- Joined
- Feb 19, 2024
- Messages
- 98
My wife and I got back a couple weeks ago from our first archery mule deer hunt. This was my wife’s first western hunt and my first mule deer hunt. We were hunting low sagebrush country in Colorado. Our goal was any buck that would let us get close enough, so I figured we’d be able to get more stalks in by hunting more open country, and keep things more entertaining for my wife on her first western hunt. We didn’t punch a tag, but we had a blast and learned a lot.
I won’t go through everything but we had stalks every day. On the third day, we spotted a group of bucks bedded along a creek bank mid-day. We got upwind of them and stalked in the creek bed up to 60 yards of them. We could see the antlers of the biggest (3x3) on the opposite bank. My wife’s excitement during this stalk made the trip! She kept getting warnings on her watch that her heard rate was over 130 and she wasn’t exercising LOL. It was fun to watch.
We were contemplating our next move and one of the smaller bucks stood up, staring us down. I think the wind swirled and he smelled us. They moved off but just went up the hill about 80 yards and started feeding. Eventually a smaller buck and bigger one separated and the smaller one stayed about 80 yards away while the bigger one fed over the ridge. The smaller one ended up bedding down, so we started stalking him. Crawling on our hands and knees in sagebrush and cactus until we got to within 35 yards of him. Everything was coming together. He stood up after about 20 min and was perfectly broadside. My wife drew back, settled in and shot but the arrow went way to the left (like 20 ft.). The only thing we could think is that the arrow got messed up in the rest (whisker biscuit) during the stalk. It was an awesome experience to sneak in that close, but my wife just handed me her bow and said, “I’m done”.
Lessons learned:
Patience! The first few stalks were on feeding deer, and they’re just too unpredictable. Should have just watched them and waited for them to bed.
Check your arrow before the shot!
It’s crazy how deer can disappear in sagebrush. We blew out quite a few does and small bucks when trying to stalk because we didn’t take the time to pick out any deer in between. I definitely need to improve on glassing skills.
Plan on 50-60 yard shots. Getting to within 60 yards was pretty routine, but getting sub 40 was another story (my wife’s limit was 40)
Gear I wish I had:
Knee pads! My wife brought some for her, but I was too stubborn / stupid. I was hurting after a couple stalks.
Small backpack / water bladder for stalks. We’d routinely spot some deer and drop packs to go on a “short” stalk. Two hours later with no water, and we wished we had a better way to carry water with us. Nalgene bottle was too bulky. Small disposable water bottle would be too loud. Just a small hydration pack seemed like it would work well.
Better range finder (maybe). I have a cheap Sig buckmasters range finder. It was pretty inconsistent with getting a good range through all the sagebrush. Probably just the nature of not having a good line of sight.
Questions:
How long do you wait before stalking them after they’ve laid in their bed? They seem to stay bedded for a random amount of time.
Any tips for staying comfortable when sitting for a long time? Whether glassing or trying to ambush. We brought some small folding chairs, and they were too tall for the sagebrush. We also had some sitting pads, but they didn’t have any back support and didn’t do much good. A pad for my butt and my backpack for back support worked okay, but not great.
Do more expensive rangefinders do better in brush?
Deer pics are from Rock Mountain NP detour on the way home.
I won’t go through everything but we had stalks every day. On the third day, we spotted a group of bucks bedded along a creek bank mid-day. We got upwind of them and stalked in the creek bed up to 60 yards of them. We could see the antlers of the biggest (3x3) on the opposite bank. My wife’s excitement during this stalk made the trip! She kept getting warnings on her watch that her heard rate was over 130 and she wasn’t exercising LOL. It was fun to watch.
We were contemplating our next move and one of the smaller bucks stood up, staring us down. I think the wind swirled and he smelled us. They moved off but just went up the hill about 80 yards and started feeding. Eventually a smaller buck and bigger one separated and the smaller one stayed about 80 yards away while the bigger one fed over the ridge. The smaller one ended up bedding down, so we started stalking him. Crawling on our hands and knees in sagebrush and cactus until we got to within 35 yards of him. Everything was coming together. He stood up after about 20 min and was perfectly broadside. My wife drew back, settled in and shot but the arrow went way to the left (like 20 ft.). The only thing we could think is that the arrow got messed up in the rest (whisker biscuit) during the stalk. It was an awesome experience to sneak in that close, but my wife just handed me her bow and said, “I’m done”.
Lessons learned:
Patience! The first few stalks were on feeding deer, and they’re just too unpredictable. Should have just watched them and waited for them to bed.
Check your arrow before the shot!
It’s crazy how deer can disappear in sagebrush. We blew out quite a few does and small bucks when trying to stalk because we didn’t take the time to pick out any deer in between. I definitely need to improve on glassing skills.
Plan on 50-60 yard shots. Getting to within 60 yards was pretty routine, but getting sub 40 was another story (my wife’s limit was 40)
Gear I wish I had:
Knee pads! My wife brought some for her, but I was too stubborn / stupid. I was hurting after a couple stalks.
Small backpack / water bladder for stalks. We’d routinely spot some deer and drop packs to go on a “short” stalk. Two hours later with no water, and we wished we had a better way to carry water with us. Nalgene bottle was too bulky. Small disposable water bottle would be too loud. Just a small hydration pack seemed like it would work well.
Better range finder (maybe). I have a cheap Sig buckmasters range finder. It was pretty inconsistent with getting a good range through all the sagebrush. Probably just the nature of not having a good line of sight.
Questions:
How long do you wait before stalking them after they’ve laid in their bed? They seem to stay bedded for a random amount of time.
Any tips for staying comfortable when sitting for a long time? Whether glassing or trying to ambush. We brought some small folding chairs, and they were too tall for the sagebrush. We also had some sitting pads, but they didn’t have any back support and didn’t do much good. A pad for my butt and my backpack for back support worked okay, but not great.
Do more expensive rangefinders do better in brush?
Deer pics are from Rock Mountain NP detour on the way home.
