Unit D120 (Hamilton Dome)
Wyoming Hunting Guide — Mule Deer
Deer Hunt Area 120, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Hamilton Dome, covers about 583 square miles in Hot Springs County. It belongs to WGFD's Owl Creek/Meeteetse mule deer herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put mule deer success here at 73.6%, with 72 hunters taking 53 mule deer at about 7.3 days of hunting per animal. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit D120
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Wyoming Unit D120 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.
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 D120
Deer Hunt Area 120, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Hamilton Dome, covers about 583 square miles in Hot Springs County. It belongs to WGFD's Owl Creek/Meeteetse mule deer herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put mule deer success here at 73.6%, with 72 hunters taking 53 mule deer at about 7.3 days of hunting per animal. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 120
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names deer hunt area 120 "Hamilton Dome". It runs to about 583 square miles, entirely in Hot Springs County. WGFD reports these mule deer as the Owl Creek/Meeteetse herd unit, which also takes in deer hunt areas 116, 117, 118 and 119. WGFD prints the line and counts the harvest. It doesn't say where inside the line the mule deer live, so that part is our read of the ground, labelled as such.
The line: Upper Cottonwood Creek, Hot Springs and Bighorn River
WGFD's 2026 Chapter 6 walks the line around deer hunt area 120 corner by corner. It starts at the junction of the Upper Cottonwood Creek Road (Hot Springs County Road 10) and Wyoming Highway 120. On the way round it follows Hot Springs County Road 10, Wyoming Highway 120 and Hot Springs County Road 1, and Upper Cottonwood Creek, Hot Springs, Bighorn River and Wind River. It is the description your license is good inside, so it is worth reading once in full before you go. 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 120s
WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 120 also belongs to its elk hunt area 120. 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: Hot Springs 11 and Hot Springs 10
WGFD also lists 2 Walk-In Areas covering about 1,172 acres open for deer, among them Hot Springs 11 and Hot Springs 10. 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. Public Access Areas such as Bighorn River-WYDOT (1 acres) are public ways onto water and land; check what each allows before you count on it for hunting.
High ground inside the line: Bald Mountain, Spring Mountain and Sheep Ridge
Named high points inside deer hunt area 120 include Bald Mountain at 10,032 feet, Spring Mountain at 9,701 feet, Sheep Ridge at 8,756 feet, Boysen Ridge at 7,285 feet and Antelope Butte at 6,905 feet. None of them carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle ownership before you plan to stand on one. Mule deer bed on broken ground with a view and feed on the brush below it.
Holding ground: Miners Gulch, Black Rock Draw and Jergens Draw
Below them sit Miners Gulch at 5,751 feet, Black Rock Draw at 5,745 feet, Jergens Draw at 5,529 feet, Duncan Draw at 5,433 feet and North Fork Pumpkin Draw at 5,374 feet. Those are the basins and bottoms of the area, and they are what you glass into from above.
Water: Boghole Spring, Love Spring and Chokecherry Spring
Named water inside the line includes Boghole Spring, Love Spring, Chokecherry Spring, Red Springs, Little Eagle Springs and Whitney Spring. Nothing in the data says which of it runs in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
Unit D120 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Gumbo Hills (5,644 ft), Padlock Rim (5,278 ft), Bald Mountain (10,032 ft), Spring Mountain (9,701 ft)
Holding ground: Blondy Pass (8,094 ft), Mud Flat (7,864 ft), Walk-In Area Hot Springs 11, Walk-In Area Hot Springs 10
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 120
Mule Deer Success Rates
Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 73.6% mule deer success in deer hunt area 120: 53 animals taken by 72 active hunters over 386 days of hunting, or 7.3 days per animal. By residency, residents 65.4% (34 taken by 52) and nonresidents 95% (19 taken by 20).
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) | 45 | 105 | 42.9% | — |
| Rifle — General Type 1 antlered (nonresident) | 2 | 46 | 4.3% | — |
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 EngineWyoming Game and Fish's 2026 demand report for mule deer in deer hunt area 120, residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different license pools:
- Type 1, residents: 105 first-choice applicants for 45 licenses, 42.9% drawn
- Type 1, nonresidents: 46 first-choice applicants for 2 licenses, 4.3% 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.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Wyoming deer hunt area 120?
What is the mule deer success rate in deer hunt area 120?
Is deer hunt area 120 the same ground as elk hunt area 120?
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/yrSources & 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 120, 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 120, 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