Best State for a Big Mule Deer?

Keith Wood

posted on November 14, 2011

News, Game, Big Game, How-To

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What’s the Best State for a Big Mule Deer?

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.