Frostycanuck

Im new to deer hunting and we have muleys and whitetail in the area. How do you tell them apart from a distance?

Robb92

At what distance are you talking, one thing to look for is the ear size, mulies have bigger ears than a whitetail, another thing to look for is thier butts, mulies have a big old white rump, whitetails have a long whitetail.

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IL_BOW_MAN

Color, mulies are typically darker in color.

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Who

To me the antlers have always been the dead give away, Mulie's fork and white tails don't. Now this isnt true if you get a cross but lets not start trying to figure that out. LOL
But you are also right about the size.
Rick

Lifes not about knowing the answers, its about asking the questions.

stubblejumper

The only sure way is by the rear ends.The antlers can be forked or not forked in either species.Color can also vary from deer to deer.

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skeeter 7MM

White rump and white face. (Although some whitetails have whiter faces they generally hail in comparision with Mulie's) Ears-mules look like a radar dish on their head and really disportionate on a deer. I wouldn't really ever judge by rack or forks I have seen many whitetails with forks and many mulie's without forks, especially big non-typicals. Same can be said with the coat they wear. Our nothern Whitetails cape often resemble the same colour phase as mulie's. The way the run is a dead ringer, whitetails tend to run, or jump and often if alarmed have their tails up or waving (known as a flag). Mules bound, bounce and look rather goofy in a run or trot and their tails don't flag or show. Keeping with the tail the mule tail is all white with a black tip. Mule's generally are bigger than whitetails, in body size.(But this can be tough to judge in the field, especially when you are just starting)

I suggest you get some videos and study the two species. Also get out in the field and practice identifing the 2 species. A good time to do this is shed hunting or preseason scouting. For God sakes if you ain't sure, your better not to shoot. It really is amazing how many dead mulie's I find in a given season that were mistaken by rushed hunters. In all reality once you know what to look for and get some experience you'll be able to easily tell the differences.

kshunter

I's say the biggest giveaway is the tail and rump.
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halcon

Tails is what I look for because the horns can look very much alike .

AJ52

1.Ears - Muley ears look like freekin Mule ears.

2.Tail - Muley has 1/2 the tail of white tail.

3.The 2 species run very differently.Their legs alternate differntly when running.

4.Humm - I thought Muley rack always Forked??? All Muley bucks I ever shot or saw had forks.