The 1 Thing You Learned- MULE DEER

[rrMT]

Get up high and glass with the best optics possible.

Holy cats I'm tired of learning that lesson.

Yep and a good boning knife is how the good ones come out of the woods

 

[rrMT]

A secret high basin? lol- not in today GPS age.

It just has to be a place that even people in good physical shape won't want to go

 

[justin davis]

Mule deer are unpredictable

 

[MNGrouser]

What I learned my very first time out to Montana is what distances I needed to be comfortable shooting. My first year I was unprepared and lost chances at some really decent bucks. I spent the next summer getting dialed in so I was truly comfortable at 300 yards. Year 2 I ranged my buck at 282 yards and started smiling because he was 18 yards too close for his own good. Year 3 I dropped an even better buck even farther.
If you are traveling from out east and have never hunted wide open spaces, figure out how to shoot longer distances than you may be comfortable with BEFORE you're boots on the ground with an expensive NR tag in your pocket.

 

[HuntingJudge]

I have been hunting Mule Deer for a few years now (25) or so. The best Tips I can give someone coming out to Northern or Eastern Montana. The breaks or flat sage country include.
1) let your eyes do your walking (find something you like from a high vantage point and stalk in)
2) Don't force it unless you have to. I have seen way too many people get in a hurry on a stalk when they didn't have to
3) Be comfortable with your gun, know your range don't shoot farther (sneak in closer if you have to)
4) The deer are going to be where the deer are, if the deer are not in an area you looked at on maps they are not there and move on to where you find them.
5) you can make the hunts as hard or as easy as you want. I have a buddy that likes to do 15+ miles in the breaks a couple times a trip, and others who like to do a half mile walk to a glassing location (both kill deer consistently)
6) going off #3 a decent rangefinder will be a savior in the open country
7) a trophy is what ever you want it to be, I see a lot of buys loose the enjoyment of hunting by focusing on horns. Just have fun and enjoy the hunt. sometimes it works out in you favor, other times you have to laugh watch the sun go down and give it heck the next day.

 

[Rich M]

I learned that my whitetail knowledge was beneficial. Beginning of trip we covered a lot of ground. End of trip we sat tight.

First you find the deer, then you shoot one.

 

[Plainsman79]

Probably the best thing I’ve ever learned is the importance of quality buck cover and how mature bucks use it. The cool thing about mature bucks though is that we can never stop learning from them. It’s a year round sport for some of us.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

It just has to be a place that even people in good physical shape won't want to go

I've had good luck finding them in nasty places that are right next to wherever and everyone else drives. Don't have to hike far, just look in the nasty places a few paces off the main road sometimes

 

[Oregon Hunter]

What I learned my very first time out to Montana is what distances I needed to be comfortable shooting. My first year I was unprepared and lost chances at some really decent bucks. I spent the next summer getting dialed in so I was truly comfortable at 300 yards. Year 2 I ranged my buck at 282 yards and started smiling because he was 18 yards too close for his own good. Year 3 I dropped an even better buck even farther.
If you are traveling from out east and have never hunted wide open spaces, figure out how to shoot longer distances than you may be comfortable with BEFORE you're boots on the ground with an expensive NR tag in your pocket.

It also helps to realize is that distances can be deceiving in some of the wide open out West. During those times when I'm not seeing anything, I often pick up my rangefinder and play a guessing game with ranges to hone my skills

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I have been hunting Mule Deer for a few years now (25) or so. The best Tips I can give someone coming out to Northern or Eastern Montana. The breaks or flat sage country include.
1) let your eyes do your walking (find something you like from a high vantage point and stalk in)
2) Don't force it unless you have to. I have seen way too many people get in a hurry on a stalk when they didn't have to
3) Be comfortable with your gun, know your range don't shoot farther (sneak in closer if you have to)
4) The deer are going to be where the deer are, if the deer are not in an area you looked at on maps they are not there and move on to where you find them.
5) you can make the hunts as hard or as easy as you want. I have a buddy that likes to do 15+ miles in the breaks a couple times a trip, and others who like to do a half mile walk to a glassing location (both kill deer consistently)
6) going off #3 a decent rangefinder will be a savior in the open country
7) a trophy is what ever you want it to be, I see a lot of buys loose the enjoyment of hunting by focusing on horns. Just have fun and enjoy the hunt. sometimes it works out in you favor, other times you have to laugh watch the sun go down and give it heck the next day.

Thank you so much for sharing your lessons! Numbers 4 and 7 really home for me

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I learned that my whitetail knowledge was beneficial. Beginning of trip we covered a lot of ground. End of trip we sat tight.

First you find the deer, then you shoot one.

I think out West we sometimes feel like we have to conquer the deer by hiking harder than everyone. Sometimes you need to do this to get to the good country, but other times it helps to just sit and let everyone else walk around. You sure see a lot of game this way

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Probably the best thing I’ve ever learned is the importance of quality buck cover and how mature bucks use it. The cool thing about mature bucks though is that we can never stop learning from them. It’s a year round sport for some of us.

You're totally right! I learned that Ricky mentioned from Robby Denning's book, and because of that I found my biggest buck yet. Great tip!

 

[CAB]

Brand new to Mule deer but so far this year I have put on about 25 miles of scouting so far in mule deer country and noticed 2 thing off the bat........they see better than I expected and they spook easier than I would have ever guessed. White tails I've had walk almost into me what I was trolling down a path, these mule deer had me dead to rights 200 yards+ yards away and then quickly they all ran up a rock face in no time. here the videos of them
video 1
video 2

 

[TheGDog]

Hrmm... another one... they will seemingly magically appear to spring-forth from the Earth itself when they elect to finally rise-up to standing... as the sun nears to being within an hour of setting behind whatever ridge to the west. This is when the location does not allow you a location of high vantage point to glass from.

So just because you've looked over an area in your FOV from your sit/glassing spot end of the afternoon... lots.... for the last few hours.. if it's thick chaparral bordering an opened-up area/meadow, DO NOT assume that area is actually clear and devoid of deer. They will surprise you by rising to standing seemingly bubbling up from the Earth itself at areas where the brush doesn't even look tall enough to be able to conceal them! I'm talking like that red buck-brush rabbit-brush stuff!

Also if you're on a sit in your concealment gear, and you nod-off asleep... if you find yourself waking up to see a Doe crossing by in front of you at close distance.. DON'T move your head or body just yet! Look with your eyes first! If need be, slowly, and I mean slowly.. rotate your head if you need to look further in the direction she appears to have been coming from.

Be prepared to possibly see a buck that has decided to freeze behind a tree or bush to partially obscure himself from your vision because HE WILL notice your body movement if he's close and you don't have eyes on him to know when his eyes are going behind that tree or bush and you go ahead and move anyway. IF that does happen, just play the freeze-game and take off that safety and get your hands ready to pootentially bring that weapon to bear and execute the shot at a moments notice if need be. DO NOT try to re-position yourself to be better oriented for potentially taking the shot. ONLY move when your eye.... sees his eye.... go behind a tree trunk or a thick enough bush that he CANNOT see you... THAT is when you hurry up and bring your weapon to bear! Any movement before then can blow it for you.

I got lucky, when I initially saw her... I didn't turn my head much and then noticed him beside me at my extreme right... he was froze. At first I'd thought maybe he hadn't seen me thru the scraggly hanging-down dead branches of that tree... I'd begun to attempt to raise my weapon and begin to re-orient my body positioning... but I quickly saw from his body language tensing up that he had then spotted me... so oh chit! I immediately froze and played the freeze-game. Thankfully his poonani was getting away so he was motivated to eventually attempt to catch up with her, and that was his undoing. If I had not frozen, that would NOT have happened, I would have spook him away in a different direction and had no shot.

 

[Troutnut]

I learned a bunch of things from getting my first mule deer this year, and failing the past few years before that. The one that sticks out the most from this first success is that I didn't need to look for high numbers of deer to see bucks.

Previously I'd been getting frustrated seeing lots of deer but no bucks, or no legal (3 pt) bucks when hunting in WA, and was sort of thinking I needed to find even more deer to start seeing the bucks. But really they're just in different places, or at least they can be, during the rifle season. This year I was hunting where the bucks were, and I only saw a couple deer a day at my altitude or higher, but they were adult bucks.

 

[TheGDog]

Oh another things I learned? If from one of your new spots you can actually see the road... and you see a truck hurried pullover to the side of the road and some people get out and start to fuss around with setting up a tripod and one has a rifle... get the hell up from your spot on that slope.... and all that you can see in front of you... and high-tail-it back up to the flat up on top that is upwind of you!

They pulled over because they saw a buck cross the road way up the road... far back in the direction your back is pointed towards.

And if you don't do this... they'll end up dangerously shooting that buck... just 20yds behind your damn back!!! Effectively putting your life in danger when the 15yo daughter goes and scans across the terrain looking for that buck using her rifles scope!!! As you turn your 15x Binos just in time to see this B pointing her deer rifle DEAD-ON at you!

 

[bowuntr]

Gdog is spot on ... a wealth of knowledge... Ed F

 

[TheGDog]

Gdog is spot on ... a wealth of knowledge... Ed F

#DramaQueen

 

[realunlucky]

#DramaQueen

To be clear are you saying your a drama queen or Ed F?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[TheGDog]

To be clear are you saying your a drama queen or Ed F?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

I'm saying this other person is wanting to revisit old patterns of behaviour that are not helpful to anybody and should be left in the past.