I've been wanting to go hunt a Mule deer. It's my new bucket list animal. I pretty much only bow hunt and want to do a stalk hunt for one. I hunted moose a few years ago in Alberta. At the time moose was my bucket list animal and they charged about the same for either Mule deer or moose. I ended up not getting anything and went to New Foundland after 2 years of lock down due to scamdemic. I did kill a cow moose, so even though I could scratch that off the list, I still want to go back and get a bull. Back to the Mule deer. I talked to the guide I hunted with in Alberta in 2019 last year. he said the mule deer hunts now were $7500 GULP!. I decided I would work my part time job a few shifts a month and it was doable. I'm retired from the fire department, not a CEO of a fortune 500. So I contacted him last week and was wanting to set up for this coming Aug/Sept for a mule deer hunt in Alberta. He informs me that the hunt now is $9650. WTF! He says other outfitters are charging $12-15K in the area. I told him, can't justify spending that much to hunt a freagin deer. Hunting keeps getting more expensive. It's become the sport of kings again. Be cheaper to go poach somewhere, hell if you get caught the fines are probably less than a hunt.
So now I'm thinking Wyoming. Been putting in for points in Wyoming, think I have 6 now. Anyone have any thoughts or outfitters they like in Wyoming? I want a chance at a nice mountable buck, not some spindly psuedo whitetaillooking buck.
Thanks for any advice.

Until they confiscate your rifle and pickup. Fines topping $10k aren't unusual now.

What else would you expect in this day and age of $15/hr to flip burger?

Wyoming is a great state to DIY. If you can read maps, ask questions, glass effectively and study terrain getting on a good buck is work but something you could do on your own and save a pile of money.

Works great if you have someone to hunt with. DIY on your own sounds adventurous, but at 55 sounds like a good way dying alone. lol

Check out " Do it yourself hunter" on youtube. He has some interesting stuff as well as "The hunting Public". THP hunts only public land and smash some nice bucks. One thing they do is whatever it takes to be successful. Their tactics would work for mulies as well I'm sure.
Do you own a stepladder by chance?

One thing I always say is "in order to get anything done, you have to do whatever is neccesary".

Since you are not interested in DIY, I'd suggest the following:

-Decide what kind of country you want to hunt mule deer in: desert, high mountains, ag land, etc. This will narrow down your states/locations for looking at guides/outfitters.
-Then figure out the tag allocation for that type of country, could be very different processes to get tags. Again narrowing down your guides/outfitters
-Be prepared for sticker shock in your given location. If it's easy country with easy to get tags, I'd guess the price will be higher...

And yes, I'd say having someone else take you hunting has always been a bit of a luxury (high brow) type scenario.

The price of hunting these days sickens me. And I feel bad for my kids and future generations. They won't get the experiences I got.

Gotta pay to play. I get that. But it still saddens me.


I can't help you. I've got wyo points as well but I'll be going off my own back when I decide to use them.

Good luck on your hunt. A nice mule deer is one of the best looking big game animals in my opinion


-Jake

Just a thought, but you might be able to find something in the middle. Years ago we paid a guy a "Trespass fee" to hunt his private ranch and he had some box blinds set up. Mule deer were plentiful, just had to decide what you wanted to shoot. That's been close to 20 years ago now, outside of Meeker, Colorado.

That does seem a bit excessive but is probably the market price if one has expectations of a really fine buck. Personally, I'd be inclined to do some research, DIY, and be happy to acquire a good representative 4 by 4 for considerably less $$.
If one truly wants a whopper though, he best be ready to pass on a lot of the initial opportunities or put out serious dollars. Mulies in the west took a pretty good hit over the 2022-23 winter, so present numbers are down a bit. Good luck,

I'd start calling WY outfitters before I worried about preference points. You'll find some in the limited access areas where you can get a license every year. Good luck.

Kids at home, you can either hunt Canada when you want or retire real early but you probably can't do both.