Around here, our hunting months are often before that nice, light gray/white markings winter coat sets in (depending on where you hunt). Locally, our mulies are down in the foothills during the late fall-spring and I love seeing those thick gray/white colors on their fattened bodies while hiking around in the lower elevations. It's a chestnut brown in the summer and a dull, dark gray in the late summer/early fall. In the higher elevations, I've seen that winter coloring as early as late September (start of rifle season) but that's only up in the high country and remote places. Seeing those coat changes is like watching the leaves turn -- a fun marker of the changing seasons.