Thanks for the help. I realize spotlight surveys are relatively inaccurate, but flying a 65000 acre place can get expensive in a hurry so that may not be an option every year. It turns out, as was the basis for my question, that the new biologist is correct in that he told me he needed 3 spotlight surveys in order to issue tags.

I agree on Mule Deer being a much different deer compared to a WT. I hunted the same ranch for 10 yrs in West Texas. We ran trail cams for about a 3 yr period. We would kill bucks we never saw on trail cams. Some of those bucks move great distances in a week or two. Some stay in the same general area for 2-3 yrs then move. One buck was seen on the west side of the ranch the first year and then 7-8 miles east of there on the ranch the next season. Easy to ID him with forked 2's and forked 4's plus what would be a G4 on a WT on his right beam. He was very dark horned and narrow but tall. Never seen him again after that second year. 2 yrs ago I watched a basic 4x4 with a WT looking rack with a group of 9 does/fawns the first morning of the season. Over the next 2 weeks they were gradually working south. Exactly 2 weeks later the whole group was 5.75 miles straight-line due south from where I first saw them. IME with MD you can see 40-50 by 10 in the morning and not see hardly any deer the next day or two. If you started hunting on a day when the were not moving you would swear they were none on the ranch. Hunting that same ranch we knew the deer were still there since it was a very large ranch. We killed very few bucks per year so we knew we had bucks getting very old and probably they died of old age. Weather and time of the year really dicates how or why they are moving IME on that ranch. The lack of good hunting weather for several season in a row our lease in Trans Pecos really showed that. We might get 2 or 3 days of really good weather and then it was back to being hot.
I know the TPWD was or may still be doing research up in the western/central part of the Panhandle. They had radio collared some MD to see how far they were ranging and how rotation of farmed crops would make them move around. I think they were in the second year of it then. I was also told at that time they were thinking about antler restrictions on Mule Deer bucks in all of West Texas. I would really be interested in seeing the results of the research from that study to see how far those deer are moving.
I hunted Mule Deer for the first time in 1994 and was hooked. I hunted for 3 yrs in the late 90's in the SE Panhandle area and they could be found in high numbers one day and next to nothing the next day all in the rougher red canyon areas on the edges of farmland. It was not until 2006 that I finally was able to hunt for them for 11 yrs in a row in Alberta, Kansas and Texas. I can fully agree that once you get hooked on hunting them you will have withdrawals when you are not able to hunt them.

We would see a lot more big mule deer killed in Texas if they would start the season after Christmas instead of November, south of I-10.

What is it that you enjoy about mule deer hunting? I know some who don't hunt WT at all but never miss the mule deer hunt. I have never hunted mule deer, seems there is more than the hunt and scenery. What say you?

stxranchman, you speak the truth on MD movement. We once had a big 190"+ buck that had to be 32" wide pegged the evening before the season opened, at dusk, laying down. We went back to camp and started sharpening up the knives for opening day as we just knew we were going to kill that buck early the next morning, opening day. To make a long story short, we never saw him again. However a few days later the game warden came by camp to check us out and drink a cup of coffee. He always shows us pics of good deer taken (he won't tell us where they were taken though, don't blame him). He had that exact bucks picture taken almost 8 miles north of where we saw him bedded the evening before the opener. He was unmistakable with a small drop time.

During that helicopter survery the biologist got on a really big buck, saying he would probably go 210" at least. He was all by himself, in a small weed patch in a buffalo wallow. He said he watched him for about 15 seconds before the buck finally stood up from his bed, but never ran off. They went on to finish the survey, and after about 15 minutes went back to have another look at that buck. He was in the same place, laying down, and would not stand up again, all the while the helicopter was hovering overhead about 90ft.

Big muley bucks are a completely different animal.