I've hunted whitetail deer for a long time but never been hunting for mule deer. During a recent Aoudad hunt in Palo Duro Canyon, I was reminded that I'm not getting any younger and that I better get going with some of my "bucket list" hunts before I actually kick said bucket! Near the top of my list is a mule deer hunt. I'd like to get some guidance from the team. I've looked into planning hunts in other states, but it starts to get expensive and the logistics are challenging from a work perspective. So, I'd like to hear from folks about hunting mulies in Texas. I'm comfortable paying for a hunt; looking to shoot a nice buck if possible (not interested in giant trophies) but I'd be equally happy with a couple of nice does. I'm in reasonably good shape and love hunting western style, so not afraid to put in the miles to go find a nice deer. Would like to book ASAP.

What's a reasonable price to pay for the hunt described? Any strong recommendations for reputable outfitters? Likely to be two hunters.

Thanks in advance!!

Henry

Mule Deer hunting is addictive to say the least. West Texas offers some varied terrains and hunting styles. Most reputable outfitters are book years out right now due to the demand on mule deer hunting in West Texas. trophy hunts bring a premium at this time on the well managed ranches. That said you can probably find a management mule deer hunt to fit your budget. Many ranches out west are MLD and many are regular season. With MLD they get extended seasons and that allows them to take undesirable genetic traits on mature deer. Wildlife Systems, Desert Safaris, etc are larger outfitters who have MLD ranches they outfit on. I have hunted mule deer in Kansas and Alberta also. Kansas you have to draw a WT permit and put in for the MD permit to get drawn. Very difficult to get a MD permit and it used to take about 5 yrs. Once you get a MD permit it becomes and either or permit...meaning you can kill either one WT or one MD. Limited NR permits...but you can hunt ML in late Sept for 14 days or so and if you are not successful you can come back and hunt in rifle season with your ML only. They offer longer archery season and hunt during the rut. Rifle season is after Thanksgiving for 14 days or so. In Alberta you have to hunt with an outfitter. Archery is in Oct IIRC. ML season is in late Oct or was for 2 weeks. Rifle is in November during the rut. Some zones have limited NR permits owned by the outfitter. IIRC the two zones I hunted in had only about 40 NR permits and they were designated trophy zones.

$ comes down to what you are looking for size wise.

Bigger the “opportunity” for larger more money you will pay. So 3500-20k plus


Honestly NM, CO, Okla, and Kansas are similar logistics wise. Need to plan 5-7 days for a hunt.

I've hunted with Desert Safaris twice and we have plans to hunt with them again this coming season. I think management hunts are $5K and trophy hunts are $8,500. The trophies we have taken with them have ranged from 155 to mid-180s, with the average being in the 165-170 range. The management deer I've seen taken were in the 140-155 range. We like the setup because it's not a terribly long drive, we can use our regular Texas hunting licenses, it's a massive and beautiful ranch in the Davis Mountains, you can hunt peak rut (MLD), and success rates on good deer are very high.

Mulie Mike on here offers a wide variety of options, so you might want to start with a call to him if your looking to hunt West Texas.

I'd check with Muley Mike on here to see what he might have available and pricing ... based on posts on Facebook, he has some pretty good success

Henry... You passed through the ranch I manage on the way in and out of your aoudad hunt. And I suspect you saw some nice mule deer bucks in the process

The ranch owner no long sells hunts. But... he does give away one guided trophy mule deer hunt a year to be sold at a charity auction. This years auction will probably be held in early October. PM me if you want details. As others have said, another option would be to reach out to Mulie Mile on this forum. Over the years I sent him clients I didn't have space for, and he's always seemed to do a great job. Most of his ranches are West Texas vs the panhandle. Good luck

Aoudad hunt must have been on TPWD land.

Aoudad hunt was at Palo Duro Canyon! Dave, I will PM you, want to hear more about the charity auction!

Sounds good

I'm out of date, but 20 years ago I got tired of hunting public land for Mule Deer and decided to spend the money to hunt on private land where there where more deer and less people. I looked at every state, and decided that Eastern Montana is where I would have the best chance of getting a good mule deer. My goal was a 4x4 rack over 25 inches wide. Broadus Montana has a bunch of large ranches with a few outfitters having the rights to hunt on them. The guy I booked with had 300,000 acres to hunt on. Every day we saw a hundred deer. Every day we saw dozens of legal bucks. Every day we saw several shooters. I shot mine on the 3rd day, and I saw bigger bucks afterwards. It was very hard not to shoot the first good buck that I saw. My buddy shot his the 4th day, he couldn't hold out any longer!! Mine was 28 inches wide, his was 26 inches, but with extra points. Mine scored 156, his scored 180 gross.

The outfitter has retired and I'm not sure who has it now. I know that there are still several outfitters in that area, and if I was going to pay to go on a mule deer hunt again, I would start talking to outfitters in that area.

My buck,

CO is the way to go here

As noted Kansas is difficult to get a non resident mule deer tags. White tail is more accessible!!
My daughter lives in wester Kansas and the bucks are Huge!!!!!!! Both white tail and Muley
Hunting is driving around searching harvested fields stalking and long range shooting!!
I've attached my grandson's first bucks!!!!! Amazing

Call a good reputable outfitter and get on the list….unless you find a cancellation getting in for this year is gonna be doubtful.

And after hunting deer in both west Texas and Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico…..don’t discount the western states….many times you will have a better time and see more deer than you will in west Texas. Hunting trans pecos mule deer is a unique and exciting experience but it’s not the pinnacle of mule deer hunting, not by a long shot. In most cases on package hunts in Texas you pay more for less and you are only saving yourself some travel time

I did that Desert Safaris hunt about 5 years ago. Ranch is unbelievably massive and there are mule deer everywhere. You’d have no problem gettin one.

I recently was looking for a Mule Deer hunt in Texas. Talked w/ Mullie Mike, Double Diamond Outfitters, and H.E. Sproul Ranch, among others. Everyone I talked w/ is booked out for at least a couple of years (at least at that point in time). Lots of demand for a relatively few number of hunts. Ended up going w/ H.E. Sproul Ranch but its not for a couple of years.

Following up on my reply from last February.

The hunt I mentioned above is being auctioned off at the New Hope Equine charity gala on Oct 7th. Winning bidder can book the hunt for the 2022 or 2023 hunting season. One non-hunting guest can accompany the hunter. Will be three days semi-guided and includes meals and accommodations. If you know anything about the BAR73 up in the panhandle, you'll know that this is a great hunt with potential for a nice muley.

This hunt will be sold as part of the live auction at the gala. If you want to bid in person I can send you the email link with ticket information. It'll be a great time with food and drink and entertainment and a number of other nice auction items. If you can't make the auction in person we can arrange for proxy bidding or phone bidding. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

FYI.. charity hunt info now posted on the outfitter forum : https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8651067