Newbie muley hunter - need advice

[drbones]

This is my first year hunting mule deer, or hunting in the Northwest at all for that matter.  I'm used to stand hunting whitetails and hogs in TX.  My brother and I are looking to hunt a patch of federal land in Grant County and we just got back from the one serious scouting trip we'll be able to make this year.  We saw lots of sign, mostly older pellets and smaller tracks, and one large buck track, plus a couple of bedded areas, but no deer whatsoever.

It's very possible the deer were there and A) we failed to spot them, or B) our clumsy blundering around pushed them ahead of us and we never saw them.  But we're wondering...how bad a sign is it that we're 3 weeks to opening day and saw no actual deer in our chosen area?  Should we try to make a new plan?  That'll be very hard this late in the game as we have no more weekends to scout.  Any advice?

[drbones]

Bumping once, and only once.  Would really like to hear anyone's opinion on this who cares to chime in.

[croix]

I am by no means a mule deer expert but wanted to share my experience for what it is worth.

I've hunted mule deer once in this state, for 4 days about a month ago. After the second full day I was convinced that there were no deer left on that mountain and they had left a week ago. All sign seemed old and we found nothing moving.

By the third day we headed (out of desperation) into some of the steepest, thickest country I've ever been in. Holy crap - they were in the bottom of that nasty mess. We managed to find a couple of other spots with deer later in the day.

By the fourth day, we were starting to get them figured out and it was time to pack up and head home. Not a bad thing considering that steep country had me completely worn out.

So what is this little story worth in the way of advice? Very little except to say that hope is not lost entirely just because you haven't seen deer yet. We put in 3 FULL days and another half day and only saw 3 deer, but it was getting better. I think that if we had 2 more days we would have had meat in the freezer. I will also add that although we didn't take a deer, we learned a ton and had a great time.

Good luck.

[ICEMAN]

drbones, really hard to give you a bunch of advise on your scenario....but... The area I hunt is a winter migration path, deer mostly travel thru the area when nature causes it..... on the other hand, there are a few (plus some shooter bucks) in this area all year. These "resident" mulies are a bit elusive in my opinion. Your deer may have been around, just laying down a bit due to no need to feed in the daylight. Things may change as the weather cools causing the game to need to eat a bit more, you may see more. Plus, you may be in an area that has just fewer deer. Some consider this a good thing, as less deer now, usually means lees hunters, and possibly game moving into your area later to escape the hunter pressure in adjacent areas.  Good luck.

[drbones]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement, gents.  I think when I get home tonight I'm going to get into the maps and see if there's any nastier/thicker/steeper terrain up on that plateau that we should check out.  Sounds like that might be the first place to look when we're back to hunt it.

[270Shooter]

Try to get to a vantage point early (before light) and glass everything. Same with the evenings.

[Pathfinder101]

Try to get to a vantage point early (before light) and glass everything. Same with the evenings.

 

Optics, optics, optics...
Find where they feed, find where they bed, find a high point in between and glass, especially first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  Then watch where they head to hide when something spooks them.  When the shooting starts opening day they will change their routes and patterns, but not their hiding spots. (this advice won't do you much good if you won't get another chance to scout, but take a look at the maps and see where the nearest agricultural fields are, chances are that's where they'll be eating.)  If it's hot/sunny they will be bedding in the shade.
 Get a good bipod system.  If you jump a buck, don't start shooting.  Sit down, flip out the bipod legs, find him in the scope and give him a chance to stop.  Sometimes an elk cow call will stop them if they aren't spooked and running flat-out.  If you don't get a clear shot, better to let him go and try to find him later than to blast away and scare him out of the county.

 It took me 5 years of hunting open country mulies before I felt like I even had an inkling of what I was doing.  I still learn stuff every year, and have yet to kill a "big" buck.