Looking for some guidance on a do it yourself mule deer hunt, it has been on my bucket list for years and I want to scratch that one off my list. I can bow or gun hunt either one but since I have never hunted mule deer, I have no idea where to start. What state, areas in a certain state etc. Obviously it would need to be a public land hunt and I don't know if you need to draw for tags or if some have OTC tags. Any advice or suggestions that you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I don't necessarily have to take a trophy buck or even a buck for that matter, a doe would do if it came to that. The hunt would be the adventure and the harvest would be a bonus.

Arizona archery has OTC archery tags for mule, coues and bear

Colorado has OTC archery tags above 11’000’ for mule deer

Start buying some PP in Wyoming, July this year for purchase.
I know some areas with decent deer hunting for 1 PP.
You can apply this year without a PP and possibly draw a random tag
If you draw a region tag you get to hunt the entire region, several areas.
Wyoming also allows you to hunt archery season after buying an archery license on the tag then coming back for rifle if not successful with the bow.

Colorado has great hunting but tons more people than Wyoming.

There are also some new deer areas this year, split areas from past years, that may have great drawing odds this year due to being new areas.

CO has a ton of units and weapon choices that are draw but a bunch are almost guarantee draw.
NM is also similar, where you can almost guarantee a tag if you do the right research.
Idaho has both OTC and draw units for Mule deer
WY is draw but can be forced draw with min points.
AZ has OTC archery tags and some good draw odd units for rifle.

Archery in general is Aug-Sep and Jan across the board with in general Oct-Nov being Rifle

I personally like the Jan Archery hunt of NM/AZ. Sept I’d rather chase elk.

CO, Idaho(true OTC) are really easy to combo hunt, Wy is also once drawn. Monata is/was pricey to apply and not draw but think they may have open up a PP only option.

Thank you for the info, after reading comments I went back and checked my P.M.'s and saw that I had posted this same thing about the same time last year. Thank you BoBo for the helpful insight, I am checking now on the suggestions that you made to see if I can get this done.

BOBO and others here have lots of experience in NM and Colorado, I would listen to their advice about those states, Wyoming too for that matter. As NR, they have insights into NR hunting that I can not match.

Most Wyoming deer hunting takes place in Oct, Colorado or NM may get you hunting during the rut.

Gohunt is a great tool to help educate on the different draw systems and odds of different states. Little pricey but pretty much best outline resource outside of a tag service like Epic Outdoors or huntin’ fools

If you can afford building points I advise doing so, if you cant still a ton of non point opportunities, but it opens up a lot of new county and great longer term options.

I have always wanted to hunt mule deer but just never have done it. I guess that my biggest passion is wanting to see them in the wild and just enjoy the hunt. I had a close encounter with a pretty big mule deer buck once when I was fly fishing in NM, I was walking down a trail a ways behind my buddy as we were headed to the river and this buck jumped up when my buddy went by and headed straight at me. Luckily, he turned off onto another trail when he was about 5 feet from me. That was a close encounter of the crazy kind.

Looking on NM fish and game web site but I can only open their main page, can't open any of the drop downs to get hunt dates or draw and license info. Guess I will try again when I get home and am on a different browser.

NM puts the proclamation out as a.pdf. Here is the link
http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/dow...20-New-Mexico-Hunting-Rules-and-Info.pdf