Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Mule deer vs. Whitetail- which would you shoot?

I'd rather shoot a bigfoot.

The one that was the easiest to drag out.

Pat, he musta been holdin' out for one of those 260" bucks.....laughin'!

Always wanted to shoot a mulie. I can't imagine an animal tougher to hunt than an old big woods buck in the big woods. As far as I can see they are impossible. So illusive I can't even find their sheds or their carcasses. I get their pics on the trail cam but that's all I see of them in northwest Wisconsin.

My biggest mulie green scored 215 but after deductions is a little over 190. Not bad at all. He went down, dead as could be with one 150 grain core loct out of my '06. About 150 yds away.

Biggest whitetail (whitey) only scored 135 but one shot from my 25 06 shooting 120 grain something dropped him in his tracks. About 80 yds away. I like to sneak up on 'em.

The mule deer is big but that little whitetail sure is cute. And due to house downsizing, I'm gonna have to depart with both soon as I figure out how to do that.

I'm surprised you guys don't believe me, I'm not one to BS folks. Oh well, those that know me and those that were there know the story to be true. You have to know Ray, he's an old school guy and doesn't even care if he kills an animal. Ray knew that buck was in the area as he works the ranch and when the op presented itself Ray said there was no challenge to the hunt, the buck wasn't afraid of him at all at very close range, so he just watched the beatiful animal. We all sort of thought he was nuts for letting him go, but you gotta respect a fella that lives for the hunt and respects the animals.

That happened in 06 and I talked to Ray just last year about his decision. He felt the same.

I said 250 and I believe he might have been better, but by just looking at the video it's hard to say. It was a world class buck for sure. Sort of an 8x8 frame, very tall, wide, heavy, several long drops and tons of trash. Call it what you will. I watched about 10mins of footage of the beast, but no, I don't have pics so I can see why you fellas wouldn't believe.

JG, I've only killed one buck over 180" and only seen a few over 180. That big buck was with 5-6 other dandies, they didn't spook until we were about 50yds away and all it took was a whistle to stop them. I saw one in Sept that was a bruiser non-typical at around 75yds while MLer elk hunting last season, he just stood there watching us close to the camp. Several guys claimed he was over 200, but I felt he was in the 180-200 range. We also saw a nice herd close to camp that had bucks from the 150-180 range, the largest was a dandy 5x5.

Maybe dumb is too strong of a term. I would feel the same if someone said that about mature whitetails that I'm passionate about as you are for big mulies. My FIL hunted them for about 16 years straight on public land near Montrose and always referred to them as "dumb" deer. Yes, he's killed big mulies as well, his largest a dandy 6x7 on public ground(never been scored). I've only hunted mulies on public ground once. The rest I've hunted or seen on private lands. They've always been very unwary of hunters IME. The several big bucks I saw this past season while elk hunting were no different. They just stood there until we'd get very close, then bound a piece and stop.

I've hunted whitetail in many states and seen my share of dandies, but they have always been very spooky even on spot and stalk hunts in the Midwest or Texas where one may see several bucks at any given time. Here at home even more spooky.

I feel any animal can be tough in a high pressure area, so I believe your comments on mature mulies being tough quary in some areas.

Have a good one,

loder

Now I understand, Ray sounds like a good dude.

Can't say if they are dumb deer myself, but my hunting pards who hunt both BT and muleys sure say that relatively speaking they are. Their biggest foible, I'm told, is the "run a ways, then stop and look back" maneuver. Thinkin' that stopped working around the time smokeless powder came out!

The difference I have seen between WT and Mulies, mule deer are calm even getting away, though I did see one that would give a greyhound a race. Whitetail act like they mainline coffee since birth and need Valium to get sleep.

As far as which to hunt, take the one with the meat, racks are nice but make lousy soup.

Two biggest whitetails I ever shot stopped to look back.

I've shot only one reasonably large mule deer, 3 or 5 biggest ones I haven't shot(but seen) were all high tailing it out of the vicinity or I couldn't get close enough.



Older mule deer are not stupid by any means.

Closest I've come to either, is a BT/muley hybrid killed up near the Cascade crest, and a couple BT/WT hybrids killed down by Roseburg.

BUT, by gadfry I will be hunting mule deer next year, and a quality hunt too.

I do run into them while elk hunting over in eastern Oregon. I've seen a few dandy bucks. Beautiful deer.

The peak of the rut will make even the biggest animals stupid, regardless of species. IMO. Some of the biggest Sitka Blacktails are taken at the peak of the rut, standing by the side of the road. Try to find those bucks any other time of the year..

How busy of a road?


The rut certainly is interesting.

Logging roads. The #1 at the last awards banquet for Sitka blacktail was shot standing in a rock pit, during the rut. It's amazing how stupid those old mature bucks get a few days out of the year.

I'm sure a few old mule deer(and whitetail) get shot from a ranch road during the rut. Not many from the county road but that depends greatly on location.


Still no easy thing to find most of the time.

as others have said, prolly depend on my mood but then again i havent taken a wall worthy buck yet either prefer chasing mule deer but would be hard pressed to pass up a good whitetail if i came across one.....

I'm surprised that your surprised that people question a story about a guy that passed up a 250"+ non typical mule deer

Yes. Whitetails stop to look back, too.....sometimes....the differences are that most whitetails are hunted in thicker country and if you spook them,sometimes they will behave this way,running for the first 75-150 yards or so...the difference is that in cover you can't see them do it...but if you track them,and depending on how badly they have been spooked,you will see where they stopped to check on their backtrail and what spooked them.....

OTOH, mule deer are found in somewhat more open country,and you can see this behaviour.

But it can vary a lot and the bigger mule deer know how to use terrain....I have seen big one's stop, but others just melt off and disappear altogether in country so devoid of cover you can't fathom where they went.....in any event you better not count on it with a big one and generally your first crack will be the only one.

With either one expect the unexpected.

A really big mule deer has a very high "shock" value.....fact of the matter is that really big one's have an ability of not being even seen, at all....and not many hunters ever lay eyes on one...

Guys from back east tend to think muley's are "easy" because they see immature bucks standing around on sidehills in the open,and because they are still so much larger than the average whitetail these guys are accustomed to, they "assume"these are big bucks...they aren't..they're the little one's.But many easterners will shoot them and think they have killed a big deer.

You will work very hard to even lay eyes on a truly large one.It could take years even in good country.

And when you do see a really large one, unexpectedly,it takes a second to register......because they look like a different species.With their heads hidden at distance,based on body size, I have mistaken them for elk at a distance.

You see a truly large mule deer and a big rack on a 350-400 pound body,he has a very large "shock" value....you won't forget it soon.