RE: Bowhunting Muleys?? Ever try it?
No 50 yards is not unreasonable given you are actually 100% confident and comfortable with it. Mule deer are truly not as smart as whitetails, however their vision and ability to spot you at extreme distances is amazing. The preferred method for hunting them, at least where I have hunted them (CO and MT) is to glass them until they bed down and then come up with a plan to stalk them in their beds. I am no expert though, and really have only hunted them as "incidental game" while on elk hunts.
Hunting them in their rut is foreign to me, but I bet it will be a total blast! Good luck and I hope you take a total monster!