Between 2001 and 2011 the top 10 Boone & Crockett entries for typical and non-typical mulie bucks were scattered between five states and two Canadian provinces. Colorado and Saskatchewan produced three bucks each, Utah placed two typicals in the book, and Arizona put two massive non-typical trophies in the decade's top 10. There were also some big bucks from states like Kansas that have always been considered on the fringe of mule deer range. Bottom line, over the last 10 years, no one state consistently put mule deer bucks in the book year after year. During the same time period, hundreds of whitetails made the book, compared to the handful of mule deer entries. Taking a trophy class mule deer has become one of the biggest challenges in western North America.
For this fall, your two best options are hunts in Idaho and Colorado. Idaho still holds quality bucks. As a B&C Official Measurer, I recently scored a 204 typical buck and a 235 non-typical, both from southern Idaho. May is the application month for Controlled Deer and Elk hunts in Idaho, and the best and biggest bucks consistently come from controlled hunt units. Idaho is one of the few states without a points system.........(continued)
