Archery Spot and Stalk Tactics

[asbates318]

I am looking for some mule deer success stories on a spot and stalk with a bow. The more detail the better. Thanks in advance.

 

[Skyhigh]

I have several, including some failed stalks (which I think you may learn more from).

I have made 7 stalks, 2 of which have ended with deer dead, 2 where I missed, and 3 where I was able to draw but no shot opportunity.

The first stalk I completed with a dead muley at the end of it was about a mile and a half long. I was glassing, put the deer to bed, and then moved in. Moving in, used the cover of valleys and washes to get up to him.


Here is a rough line of the path I followed. One of the key things I like to do is to get a visual right before I start to get really close and see if any of the deer around them moved or if the target moved. The little part where I move the left represents where I peaked over a hill to do that. He was bedded facing east when I glassed, so I kept sneaking in. There was a SW wind, I suppose that's important to this.



There were a couple other deer bedded with him, so I made sure to keep below the edge of the hill that you can see in the topo. The green at the end of the line is some brush (snowberrys) that were dead. They made a bunch of noise to walk through, so I had to move extremely slowly through them. Once i got past them there was about a 4 ft tall hill I peaked over. When peaking over I made sure to look through the vegetation that was on the top to break up my outline. When I did this I ranged the buck at 45 yards, and he appeared to be readjusting how he was laying because he was quartered away and standing up. I then drew back, and popped up slowly expecting to shoot him then. He readjusted while I was doing this and when I popped up he was facing directly at me. He got nervous, took two large hops up the hill and looked back, I shot for 55, he was at 52, and I double lunged him.



Here is a picture of the buck after we got back to the vehicle.

 

[Skyhigh]

A month before the deer above, while hunting In Nebraska, I stalked on a buck that was bedded in some tall grass, I worked along the ridge above him, got within about 20 yards and he stood. The buck did the same thing with being nervous and taking two hops, I shot for 50, and sent the arrow about 3 feet over his back, he was probably at about 30-35. Each hop is usually around 4 yards it seems like for a decent sized deer. Realizing this is 100% why I was able to get the buck above.

My archery buck from 2018 was a completely different scenario. We spotted his antler around a rock while driving down a road during rifle season. Checked Onx and it was public, so game on. Th chunk of public is really small, so I had to be cautious of not going across the boundary.



Once again, SW wind. Given the lay of the land at this spot, there wasn't going to be a great opportunity to stalk in with perfect wind the whole time. We ended up driving to the edge of the property near the valley on the left side. I walked through the valley till I reached the purple mark, at there was about a 1ft deep frozen creek bed at this point. The buck was able to see this portion of the valley where he was bedded, so I crawled on top of the ice in the creek until I was able to get the edge of the hill to cover me.


At this point I moved until boulders were between me and the bedded buck, this allowed me to crawl fairly easily directly at him. I crawled to the boulders at the end of the line. From this point I had a clear view of the buck, and he was broadside while bedded. I would have shot, but there was an overhanging rock about ten yards in front of the buck, between us, about two feet above him. In my mind, it was in the perfect spot to catch an arrow, so I elected not to shoot yet. I was going to wait him out,

Mid-november in SD can be cold. It was about 15 out, 15 mph wind, and I was in a hoody. I got cold extremely quick. After sitting for about 30 minutes waiting, my hands were going numb and my body was starting to hurt. I can deal with that, but I was worried I would start shivering so much that I couldn't take a good shot. So, I motioned to my friend at the truck to move down the road in effort to get the buck to stand (we talked about it beforehand, just in case this happened). He drove down the road, buck didn't care, he parked in front of the buck, buck didn't care, walked on road, buck didn't care. Then a car came down the road, and my friend stepped off the road towards the deer. This got the two does with him nervous, and they started to move away. The buck stood at this point, when he started to move I had drawn back, and shot him quartering away at 50. double lung again. Funny thing is the buck thought my friend was the danger, so he ran straight at me. He fell over about ten yards from me.



The things I look for in a stalk to be successful (and won't stalk if I don't have at least some of them) in order of importance: wind, cover (terrain, vegetation, anything you can between you and deer), and for the deer to be bedded. The last one isn't as important, but deer can move a long ways quick, so if you can't see them they may move and it complicates the stalk a lot if you can't find the deer.

 

[MedicineMan]

Great stories and great insight. Thanks! @Skyhigh