Post by: drbones on September 28, 2009, 01:08:14 PM
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?
Post by: drbones on September 29, 2009, 12:22:53 PM
Post by: croix on September 29, 2009, 12:51:15 PM
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.
Post by: ICEMAN on September 29, 2009, 04:01:26 PM
Post by: drbones on September 29, 2009, 04:11:09 PM
Post by: 270Shooter on September 29, 2009, 04:12:38 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on September 29, 2009, 04:45:15 PM
Try to get to a vantage point early (before light) and glass everything. Same with the evenings. :twocents:
:yeah:
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.