The places where I've seen mule deer in the Black Hills N.F.: 1. From the Idol Gulch road south on the Grand Canyon Road, all the way off the forest, including any side roads in more open timber 2. On the south, east, and west sides of Warren Peak, off any roads going east or west off the main paved road up the Peak, in the more open timber 3. The north end of the N.F. on Blue Ridge, Stoney Point, and Harding Gulch As others have said, there are more mule deer on private land in more open country. By the middle of the hunting season hunters have pruned a lot of the bucks off the N.F., so they get harder to find on public land later than about mid-November, despite the rut.