Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Researching Mule Deer Hunt for up to 8 rifle hunters???

All,
My uncle just called me and asked me to research some options for 8 of our family to go on a Mule Deer rifle hunt for this fall. I know this is kind late to start researching, so I immediatley came here.

We would ideally go self-guided or even semi-guided as some are on tighter budgets. Lodging is not necessary as we have means, but would be considered if avialable for a reasonable price. We would also consider a combo hunt of some type if reasonable, but trophy mulies are the primary target.

We would be driving from Wisconsin, so would like to keep it to states such as MT, WY, CO, NE, SD, ND and even KS or TX.

If any of you have suggestions on who to contact and maybe arrange something or suggestions on units to apply as a group for public land hunts, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you all in advance.

I don't think any state will let all eight of you put in for tags as one party. So part of you might draw and others might not.

You will probably have to go to Montana due to them having left over muledeer combo tags and elk combo tags. Deer combo tags are $600ish and elk combo tags (includes muledeer tag) $1000ish.

The only other thing would be wait and see the left over tag list for Wy.

Dink

Thanks for the input. I was noticing that some states had 5 and others 6 as the max party application. if you think of anything else, please feel free to let me know.

go archery and many will be OTC.
you'll be hard pressed to find a few trophy mulies for your group, or even all filling out with decent branch antlered bucks. around here most of them get shot before they reach 140" because they "look big" to guys used to Whitetails.
other options are to start banking Preference points, finding landowners with lots of vouchers or looking at muzzleloader hunts?

The archery thing is a problem since my Dad and uncles don't don't do sticks like my cousins and I do. As for success, we generally hunt public land in groups for elk and understand that not everyone is going home with a bull. It's hunting right. When you are low budget and hunting with an army, you have to be realistic.

Cacciatore,
Try these guys they offer guided, semiguided and drop camps. Alan is a member on this site (TwoBears) you could look him up and PM him with questions. http://www.elkoutfitters.com/

would also suggest you consider Texas and contact TOBYJOETRUBY and MulieMike - both on the fire

Call Jack Atcheson, Jr.

On that budget I would put in for Region D in Wyoming and go on a fun trip. You should all be able to draw tags and if you come out this summer over a weekend you could pre scout camping areas and hunting spots. There are lots of people that hunt there but every year there are good deer killed. The region as a whole is still recovering from some winter kill but that may scare some folks off as well. If I can think of anything else I'll let you know

I would look into buying some landowner vouchers in CO. I have a couple of friends that do it every year for $1500 each.

All great inputs. Thanks all. I will keep digging.

8 x 1,500 = $12,000. Such a deal.

Hell, its tough to find decent LO vouchers for that anywhere in the state. Then tack on the $350 for the license. A voucher is just a voucher and isn't valid unless you have the license to go with it.

If you can find a good voucher for $1500 its a steal IMO

I say ask the person with the land owner vouchers to allow you to hunt his property. Still requires a tag/license and many tags for private property are only good for the private property in that specific unit.(Need good acreage). If the owner says no to allowing you to hunt his property contact the local CDOW or aka: CPW in Colorado and notify them the land owner denied you access... Any landowner that receives land owner vouchers is required to allow some public hunting.

Good luck with your hunt planning

Unit 2, general season utah..

A lot of times there are no animals on the landowners property during hunting season either due to the season, migration or crop rotation.

I again appreciate all of the input. Please keep it coming. I will keep digging. I want to make this happen for these guys as a couple of the youngs guys have never hunted out of state.

Change the animal to antelope and it'll all work out for you.

Yeah, and it could be more of a social event for all as well.

The old dogs kind of have their hearts set on mule deer. I personally would like to parlay mine into a combo hunt even if those guys aren't interested....
But I am doing my best to stay focused on the task I was given.
(ok I'll admit I have clicked on a few pieces of information a bit off task)