While there have been the occasional sightings of whitetail in Utah over the years, whitetail deer, for whatever reason, have not really taken root.
It can take a typical Utah hunter several years to draw a mule deer tag for their desired unit, while states with whitetail deer are frequently given the opportunity to harvest multiple deer each season.
Would you ever want to see whitetail deer introduced into Utah? I assume they would compete with Mule deer to some extent, but would the trade off to have more hunting opportunities be worth it to you?
Sure, I’d be happy to see more whitetail. But I don’t think it’d lead to more opportunity. The real issue in the west is 30% of the young dying during the winter. Warmer areas have much higher population because they don’t have the winter kill.
This is the kind of discussion i enjoy.
Idaho has a fantastic whitetail population
Colorado has some as well as wyoming, and montana and everywhere east of that.
I have seriously considered going back east to hunt whitetail just because there is so much opportunity.
I think colorado might be an option for me as well.
Lol, there is plenty of corn in Texas… comes in a bag and is fed to the deer just about all year long. Texas doesn’t have a lot of public hunting land, so many if not most hunters have a private lease they hunt on. From there, its usually up to the lease manager how they manage the deer pop. Its just that most bucks don’t get to 5+ years when they really show their maturity.
I took this in 2022 and it was the biggest buck ever taken on property. I am pretty sure he was about 3.5. Our lease was 1100 acres and was absolutely surrounded by other hunting properties. Just about every buck taken was less than 4. If I didn’t take him, someone esle would have within a few days. Its how it goes here.
Stud buck Ben. What part of Texas? And what’s the terrain like?
Texas has been on my mind but all the online outfitters for the high fence outfits want 7k to hunt a penned deer.
This was low fence, near Archer City. Not far from Throckmorton county which is well known for good sized bucks.
The terrain is sparse. It kind where the west TX landscape begins. Lots of Mesquite. Hardly a tree over 20 feet. Hiring is 100% from a blind of some sort. Not as fun as a spot and stalk, but it’s still a hunt.
Sounds fun. I can’t go to west Texas right now due v to the measles outbreak , And i have a deer tag in new mexico for this fall, but one of these days.
Utah’s lack of rain and vegetation limits how many deer there are. In NY I could’ve killed deer on my lawn with a golf club. But there were also Lyme infested ticks everywhere
Whitetail would be cool but at the same time from what I’ve seen mostly the best habitat for them appears to be most all privately owned ground. Therefore I don’t think it would result in any more hunting opportunities. It’d be interesting the impact they would have on wintering mule deer populations. I’d imagine if it was anything like the eastern states there would be quite the hatred for them around crops which would also be their main habitat areas leading to more landowner depredation shooting than actual hunts.
