There is $hit loads of national forest and blm with little to no deer population. Your right alot of the mule deer left tend to live there lives private and public. Good thing for private land. Thats fwps best management tool
Yes i agree some around the checker board private slash public. I dont think they should count. Atleast i dont count them. They survived because of the private land not fwp management. Look at the huge public sections of forest service land around dillon mt. Better chance to kill a 350 bull elk...