I assume y'all are just thinking of eastern hunting... If not:
Now imagine a world where you have to take a 58 mile flight on a little single engine plane into a backcountry airstrip that has such dangerous conditions that 2-3 planes crash there year. From there you hike 20-40 miles over 8 days into a remote wilderness with the steepest most rugged terrain you have ever seen. You and friend or 2 have to carry in everything you need to hunt with and survive for those 8 days. And if you're lucky enough to take a buck, you get to add an additional 70-90 lbs of meat and trophy in your pack and for the return hike back to the airstrip.
There's no bait. There are no food plots with a shooting house overlooking a feeder that goes off at certain times. You have to hike out here in the most overpopulated wolf habitat in the US looking for high country mule deer that roam tens of thousands of acres in a matter of weeks as they move to winter range. Depending on when and where exactly you are in this wilderness you might also meet a Grizzly that's getting desperate to put on a few more pounds before hibernation.
You're now in the middle of the Frank Church, Gospel Hump, or Bitterroot Wilderness... 3.4 million acres (about the size of Connecticut) with no roads, no electricity, and you better be way up high on a ridge if you expect a satellite to find your Garmin.
It's late October or early November. The airstrip is at 6000', but the deer are starting to rut and still at 8500'+ or above the tree line as we say. The plane dropped you off at 8:00 am and it's 42°, but you need to hike or more likely rock scramble at times 5.5 miles today and cross two ridges to get to a water source for your first night camping. That sun is kicking your áss day one. It's only in the mid 50's but at high elevation you can already feel the sunburn kicking in. You're not hunting yet, day 1 us just a hike. Much like day 7 or 8 will be.
After 7-8 hours you finally get to your water source. Luckily there's still water running in this little creek. Sometimes it's dry and you have to find a new one fast. So you set up camp. You're at 7200' now, but somehow climbed over 4000' to get here. Tonight is about preparing for tomorrow. When the hunt starts.
When you wake up at 6:30 in the morning and it's balls cold outside and the tent has nearly collapsed. It snowed 2" already and isn't letting up. You had planned on climbing over another ridge and glassing the next mountain over today, but you can't see 200 yards. No hunting yet. You're just surviving for now... By noon it finally stops and there is 5-1/2" of snow on the ground. It's going to take an hour and a half to get up this first ridge to start glassing with the snow slowing you down. But time is wasting if you don't...
This story will continue like this for several more days. If someone so much as turns an ankle it's over. You're calling in search and rescue Once you get to the top of said ridge you are now 1000+ yards over to the next ridge that you are hoping is holding deer. The ones on your ridge left while you were hiking the day before.
If you spot said deer in the next ridge the only way to get to get within 300 yards of them is to hike 5-6 hours down the ridge you are on and back up the next one... In country that looks like this in the summer, but is now covered in snow.
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If you tried to do it he'd see/hear you coming from 800+ yards. Even if he never heard you it would take so long to get close he'd be long gone...
So the strategy is simple. If you think he's a shooter you have to decide if you are going to go after him today 3 hours before dark or come back tomorrow. Going after him means getting yourself to a position in your ridge to hopefully take a shot within your range but that's not going to be less than 4-500 yards. Odds are you won't be able to do it today, because he's going to go back over that ridge he came from before you get into position. Probably need to get back down first thing tomorrow morning and set up and hope he was there for a reason and comes back tomorrow.
TLDR
This story could continue for days, but this is what backcountry mule deer hunting looks like. The next level down is hiring a guide and packing into a drop camp for a week on mules/horses or staying with the guides on the stock.
I'd say about 15-20% of self guided hunters fill a tag each year and more like 65-70% of guided hunts. At the same time the wilderness killed 6% of visitors from 1984-2010 or about 230 people.
Technology is making it safer, but it's truly a life or death adventure and the odds of getting a shot within 100 yards in that place. That would be less likely than getting attacked by a bear, mountain lion, or just falling off a cliff.
I learned to hunt in Mississippi. Exclusively public land. I killed my first deer at 12 with a 12 gauge slug from 25 yards. I took a half dozen including a couple of nice bucks high school and probably never shot over 150 yards. Next I hunted exclusively at Noxubee and JW Starr at State and killed 5 or 6 more, including a really nice 9 point at JWS with my bow.
After college and army I moved to Texas and quit deer hunting. It was all shooting farm raised deer over feeders. That's ghey as 17. So I just started goose hunting.
Well for 2-3 years I have been working to get my old out of shape áss back in shape for backcountry hunting. I have 3 herniated disks that have finally recovered to where I can handle the pack. Need to dial in the long range shooting before next season, but it's on in 2025. I'm guaranteed a tag if I want it as a resident. But if anyone who thinks sitting in tree stand and plucking whitetail in a hardwood bottom with a bow or 30-30 under 100 yards is real deer hunting and take shots further than 80 yards is weak... well come join me, you have about 20% odds to draw a tag for a November rut hunt in the wilderness. I'm happy to go with you. But if you can't keep up, well you better hope that Garmin can find a satellite.
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I started this thread because I have a couple of boys that are showing some interest in joining me when they get older. They will probably have to train for 1-3 years to be ready. I want to find a caliber the oldest can use until the youngest is ready to hunt and would last him through high school possibly. Or if neither really stick, I can use to plink at long range. You can't even hunt deer out here until your 10 it's so difficult. But, there are some youth controlled hunts available at high draw rates for moose, antelope and bighorn sheep, plus some amazing deer and elk controlled hunts I want to make sure they can take advantage of before they are 18 with high draw odds.
FYI. Here's a 17 year old girl who works for me that took a whitetail buck from over 400 yards with her 6.5 Creedmoor. She got a raghorn elk last year.
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