Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What state for over the counter Mule Deer tag/public land?

My adult son (24 yrs old) has decided he wants an adventure and want to head west/north from Texas to rifle hunt mule deer. Though I am an experienced hunter, he is not. He called and asked, “Dad, my buddy and I want to go out west and hunt elk or deer, but think deer might be an easier quest on our first hunt”. So he asked my advice on an out of state mule deer hunt. He’s not a “trophy hunter” so trophy areas aren’t a big deal to him. He would be hunting public land and probably won’t have more than a week total to scout and hunt. What suggestions can you give me to pass along to a young man who wants to hunt out west on public land for mule deer? My suspicion is that he will be taking an expensive camping trip😁.
I’ve taken elk and mule deer with a bow in COLORADO and know what it takes to be successful on public land. I’m not sure he and his buddy really know what’s involved to do what they want to do. My suggestion to him was to think about Nebraska as a first hunt. Please feel free to Pm if you would rather, than responding publicly. Thanks for any feedback on hunting public land out west for mule deer. John

Colorado has no OTC tags for mule deer. Might be a few left overs, but slim pickings.

Idaho's non-res OTC tags sold out on Dec 1. The numbers of non-res deer and elk tags is capped. They normally sell out in less than a couple hours. This last Dec, they had so many on line for them that they crashed the system. The demand is much higher than the game supply.

If they strike out on mule deer tags, they may be able to get tags for whitetails. They get experience, maybe get to scout some country where eventually they can draw for muleys. From watching YouTube videos, seems like a lot of places have both.

My sons are older, and headed back to CO for archery elk in September. Great trip even when they come up dry.

Washington has OTC deer tags and from what I’ve seen this year there’s a bumper crop of nice bucks. I counted over a dozen big bucks in my little scouting trips in between helping move my mother in law over to the west side by us.

Normally in Colorado those OTC whitetail tags are in units that CPW does not want them encroaching into muley habitat, most are on private land and there are not that many of them.

CO has quite a few units with OTC bear tags and they are only $100 for non res. Not an expensive hunt and if they are successful they have a bear skin which is kind of cool

Didn't intend to limit them to any state. I kinda like the looks of NE myself, based on Hunting Public videos. Very interesting country in those sandhills.

I did hunt Nebraska whitetails once where the Republican River makes a little dip up into Nebraska from Kansas..There was soybean harvested field and the deer were everywhere. Agreement from the land owner was I had to kill a doe too. I didn't see any wall hangers and killed a small 6 point the last day just for the meat.

NR tags were heck of a lot cheaper than Colorado. IIRC there is a big SWA just on the Nebraska side of the Kansas line.

Non-resident OTC and "The West" are becoming mutually exclusive. The big reductions of deer, elk, and pronghorn tag numbers in WY will cause a ripple-effect of "point-creep" across the rest of the West for the next decade.

It's certainly a challenge to sort out if you've been able to buy multiple deer tags OTC every year since you started hunting and now you have to figure out the kinks of lotterys, actual access to public lands, game populations/densitys, and the like.

Why not hunt mule deer in Texas? You get a tag with your resident license

How is the public land situation?

There are some draw hunts but honestly not much public land to go around. There are tons of guided and semi guided hunts on private land and like I said earlier the tag is included on the license.

I hunt mule deer on public land around Lake Meredith about 35 miles northeast of Amarillo. The deer are there but you are going to work for them. Last one I got was 3 1/2 miles from the truck and I packed him out of a really rough canyon.

I hunted there several years in a row a good while back. Need to be there when the season opens because those Mulies will move right on to the adjacent private land. Rough country too.