Best State for a Big Mule Deer?
11/14/2011
What’s the Best State for a Big Mule Deer?
by Keith Wood
This question came from a comment on a previous blog post on destinations for whitetails. These days, a true trophy mule deer is considered by many hunters to be North America’s most difficult game animal to take. So what state should a hunter set his or her sights on to find a monster?
The Record Book Research: If you want to find comprehensive records of trophy animals taken in North America, there’s only one place to turn—The Boone & Crockett Club. Fortunately for us, today’s “book” is a user-friendly online database that allows users (for a fee) to search B&C’s records through detailed queries. A few minutes on the Trophy Database Search gave me all of the information I could handle.
The Rankings: Since we’re looking for up-to-date information, I searched the database for both typical and non-typical mule deer entries made since the year 2000. In order to qualify for the B&C “book” a typical mule deer must score 180 points or better and a non-typical must score 215 points or better.
|
State
|
Typical Record
|
Number of Typical Entries
|
Non-Typical Record
|
Number of Non-Typical Entries
|
Total B&C Entries
|
|
1. Colorado
|
207 6/8
|
220
|
306 3/8
|
55
|
275
|
|
2. Wyoming
|
206 6/8
|
66
|
285 4/8
|
14
|
80
|
|
3. New Mexico
|
213 4/8
|
54
|
248 4/8
|
11
|
65
|
|
4. Utah
|
209 7/8
|
44
|
246 2/8
|
11
|
55
|
|
5. Idaho
|
201 4/8
|
41
|
257
|
10
|
51
|
|
6. Arizona*
|
203 3/8
|
25
|
272 1/8
|
14
|
39
|
|
7. Nevada *
|
192
|
30
|
248 4/8
|
9
|
39
|
|
8. Oregon
|
202 2/8
|
27
|
248 1/8
|
2
|
29
|
|
9. Montana
|
207 7/8
|
23
|
236 6/8
|
3
|
26
|
|
10. Kansas
|
199 4/8
|
6
|
237 2/8
|
11
|
17
|
*AZ & NV are tied for number of entries but AZ wins with bigger #1 records both typical and non-typical
The Undisputed Champion: Colorado wins hands-down in every category. Not only does Colorado boast the world’s No. 1 entry in the past decade with a 306 3/8” non-typical, it crushes every other state in number of B&C entries. Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Idaho all compare favorably to one another to round out the top 5.
The Good News: Nearly every state that has a mule deer population is capable of producing a trophy animal. The state of Nebraska has only 4 entries over the past 10 years, yet a hunter there was able to take an impressive 230 6/8” non-typical.
