I'd have to agree with Bigshooter and Blanchard on this. I myself have been referring to whitetails as rats for decades, and my attitude is also "shoot em all." I apply for late whitetail buck tags purely because I want them gone but I'm not willing to give up muley season to go chase them that mule deer season is why I exist. Obviously not poaching as a solution as EVERY hunter/outdoorsman would agree is brutally wrong on so many levels of character issues, morals, values, ethics, disrespect, oh ya and it's ILLEGAL. Unfortunately the punishment as previously stated doesn't match the crime so it comes down to a persons character, morals, values, ethics, respect, etc. to NOT poach and lets face it....some just have NONE of the above. I am obviously die hard mule deer. Whitetails are a completely different species of deer, more aggressive, and drive mule deer out of areas that used to be mule deer country. In most instances, mule deer don't care to be around whitetails. All the 'safe zones' or river bottoms and towns mule deer used to be thick in numbers in.... northern WA from the pasayten wilderness to idaho is now where the whitetails are thick. A large number of mule deer used to be able to stay in lower elevation areas less susceptible to bears, cougars, wolves, coyotes, hunters, poachers, etc. etc. You used to be able to drive the highway from methow to curlew and see hundreds of mule deer in the middle of the day DURING hunting seasons and uncountable numbers at first light/evening outside of hunting seasons. Older hunting friend of mine that grew up in the 101-105 gmu areas still remembers being a kid and seeing a whitetail in a field one evening and his dad and buddies were trying to figure out what the heck it was. Now look, it's considered one of the best WHITETAIL areas in the state. They came in, reproduced like rabbits, and drove large numbers of semi resident muleys to higher elevations where survival rates decreased dramatically. They'd see hundreds of muleys every night come out of the foothills into the low land fields across the highway from their house. Now it's all whitey's coming out of the foothills. This is what I've observed in my lifetime and perhaps why us die hard muley guys have a bit of animosity towards their whitetail cousins...seems to be the more whitetail the less mule deer, as if mule deer don't have enough problems going against them already. I do see whitetail as a good tool for getting the next generation of needed hunters involved (youth) and disabled/elderly hunters an opportunity to fill a tag after putting so much money in to conservation over the many years of hunting/fishing licenses and donations.
