When the pressure is on in mule deer country, especially high country, a hunter has to force himself to look at the heavier cover in the area, like that country I hunted the evening of day two. Even though I didn’t see any bucks that night, I know they are there. The tracks don’t lie. While immature bucks will continue to frequent the open hillsides, the big bucks will shy away and look for more timbered country nearby.
With any hunting pressure, big bucks transition from the open high-country into more cover like the broken timber shown in this picture. To kill one, you have to go where they go.If there is hunting pressure, you might start the first 30 minutes of light glassing the open country, but don’t get discouraged if you only see small bucks. Just know that the big deer have transitioned into the cover and you must hunt there to kill one. It only takes a few sloppy hunters not watching their wind, walking noisily, and talking to alert big deer.
(Sorry if the videos are loading slow sometimes- we seem to be getting tons of traffic on this! Ryan and I are working on it.)
Day 3: Changing areas