Desert Muley - 4 days

[Mike1187]

You’ve got 4 days to seal the deal on a Desert Muley with a bow. What’s your go to strategy based on the limited amount of time?

 

[CC11]

Glass sun up to sun down. Cover country, move if you aren't finding deer. Find deer you want to shoot. Watch until he beds and develop a stalk strategy. Stalk in on buck. When he stands up, shoot said buck. Celebrate back at camp after the packout.

 

[rookieforever33]

Spend a month scouting ahead of 4 day hunt

 

[willfrye027]

Probably not be too picky with only 4 days

 

[RockAndSage]

It depends on what desert environment we're talking about, but broadly speaking I'd focus on finding food plots first, and hunt from there. Look within a mile or two of the food for north-facing shade (can go further in some places), especially at the bases of rock-outcroppings/rimrock, and glass the daylights out of those bedding areas. Even moreso if you can find ones that are higher up a slope, as it helps them with both visual security and catching thermals. Don't worry about where they water.

If you hunt an area that has any ag fields around, you can drive the perimeter of a lot of those places on dirt roads, and try to cut sign as you drive or walk, depending on how good your eyes are. Their tracks can often stand out pretty starkly crossing dirt roads and two-tracks. Sometimes you'll even find established trails through the brush, between where they bed and where they prefer to enter the fields. Those can be great places to get pointed to their bedding areas, and to find an ambush spot.

 

[BRDHUNTER]

Glass and move if you aren't seeing good bucks. Focus on the thicker vegetation areas. Go to the highest elevation in the unit. Find those areas with higher concentrations of springs. Stay mobile.

 

[Weldor]

True Desert, Water.

 

[cuerro viejo]

True Desert, Water.

Yelp 3-4mile circle is where I’d focus - Especially any draw that leads to water

 

[Blackbird]

Same approach it would be if had the whole season. Find a high point bust out the tripod find a buck get as close as I can blow them out and do it all over again.

 

[S.Clancy]

4 days with a bow in the desert (which means low deer densities)......man, good luck. That's a tough prospect. Unless your standards are "any buck" it's gonna be very hard

 

[midwestcowboy]

Treat your scouting missions with the same level of detail and sense of urgency as the hunt. Put in the work ahead of time so your game plan is dialed going into those 4 days. Good luck, let us know how it goes!

 

[Mike1187]

Some good strategies fellas. This would be a TransPecos desert Muley in Texas lots of available water in this particular area, all within a 3-4 mile radius. No ag near this area either. This particular spot only has about 400-500ft elevation change, so relatively flat. Certainly some options to get higher for glassing though.

Out of the gate, the plan is to glass, locate, stalk. If unable to locate, planning to sit water in the evenings, focusing on those that show recent activity.

 

[RockAndSage]

Some good strategies fellas. This would be a TransPecos desert Muley in Texas lots of available water in this particular area, all within a 3-4 mile radius. No ag near this area either. This particular spot only has about 400-500ft elevation change, so relatively flat. Certainly some options to get higher for glassing though.

Out of the gate, the plan is to glass, locate, stalk. If unable to locate, planning to sit water in the evenings, focusing on those that show recent activity.

Man, what a good, challenging hunt.

Hunt the food, hunt the shade, and you'll find them eventually.

 

[LCguy]

Also in true desert, they like to bed in the bottoms of arroyos. Especially if it's still warm.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Also in true desert, they like to bed in the bottoms of arroyos. Especially if it's still warm.

Best advice for true desert mulies in this thread.

Find the washes with thick vegetation, find the deer bedded.

 

[RockAndSage]

Find the washes with thick vegetation, find the deer bedded.

This reminded me of something I was told a long time ago, but forgot...apparently arroyos and washes, because water naturally flows to them and along them, including below the surface, they tend to get brush growing much thicker and taller than normal, like you're talking about. But because the soil surface is lower, when you glass across the landscape you might not even recognize the depressions/arroyos being there, etc, because the tops of the brush in and out of it can look kind of even.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

This reminded me of something I was told a long time ago, but forgot...apparently arroyos and washes, because water naturally flows to them and along them, including below the surface, they tend to get brush growing much thicker and taller than normal, like you're talking about.

100%.

But because the soil surface is lower, when you glass across the landscape you might not even recognize the depressions/arroyos being there, etc, because the tops of the brush in and out of it can look kind of even.

Yep. They blend in just like the rest of the desert floor. The vegetation thats so thick you can barely see into it, they hoard up in there in groups.

 

[LCguy]

This reminded me of something I was told a long time ago, but forgot...apparently arroyos and washes, because water naturally flows to them and along them, including below the surface, they tend to get brush growing much thicker and taller than normal, like you're talking about. But because the soil surface is lower, when you glass across the landscape you might not even recognize the depressions/arroyos being there, etc, because the tops of the brush in and out of it can look kind of even.

One strategy we used to use when I was a kid was very similar to an eastern deer drive. Have someone on the top on either side and 2-3 walking the arroyo bottom. All the biggest bucks would wait till they got walked past and try to slip out behind the "drivers". Does and smaller bucks would get pushed out the front.

The bedding in arroyos also holds true in hillier deserts. Shot a lot of deer coming out of arroyos in my youth.

 

[Mike1187]

Bringing this back up after putting some boots on the ground in the area.

The majority of the WMA is a dry valley, with mountains on the west and east. Morning glassing sessions from the eastern mountains (sun to my back) turned up several bucks, at lower elevation. Deer fed at low elevation along heavy covered arroyos then disappeared back in for bed time. Could not find them once they returned to the arroyos. It was low 90’s mid-day, deer did not start moving until just before dark.

Scenario:
You’re solo, locate a buck in the morning, watch him until he disappears into an arroyo and you never see him come out again. The brush is thick along these and hard to know exactly where he bedded and near impossible to find another angle that allows glassing:
A)Do you still hunt near where he entered, hoping he exits in the same area?
B)Do you make a move, walking along the arroyo to see if you can locate him inside the cover?
C)Do you still hunt the morning feeding area he came from hoping he returns for the evening?

 

[RockAndSage]

Bringing this back up after putting some boots on the ground in the area.

The majority of the WMA is a dry valley, with mountains on the west and east. Morning glassing sessions from the eastern mountains (sun to my back) turned up several bucks, at lower elevation. Deer fed at low elevation along heavy covered arroyos then disappeared back in for bed time. Could not find them once they returned to the arroyos. It was low 90’s mid-day, deer did not start moving until just before dark.

Scenario:
You’re solo, locate a buck in the morning, watch him until he disappears into an arroyo and you never see him come out again. The brush is thick along these and hard to know exactly where he bedded and near impossible to find another angle that allows glassing:
A)Do you still hunt near where he entered, hoping he exits in the same area?
B)Do you make a move, walking along the arroyo to see if you can locate him inside the cover?
C)Do you still hunt the morning feeding area he came from hoping he returns for the evening?

D) Get down in there, look for their pathways between bedding and food, find a really good ambush spot between the two along that route (especially at an entrance, if you can find one that looks consistently high-traffic), and be there from before sun up until after sundown the next day.