Colorado
Another stellar year expected.
Other than in a few southeast and southwest units, herds appear to be in excellent condition, according to the state's Tyler Baskfield. "If you don't believe how good the hunting is," he suggests, "ask someone who had a tag last year." The overall success rate of 46 percent was the highest in 26 years.

"Even tags that do not require a lot of points to draw offer some great hunting right now," says Baskfield.

The Eastern Plains, which holds both whitetails and mulies, should produce both species equally well for hunters lucky enough to possess a tag. Hunters on the Front Range and in western regions will find well-populated mule deer herds and should score well.

"There's the misconception that you need to have beaucoup points and need to hunt a couple trophy units," says Baskfield. "The philosophy now should change to hunting units that don't require many points--if any--and hunt them consecutive years in a row because they all contain nice bucks."

Montana
Mild winter, summer rain mean good deer numbers.
After coming off a relatively mild winter, then being treated to very good late spring/early summer precipitation, Montana's deer are doing about as well as could be expected. "Right now, we've had pretty good recruitment, and deer numbers are strong throughout the state," says the state's Jeff Herbert.

But changes are afoot. Region 2 has increased tag allotments for antlerless whitetail deer B licenses and mule deer bucks; Regions 4 and 6 have liberalized antlerless mule deer B licenses in specific units, decreased them in others; and in Region 7 there have been decreases in resident and nonresident mule deer B licenses.

California
Deer numbers exceed expectations.
Though they're on a decades-long downward population slide that probably won't let up soon, California's deer appear to be doing better in a more localized sense. Hunters last year posted about a 3,500-deer increase in the overall harvest. Much of that credit goes to the weather, which got deer up and moving early and late in the X- and D-zones.

But there were also quite a few more deer than biologists estimated, says the state's Craig Stowers. He says fawn ratios were in good shape coming out of last winter, so recruitment has been strong. Much of California's massive, coast-lining A-zone received a lot of rain this spring, which will bring better habitat and healthier game.

Washington
Blacktail deer populations are stronger than ever.
Coming off three consecutive mild winters and a fairly wet spring, Washington's mule deer, blacktails and whitetails should be in fine shape this season. The state's Jerry Nelson says survival seems to have been "very good," and all but the mule deer and whitetail herds in southeast units impacted by drought and some disease issues should be available in impressive numbers.

Mulies are expanding nicely throughout the northcentral counties of Okanagan, Chelan and Douglas, and a few hundred more antlerless permits will be issued in response.

Whitetail numbers are particularly strong in the northeast. Along the coastal region of Washington, blacktails are holding "stable and consistent," says Nelson, "and doing as well as they've been doing since the last bad winter in the late '90s."

Idaho
Late-season whitetail-only tags now available.
As bright as Idaho's deer hunting prospects appear this season, they might only get brighter in the next year or two, according to the state's Brad Compton. "We had an extremely mild winter and very high survival--the highest fawn survival documented in eight years," he says.