Wyoming Mule Deer Whitetail Deer

Unit D165 (YU Bench)

Wyoming Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer

Deer Hunt Area 165, which Wyoming Game and Fish names YU Bench, covers about 333 square miles in Park County. It belongs to WGFD's Greybull River mule deer herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put mule deer success here at 57.4%, with 47 hunters taking 27 mule deer at about 10.9 days of hunting per animal. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Wyoming Hunting Guide

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit D165

Where to Find Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 165

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names deer hunt area 165 "YU Bench". It runs to about 333 square miles, entirely in Park County. WGFD reports these mule deer as the Greybull River herd unit, which also takes in deer hunt area 124. 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: Fenton Pass, Greybull River and Fifteen Mile Creek

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 6 walks the line around deer hunt area 165 corner by corner. It starts at the junction of Wyoming Highway 120 and U.S. Highway 14-16-20. On the way round it follows Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14-16-20, Park County Road 3L and Park County Road 3X, and Fenton Pass, Greybull River and Fifteen Mile Creek. That is a legal description, not a habitat map, and it is the text a warden reads you against. The full text is in Section 7 of that chapter, with this year's season dates and license limitations in Section 2.

Ground WGFD opens: Greybull River and Park 6

Its Access Yes program enrolls a Hunter Management Area here that list deer among their species — Greybull River (18,851 acres). WGFD also lists one Walk-In Area covering about 2,069 acres open for deer: Park 6. 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: Elk Butte, Y U Bench and Beaver Slide

Named high points inside deer hunt area 165 include Elk Butte at 6,197 feet, Y U Bench at 5,370 feet and Beaver Slide at 5,298 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Blackstone Gulch, McGee Gulch and Mackey Gulch

Below them sit Blackstone Gulch at 5,063 feet, McGee Gulch at 5,033 feet, Mackey Gulch at 5,020 feet, Coyote Canyon at 5,006 feet and Oregon Coulee at 4,985 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past.

Reading the land status

Named ground inside deer hunt area 165 runs from 4,782 feet to 6,197 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit D165 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Elk Butte (6,197 ft), Y U Bench (5,370 ft), Beaver Slide (5,298 ft)

Holding ground: Eagle Pass (5,288 ft), Coal Mine Gulch (5,167 ft), Oregon Basin (5,126 ft), Greybull River Hunter Management Area, Walk-In Area Park 6

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 165

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 47 hunters took 27 mule deer in deer hunt area 165 — 57.4% success, at about 10.9 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 56.8% and nonresidents 60% 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. 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 165 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the mule deer harvest in deer hunt area 165 down by license type.

Type 1 — 47 licenses in use, 57.4% success, 10.9 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 Elk Butte, Y U Bench and Beaver Slide

Take a position on one of Elk Butte (6,197 ft), Y U Bench (5,370 ft) and Beaver Slide (5,298 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch, and expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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 Greybull River herd, not just the area

WGFD's harvest report also tabulates mule deer by herd unit, and deer hunt area 165 shares the Greybull River herd unit with deer hunt area 124. The animals cross those lines without noticing them, so a neighbouring area in the same herd is the fairest comparison for a season here.

The way in: Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14-16-20 and Park County Road 3L

We hold no road inventory for deer hunt area 165, so the only routes we can name are the ones WGFD draws its boundary with: Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14-16-20, Park County Road 3L, Park County Road 3X and B.L.M. Road 1222. Those are its edges, not its interior — where you leave the pavement, not what the inside is like. Park on the boundary and walk; country you can only reach from its rim rewards whoever leaves the truck there.

What a day here costs you

333 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 10.9 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.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 57.4% mule deer success in deer hunt area 165: 27 animals taken by 47 active hunters over 294 days of hunting, or 10.9 days per animal. By residency, residents 56.8% (21 taken by 37) and nonresidents 60% (6 taken by 10).

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)	36	98	36.7%	—
Rifle — General Type 1 antlered (nonresident)	1	24	4.2%	—
Rifle — General Type 3 either sex (resident)	77	149	51.7%	—
Rifle — General Type 3 either sex (nonresident)	4	11	36.4%	—

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 165, residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different license pools:

Type 3, residents: 149 first-choice applicants for 77 licenses, 51.7% drawn
Type 1, residents: 98 first-choice applicants for 36 licenses, 36.7% drawn
Type 1, nonresidents: 24 first-choice applicants for 1 license, 4.2% drawn
Type 3, nonresidents: 11 first-choice applicants for 4 licenses, 36.4% 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 D165

Deer Hunt Area 165, which Wyoming Game and Fish names YU Bench, covers about 333 square miles in Park County. It belongs to WGFD's Bighorn Basin white-tailed deer herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put white-tailed deer success here at 70.6%, with 269 hunters taking 190 white-tailed deer at about 8.6 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 165

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names deer hunt area 165 "YU Bench". It runs to about 333 square miles, entirely in Park County. 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. WGFD prints the line and counts the harvest. It doesn't say where inside the line the white-tailed deer live, so that part is our read of the ground, labelled as such.

The line: Fenton Pass, Greybull River and Fifteen Mile Creek

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 6 walks the line around deer hunt area 165 corner by corner. It starts at the junction of Wyoming Highway 120 and U.S. Highway 14-16-20. On the way round it follows Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14-16-20, Park County Road 3L and Park County Road 3X, and Fenton Pass, Greybull River and Fifteen Mile Creek. 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.

Ground WGFD opens: Greybull River and Park 6

High ground inside the line: Elk Butte, Y U Bench and Beaver Slide

Named high points inside deer hunt area 165 include Elk Butte at 6,197 feet, Y U Bench at 5,370 feet and Beaver Slide at 5,298 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. White-tailed deer on farm country live in the cover strips between fields and feed out at the edges of the day.

Holding ground: Sheets Flat, Oregon Coulee and Roach Gulch

Below them sit Sheets Flat at 4,982 feet, Oregon Coulee at 4,979 feet, Roach Gulch at 4,782 feet, Fenton Pass at 5,998 feet and Long Hollow at 5,499 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past.

Reading the land status

Named ground inside deer hunt area 165 runs from 4,782 feet to 6,197 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit D165 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Elk Butte (6,197 ft), Y U Bench (5,370 ft), Beaver Slide (5,298 ft)

Holding ground: Eagle Pass (5,288 ft), Coal Mine Gulch (5,167 ft), Oregon Basin (5,126 ft), Greybull River Hunter Management Area, Walk-In Area Park 6

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 165

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 269 hunters took 190 white-tailed deer in deer hunt area 165 — 70.6% success, at about 8.6 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 60.6% and nonresidents 93.8% 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. 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 165 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the white-tailed deer harvest in deer hunt area 165 down by license type.

Type 1 — 19 licenses in use, 5.3% success, 53 days per animal
Type 3 — 84 licenses in use, 72.6% success, 6.7 days per animal
Type 8 — 255 licenses in use, 50.2% success, 9.2 days per animal

Glassing from Elk Butte, Y U Bench and Beaver Slide

Take a position on one of Elk Butte (6,197 ft), Y U Bench (5,370 ft) and Beaver Slide (5,298 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch, and expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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 165 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.

The way in: Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14-16-20 and Park County Road 3L

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.

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Whitetail Deer Success Rates

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 70.6% white-tailed deer success in deer hunt area 165: 190 animals taken by 269 active hunters over 1,640 days of hunting, or 8.6 days per animal. By residency, residents 60.6% (114 taken by 188) and nonresidents 93.8% (76 taken by 81).

Whitetail Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General either sex (resident)	75	150	50.0%	—
Rifle — General either sex (nonresident)	13	1	100.0%	—

Data from 2025 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

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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.

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Road Conditions

WGFD's boundary for the hunt area follows Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14-16-20, Park County Road 3L and Park County Road 3X. That is the edge, not a promise of access inside — check a current motor-vehicle-use map before you drive in.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features inside the hunt area run from 4,782 to 6,197 ft. Named heights only — the ground between and below them can run lower.

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Hunting Pressure

WGFD's 2025 survey counted about 47 mule deer hunters spending 294 days here.

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Permit Notes

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

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Wyoming deer hunt area 165?

Deer Hunt Area 165 (YU Bench) covers about 333 square miles in Park County. WGFD's 2026 Chapter 6 walks the line around deer hunt area 165 corner by corner. It starts at the junction of Wyoming Highway 120 and U.S. Highway 14-16-20. On the way round it follows Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14-16-20, Park County Road 3L and Park County Road 3X, and Fenton Pass, Greybull River and Fifteen Mile Creek.

What is the mule deer success rate in deer hunt area 165?

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 57.4% mule deer success in deer hunt area 165, with 47 hunters taking 27 mule deer at about 10.9 days of hunting per animal. That is WGFD's figure for this hunt area, not a statewide average.

What is the white-tailed deer success rate in deer hunt area 165?

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 70.6% white-tailed deer success in deer hunt area 165, with 269 hunters taking 190 white-tailed deer at about 8.6 days of hunting per animal. That is WGFD's figure for this hunt area, not a statewide average.

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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 165, 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 165, 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 D165 (YU Bench)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit D165

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit D165

Where to Find Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 165

The line: Fenton Pass, Greybull River and Fifteen Mile Creek

Ground WGFD opens: Greybull River and Park 6

High ground inside the line: Elk Butte, Y U Bench and Beaver Slide

Holding ground: Blackstone Gulch, McGee Gulch and Mackey Gulch

Reading the land status

Unit D165 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Deer Hunt Area 165

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Whitetail Deer Hunting in Unit D165

Where to Find White-Tailed Deer in Deer Hunt Area 165

The line: Fenton Pass, Greybull River and Fifteen Mile Creek

Ground WGFD opens: Greybull River and Park 6

High ground inside the line: Elk Butte, Y U Bench and Beaver Slide

Holding ground: Sheets Flat, Oregon Coulee and Roach Gulch

Reading the land status

Unit D165 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt White-Tailed Deer in Deer Hunt Area 165

Whitetail Deer Success Rates

Whitetail Deer Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

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Sources & Verification