Mule Deer observation...

I've hunted whitetails most of my life....about 25yrs worth....and I recently have gotten into hunting mule deer about 3yrs ago. My observation: mule deer are stupid. Reason: Whitetails run to the next county when they spot you and give you the "white flag finger" as they bound off. Mule deer will look, run 50yds, stop, turnaround, and look at you again...that's when I usually get the shot off and droppem. Does anyone observe the same situation?

Not a bad observation. But as Mule Deer bucks get older they eventually wise up. Just takes them a lot longer to learn that humans are danger.

their dumb

they're both dumb..

I've only had the good fortune of hunting mule deer once, last December at Matador. The young bucks seemed real easy to get close to compared to whitetail, but the bigger bucks that had been shot at a time or two, all you see was a white butt behind a big rack headed over the ridge. I was finally able to sneak up on one of the big boys, but the wind and cover was perfect, and he was distracted by a group of does. I guess chasing tail has made us all dumb at one time or another.

Mulies and whitetail are very different,whitetails are forest creatures and mulies are desert type creatures,they have evolved from totally different environments,where a whitetails defense in a close woodland type setting is to run, a mulie in a wide open setting is to just keep some distance between themselves and their perceived danger,also they dont know a 7 mag can reach out and touch them.MY 2 cents.

From my 5 years of hunting Mule Deer in West Texas I am going to have to say that it is going to depend on the Mule Deer buck. Some are dumb (younger ones mostly) as a sack of rocks and some of them(older bucks) if you see them and spook them and they get away you can pretty much right them off seeing them again. For the most part they will tolerate movement and vehicles but if they smell you they are gone and in high gear most of the time. You might see them again in that area in a week or so or not till the next season in most cases. For whitetails it depends on the deer again. Most will run at the sight of a vehicle or person and will not tolerate smell either, but they will come back if that is their territory you find them in when spooking them.
The basic difference in them was pointed out above it is the habitat they reside in that makes them act different. Also the density of animals per 1,000 acres is much different also.

Go to Colorado and try and find a true 180" trophy Mule Deer and see how dumb they are. I'm amazed at the credit give to the elusive Whitetail. A mature WT and Mule deer offer very different but unique but challanges. If you not challanged by Texas Muleys then take a trip out west and see what kind of hunter you turn out to be. It's much different than hunting over corn. Later Baker

I never have run in to anyone who hunts Mule deer over corn, regardless of what state it is...

I think I'm going to give that a shot.

Good luck brother, mountain hunting will change the way you look at hunting. Good Luck on your hunt. Baker

Well I am!!







Thanks elkhunter

Come on pack mule you already been there and done that except pulling the trigger. You know just how hard them mountain muleys can be.

Well you do have to honk at the younger ones to get them out of the middle of the road. Older ones overlook everything banking on you getting ticked off and shooting one of the younger ones for not getting out of your way. Honestly hoping I can lay the hammer down on one just off the 18th green

Or off of that mountain bike trail.

Definitely going to be glassing from up there

Didn't mean to step on your toes elkhunter...btw..I have hunted elk and mulies in NM. And I don't hunt over corn feeders. I'm a spot/stalk hunter from the old school.
I was trying to figure out if mule deer behavior was the same for other hunters. All 3 mule deer I have shot have been with a muzzle loader and right after they stop to look back. I'd love to see a 180 class in Colorado....maybe one day I'll get up there.

on hunts I've been on, shots have ranged from 401-697 yds. Watched a buck get bumped right before 2nd season.. 4 miles later and day before 3rd season we found him again. He was up high and would look through cover at you and found out about 500yds was what he liked to keep as a buffer between you and him before he put some more distance on it.

Mulies are dumb... Watched a 180 grow all season one summer he was in the garden ever morning and evening....south of pagosa springs. Grandmother still was taking pics in early nov.

Mulies at our ranch are stupid...stupid stupid watched my cousin miss a 200 nt with a bow it ran 40 yards stopped looked back and walked off.....

They are stupid! I Have to throw rocks at em to keep off the main road thru our lease so they aren't laying around when oil guys are driving thru.

I had a 180"+ mulie I stalked in on in the panhandle of Idaho. I didn't know he was there and I am convinced he would have never moved had I not been out of breath and about to die on the side of that mountain. I had to stop to catch a breather and as I was looking around me, I belive he got nervous, because I was looking straight at him in the bushes, but couldn't make out what I was seeing. Whether or not they are dumb, I don't know. He stood and looked at me at 50 yards and I tried to shoot him. But my guides head was between me and the neck of the buck. When he saw the guide he took off and I tried to take him out on the run.

I think, that whitetails in Texas have more interaction with humans that try to kill them. Some of these mule deer in these mountainous places might not see humans but a few times a year, and some of those times it's backpackers that offer them no real threat. I hiked through Big Bend several years ago and walked right past 2 bucks within 10 ft of them and they never looked my way. They had watched 1,500 other people walk past them and were never in danger, so why should this human scare me? I think it's all what they are used to or the fact that they haven't had lead flying at them or seen 4 of their buddies get shot over the years of their life.

back before a bad winter kill you would see 180s trying to hide from you in the bar ditch. Head flat on the ground and horns sticking up over the brush/grass. Heck the 2 bucks I'm going to try to find were on a golf course last I heard, they were in the same area last year, but obviously they were smart enough to avoid everyone during season, even folks with Gov tags hunting the area.

You have to actually hunt muley's. You can't sit in a stand and kill him when he comes to eat at your feeder. Also, I don't know of a lot of high fenced "Zoos" that have mulies. And they are dumber than white tails, at least the younger ones.

When I said you actually have to hunt muleys, I wasn't knocking hunting from a stand looking at a feeder. I've shot many deer doing exactly that, but the most fun I've ever had was walking through mesquite and cedar with the wind in my face and the sun at my back. It's truly exciting slow hunting, getting on my knees looking under mesquites for deer.

In my opinion, the biggest challenge with Muleys is finding the truly big bucks. Up in NM I bet I see 50 to 75 deer for every good buck. And the true trophys are even rarer. Getting in to position to kill one is another story.

Yes, the does and young bucks don't bolt like a WT. They typically do the "Muley prance" for 50 yds, then have another look at you. That's why they were massacred back in the day. But the big bucks are spookier. Usually only have a chance at them at first and last light. And if you push them out, you probably won't see them again.

This year I spotted my buck on a Monday, then couldn't get in position to take him until Thursday. Then I shot the wrong buck, a different story.

This is what I have observed in hunting Mule's for 25 years in Colorado and only a couple of times in West Texas fof the Desert variety. Some big old Mulies wont even get in on much of the "rut" action
and some old big ones will hang out in the high country with a few big Bull elk close buy late into the season. I don't think their "stupid", but they don't often see and are pursued by people like a Whitetail. I have seen countes 3 yoa and younger slaughtered by hunters cause they are "easy and look "big" compared to Whitetails. Allot of the mountain Mulies get killed by the first "human" they have ever seen.

Wear a cougar suit and see if they stand around!!

Would that be a tight red dress and expensive jewelry?

We drive around checking alfalfa feilds

straight up cheating

From the main roads, with a spotlight?

Yep, dumb deer. I'm sure everyone that says they are so dumb have big mulies hanging on their walls. lol

I do

me, too (if you consider 170 big). He was pretty dumb, too.

But I would agree that some fo the old bucks, depending on how much hunting pressure they have seen, can be pretty elusive.

Same goes for whitetails. I had the opportunity one time in the 80's to be on the King Ranch before they allowed hunting. The deer were accustomed to oilfield trucks and pickups on the ranch. As we drove around, the deer were as tame as cattle. We would drive by monster 10 pointers laying under a tree not 20 feet from the road. They would just watch us go by.

That would work for the hunters in the area