Mule deer vs Whitetail

[ozark]

I never killed a Mule deer. Have taken Blacktail and Whitetail. My brother used to go to Colorado each fall and kill his limit of Mule deer. It seems the whitetail is by far the most popular judging from articles in hunting magazines, posts here and comments. I wonder why since the Mule is larger, has larger antlers and offers longer shots usually. The Blacktail runs in Bounces like the Mule deer and I think both are harder to hit on the run. What are your ideas? Also, out west the count on an eight pointer would be a 4x4, 5x3 or even a 6x2. What about meat taste?

[jeremylong]

I would say that whitetails are more abundant for everyone to hunt from coast to coast. All of the writers and businesses selling are going to target the big mass of people.

As my post below shows though, I really would like to get a muley. For me, I have shot plenty of whitetails and just would like to do something different. I have never been west hunting and would like to give it a shot.

[jnrbronc]

I would venture a guess that the whitetail is more popular just because it's habitat is much more widespread than Mulies and Blacktails. About all of the US east of the Rockies has whitetails.

I was watching a show on TV the other day and they claimed that blacktails were a result of whitetail bucks breeding mule deer does. I've never hunted mule deer or blacktail and don't have much desire to travel to hunt them. Now an elk, I'd walk across a bed of coals.

[ozark]

I have read several theories about how the Blacktail evolved. I think even the so called experts are guessing. It may be a group older than either the whitetail or the Mule deer. I found them interesting and that they loved dense junglelike cover. Not an easy animal to take walking. Never tried blinds. I loved hunting them.

[artjr338wm]

Never hunted mule deer and know little about them. I do know that they have been experiencing a serious decline in no#s all accross their range at least that is what I have read.

I saw litteraly a dozen or more mule deer daily while elk hunting in WY and they would let me get to within rock thoughing distance before finaly walking off, but never runing away. Had a family of four move right into out camp site and call it home for over two weeks untill we left. Never saw a big mule deer buck while elk hunting in WY. Found one nice P&Y class shed though.
We even had the two yougest deer feeding within spitting distance behind us feeding, while we practiced shooting our bows. I truely enjoyed their company. Made a point never to feed them anything, did not want them to start to associate humans with a easy meal.

[ozark]

Hunting Blacktails in jungle type habatat requires your best hunting skills. They love the thick stuff and can slip away in a heartbeat. I loved it but took only a few.

[6ptsika]

As of 1/1/10 I have taken 200 whitetails of which they are 50/50 bucks to does !

I've only taken a pair of mulies and again it was one buck and a doe !

Only other deer I have taken have been Sika deer and I've taken 7 of them . This time 3 males and 4 females . Now before there's any great mixup I am speaking of "Sika Deer" which are actually more closely related to Elk then they are to mulies or whitetails ! Again these are NOT Sitka Blacktails .

While there are many many many folks who hold the whitetail in almost godlike regard I don't happen to be one of them ! Now don't get me wrong I still like hunting them and killing them . But if I had to choose between 4 or 5 decent whitetail bucks a year and a pair of nice 6 point Sika males just look at my name on this forum to figure out the direction I would go !

Also I think I would rather take a nice 4x4 mulie over a nice 8 point whitetail .

But I suppose a good bit of this is based on the fact that I've killed a pretty decent pile of whitetails in my 48 years .

As always just my opinion on the subject

[spaniel]

Most of the US population (and hunters) live in whitetail habitat. I think that right there explains it all.

Personally I've given up a lot of my hunting time over the past couple years to pursue muleys and elk out west instead of hunting whitetails close to home. After nearly 20 years of hunting them there isn't much challenge/excitement left in it, given that I don't have time to practically live in the woods hunting Mr. Big.

[chickenhunter]

Ozark, as far as taste. I think if you blindfolded me I could not tell the difference in taste between Whitetail, Mule, or antelope. Their all delicious!

[Deleted]

I too believe it is because the whitetail is so widespread across the country, that gives alot of people easier access to hunt deer, if Muleys were all throughout the lower 48 I think they would be the number 1 target instead of whitetails because of the horns they can grow. I hunted muleys once and shot a decent 4x4 on a do it yourself hunt, it was every bit as fun as hunting anything whitetail, a little tougher with the terrain but still a blast. As for the taste, I couldn't eat the Muley, I couldn't stand the sage taste it had, so I'll stick with whitetails for the dinner table. Shot an elk in 04 with my bow, that has now become my favorite hunting sport, what a rush! And that meat was hands down the best wild meat I've ever tasted, I can't wait to go back! Chasing big whitetails consumes my life so I'll never give that up but I will sacrifice 2 weeks in September to chase another bull elk!

[wilmsmeyer]

Widespread yes. Big reason

I like the whitetail compared to mulies....and I have no good reasons why since I've never seen a mule deer.

I especially like a whitetails rack better. Forked tines are a bonus and not regular. They bound more gracefull (IMO) instead of that funny bouncy skippy...whatever that is.

I like the tail of a whitetail compared to the white rump patch.

Just giving my uneducated opinion