No experience hunting mule deer, hoping for some very basic intel to assist in e-scouting.
I’m looking at a couple regions, all of which have elevations ranging from 4000’ish up to 9000’ish and higher, that transition between sage and canyony ridgy type terrain, up into timber with openings, etc, and then up into alpine. Looks to me like starting around 5500’ you get sage with brushy draws, 6500’ you start getting sparse trees on slopes, 7500 is where the lower tree-line sort of starts on shaded slopes, and real timber around 8000’, with the upper treeline a bit over 10000’—that all seems fairly universal. Season dates are mostly around 3rd week of october. I probably wont have any opportunity to scout on foot before showing up to hunt.
Question is if there is a “typical” elevation zone you make a beeline for at this time of year, and then go higher or lower based on conditions and on the ground sign, or if you just assume they could be anywhere and start with a very wide net and only focus on an elevation zone after getting boots on the ground? If you start at an elevation zone, approx where do you start? Ive heard people say a bit over 8,000’. Agree? Disagree? Are there elevation zones you just completely write off (ie “below 7000’ dont even bother” just as a hypothetical example). Wrong way to think about it?
Id love to hear how you have had success approaching this sort of thing when you dont know an area.
I’m looking at a couple regions, all of which have elevations ranging from 4000’ish up to 9000’ish and higher, that transition between sage and canyony ridgy type terrain, up into timber with openings, etc, and then up into alpine. Looks to me like starting around 5500’ you get sage with brushy draws, 6500’ you start getting sparse trees on slopes, 7500 is where the lower tree-line sort of starts on shaded slopes, and real timber around 8000’, with the upper treeline a bit over 10000’—that all seems fairly universal. Season dates are mostly around 3rd week of october. I probably wont have any opportunity to scout on foot before showing up to hunt.
Question is if there is a “typical” elevation zone you make a beeline for at this time of year, and then go higher or lower based on conditions and on the ground sign, or if you just assume they could be anywhere and start with a very wide net and only focus on an elevation zone after getting boots on the ground? If you start at an elevation zone, approx where do you start? Ive heard people say a bit over 8,000’. Agree? Disagree? Are there elevation zones you just completely write off (ie “below 7000’ dont even bother” just as a hypothetical example). Wrong way to think about it?
Id love to hear how you have had success approaching this sort of thing when you dont know an area.
