Which month produces the most B&C entries for typical mule deer in Colorado?

[LuckyMike]

Over the few years I’ve been on this forum there has been numerous discussions about the best time to draw your limited tag to hunt a trophy mule deer. The general consensus has most often been that the rut is a guy’s best opportunity. I’ve never disagreed. It seems to me along with a lot of you, that the rut is the time we are most likely to find a real wall hanger that shows up out of the high country, backcountry, thick difficult habitat, you name it. So, a while back I decided to look at Boone & Crocket records and see if there was maybe an indication of the best time to try for a trophy.
Since I’ve just hunted mule deer in Colorado last year (2013) and Colorado is such a tremendous producer of B&C bucks, utilizing their online “Trophy Search” application I pulled up a listing of typical mule deer entered in B&C from the beginning of record keeping through 2013. Analyzing the data only for bucks netting 190” up to the world record scoring 226” there were 433 entries. 58 entries didn’t have a good date. By that I mean they would say “prior to 1957” or the year taken with no month given. With no date these records were not going to help so I subtracted the 58 leaving 375 taken in September, October, November and December. There were only 14 taken in September. So, if we set the real early hunts aside and focus on October time frame (which I still consider early) compared to the Combination of November and December (which I consider mostly late): Which timeframe do you think would produce the most record entries?
I would have bet that November/December would have produced far more record trophies even though it could be pointed out there are not as many hunters in the field during late seasons in recent times. Quotas are lower, deer are lower down and often on private property, etc. It seems like the other advantages of late seasons including the rut and snow would still out way the lower quotas and fewer hunters.
Conclusion: October is the best month! It out ways November/December timeframe 60% (217) to 40% (144).

 

[BuzzH]

Thats good data and not surprising.

It would be interesting to see the tag allocations in September, October, and November.

I think the reason so few are taken in September is because most of the tags issued are for either archery or ML.

I think the reason October has the most B&C entries is because thats the month with the most hunters in the field with rifles. Tons of tags, tons of hunters, odds are they are going to bump into some good deer.

I also believe the reason there arent more entries in November is because there are not that many tags issued for November/December rifle hunts.

I would still bet the best odds for killing a B&C deer in CO is with a November tag in your pocket.

 

[JohnCushman]

November in CO you're also going to be looking at OTC rifle elk hunters intruding on your deer hunt as well

 

[havgunwilltravel]

Good information to read over. There are no doubt many variables associated with the higher percentage in October and most of these have been mentioned. I often wonder just how many big mature bucks and elk that would qualify for B&C that get harvested never get measured and entered by hunters who simply aren't interested in the record books. Must be a lot.