Can a hunter take mule deer and white-tailed deer on the same general license in hunt area 30?

No. The general-license seasons specify which animal is legal for each hunt. The September-October hunt permits antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer, but the November and December seasons are white-tailed only—a mule deer cannot be taken in those hunts regardless of its antlers.

How much of hunt area 30 is actually accessible to a public-land hunter?

About 131 square miles of the 397-square-mile area is BLM or State Trust Land that a hunter can generally count on, roughly a third. However, many of these parcels are landlocked with no public access. Entry points are mainly along Wyoming Highway 196 and county roads, and competition for accessible spots runs high on weekends and early in the season.

Does a Wyoming resident need preference points to draw a general deer license for hunt area 30?

No. Wyoming residents have no deer preference points. A resident purchases a general deer license over the counter with no draw involved. Nonresidents, by contrast, must draw a Region general license through a preference-point draw; three quarters of those licenses go to applicants ranked by points, and a quarter go to a random draw.

Where are white-tailed deer typically found in hunt area 30?

White-tailed deer concentrate in low-elevation stream bottoms and adjacent irrigated cropland, which lie primarily on private land. Mule deer inhabit the full area. Most white-tailed deer hunting requires access to private ground through outfitting or fee arrangements.

When does hunt area 30 have white-tailed deer seasons available?

White-tailed deer hunting runs from September through December. September and October offer antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer on general license. November is any white-tailed deer on general license. December is antlerless white-tailed deer on general license. Type 8 doe or fawn hunts add opportunity in September through December.

Wyoming Hunt Area 30 (Upper Powder River) deer hunting

Licence

General licence area

Open public land

33%

Elevation

4,600–9,300 ft

Terrain

Gentle

Deer region

Hunt area 30 spans 397 square miles of the Upper Powder River country, ranging from irrigated cropland and sagebrush flats near 4,600 feet to conifer forest and mountain terrain on the western slopes of the Bighorn Mountains around 9,300 feet. The ground is predominantly gentle—74% slopes under the moderate threshold—with a mean slope of 7.5 degrees. Lower elevations are sagebrush-grassland with riparian corridors along streams; mid elevations mix sagebrush, conifer, and meadow; higher elevations are mostly coniferous forest with grass openings. The country holds both mule deer and white-tailed deer. Mule deer inhabit the full area, but white-tailed deer concentrate in low-elevation stream bottoms and adjacent cropland where human pressure is heaviest. Most of the white-tailed deer hunting opportunity lies on private land where access requires outfitting or fee arrangements; hunting pressure on accessible public ground runs high early in the season and on weekends.

Public land available to hunters amounts to roughly 131 square miles of BLM and Wyoming State Trust Land—about a third of the hunt area—but much of this is landlocked or inaccessible by vehicle. Most entry points are along Wyoming Highway 196 and county roads. Many parcels have no public access despite public ownership. Private land comprises 67% of the hunt area. Securing access to white-tailed deer hunting on private ground is difficult; nearly all such opportunity is through outfitters or trespass-fee arrangements. Dispersed camping on BLM lands is available for those hunting public ground.

Seasons divide between general-licence hunts open to all license holders and a specialized Type 8 hunt. The general-licence seasons target different mule deer or white-tailed deer combinations and run across five distinct windows from September through December. The Type 8 hunts offer white-tailed doe or fawn opportunity with separate seasons for private-land and area-wide hunting. Because much white-tailed deer activity occurs on private ground while public-land hunting centers on the more accessible sagebrush and low-elevation terrain, hunters need to clarify access in advance and expect to compete for public-land spots.

Licence and how this hunt area is drawn

Hunt Area 30 (Upper Powder River) is a general-licence hunt area, and how a hunter gets a licence for it depends on where they live.

A Wyoming resident buys a general deer licence over the counter — unlimited statewide, on sale from mid-July. No draw, no application, no preference points.
A nonresident cannot buy one. They must draw a Region general licence — for this hunt area, deer region Y, which is valid across the general-licence hunt areas of that region and nowhere else.

A hunter may hold only ONE general deer licence in a year, so a general licence is a single choice rather than something to stack.

Wyoming residents have no preference points for deer — the resident deer draw is random, and no resident point cutoff exists for any hunt area in the state. For nonresidents points matter a great deal: Wyoming awards 75% of each nonresident pool through the preference-point draw, top-down by points, and the remaining 25% at random. Nonresidents also choose between the Regular and Special pools — the same hunts at two price points, competing separately.

Seasons (2026)

Type Gen — general licence · Antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer
Legal: mule deer and white-tailed deer, under different rules
Archery September 1 – September 30Regular October 15 – October 31
Type Gen — general licence · Any white-tailed deer
Legal: white-tailed deer only
Regular November 1 – November 30
Type Gen — general licence · Antlerless white-tailed deer
Legal: white-tailed deer only
Regular December 1 – December 31
Type 8 · Doe or fawn white-tailed deer valid on private land
Legal: white-tailed deer only
Regular September 1 – September 30
Type 8 · Doe or fawn white-tailed deer valid in the entire area
Legal: white-tailed deer only
Archery September 1 – September 30Regular October 15 – December 31

The wording of each hunt is the Wyoming Game & Fish Department’s and is legally exact — a “doe or fawn” hunt is not a deer hunt in general, and a hunt limited to part of the area is not valid across it. Confirm every hunt in the current regulations before applying.

Hunting each season

Type Gen — Antlered mule deer or any… · mule deer & whitetail (September–October)

Hunters pursuing antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer have two windows: an archery-only period in September and a rifle season from October 15 through October 31. September archery takes place as bucks shed velvet and early fall activity patterns set in; daytime temperatures average 68 degrees with nighttime lows near 41 degrees and minimal precipitation. Early October continues the transition to fall movement, with buck activity increasingly nocturnal; by late October hunters encounter the early rut staging phase as temperatures drop from the low 50s to the low 30s, and snow begins to accumulate near 1.7 inches for the month. Accessible public hunting concentrates on the gentler sagebrush and low-elevation terrain along the roaded corridors, where competition intensifies. This hunt permits a legal mule deer buck with any antlers or any white-tailed deer regardless of sex or age.

Type Gen — Any white-tailed deer · whitetail only (November)

November hunting for any white-tailed deer coincides with the primary rut phase when bucks become active during daylight. Temperatures decline sharply from the low 40s to near 20 degrees, and snowfall typically reaches 3.8 inches for the month—snow that can shift deer movement and make early-season pressure diminish somewhat. This hunt targets white-tailed deer only; mule deer are not legal. Access remains primarily on private land where most white-tailed deer concentrate, making this season particularly dependent on secured outfitting or fee access.

Type Gen — Antlerless white-tailed deer · whitetail only (December)

December hunting for antlerless white-tailed deer coincides with the late rut and early winter consolidation. Temperatures drop to an average high of 34 degrees with lows near 12 degrees, and snowfall intensifies to about 4.4 inches for the month, occasionally concentrating deer in accessible drainages and lower terrain. This hunt permits white-tailed deer without antlers—does and fawns—and again is primarily available on private land given where white-tailed deer concentrate.

Type 8 — Doe or fawn white-tailed deer valid… · whitetail only (September)

This specialized September archery season for doe or fawn white-tailed deer is valid only on private land. Hunting takes place as bucks shed velvet and overall deer activity begins the fall transition; temperatures average 68 degrees in the daytime with minimal precipitation. The hunt offers a strategy for hunters with private-land access and archery equipment, but is not available on public ground.

Type 8 — Doe or fawn white-tailed deer valid… · whitetail only (September–December)

This Type 8 hunt permits doe or fawn white-tailed deer across the entire hunt area, with an archery window in early September and a rifle season running October 15 through December 31. Archery hunters encounter velvet-shedding activity in warm early-September conditions; rifle hunters then pursue the early fall migration and nocturnal buck phase in mid-October as temperatures cool, continuing through the rut phases of November and into the late-rut and winter consolidation of December as snow accumulates and temperatures plummet. This hunt is white-tailed only and targets antlerless animals, offering extended opportunity for those seeking does or fawns.

Land and access

private land67%

Private

BLM17%

Generally open to public hunting

State Trust Land16%

Generally open to public hunting

About 33% of this hunt area is ground a hunter can generally count on — BLM and State Trust Land, roughly 131 square miles. Public ownership is not the same as easy entry: roads, trailheads, seasonal closures and private inholdings all still apply.

State trust land counts toward the open figure above. Wyoming extends hunting on legally accessiblestate trust land to the public unless a parcel is specifically closed — the catch is the access itself, since crossing private ground to reach it still needs the landowner’s permission. Camping, fires and off-road vehicles are not allowed on it.

the Wyoming Game & Fish Department publishes 10% public land for this hunt area. That counts public ownership; the figure above counts ground a hunter can depend on getting onto. They answer different questions, so both are shown rather than blended.

Where deer are mapped

Summer Range48%

used in summer

Yearlong Range47%

the only layer that means year-round use

Winter Range44%

used in winter

Crucial Winter Range1%

the part of Winter Range considered essential to the herd — inside Winter Range, not added to it

Each figure is the share of the hunt area that layer covers. It says where deer are mapped, not where inside the area they are, and not when they move.

Habitat and cover

Lower elevations

Sagebrush67%

Grass and meadow22%

Other cover7%

Riparian4%

Mid elevations

Sagebrush42%

Conifer33%

Grass and meadow24%

Higher elevations

Conifer49%

Grass and meadow27%

Sagebrush23%

Shares are of each elevation band, not of the whole hunt area — they describe what grows up there, not how much of the area sits at that elevation.

Weather through the season

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Snowfall
January	35°F	12°F	4.2 in
February	35°F	12°F	5.1 in
March	44°F	20°F	5.1 in
April	50°F	27°F	3.6 in
May	59°F	36°F	0.2 in
June	70°F	44°F	0 in
July	79°F	51°F	0 in
August	78°F	49°F	0 in
September	68°F	41°F	0.1 in
October	54°F	30°F	1.7 in
November	42°F	19°F	3.8 in
December	34°F	12°F	4.4 in

Snowfall is the monthly total, not depth lying on the ground.

Common questions

Can a hunter take mule deer and white-tailed deer on the same general license in hunt area 30?: No. The general-license seasons specify which animal is legal for each hunt. The September-October hunt permits antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer, but the November and December seasons are white-tailed only—a mule deer cannot be taken in those hunts regardless of its antlers.
How much of hunt area 30 is actually accessible to a public-land hunter?: About 131 square miles of the 397-square-mile area is BLM or State Trust Land that a hunter can generally count on, roughly a third. However, many of these parcels are landlocked with no public access. Entry points are mainly along Wyoming Highway 196 and county roads, and competition for accessible spots runs high on weekends and early in the season.
Does a Wyoming resident need preference points to draw a general deer license for hunt area 30?: No. Wyoming residents have no deer preference points. A resident purchases a general deer license over the counter with no draw involved. Nonresidents, by contrast, must draw a Region general license through a preference-point draw; three quarters of those licenses go to applicants ranked by points, and a quarter go to a random draw.
Where are white-tailed deer typically found in hunt area 30?: White-tailed deer concentrate in low-elevation stream bottoms and adjacent irrigated cropland, which lie primarily on private land. Mule deer inhabit the full area. Most white-tailed deer hunting requires access to private ground through outfitting or fee arrangements.
When does hunt area 30 have white-tailed deer seasons available?: White-tailed deer hunting runs from September through December. September and October offer antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer on general license. November is any white-tailed deer on general license. December is antlerless white-tailed deer on general license. Type 8 doe or fawn hunts add opportunity in September through December.

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

Seasons, licence types and boundaries change. Confirm every detail with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department before applying or hunting.

All Wyoming deer hunt areas