Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Need Muley Help in Wyoming!!!!!!!

Me and a buddy drew region W muley buck tags in Wyoming and are heading up for the opening of rifle season. Region W is units 82/100/101/131 and limited quota in units 84 and 102. Does anyone have any tips for a more specific area or anything. This is our first time hunting in wyoming and hunting muley's in general. I just got back from a pdog hunt in Casper and on the way back i drove through Baggs, WY and checked out some BLM land about 9 miles north of baggs near muddy mountain. Absolutely beautiful country and i cant wait to head out. Most everyone i have talked to has said to hunt the open BLM land and not the mountains of medicine bow. This is a purely DIY hunt so any tips you all can give me will be of great help

Thanks for the help
steve elmenhorst

lerch - 101 is also a limited quota area and cannot be hunted with a Region W tag. I've only hunted antelope and elk in this general area, but I've seen deer in the Oregon Buttes and Steamboat Mt. regions of area 131, and the Haystacks of 100. It looks like 82 is the best deer area stastically but I've never been there. Wife and I drew Antelope 96 which is in the west end of Region W, so we might see you in the sagebrush. GOOD LUCK.

Sat on a ridge near Wild Horse Basin one fall and watched a dozen trucks drive to the top of Muddy Mountain, glass for a minute and a half, then drive away as four dandy bucks not quite big enough for the guy with me stood just down the hill from the end of the road where they couldn't be seen. Finally one truck let out three hunters who walked down the mountain, but about 400 yards apart, each apparently trying not to intrude into another hunter's shooting lanes, and walked right past the now-bedded bucks. They never slowed once to glass, walked erratically, or did anything else that might make the bucks nervous, so when they got into the truck at the bottom of the mountain the bucks were still lying there.
So, Muddy Mountain might be a good place to hunt in area 82, as well as Wild Horse Basin, the public land along the edge of the Willows where deer file past heading to the private land over near Doty Mountain, the sand dunes east of the Willows where deer hole up in the tall mountain shrubs, the head of Cherokee and Deep Creeks, and Rendle Rim and Rendle Butte in area 82, plus Big and LIttle Sandston Canyons if you want a really miserable pack. In area 100 it's East and West Flattop, Poison Rim, the junipers north of Powder Rim, Cherokee Rim, the Haystacks, and Delaney Rim. Fewer deer in area 100 and area 131, where 270guy's recommendations of Oregon Buttes and Steamboat Mountain are right on. Both areas 82 and 100 have been impacted to death by gas development, and ATVs have removed a lot of a deer's ability to hide, but there's still plenty of deer. After the mass of scouting before the season and the first couple of days of large numbers of hunters the deer will be hunkered down in tall shrubs, including sagebrush, aspen patches, juniper thickets, and some dry country you wouldn't think would hold deer. Some big old bucks will lie still and let hunters pass, so use your binoculars during the day.

Thanks for all the info so far guys. I am really leaning toward the area between Wild Horse Butte and Muddy Mountain in unit 82. Do you think this will be just full of hunters or will the competition be pretty sparse???? Does anyone know anything about the Wild Cow Creek area just north and a little east of wild horse butte????

Also does anyone know if it would be possible to buy leftover doe tags for deer or antelope in 82???

thanks again for all the help, it is greatly appreciated

thanks
steve
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If I read the odds report accurately, there are no doe tags left.
(More folks applied than quota, for a success percent of about 70 for both species.)

I hunt that region but on a ranch, so I can be of little help in suggesting good areas to try.
But check out these two threads, with pics taken there, for tips on espying your quarry.

There will be lots of hunters camped at Cow Creek Butte, and there will be few areas without hunters, as the public land attracts them. Many of them will be weekend hunters, or there the first two or three days, and a large percentage will be driving up and down the roads.
All of the country between Muddy Mountain and Muddy Creek west of the continental divide contains deer. Go a couple of days early and use your binoculars scouting morning and evening to decide where to hunt, or do your scouting while you're hunting.
Rendle Rim is at the head of Wild Cow Creek, and yes there are deer there, particularly at the head of the drainage where there is more water, on Rendle Rim, and in the basins to the northeast between Rendle Butte and Muddy Creek. But, as soon as the hunting begins, many of the bigger deer hunker down in the thick stuff, haul butt to places where access is limited, like private land, go into deep canyons, or go down drainages into drier, sagebrush/greasewood habitats that most hunters drive by. They aren't very active until just before sunset and they usually are bedded by sunrise.
A friend killed a 30" deer a few years ago whose white butt we spotted from Wild Horse Butte the third day of the season, bedded down two miles to the west, 50 feet from the main highway along Muddy Creek, so they can be anywhere after the shooting starts.
Get out and wander around where there are fewer roads(and there are less of those places since gas development hit), since most of the hunters won't, and glass more than a couple of minutes, and you'll find deer. In area 82 you can see lots of deer driving the roads, but usually it's does, fawns, and smaller bucks, the larger bucks having got that way by staying off the roads in daylight.

DrJHJ, thankyou so dang much for all your help, you ever get down to OK give me a hollar and i will buy ya a steak and beer, i swear. I think we are pretty much set on hunting the area between wild horse butte and muddy mountain. Now all we need is to get in shape, and a whole lot of luck. Thanks everyone for all the tips and if ya think of anything else i would love to hear it. As soon as i get it on photo bucket i will post a pic of what i think was wild horse basin, pretty place.

thanks again
steve

And now I'll link in the threads!

Where's Waldo?

Beyond Waldo: Where the Deer Are.

Most of area 82 will be standing room only especially in the first weekend of the season.
While there's not alot of deer, some quality deer can be found between the railroad tracks at Tipton and the Delaney rim, and also north of Tipton in the sage draws.