blind with me. At about 20 yards he looked me over and sniffed several times, then grunted. He came a few steps closer and sniffed and grunted again. He did this until he was about 10 yards away. At that point I decided that if things continued as they were that I would be in a very exciting spot since there wasn't room for both of us so I stood up and spoke to this critter. He looked me over and sniffed some more and started angling past me with his pals. Of course I had already used my tag that year.
I guess whitetails might do that, too.
As far as hunting pressure on private land, I don't know what the ratio of hunters per acre is on public land vs private land. I know the population in the county I hunt in probably doubles or more during the 2 weeks plus 1 weekend of mule deer season. You'll see more cars and trucks that 2 weeks than any other 2 months of the year including harvest time.
The hunting season here is purposely at a different time than the rut so that hunters don't have to shoot mule deer in self defense to keep from being buggered.
I think hunting mulies in the open with a bow would be a challenge but if you are comparing whitetails with mulies under the same circumstances and on the same land the way I do, I think you'll find the whitetails will be less trusting and more difficult to get close to. My 8 year old son and I stalked up to 60 yards from that buck over fairly open ground, then the buck stood up and looked at us for about 15 seconds while my son got ready to make the shot. It isn't a monster trophy but it is a mature animal.
I guess whitetails might do that, too.As far as hunting pressure on private land, I don't know what the ratio of hunters per acre is on public land vs private land. I know the population in the county I hunt in probably doubles or more during the 2 weeks plus 1 weekend of mule deer season. You'll see more cars and trucks that 2 weeks than any other 2 months of the year including harvest time.
The hunting season here is purposely at a different time than the rut so that hunters don't have to shoot mule deer in self defense to keep from being buggered.
I think hunting mulies in the open with a bow would be a challenge but if you are comparing whitetails with mulies under the same circumstances and on the same land the way I do, I think you'll find the whitetails will be less trusting and more difficult to get close to. My 8 year old son and I stalked up to 60 yards from that buck over fairly open ground, then the buck stood up and looked at us for about 15 seconds while my son got ready to make the shot. It isn't a monster trophy but it is a mature animal.
Interesting Bitmap, how differently animals will act in different areas.
The ranch we've been working on and off the last 15 years or so here in Idaho has white tail and mule deer. Only one deer is legally taken off that over 2000 acres each year, by a teen that lives on the place, although I figure a few are shot without permission. Never has a mulie came closer than 75 yards when we're working and white tails at least twice that or more. If you move toward any deer they promptly leave the area. Worked in the Mtn's and outside in the West most of my life and the only deer I have had come as close as your's is still hunting, during deep snow on winter feed, or when working in a Natl. Park. Have seen pictures of deer eating the shrubs in neighborhoods in some areas of the country but that's a different situation entirely.
The ranch we've been working on and off the last 15 years or so here in Idaho has white tail and mule deer. Only one deer is legally taken off that over 2000 acres each year, by a teen that lives on the place, although I figure a few are shot without permission. Never has a mulie came closer than 75 yards when we're working and white tails at least twice that or more. If you move toward any deer they promptly leave the area. Worked in the Mtn's and outside in the West most of my life and the only deer I have had come as close as your's is still hunting, during deep snow on winter feed, or when working in a Natl. Park. Have seen pictures of deer eating the shrubs in neighborhoods in some areas of the country but that's a different situation entirely.
stevereno1
Member
Mulies are bigger, beautiful animals, but they are not as weary of humans and therefore, are easier to sucessfully kill. A mature whitetail buck is another thing completely. Stealth is the name of the game. They are nearly always nocternal during the fall and winter, except for during the rut.
My experiences with stalking both species show that mule deer are more curious, while whitetails seem to run off, and never look back. Because of this, I prefer to hunt whitetail from a stand and wait for them to come in, while for mulies I find it easier to stalk them in the open, sage brush areas. I've had better luck with mulies.
FYI, most of my hunting for mulies were in the Missouri river breaks in Montana, or the open, high country of south western Montana. While most of my whitetail hunting has been in more densely forested areas and small stream country of western Montana and Idaho....Geography may have influenced my view of how "easy" each species can be hunted.
FYI, most of my hunting for mulies were in the Missouri river breaks in Montana, or the open, high country of south western Montana. While most of my whitetail hunting has been in more densely forested areas and small stream country of western Montana and Idaho....Geography may have influenced my view of how "easy" each species can be hunted.
MCgunner
Member
I'll add two cents to the discussion, but I've hunted both. I've hunted whitetail the most. Whitetail country is often heavy cover where I've never hunted mulies in other than open, mountainous country. Taking a stand after finding rubs/scrapes or a heavily traveled dry wash or something is often the best strategy for whitetail, wait 'em out, let 'em come to you. Mulies can be more successfully spot and stalked. I've spot and stalked whitetail, but around the rut. If they ain't ruttin', they usually ain't movin' during the day. I have found exceptions where they're greatly overpopulated, up in Llano County in Texas, they're like rabbits. But, most places, whitetail are far more elusive in my experience, especially the really good ones. They didn't get to be old mossyhorns by being stupid.
I love hunting both. Mulies will test your endurance and physical condition more, whitetails will test your knowledge of their habits, your reading of sign, and your patience more.
I love hunting both. Mulies will test your endurance and physical condition more, whitetails will test your knowledge of their habits, your reading of sign, and your patience more.
CoRoMo
Member
I hunt elk and mule deer, and prefer elk. All. Day. Long.
The above posts all tend to lean in the "mule deer are more difficult to hunt" category. I hope that is true. I haven't hunted white tails yet, but will do that soon enough, and hope it is easy. I always thought I heard that white tails are friggin ghosts and are next to impossible to hunt. Hope you guys are right.
However, if you compare mulies to elk... mule deer are 1,000% easier to hunt! Elk are friggin ghosts in the woods. Dang phantoms!! But I can shoot a mule deer every year without fail. They seem to be crawling all over these mountains like rats.
This past fall, I got one in about one hour of being afield. When I was driving up to my hunting spot, I could have hit a dozen or so mule deer on the road just trying to get to the spot, and that is usually how it goes. They're everywhere! I've got to work my butt off for an elk, and that is why they are my addiction.
The above posts all tend to lean in the "mule deer are more difficult to hunt" category. I hope that is true. I haven't hunted white tails yet, but will do that soon enough, and hope it is easy. I always thought I heard that white tails are friggin ghosts and are next to impossible to hunt. Hope you guys are right.
However, if you compare mulies to elk... mule deer are 1,000% easier to hunt! Elk are friggin ghosts in the woods. Dang phantoms!! But I can shoot a mule deer every year without fail. They seem to be crawling all over these mountains like rats.
This past fall, I got one in about one hour of being afield. When I was driving up to my hunting spot, I could have hit a dozen or so mule deer on the road just trying to get to the spot, and that is usually how it goes. They're everywhere! I've got to work my butt off for an elk, and that is why they are my addiction.
I am sure that both deer types under discussion behave independently differently in different parts of the country. My personal experience has been that Whitetail deer very much tend to live in thick, brushy country that dictates lots of sitting and waiting/watching. I don't like that--boreing. Mule deer tend to live in more open country which requires walking, glassing, sneaking. I like that. Each to his own! As a side note, I have found Mule deer to be much better eating than Whitetail deer.
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