SW Mule Deer Struggles

[awnicho2]

Hello,
New here, but started western hunting last year. I have managed to execute successful hunts for both elk and antelope, but I recently went on a mule deer hunt in a southwestern unit and struggled to find a legal deer to go after. I hunted a fairly old burn which has grown thick, but had good feed and even located does, bears, and turkeys, but could not manage to put my eyes on a buck. Tried to glass from medium range into the thick stuff (300-900 yds), but just never turned one up. I was far enough from the road that I never saw another person while hunting, even though this unit gives out a lot of tags. This was an early November tag, in an area where the rut isn't until December/January. Any pointers for what I might've done differently to get into bucks?

Thanks for the read; I wish you luck on all your hunts.

 

[jolemons]

Good question, thanks for joining the forum. A general rule of thumb for outside the breeding season, if you're seeing does, you're in in the wrong area for finding bucks.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[awnicho2]

Good question, thanks for joining the forum. A general rule of thumb for outside the breeding season, if you're seeing does, you're in in the wrong area for finding bucks.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

If the does were using a certain finger/draw in a big drainage, should I be looking higher/lower on the finger/draw, at a different draw, or at a different drainage all together?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

This really depends on where you are hunting. General tactics apply but not always. The advice given above wouldn’t necessarily ring true where I hunt in the southwest.

 

[TreeDux]

This sounds exactly like the hunt I just finished. I found does and small bucks but nothing else. I, too, hunted a saucy looking burn. Unlike you, I turned up zilch in there. I glassed from 50 yards to a mile in a burned area that had grown back nicely. After a while I resorted to slipping through the likely looking bedding areas and managed to jump one doe. Cattle did occupy some of that area though the summer and they might have affected the deer. Ultimately I shared a similar experience but didn’t crack the code.

 

[hunter4life]

Sounds like you were in NM.
Deer numbers are terrible. I wish I had the answer as to why that is, but I don't. They are a mere fraction of what they were 25 years ago. Southeastern NM has just gotten worse and worse for years now.

 

[Bubblehide]

Do the deer migrate? If they do migrate, mature bucks are generally the last to migrate. As such, if migration had not yet or not fully occured, the bucjs may not have caught up to the does.

I hunt 2 different zones locally. In one zone the mule deer are not a migrating herd, but they obviously do have a winter range. In the other zone, the deer do migrate, but in mild winters, they do not fully migrate. These look articulars make big difference to how and where I hunt.

In the non migratory zone, there are simply some days that bucks are simply not where I am hunting, a day or 2 later, usually the buc j.g s will be the (back) as they tend to rotate around the general area, de p.o ending on the size of their territory. But environmental conditions can make some areas much more desirable than others at times.

 

[TreeDux]

I hunted a large unit that generally doesn’t migrate. There’s enough high elevation stuff to make a few exceptions. The terrain is incredibly diverse, and I like that. There was a very steep learning curve associated with the unit,which I fully understand. That being said I should have turned up a little more sign at least and after a lot of hours of glassing and 53 miles of hiking I didn’t find it. I do think I know where to start next time if I ever draw the tag again.

 

[trophyhill]

Sounds like you were in NM.
Deer numbers are terrible. I wish I had the answer as to why that is, but I don't. They are a mere fraction of what they were 25 years ago. Southeastern NM has just gotten worse and worse for years now.

Way too many rifle tags! I won't apply there anymore. When I questioned the local game wardens on the ridiculous amount of tags, the answer was "its managed for opportunity, not trophy quality". This is pretty much all SE NM from the central Rocky Mountain chain to the Texas border

 

[awnicho2]

This unit may have a few migratory deer, but they shouldn’t need to go far at all if they do migrate. There are a lot of rifle tags, but we didn’t see another hunter except when moving around on roads. My guess at this point is glassing may not have been the right tactic, and I should’ve been still hunting. The terrain was very thick. Outside of the mornings up until 10 o’clock we didn’t see any activity…outside of a doe and two fawns along a forest road. I could barely pick out the doe from 6 yards when she jumped up in the thick stuff.