Wyoming Deer Hunting by Hunt Area
Wyoming holds both mule deer and white-tailed deer, and most hunts say which is which. A great many hunt areas carry seasons worded “antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer” — two different rules on one licence — while others are white-tailed only. Where a hunt puts an antler or point requirement on the mule deer and then allows any white-tailed deer, that requirement is a mule deer rule only. Each hunt area guide below states, season by season, which animal the hunt permits.
Hunting is organised by numbered hunt areas, and the first question about any of them is which kind of licence reaches it: general-licence areas, or limited-quota areas that must be drawn for that area specifically. The two deer live differently across that country — mule deer through the sage, breaks and mountain shrub of the open state, white-tailed deer far more tied to river bottoms and irrigated farm ground, most of which is private.
On a general area a Wyoming resident simply buys a general deer licence over the counter: unlimited statewide, on sale from mid-July, no draw and no points, and one general deer licence per hunter per year. A nonresident cannot buy one — they must draw a Region general licence, valid across the general-licence hunt areas of that one region and nowhere else. Wyoming runs seventeen deer regions, against three for elk, so the region a nonresident applies for is a much narrower choice here.
Wyoming residents have no preference points for deer. Where a resident does have to draw — any limited-quota area — that draw is random, so there is no resident point cutoff anywhere in the state and nothing for a resident to build, bank or burn. For nonresidents points matter a great deal: 75% of each nonresident pool is awarded through the preference-point draw, top-down by points, and 25% at random. Nonresidents also choose between the Regular and Special pools — the same hunts at two price points, competing separately — and Wyoming takes the full licence fee upfront, refunding it if you are unsuccessful.
A region licence is a real fallback when a specific hunt area does not come through, but only for general areas. It is not valid in a limited-quota area, so for those there is no fallback: that area has to be drawn on its own.
The seventeen deer regions
A nonresident hunting a general area draws one of these. Each page lists every general hunt area that licence reaches.
General-licence hunt areas (101)
A resident buys a general deer licence over the counter for these; a nonresident draws a Region general licence that covers them.
- Hunt Area 1
- Hunt Area 2
- Hunt Area 3
- Hunt Area 4
- Hunt Area 5
- Hunt Area 6
- Hunt Area 7
- Hunt Area 8
- Hunt Area 9
- Hunt Area 11
- Hunt Area 12
- Hunt Area 13
- Hunt Area 14
- Hunt Area 15
- Hunt Area 17
- Hunt Area 18
- Hunt Area 19
- Hunt Area 21
- Hunt Area 23
- Hunt Area 24
- Hunt Area 25
- Hunt Area 26
- Hunt Area 27
- Hunt Area 28
- Hunt Area 29
- Hunt Area 30
- Hunt Area 31
- Hunt Area 32
- Hunt Area 33
- Hunt Area 35
- Hunt Area 39
- Hunt Area 40
- Hunt Area 41
- Hunt Area 46
- Hunt Area 47
- Hunt Area 50
- Hunt Area 51
- Hunt Area 52
- Hunt Area 53
- Hunt Area 59
- Hunt Area 61
- Hunt Area 64
- Hunt Area 65
- Hunt Area 66
- Hunt Area 70
- Hunt Area 74
- Hunt Area 75
- Hunt Area 76
- Hunt Area 77
- Hunt Area 82
- Hunt Area 88
- Hunt Area 92
- Hunt Area 94
- Hunt Area 96
- Hunt Area 97
- Hunt Area 98
- Hunt Area 100
- Hunt Area 105
- Hunt Area 106
- Hunt Area 110
- Hunt Area 111
- Hunt Area 112
- Hunt Area 113
- Hunt Area 114
- Hunt Area 115
- Hunt Area 121
- Hunt Area 122
- Hunt Area 123
- Hunt Area 124
- Hunt Area 127
- Hunt Area 128
- Hunt Area 130
- Hunt Area 131
- Hunt Area 132
- Hunt Area 133
- Hunt Area 134
- Hunt Area 135
- Hunt Area 138
- Hunt Area 139
- Hunt Area 140
- Hunt Area 142
- Hunt Area 143
- Hunt Area 144
- Hunt Area 145
- Hunt Area 146
- Hunt Area 148
- Hunt Area 149
- Hunt Area 150
- Hunt Area 151
- Hunt Area 152
- Hunt Area 153
- Hunt Area 154
- Hunt Area 155
- Hunt Area 156
- Hunt Area 157
- Hunt Area 160
- Hunt Area 163
- Hunt Area 164
- Hunt Area 168
- Hunt Area 169
- Hunt Area 171
Limited-quota hunt areas (26)
Each must be drawn for that hunt area specifically. A region licence does not reach these.
- Hunt Area 10
- Hunt Area 22
- Hunt Area 34
- Hunt Area 36
- Hunt Area 37
- Hunt Area 60
- Hunt Area 67
- Hunt Area 78
- Hunt Area 79
- Hunt Area 80
- Hunt Area 81
- Hunt Area 84
- Hunt Area 87
- Hunt Area 89
- Hunt Area 90
- Hunt Area 101
- Hunt Area 102
- Hunt Area 109
- Hunt Area 116
- Hunt Area 117
- Hunt Area 118
- Hunt Area 119
- Hunt Area 120
- Hunt Area 125
- Hunt Area 141
- Hunt Area 165
Sources
- Wyoming Game & Fish — Hunting & Trapping — licence types, general and limited-quota hunts, and season structure
- WGFD Hunt Planner — hunt-area boundaries, season dates and the unit descriptions
- WGFD — Draw results and odds — how the resident random draw and the nonresident preference-point draw work
- WGFD — Regulations — the legal limitations on each hunt, and the statewide licence rules
- USGS National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2021) and 3DEP elevation — land cover and terrain by elevation band
Licence types, seasons and boundaries change. Confirm every detail with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department before applying or hunting.