Can a guy go to the Arizona Strip, Pansagaunt, henry mountains, etc with a tag and kill a big muledeer buck without a guide?
If you know how to hunt mulies, and you scout...then yes. But, you will never draw a tag anytime soon.
Lots of truth to that!
Several years ago I rented some [Gordon] Eastman Outdoors videos he'd filmed in the sixties and early seventies. Learned more about the behavior and lives of the mulie bucks than anywhere else.
A solitary trophey mulie buck gets my vote for one of the VERY hardest gaminals to hunt in North America!
If I was starting cold and wanted to bag a trophey mulie and without a guide, I'd consult a map showing where most B&C or P&Y bucks have come from in the West, "THEN" pick the state and locale I wanted to hunt.
Otherwise I'd search for high, very lonesome, and VERY ISOLATED craggy mountain formations 90% of hunters are afraid of! Treat it somewhat like hunting mountain goats or sheep! Could take a lifetime finding that perfect rack! Regardless of whether its 30 inches or not.