Hunting whitetail in mule deer country

Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
507
Location
Colorado
Every year I pick up a Colorado seasons choice WT only tag. It's good for 5 different units. I usually carry it around while I hunt mule deer in one of those units, and hope i get lucky and stumble upon a whitetail along the way. I never do..... The seasons choice tag is easy to get, and WT ONLY because the population of deer out there is primarily mule deer. Well, this year I'm going to hunt that whitetail tag only, because I didn't snag an either species deer tag out there.
Out in eastern Colorado, the whitetail primarily seem to stay near river bottom, and the mule deer are out in ag fields, rolling hills, and literally everywhere. There's not much river bottom in these units where the tag is good. So my question is this, what other terrain or landscape are you guys specifically targeting when hunting whitetail in mule deer country?
 

Super tag

WKR
Joined
Aug 22, 2021
Messages
320
I don’t hunt Colorado but where I hunt the WT and MD share the same areas in some units, mountain and lowland. i have seen and hunted both species in the same general areas if that helps you.
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
2,046
Location
Idaho
I don’t hunt Colorado but where I hunt the WT and MD share the same areas in some units, mountain and lowland. i have seen and hunted both species in the same general areas if that helps you.
I’ll mirror what Super tag has experienced. Where I hunt, they will overlap in certain elevation bands. I’m by no means an expert wt hunter. When I am hunting them, I’ll generally find a well traveled trail and pick a shooting lane and sit and wait.
 
OP
Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
507
Location
Colorado
This is all out in the plains. Very minimal public land, so a lot of driving dirt roads, glassing, and knocking on doors for permission.
 

Rich M

WKR
Joined
Jun 14, 2017
Messages
5,107
Location
Orlando
This is a roadkill in CO. Nice buck - we stopped, checked it out, came back by an hour later and he was gone. We were mule deer hunting. We saw a couple guys looking for WT.

Found WT in 2 diff areas while we were going from place to place for muleys. One was an area of evergreens in crop area - saw multiple WT there multiple times. Second was a valley or sorts with water source and cotton woods. Buddy sat there one evening, seen 3 does and a horny buck with 1 antler, other was broke off. He said he'd a shot him if he had a tag.
 

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Joined
Mar 14, 2023
Messages
28
Location
Council, ID
I hunt WT in the broken country of West and North Central Idaho. I hunt it similarly to mule deer, as far as the places that I go. The major difference being, WT are highly territorial and stay close to a specific area, so I glass until I find pockets of deer and hunt those areas, because they won't go super far. I have had great success in Idaho with that strategy. I've never hunted CO, and it sounds like you're hunting low country, but IMO the tactics should be relatively similar.
 
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