How high do western whitetails go?

[TaperPin]

Hunting the rim of a big Rocky Mountain draw at about 8,500‘, a muledeer was right inside the trees moving around - hard to get a good look at his rack, but eventually he looked narrow with short forks. About the same time he figured out what I was and darted off, breifly crossing a small opening - to my surprise a big fluffy white tail waving good bye! Lol

He was definitely a shooter, but I had no idea whitetails had moved up that high and missed out because of it. Who else has had whitetails pop up where they shouldn’t be?

 

[Seeknelk]

Yeah they are infesting some of rhe highest stuff in northwest MT also. See them up high fairly often. Right on the ridges and up in the high basins. Sometimes mixed right in with mulies.

 

[Moosemaster96]

I've been seeing this in South Central BC as well I even seen a doe with 2 fawns heading up into the snow last spring while bear hunting. And then I seen her again that September with both fawns still but way up in a basin at 7200' (way high for BC any higher the snow doesn't melt before next winter) she was in the Willows pretending to be a moose and then on my way down I seen a little spike buck also whitetail cruzing along a ridge line pretending to be a sheep. So my conclusion is even the wild life are buying into the you can identify as anything liberal bullshit

 

[4rcgoat]

Been seeing them regularly at around 7500 last couple years

 

[TaperPin]

Yeah they are infesting some of rhe highest stuff in northwest MT also. See them up high fairly often. Right on the ridges and up in the high basins. Sometimes mixed right in with mulies.

That‘s really interesting. It would be odd, but believable if a whitetail/mulie hybrid started taking hold somewhere.

 

[TaperPin]

I've been seeing this in South Central BC as well I even seen a doe with 2 fawns heading up into the snow last spring while bear hunting. And then I seen her again that September with both fawns still but way up in a basin at 7200' (way high for BC any higher the snow doesn't melt before next winter) she was in the Willows pretending to be a moose and then on my way down I seen a little spike buck also whitetail cruzing along a ridge line pretending to be a sheep. So my conclusion is even the wild life are buying into the you can identify as anything liberal bullshit

Lol

It would be interesting to find out if fawns raised up high are staying up high as adults.

 

[mrolen]

I jumped a white tail buck at 8500’ late October in SW Montana I want expecting it.

 

[Macintosh]

Highest we’ve seen was a group of 5-6 does and fawns about 7800’, that was in a little creek coming out of a small mountain range right where it met the sage in central WY. Cattle in the neighborhood, but no ag for 20+ miles in any direction. That was probably 2018.

 

[Eagle]

Ran into a doe whitetail in 2011 while traversing the Teton Crest Trail on the way up to Paintbrush Divide after leaving Lake Solitude. She was at roughly 9750' in elevation. Rangers didn't believe me when I reported it after we got out, haha.

 

[Stalker69]

My guess would be to heaven, when they die. Lol.

 

[TaperPin]

Ran into a doe whitetail in 2011 while traversing the Teton Crest Trail on the way up to Paintbrush Divide after leaving Lake Solitude. She was at roughly 9750' in elevation. Rangers didn't believe me when I reported it after we got out, haha.

That’s way up there!

 

[Eagle]

That’s way up there!

Indeed. I had/have a picture of her, and it’s clearly alpinish terrain with the rocks and grass, but they just couldn’t believe it.

 

[TaperPin]

Indeed. I had/have a picture of her, and it’s clearly alpinish terrain with the rocks and grass, but they just couldn’t believe it.

That’s a nice looking deer on your avatar picture - is the dark color of the rack from a type of brush he was living in? I’ve seen racks that color but can’t remember where.

 

[The Guide]

I see whitetails fairly consistently at 7k to 8k on the benches below our mountains with in 5 miles of the river bottoms here in Montana. Some guys I know have seen them much higher in the late summer when riding trails to some of our mountain lakes.

Jay

 

[mtwarden]

Too high; hunting a special early season (wilderness area) w/ a buddy last year- he passed on a really good mule deer (I could have never passed!). We hunted in adjoining drainage the next day- I glassed a couple of deer (just under 8000' at the edge of tree line) and after looking at them awhile, saw that it was two young whitetail bucks.

Made my stomach churn a little. They've run almost all the mule deer out of the lower creek/river bottoms and now they're going higher and higher

 

[Moosemaster96]

Too high; hunting a special early season (wilderness area) w/ a buddy last year- he passed on a really good mule deer (I could have never passed!). We hunted in adjoining drainage the next day- I glassed a couple of deer (just under 8000' at the edge of tree line) and after looking at them awhile, saw that it was two young whitetail bucks.

Made my stomach churn a little. They've run almost all the mule deer out of the lower creek/river bottoms and now they're going higher and higher

This is true in the area I hunt my Indian band has traditional harvest rights (no season no restrictions no bag limit) and I'm trying convince my family and other band members to just shoot whitetail for a couple years just lay the hammer down on them and get out moose and mulies back elk are becoming a problem 2 because the wolves are following them up from Idaho

 

[Tmac]

That‘s really interesting. It would be odd, but believable if a whitetail/mulie hybrid started taking hold somewhere.

Valerius Geist had some interesting insight into the hybrid question in his book Mule Deer Country. According to his observations, it generally was a WT buck breeding MD does. He theorized it was due to the more aggressive rut style of the WT and lack of mature MD bucks. Further he said the hybrids did not inherit the survival behaviors of either parent. So the hybrid didn’t stott like a MD and the did not race away like a WT. They got ate I guess if he is right. He also said mature MD run off the WT bucks and less hybrids occur with proper buck/doe ratios and age structure of the bucks.

 

[Rich M]

We were hunting CO and my buddies wanted to watch a cottonwood bottom w water. 3 WT does came down off a steep hillside to water and a buck showed up out o nowhere and started to grunt and bother the does. They didn't have WT tags and the guys we kept running into hunting WTs were nowhere to be found.

 

[TaperPin]

Too high; hunting a special early season (wilderness area) w/ a buddy last year- he passed on a really good mule deer (I could have never passed!). We hunted in adjoining drainage the next day- I glassed a couple of deer (just under 8000' at the edge of tree line) and after looking at them awhile, saw that it was two young whitetail bucks.

Made my stomach churn a little. They've run almost all the mule deer out of the lower creek/river bottoms and now they're going higher and higher

Honestly, I know very little about whitetail - it had never occurred to me that the creep of the whitetail range is a bad sign, but that makes sense.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

It's funny how the habitat can differ so much in different areas.

In Southern Arizona it's the whitetails that dominate the higher ridges, with the mule deer generally sticking down into the flats/rolling hills.

In the western black hills of Wyoming the mule deer and whitetails share the same habitat with no issues. There are many reported hybrids being killed and local ranchers/farmers witnessing whitetail bucks breeding mule deer does.

Deer's ability to adapt to terrain and habitat is pretty impressive to be honest.