ID-buglemaster

I have this debate all the time with my buddy and think its time to get some outside info. mule deer or whitetail, or even blacktail.
give me some examples of why one is tougher than the other.

Howler

Whitetails are eaiser to pattern, and often will use the same trail to and from bed, much more often than a mulie will. Mulie often live in open terrain, where there are no trees, so spot and stalk is the most common way to hunt them. S&S is not as easy as an ambush, from 20' up a tree, over a well used trail. More whitetails also, so by a numbers game alone, whitetail is easier.

wingchaser_labs

I would agree on which species is easier to kill except for I inturpret this question as "Is a mature Mulie buck or a Mature WT buck" easier to hunt. I would say the mature wt buck. Mulies are easier to find as those wt bucks tend to be more nocturnal and tend to live in the woods where they are harder to find and see if a pattern does change at a given time. S&S is tougher than a tree stand, yes, but your chances of making a successful S&S on a mulie are much greater than wt. I've walked up close on some nice mulies without them takin off and basically never have I done that on a mature wt buck. It definitly all depends on the situation at hand with each hunter and various terrain so either one could be tougher than the other but my vote would be the mature wt buck is the toughest hunt. WCL

ID-buglemaster

dealing with mature bucks, and lets say they both are in rut.
you can rattle and call witetails and observe scrapes to get a better chance at one. but with mulies i dont think even in the rut that the rattling or calling will be as affective you might call one with a doe bleat but does that make the mulie harder due to the fact that you have a chance or better percentage with a whitetail?

Muliefever

Honestly I think it depends on the person.. I grew up hunting Mule deer is SW Idaho, it is what I know. Now that I live in whitetail country ( expeciaaly a place with no stinkin management practices) killing a Big Mature Whitetail is VERY difficult!

No flip the scenario, take some flatlander (sorry I had too) from lets say Michigan, send him/her out west on a DIY (like I do here in MI) Public land Mule deer hunt. And give them the criteria to harvest a Mature buck with your bow.. Good Luck

-Whitetail Freak-

whitetail..

early in

I think there's too many variables to make a choice.

randyshunting

I've hunted both alot. All I use to hunt was whitetails and new the area very well and the mature one were Very hard to find because of the thick draws they were living in. Now I mostly hunt mule deer and the mature bucks can also be very difficult to find. I have found that with the use of cameras and glassing you can find where the big whitetails are just as easy or even eisier that the big mule deer. But that ALL depends on each area of land. If you can get up high and glass large areas of country like I'm able to, the mulies can be found also.......BUT........ The main reason I'm able to find the mature Muley bucks is because I walk almost 2 miles just to get to the peak where I watch for them. If I walk around and they cut my tracks, day or night, they dissapear like ghosts. Thats why I believe Mule deer or Whitetails become nocturnal. They are both tough to hunt but you see alot more whitetails killed by bow then you do mule deer because spot and stalk on a MATURE muley is very difficult. With cameras and tree stands and food plots etc etc....and the whole hunting industry aiming for whitetails they have become eisier to hunt.

randyshunting

PLUS, If you hunt the same land year after year whiteails are easy to pattern. Just leave your treestands up and hunt the same spots year after year when the wind is right. Every Mule deer stalk is a new challenge!

hillrunner

My only experience with mule deer was on a whitetail hunt in Kansas. The area had seen a ton of pressure the week before we got there and the whitetails were simply gone. The only deer left were mule deer. There were not any mature bucks in the groups but there were some older does. We could jump them out of the same spot every day, and they would always stop and offer a shot after being jumped. To say I was not impressed with mule deer at that point would have been an understatement.
I realize that a mature mule deer buck, or probably any mule deer in open terrain would be a tougher hunt than these. But even a whitetail fawn would of been tougher to kill than the 2 groups we were seeing every day.