Can a Wyoming resident hunt mule deer here on a general deer licence?

Yes. Residents purchase a general deer licence over the counter with no draw and no preference points involved. A resident may hold only one general deer licence per year and can hunt antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer during the September–October seasons listed.

What do nonresidents need to hunt this area?

Nonresidents must draw a Region B general licence, which is valid across all general-licence hunt areas in that region. The Region B draw is not purely random: three quarters of the licences go to the preference-point draw, awarded by points from highest to lowest, and the remaining quarter go to a random draw that everyone enters. Nonresidents competing for points should research what points are typically needed before applying.

How much of this area is public land a hunter can count on?

About 44% of the hunt area — roughly 189 square miles — is dependably open ground consisting of BLM, National Grasslands, and State Trust Land. Private land makes up 56% of the area. Public access is not guaranteed because roads, trailheads, seasonal closures, and private inholdings still apply. Many roads that appear public on mapping software are actually private.

When do these seasons run and what is the weather like?

The hunt spans September 1 through October 15, split into an archery window (September 1–30) and a rifle window (October 1–15). September has highs around 77°F and lows around 45°F with minimal snow. October cools significantly to highs around 60°F and lows around 33°F, with about half an inch of snow expected. Hunters should plan for cold mornings and cooling trends through the hunt.

Wyoming Hunt Area 7 (South Osage) deer hunting

Licence

General licence area

Open public land

44%

Elevation

3,900–5,000 ft

Terrain

Gentle

Deer region

Hunt area 7 spans 426 square miles of gently rolling mixed-grass and sagebrush prairie, deeply cut draws, and a scattering of cultivated fields across elevations between 3,900 and 5,000 feet. The country is nearly all gentle ground — 99% slopes under 9 degrees — and breaks into grassland meadows and sagebrush-dominated flats in roughly 84% and 14% of the landscape. Mule deer occupy the mixed prairie and sagebrush terrain and rolling hills, while white-tailed deer are found almost exclusively on private land here with very few exceptions. The area is not managed for trophy animals but for opportunity, and hunter success is typically low.

Access is fragmented across public and private holdings. About 44% of the area — roughly 189 square miles — is ground a hunter can generally count on, split between BLM holdings, Thunder Basin National Grasslands, and State Trust Land. Five enrolled walk-in areas offer no-permission access during their open periods. However, the accessible public lands lack large contiguous blocks, and crowding can be heavy on the ground that is open. Hunters need to be especially careful with roads: many that appear public on standard mapping software are actually private, and the Thunder Basin National Grasslands has its own travel and camping restrictions that apply to those lands.

The seasons run in two windows within a single autumn hunt, and weather cools through both. September archery takes place early in the velvet-shed transition when bucks are still shedding antler velvet and behavior is settling toward pre-rut patterns. October rifle hunting spans the early migration phase into the nocturnal-buck period as temperatures drop from the low 60s to the low 30s and light snow begins to fall. Mule deer are taken about evenly between private and public ground, but white-tailed deer opportunities are extremely limited outside private land.

Licence and how this hunt area is drawn

Hunt Area 7 (South Osage) 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 B, 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 1 – October 15

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)

Archery hunting in September takes place during the early fall transition as bucks shed velvet and move into early staging patterns, while rifle seasons in October span the early migration and nocturnal-buck phases as deer shift behavior with cooling temperatures. September offers mild conditions with highs near 77°F and minimal precipitation, while October cooling brings lows into the low 30s and introduces occasional light snow. Access to public ground on the Thunder Basin National Grasslands and BLM requires attention to the Grasslands' travel restrictions, and public lands can see significant hunter pressure on the limited accessible acreage. Mule deer and white-tailed deer are both legal — antlered mule deer only, but any white-tailed deer of either sex — though most white-tailed deer here are found on private land where permission is necessary.

Land and access

private land56%

Private

BLM20%

Generally open to public hunting

National Forest17%

Generally open to public hunting

State Trust Land8%

Generally open to public hunting

About 44% of this hunt area is ground a hunter can generally count on — BLM, National Forest and State Trust Land, roughly 189 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 29% 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.

This hunt area has 5 enrolled walk-in areas. That is private ground enrolled for public access, not public land. A Walk-In Area needs no permission slip — a hunter may walk in during the open period, subject to its posted rules. Enrollment is renegotiated every year, so check current status before counting on either.

Where deer are mapped

Yearlong Range19%

the only layer that means year-round use

Winter Range5%

used in winter

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

Across the unit

Grass and meadow84%

Sagebrush14%

Other cover2%

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	36°F	12°F	2.7 in
February	38°F	14°F	3.2 in
March	49°F	23°F	1.6 in
April	57°F	31°F	1.4 in
May	67°F	41°F	0 in
June	79°F	50°F	0 in
July	88°F	58°F	0 in
August	87°F	55°F	0 in
September	77°F	45°F	0 in
October	60°F	33°F	0.6 in
November	46°F	21°F	2 in
December	36°F	13°F	2.9 in

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

Common questions

Can a Wyoming resident hunt mule deer here on a general deer licence?: Yes. Residents purchase a general deer licence over the counter with no draw and no preference points involved. A resident may hold only one general deer licence per year and can hunt antlered mule deer or any white-tailed deer during the September–October seasons listed.
What do nonresidents need to hunt this area?: Nonresidents must draw a Region B general licence, which is valid across all general-licence hunt areas in that region. The Region B draw is not purely random: three quarters of the licences go to the preference-point draw, awarded by points from highest to lowest, and the remaining quarter go to a random draw that everyone enters. Nonresidents competing for points should research what points are typically needed before applying.
Which deer species are actually legal here?: The hunt permits antlered mule deer and any white-tailed deer, but white-tailed deer are found almost exclusively on private land in this area with few exceptions. Mule deer are the primary quarry on public ground.
How much of this area is public land a hunter can count on?: About 44% of the hunt area — roughly 189 square miles — is dependably open ground consisting of BLM, National Grasslands, and State Trust Land. Private land makes up 56% of the area. Public access is not guaranteed because roads, trailheads, seasonal closures, and private inholdings still apply. Many roads that appear public on mapping software are actually private.
When do these seasons run and what is the weather like?: The hunt spans September 1 through October 15, split into an archery window (September 1–30) and a rifle window (October 1–15). September has highs around 77°F and lows around 45°F with minimal snow. October cools significantly to highs around 60°F and lows around 33°F, with about half an inch of snow expected. Hunters should plan for cold mornings and cooling trends through the hunt.

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