Caribou Gear

Western Mule Deer Late November

freu1chr

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Apr 5, 2018
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158
Location
Jordan, Minnesota
I am new to western hunting, i live in Minnesota and am not able to hunt early in the fall. I am wondering what states or areas allow for an over the counter buck mule deer tag in the 2nd half of November. i have been looking at idaho but they are all controlled hunts which i may apply for but i would like a back up over the counter hunt. Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome aboard. Go into each western state fish and game web page and search for what you want to know!
 
Welcome aboard. Go into each western state fish and game web page and search for what you want to know!

Yep, it's very simple to find out for yourself with just a few minutes spent on each state website. I doubt that you find any place OTC like you want that late though because there aren't many OTC tags for any time in most states.
 
Nebraska and South Dakota have over the counter archery for that late in the season. You can also find a OTC tag in portions of Colorado and Wyoming for early to mid-November. You can find some mighty nice whitetails in Wyoming for an over the counter tag. Most westerners will pass but a Minnesotan, like myself, can't pass up a whitey.
 
South Dakota game and fish met today to consider capping nr archery tags and access to the best areas for mule deer in the state. I did not hear yet what came from the meeting but just an FYI for the future.
 
Nebraska and South Dakota have over the counter archery for that late in the season. You can also find a OTC tag in portions of Colorado and Wyoming for early to mid-November. You can find some mighty nice whitetails in Wyoming for an over the counter tag. Most westerners will pass but a Minnesotan, like myself, can't pass up a whitey.

I don't know what you call OTC tags, but Wyoming has no such thing for NRs. Maybe you're talking about leftover tags after the draws, but technically Wyoming doe not have OTC tags.
 
I'm not sure you will find any otc mulie tags for late November in any western state. It's a very good reason they don't exist otc for NR's the populations couldn't handle that type of pressure.
 
Make sure you go through the harvest success report. I don’t know NE or SD, but the report for AZ OTC is pretty awful. Lots of low single digit success rates. The Strip and Kaibab are not included.
 
I don't think CO has any OTC muley tags and 4th season rut hunts are some of the toughest to draw. Deadline wasc 4/3 so you'd be looking at first come first serve leftovers that sell out quicker than you can punch in a phone number.

MT runs to late November but you've missed the draw here also. MT mule deer tags had more NR applicants than quota so some folks didn't get tags meaning there were no leftovers last year.

Mule deer is something that you need to plan for ahead of time and apply. There just aren't a lot of good OTC opportunities that I've noticed.
 
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Brownbear is right no OTC for NR in Wyoming, only leftover tags and mainly in Black Hills for Nov mule deer and whitetails.
 
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