Mule Deer Discussion and Thoughts - Building the future

[@TheWVgoodguy22]

Excellent commentary on the importance of management and why for mule deer. 🦌 Definitely tons of factors why the decline in mule deer. Glad to hear that you are going to do some interesting and informative content in between your hunt films. Whether it’s about mule deer 🦌 or archery 🏹 etc…

[@Matt_Tillotson]

As always. Thank you for the comments and kind words. Looking forward to the next few months of pre season prep and tag selection. Also a lot about what happens in the off season. Helping mule deer out

[@TheWVgoodguy22]

@ you are welcome 🙏 and no doubt about that. Application season and pre season is its own kind of fun. Sounds good to me bud.

[@taco8033]

Good stuff from Big Piney Wy

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Big Piney 🙌🦌

[@taco8033]

@@Matt_Tillotson I got some footage this week of a Dandy Deer you’d appreciate

[@Matt_Tillotson]

@ Jealous. Nice work man.

[@idaho2ndgens240]

Good discussion and look forward to more of your opinion. I am not a big fan of long range shooting even though I have fell into that trap when I was younger. Now that I am 66 and have hunted for 53 years, I look for memories from a hunt and have discovered the harder I work for success the better the memories are. So I look to get closer now. More archery, black powder hunts might be an answer for folks still having the thrill of the hunt.

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Love this! I think we can get creative with seasons and weapon types to create opportunities but manage better

[@jasonwest1143]

@@Matt_Tillotson The claim coming out of Utah that higher buck:doe ratios cause lower recruitment is a misrepresentation of the data. I asked our UW Researchers about that specifically at the 2024 Mule Deer Days Expo; not true and not a correlation. I will respectfully disagree with you on WY management, I believe Wyoming has the best and most successful Deer management. Name another herd in the world that rivals the quality we have right here, today; and of those other herds/units that do come to mind, can you get a tag this year, in 10 years? Nope I strongly agree with you, as we have discussed before, that sustainable harvest is not causing the Mule Deer decline. From the data, I will go farther to say in W Wyoming we can NOT harvest enough deer in the high population years to even come close to moderating their numbers going into a high mortality winter, even with our “modern technology”. Meaning, we should return to the high Non Res tag allocations when the population spikes so we have fewer but healthier deer with better fat reserves to avoid such drastic winter kill if it’s a bad winter. Not race to the bottom until there are Zero tags, like Utah.

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Respectfully I agree to disagree on some things and agree on others. Thanks for the time and comments

[@jasonwest1143]

@@Matt_Tillotson For sure brother, we won’t and don’t need to agree line by line. Different perspectives are important since no one knows everything but we all care about similar things in the hunting community. Cheers!

[@Matt_Tillotson]

@ for sure. We can be united in one purpose even if we have different opinions on how to get there.

[@joeyelton407]

Great discussion. I'm hopeful that if enough people get involved, something can be done to improve our deer herds in WY. I agree with your 'points' though I'd put them in a different order. Predators are top of the list for me, the cats are negating any gains we might have seen recently....next is the equipment, shooting effectively out to 1000+ yds puts the deer at ever an increasing disadvantage....next is development, ranchettes are destroying the crucial winter habit at an unsustainable rate, and last, road kill.... just my $0.02.

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Love this! Great points. I appreciate your input

[@markthomas6576]

Matt a very timely and important topic with what I’m sure will be lots of opinions. I liked your theme of hunters not turning on hunters. I would like to add, “ethical hunter not turning on other ethical hunters regardless of your personal hunting goals and preferred methods”. I believe the answers will come from the science. However, I have seen (especially in Washington state regarding their mule deer management) science / biology with a advocacy toward a predetermined outcome. In Washington their “science” is corrupted to support the reintroduction of wolves, regardless of the impact on mule deer hearts. Look forward to your future post.

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Great thoughts! I definitely think there are management objectives that can take away from the mule deer comeback. Scientific data can be read many ways. Thanks for the comment

[@Elkmountainrevolution]

Great stuff

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Thanks for watching!

[@10EPrecision]

Great video! I agree with a lot of the points you made. I think as hunters we should always keep in mind just how rare big scoring bucks are. If you look at the limited entry units in Utah (or anywhere for that matter) it is an extremely small number of the total buck population that will break 180”+ in a given year. In other words they are anomalies in a population. In general units a truly big scoring 200”+ deer can only make it in a place where he can survive hunting season being a 140-170” 2-3 year old buck. That age class of buck is easier to target, and the vast majority of hunters are going to shoot that buck as a 2-3 year old if given the opportunity. Glassing as a tactic has really thinned out a lot of these more open areas. You can’t really hold it against those hunters because a big portion of the buck population will never reach that 140”-170” range regardless of how old they get. Big scoring deer have never been pursued as relentlessly as they are now in the history of their existence. They are watched from the time they start growing antler to the time they drop them. There is a ton of competition for them and there always will be with how few of them exist. I don’t think it is wise to base management off the anomalies that big scoring bucks are. If we do we may have a few more big bucks in every state but nobody will be able to hunt them. Killing bucks in general is not going to hurt populations until bucks are so rare they cannot breed all the does. I’m not aware of any place this is actually happening? We need all hunters from meat hunters to 200” + only hunters and we are really all on the same team. We all want to see mule deer thrive and unfortunately most of it is out of our hands (weather as you mentioned being the main driver in populations). That being said with the past few years of decent water in my area I have seen more fawn triplets this last year than any other year in my hunting memory! A cool video idea (and a huge undertaking ) would be for you to document every buck you see and his approximate age and score this year. It would be awesome to hear the actual percentage of big scoring bucks vs bucks you see in a given year.

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Really great insight into buck management. And I love the idea for the video, that would be a fun and insightful project! Thanks for the comment and all your thoughts. Glad others are willing to speak out.

[@dobberaaron6658]

Sweet video Matt. I think the road department should not put salt down because it attracts the deer to the sides of the roads that's how all these deer getting killed in Utah that and the poachers. Thanks for taking me along I really enjoy your videos take care God bless

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Great thoughts! These are the solutions I think we can push to gain ground on a comeback. Thanks for the comment

[@reapergrim76]

Great stuff! 👍🏻 😊

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Thanks for listening

[@coyotebrowntrouthunter]

Great discussion Matt! I was fortunate to hunt close to where you live back in 2022 before the horrible winter hit. Killed a heavy 4x4 w/ eyeguards. A hunt of a lifetime for me, as I'm a native Oregonian. I love mule deer and especially trophy muleys. I can't speak for how WY manages their game, but I can for the state of OR. It is truly a shame. Predators rule and money for tags are all that matter in OR. What I don't understand and never will understand are how our game dept. continues to issue doe/fawn tags for areas where there aren't near enough deer there in the first place! It is absolutely sickening!!! How many deer can one doe produce in their lifetime? These deer should be protected at all costs in my opinion.........

[@Matt_Tillotson]

Thanks for the comment and the insights on OR management. Definitely food for thought! Glad you are willing to speak out