WY Mule Deer Hunt

[go_deep]

To the OP, I said antlerless for any species. Antelope or elk primarily, if there's fishing, go hiking and fishing while you check out a perspective area. @wytx is right, your likely not going to find doe deer licenses most anywhere.

 

[manitou1]

Only advise I can give you is find some antlerless licenses for any species around where you'd like to hunt and use that as a scouting trip ahead of time. If your not interested in waiting 3-6 years, start looking at outfitters in areas with 0-1 point licenses and just go.

Or just come out scouting/fishing/hiking and not kill our does.

 

[go_deep]

Or just come out scouting/fishing/hiking and not kill our does.

See post 21, beat you by 3 minutes.

 

[PAHunter10]

Rich, your posts contain a lot of good information, but the guide requirement is for federal wilderness, not national forest. "Nonresident big and trophy game hunters are required to obtain a professional outfitter or resident guide while hunting in any federally designated wilderness area. All outfitters must be licensed by the Wyoming Board of Outfitters and Professional Guides." (from the WYGFD website)

 

[PAHunter10]

To tell you the truth, I bring that up for a reason that’s not super obvious. Some parts of the state produce big deer, but they aren’t necessarily where you might think if you didn’t have any local knowledge. Just as an example that won’t be giving away anyone’s favorite spot, you could see big deer coming out of the Medicine Bow NF area, take a look at 12,000’ Medicine bow peak and think that is an obvious place to hunt timberline bucks. Unfortunately, it’s quite devoid of muledeer. Back in college I scouted a lot and hunted it hard for a number of years because it was easy to reach, but it’s just not a deer hang out and many of the big deer are taken on private land surrounding the forest.

There are some areas out in the rolling sagebrush covered stretches that I hunted antelope in for over a decade and never saw a single deer. Lots of antelope, but not a single deer in something like 50 days of hunting and scouting. However a 45 minute drive to a slightly different type of topography frequented by deer and the first year hunting it turned up a wall hanger. Again, getting a little local knowledge goes a long way.

Some areas have mostly private land with a little public land but there’s nothing in it.

Pick a place you’d enjoy visiting even if you weren’t hunting, and stop by to check it out in september one of the years you don’t get drawn. That will give you a pretty good idea of what it will be like in October.

Very well said. Being that I’ve never been in the area, I’m just trying to do as much research as I can on anything and everything and will then narrow that down to a more specific style of hunt and area to suit it. But just like you said, the experience is worth more than anything else I could bring home. Really looking forward to it, thank you!

 

[manitou1]

See post 21, beat you by 3 minutes.

You used more tact also.

 

[PAHunter10]

Or just come out scouting/fishing/hiking and not kill our does.

A doe hunt was never really a part of the planning process, fishing and hiking sounds like a good time though!