Wyoming Mule Deer Whitetail Deer

Unit D118 (Upper Gooseberry Creek)

Wyoming Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer

Deer Hunt Area 118, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Upper Gooseberry Creek, covers about 205 square miles in Hot Springs and Park counties. It belongs to WGFD's Owl Creek/Meeteetse mule deer herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put mule deer success here at 52.4%, with 21 hunters taking 11 mule deer at about 9.7 days of hunting per animal. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Wyoming Hunting Guide

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit D118

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Wyoming Unit D118 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

Mule Deer guide Whitetail Deer guide

Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit D118

Where to Find Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names deer hunt area 118 "Upper Gooseberry Creek". It runs to about 205 square miles, in Hot Springs (55%) and Park (45%) counties. WGFD reports these mule deer as the Owl Creek/Meeteetse herd unit, which also takes in deer hunt areas 116, 117, 119 and 120. The boundary and the harvest figures are WGFD's. The read of the country inside them is ours, and it says so where it starts.

The line: Gooseberry Creek and Little Buffalo Creek

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 6 defines deer hunt area 118 as all of the drainages of Gooseberry Creek and Little Buffalo Creek located west of Wyoming Highway 120. Read it as the legal edge of your license rather than as a hint about animals. The full text is in Section 7 of that chapter, with this year's season dates and license limitations in Section 2.

Not the same ground as the other hunt area 118s

WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 118 also belongs to its elk hunt area 118. None of it shares a county with this one. A license is good only in the hunt area of its own species, so this page is about the deer area, and the cards at the foot of the page link the others.

Ground WGFD opens: Absaroka Front

Its Access Yes program enrolls a Hunter Management Area here that list deer among their species — Absaroka Front (112,869 acres). WGFD's 2026 regulations open Access Yes land only for the species and dates listed for each area, with each area's own rules on WGFD's site and no motorized travel unless WGFD says otherwise.

High ground inside the line: Soapy Dale Peak, Leon Baird Peak and Red Cliff

Named high points inside deer hunt area 118 include Soapy Dale Peak at 7,865 feet, Leon Baird Peak at 7,703 feet, Red Cliff at 7,228 feet and Wall Rock at 6,726 feet. None of them carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle ownership before you plan to stand on one. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Bill Dickie Draw, Red Canyon and Little Buffalo Basin

Below them sit Bill Dickie Draw at 6,700 feet, Red Canyon at 6,335 feet, Little Buffalo Basin at 5,873 feet and Renner Draw at 5,824 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past.

Reading the land status

Named ground inside deer hunt area 118 runs from 5,824 feet to 7,865 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit D118 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Holding ground: Red Canyon (6,335 ft), Little Buffalo Basin (5,873 ft), Renner Draw (5,824 ft), Absaroka Front Hunter Management Area, Absorka Front Hunter Management Area

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 21 hunters took 11 mule deer in deer hunt area 118 — 52.4% success, at about 9.7 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 56.2% and nonresidents 40% that year. More hunters filled a license here than went home without one, and the days-per-animal figure is the honest measure of what it took. On a sample that small, one animal moves the percentage several points. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

License types WGFD reported in deer hunt area 118 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the mule deer harvest in deer hunt area 118 down by license type.

Type 1 — 21 licenses in use, 52.4% success, 9.7 days per animal

What each type allows — antlered, antlerless, archery-only, where it is valid — and this year's dates are set area by area in Section 2 of WGFD's 2026 Chapter 6, so read the line for the license you hold rather than assume it matches another area's.

Glassing from Soapy Dale Peak, Leon Baird Peak and Red Cliff

Take a position on one of Soapy Dale Peak (7,865 ft), Leon Baird Peak (7,703 ft), Red Cliff (7,228 ft) and Wall Rock (6,726 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. Late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Hunting the Access Yes ground

Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In Areas are private land opened through WGFD's Access Yes program, and the 2026 regulations open each one only for the species and dates listed for it. Read the area's page on WGFD's site before you go — its rules, its dates and whether it needs anything more than your license. Anything else on that land, or any species not listed, needs the landowner's permission, so treat the Access Yes line as the edge of what you were given.

Reading the Owl Creek/Meeteetse herd, not just the area

WGFD's harvest report also tabulates mule deer by herd unit, and deer hunt area 118 shares the Owl Creek/Meeteetse herd unit with deer hunt areas 116, 117, 119 and 120. The animals cross those lines without noticing them, so a neighbouring area in the same herd is the fairest comparison for a season here.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Red Canyon, Little Buffalo Basin and Renner Draw as ground to work. Each pin is a named feature or a WGFD access property placed inside the area line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.

What a day here costs you

205 square miles is more country than a season will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the area. WGFD's figure of 9.7 days of hunting per animal is the one to budget against. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

Wyoming rules that decide your day

Summarised from WGFD regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Wyoming has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground. Travel stays on designated routes.

Tagging

Attach the carcass coupon to the animal before it is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached.

Leaving meat

Wanton waste of edible meat is a serious offence in Wyoming.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Mule Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock detailed hunting tactics for Area 118 mule deer

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Mule Deer Success Rates

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 52.4% mule deer success in deer hunt area 118: 11 animals taken by 21 active hunters over 107 days of hunting, or 9.7 days per animal. By residency, residents 56.2% (9 taken by 16) and nonresidents 40% (2 taken by 5).

These are WGFD's own estimates from its hunter survey, for this hunt area and season only — not a statewide average. One season isn't a trend, so check the current report before you read one into it.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General Type 1 antlered (resident)	11	65	16.9%	—
Rifle — General Type 1 antlered (nonresident)	0	8	0.0%	—

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2026 demand report for mule deer in deer hunt area 118, residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different license pools:

Type 1, residents: 65 first-choice applicants for 11 licenses, 16.9% drawn
Type 1, nonresidents: 8 first-choice applicants for 0 licenses, 0% drawn

Wyoming residents draw mule deer licenses without preference points; nonresidents draw part of their quota on points, highest balance first (Chapter 44, Section 19), and the nonresident figures above are from WGFD's random draw. WGFD publishes no preference-point level at which a hunt draws, so none is given here. Every figure was checked against WGFD's demand-report PDFs on 2026-08-10.

Whitetail Deer Hunting in Unit D118

Deer Hunt Area 118, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Upper Gooseberry Creek, covers about 205 square miles in Hot Springs and Park counties. It belongs to WGFD's Bighorn Basin white-tailed deer herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put white-tailed deer success here at 87.5%, with 24 hunters taking 21 white-tailed deer at about 2.1 days of hunting per animal. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find White-Tailed Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names deer hunt area 118 "Upper Gooseberry Creek". It runs to about 205 square miles, in Hot Springs (55%) and Park (45%) counties. WGFD reports these white-tailed deer as the Bighorn Basin herd unit, which also takes in deer hunt areas 35, 37, 39, 40, 41, 46, 47 and 50 and 24 more. The boundary and the harvest figures are WGFD's. The read of the country inside them is ours, and it says so where it starts.

The line: Gooseberry Creek and Little Buffalo Creek

Not the same ground as the other hunt area 118s

Ground WGFD opens: Absaroka Front

High ground inside the line: Soapy Dale Peak, Leon Baird Peak and Red Cliff

Named high points inside deer hunt area 118 include Soapy Dale Peak at 7,865 feet, Leon Baird Peak at 7,703 feet, Red Cliff at 7,228 feet and Wall Rock at 6,726 feet. None of them carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle ownership before you plan to stand on one. White-tailed deer on farm country live in the cover strips between fields and feed out at the edges of the day.

Holding ground: Bill Dickie Draw, Red Canyon and Little Buffalo Basin

Reading the land status

Named ground inside deer hunt area 118 runs from 5,824 feet to 7,865 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit D118 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Holding ground: Red Canyon (6,335 ft), Little Buffalo Basin (5,873 ft), Renner Draw (5,824 ft), Absaroka Front Hunter Management Area, Absorka Front Hunter Management Area

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

How to Hunt White-Tailed Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 24 hunters took 21 white-tailed deer in deer hunt area 118 — 87.5% success, at about 2.1 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 100% and nonresidents 57.1% that year. Most hunters who held a license here filled it, so the real question is the draw, not the hunting. On a sample that small, one animal moves the percentage several points. The plan: find the trails between bedding cover and feed, then sit downwind of them at first and last light.

License types WGFD reported in deer hunt area 118 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the white-tailed deer harvest in deer hunt area 118 down by license type.

Type 1 — 12 licenses in use, 33.3% success, 4.8 days per animal
Type 8 — 17 licenses in use, 100% success, 1.5 days per animal (a cross-area license with area 119)

Glassing from Soapy Dale Peak, Leon Baird Peak and Red Cliff

Take a position on one of Soapy Dale Peak (7,865 ft), Leon Baird Peak (7,703 ft), Red Cliff (7,228 ft) and Wall Rock (6,726 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. November bucks travel and check doe groups in daylight, which is when a stand on a travel route pays.

Hunting the Access Yes ground

Reading the Bighorn Basin herd, not just the area

WGFD's harvest report also tabulates white-tailed deer by herd unit, and deer hunt area 118 shares the Bighorn Basin herd unit with deer hunt areas 35, 37, 39, 40, 41 and 46 and 26 more. The animals cross those lines without noticing them, so a neighbouring area in the same herd is the fairest comparison for a season here.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Red Canyon, Little Buffalo Basin and Renner Draw as ground to work. Each pin is a named feature or a WGFD access property placed inside the area line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

Wyoming rules that decide your day

Summarised from WGFD regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Wyoming has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground. Travel stays on designated routes.

Tagging

Attach the carcass coupon to the animal before it is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached.

Leaving meat

Wanton waste of edible meat is a serious offence in Wyoming.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Whitetail Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock tactics for Area 118

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Whitetail Deer Success Rates

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 87.5% white-tailed deer success in deer hunt area 118: 21 animals taken by 24 active hunters over 45 days of hunting, or 2.1 days per animal. By residency, residents 100% (17 taken by 17) and nonresidents 57.1% (4 taken by 7).

Whitetail Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General either sex (resident)	9	65	13.8%	—
Rifle — General either sex (nonresident)	0	17	0.0%	—

Data from 2023 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

The white-tailed deer draw figures we hold for Wyoming have not been checked against WGFD's demand reports, so none are printed here. WGFD's draw results and odds page has the demand report for every hunt area and license type.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

💧

Water

No named water source falls inside the hunt area in our water layer, so plan on carrying water or finding it on a scouting trip.

🛣️

Road Conditions

WGFD's boundary for the hunt area follows Wyoming Highway 120. That is the edge, not a promise of access inside — check a current motor-vehicle-use map before you drive in.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Named features inside the hunt area run from 5,824 to 7,865 ft. Named heights only — the ground between and below them can run lower.

👥

Hunting Pressure

WGFD's 2025 survey counted about 21 mule deer hunters spending 107 days here.

📋

Permit Notes

Season dates and license limitations: WGFD 2026 Chapter 6, Section 2.

Pro Members Only

Unlock full logistics details for Area 118 mule deer

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Wyoming deer hunt area 118?

Deer Hunt Area 118 (Upper Gooseberry Creek) covers about 205 square miles in Hot Springs and Park counties. WGFD's 2026 Chapter 6 defines deer hunt area 118 as all of the drainages of Gooseberry Creek and Little Buffalo Creek located west of Wyoming Highway 120.

What is the mule deer success rate in deer hunt area 118?

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 52.4% mule deer success in deer hunt area 118, with 21 hunters taking 11 mule deer at about 9.7 days of hunting per animal. That is WGFD's figure for this hunt area, not a statewide average.

Is deer hunt area 118 the same ground as elk hunt area 118?

No. WGFD numbers hunt areas separately for each species, so elk hunt area 118 is a different piece of ground with its own boundary and its own page. A license is valid only in the hunt area of its own species.

What is the white-tailed deer success rate in deer hunt area 118?

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 87.5% white-tailed deer success in deer hunt area 118, with 24 hunters taking 21 white-tailed deer at about 2.1 days of hunting per animal. That is WGFD's figure for this hunt area, not a statewide average.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Wyoming Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-25.

Chapter 6 — Deer Hunting Seasons (2026) — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Name and legal boundary of deer hunt area 118, Season dates, license types and limitations by hunt area · accessed 2026-10-25
Deer 2025 Harvest Report — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Hunters, harvest, percent success and days per animal for mule deer in deer hunt area 118, The same by license type and residency · accessed 2026-10-25
WGFD draw results and odds — demand reports 2021-2026 — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: First-choice applicants, licenses and percent drawn, by license type, residency and year · accessed 2026-08-10
Chapter 44 — Regulation for Issuance of Licenses, Permits, Stamps, Tags, Preference Points and Competitive Raffle Chances — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Which licenses are drawn on preference points (Section 19), When preference points are deleted · accessed 2026-10-25
2026 Antelope, Deer and Elk Hunting Regulations — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Access Yes Walk-In and Hunter Management Area rules · accessed 2026-10-25
WGFD ArcGIS feature services — hunt areas by species, CWD sampling areas, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas, Walk-In Hunting Areas — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Mapped outline of the hunt area, Herd unit and square miles, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In Areas inside the area · accessed 2026-10-25
TIGERweb State_County — Wyoming county boundaries (used only to measure which counties a hunt area lies in) — U.S. Census Bureau · supports: Which counties the hunt area lies in, and in what share · accessed 2026-10-25

Unit D118 (Upper Gooseberry Creek)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit D118

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit D118

Where to Find Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

The line: Gooseberry Creek and Little Buffalo Creek

Not the same ground as the other hunt area 118s

Ground WGFD opens: Absaroka Front

High ground inside the line: Soapy Dale Peak, Leon Baird Peak and Red Cliff

Holding ground: Bill Dickie Draw, Red Canyon and Little Buffalo Basin

Reading the land status

Unit D118 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Whitetail Deer Hunting in Unit D118

Where to Find White-Tailed Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

The line: Gooseberry Creek and Little Buffalo Creek

Not the same ground as the other hunt area 118s

Ground WGFD opens: Absaroka Front

High ground inside the line: Soapy Dale Peak, Leon Baird Peak and Red Cliff

Holding ground: Bill Dickie Draw, Red Canyon and Little Buffalo Basin

Reading the land status

Unit D118 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt White-Tailed Deer in Deer Hunt Area 118

Whitetail Deer Success Rates

Whitetail Deer Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Deer Hunt Area 119 — Anchor

Deer Hunt Area 116 — Meeteetse

Deer Hunt Area 117 — Franc's Peak

Deer Hunt Area 125 — Fifteen Mile

Elk Hunt Area 118 — Shamrock Hills

Frequently Asked Questions

Free Hunt Planning Tools

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Sources & Verification