In my last article on record book mule deer research, I really focused on Colorado, which is head and shoulders above the other Rocky Mountain States in terms of recent and historical mule deer entries. This time, I’d like to go into a little more depth on New Mexico, Wyoming, and Idaho, which are the next three highest entry states (but even combined wouldn’t reach Colorado’s total). That’ll leave Arizona, Utah, Montana and Nevada for the next entry. I’ll leave the three Pacific states out of this series, and maybe save them for a blacktail article down the road. There’s so few mule deer entries from California, Oregon, Washington and Great Plains states like Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Texas and Oklahoma that you really can’t learn anything or find much for patterns that you didn’t already expect based on the species distribution.
The National Elk Refuge located near Jackson, Wyoming is currently the winter home to over 6,000 elk and around 600 bison. The animals migrated later this season because of the late spring run off, and they were able to forage for food longer.
For a little bit of a change of pace, let’s talk about moose hunting as a nonresident. Because I’m trying to focus on DIY hunts, I’m going to ignore Canada’s opportunities and resident-only hunts in the US. By limiting our scope to states that offer nonresident moose hunting we have just a handful of places to consider: Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.
Elk in Jackson Hole Wyoming have had their migration route cut off and have come to rely on state and federal feedlots, in what is known as the National Elk Refuge. Jackson Hole, Wyoming is home to deer, pronghorn, and elk along with other animals. Jackson Hole is lovely during the summer, but not very life sustaining during the winter months. Elk did not winter there before their migration route was cut off by development.
I could just title this article, “why Colorado is the best overall state for mule deer hunting," but since that won’t apply to trophy research for elk in future articles, let’s just go with Record Book Research. It had been a while since I last picked up a Boone and Crockett Record book, as my last edition was dated 1996 (Records of North American Elk and Mule Deer, 2nd edition). I was obviously way overdue, and looking at 50 year old records from the heyday of mule deer hunting just doesn’t really apply any more. Anyway, I did finally pick up the soon to be outdated 27th Big Game Awards book (2007-2009), which has the latest deer and elk entries, and wanted to share some of my findings and assumptions with you.
While writing my last entry on easy hunts, I felt that doing a late season or mule deer rut hunt was just too large of a topic to cover in a single paragraph. There are many aspects to mule deer rut hunting, especially as a trophy hunt, but here I wanted to focus on finding those mid to late November and early December hunts for an easier hunt.
The last article on 
A gray wolf that had lost its fear of humans and was repeatedly visiting developed areas in the park, has been put down. The gray wolf had approached visitors several times and liked to remain in the more developed areas of the park. Hazing attempts to scare off the wolf were unsuccessful. Due to the history of fearless behavior, Park Officials had to make the decision, and with the best interest of visitors and rangers in mind they decided to put the wolf down.
I’m an incessant unit hopper. I have a handful of places that I like to return to, but it seems like I’m adding at least one or two new units every year to the rotation. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you’re after. Some people like a known entity and stability, others are always after greener pastures. So what I’d like to address in this article is the possible rationale for staying put or pushing on. 
