What would you do?

[RockAndSage]

That limits the total number of times we can move to a new spot.

Full stop on this point. Planning on moving camps multiple times is a good way to be exhausted before you really get to know an area. Better to find a camp location that gives you foot access to multiple promising basins/treelines, and stick to each area hard before moving to the next.

finding different types of terrain is something I need to add into my planning. If there are no deer in those high basins, I need to find some areas that have more thick timber that appear to have potential in case there are none in the basins.

There will be deer in those high basins - do not fool yourself into thinking a place with feed and cover is devoid of deer just because you don't see them. The hardest mule deer hunting you can do is in thick timber. Don't hunt the timber, hunt the treelines.

are you scouting for tracks and sign?

Tracks don't lie. So, yes. It's often the first thing I do when on the ground, after I've done a solid scan with chest binos during scounting, and after I've given it a solid examination from tripod optics during season.

What becomes the process if the high open basins seem to be void of bucks?

Get your boots down to the timberlines on your first day or two, and walk the timberline looking for entrance and exit pathways - think of this as the gateway to a muley's neighborhood, or possibly even their house. It's a choke point they pass through going to and from "work", heading out in the evening for food, coming back in the morning to sleep. So look for sign. Know a buck from a doe track, especially a big buck track. Find buck tracks, mark those entry/exit spots right at the timberline on your OnX. Find a glassing point that will cover as many of those pins as possible without skylining yourself. Be at that glassing point 1 hour before sunrise/30 mins before first light, and be there from sundown until it's too dark to see.

When you first get your feet into a spot to get eyes on new territory, glass broadly with chest binos for anything standing, moving, or obvious. 5-20 mins. You are not standing on a ridgeline, or doing any rapid movements - you are tucked into a spot with a good view where you can't be easily seen. During this time you're also looking with intent for places to study carefully in high-powered binos from a tripod or from spotter. For bigger bucks, be especially careful to study shade and rimrock above the basin - places they feel most secure, where they have the best visual access to what's below, the best scent coverage for anything coming up from morning thermals, and often with their backs tucked up against a cliff/rimrock/big boulder for physical security from cougars - especially if the prevailing winds also bring scent from behind them, from where they can't see. This gives them full 360 perception opportunity. After they go hard-horn, the bigger bucks also tend to want to get away from the dumb kids of the rest of the herd.

Probably the 2 biggest mistakes guys make in glassing is, first, not stealthing in. Do everything slow, as though your life depends on it, and never, ever skyline yourself. The same way your eyes spot movement? Mule deer eyes do that for speeds as slow as 1/4 of what ours lock onto. It's things like, don't be on top of a "glassing knob", be at the base of it, and get there by going in low around the side, not cresting over anything unless you're below the brush.

The second big mistake is too much reliance on glassing, especially while often also not realizing what "glassing" really entails. It's a process, from broad scanning down to carefully picking apart every single place a deer might like to be hiding from predators and the sun, as well as their travel choke-points. And it's a process tremendously enhanced by getting your boots on the ground before your season opener and finding buck tracks. On that point, don't worry about bumping or busting out a big buck while down in their bedrooms. Within 3-4 days they'll be back, so just come back then - especially now that you know exactly where he sleeps. They choose those spots as high-value real estate, and hate not being in them during the day.

 

[Brad1974]

Full stop on this point. Planning on moving camps multiple times is a good way to be exhausted before you really get to know an area. Better to find a camp location that gives you foot access to multiple promising basins/treelines, and stick to each area hard before moving to the next.



There will be deer in those high basins - do not fool yourself into thinking a place with feed and cover is devoid of deer just because you don't see them. The hardest mule deer hunting you can do is in thick timber. Don't hunt the timber, hunt the treelines.



Tracks don't lie. So, yes. It's often the first thing I do when on the ground, after I've done a solid scan with chest binos during scounting, and after I've given it a solid examination from tripod optics during season.



Get your boots down to the timberlines on your first day or two, and walk the timberline looking for entrance and exit pathways - think of this as the gateway to a muley's neighborhood, or possibly even their house. It's a choke point they pass through going to and from "work", heading out in the evening for food, coming back in the morning to sleep. So look for sign. Know a buck from a doe track, especially a big buck track. Find buck tracks, mark those entry/exit spots right at the timberline on your OnX. Find a glassing point that will cover as many of those pins as possible without skylining yourself. Be at that glassing point 1 hour before sunrise/30 mins before first light, and be there from sundown until it's too dark to see.

When you first get your feet into a spot to get eyes on new territory, glass broadly with chest binos for anything standing, moving, or obvious. 5-20 mins. You are not standing on a ridgeline, or doing any rapid movements - you are tucked into a spot with a good view where you can't be easily seen. During this time you're also looking with intent for places to study carefully in high-powered binos from a tripod or from spotter. For bigger bucks, be especially careful to study shade and rimrock above the basin - places they feel most secure, where they have the best visual access to what's below, the best scent coverage for anything coming up from morning thermals, and often with their backs tucked up against a cliff/rimrock/big boulder for physical security from cougars - especially if the prevailing winds also bring scent from behind them, from where they can't see. This gives them full 360 perception opportunity. After they go hard-horn, the bigger bucks also tend to want to get away from the dumb kids of the rest of the herd.

Probably the 2 biggest mistakes guys make in glassing is, first, not stealthing in. Do everything slow, as though your life depends on it, and never, ever skyline yourself. The same way your eyes spot movement? Mule deer eyes do that for speeds as slow as 1/4 of what ours lock onto. It's things like, don't be on top of a "glassing knob", be at the base of it, and get there by going in low around the side, not cresting over anything unless you're below the brush.

The second big mistake is too much reliance on glassing, especially while often also not realizing what "glassing" really entails. It's a process, from broad scanning down to carefully picking apart every single place a deer might like to be hiding from predators and the sun, as well as their travel choke-points. And it's a process tremendously enhanced by getting your boots on the ground before your season opener and finding buck tracks. On that point, don't worry about bumping or busting out a big buck while down in their bedrooms. Within 3-4 days they'll be back, so just come back then - especially now that you know exactly where he sleeps. They choose those spots as high-value real estate, and hate not being in them during the day.

This is awesome stuff. I really appreciate your response.

My original thought process is to prioritize my locations and get to those areas during the day, glass that evening, the next morning, all day, and into the night, then again the next morning. After that a decision would be made to stay or move. When looking at my "top 3" spots I have currently, There is easy access to other basins near by either with a fairly short hike or quick access back to the vehicle to drive to the next spot. So really I have a top 3 starting points, but at least a couple options from each starting point.

The basins are definitely my top focus, and really all I have been looking at up to this point. Do you believe that pressure could push the bucks into the thick timber or would still remain at treeline? When you say "don't hunt the tiimber, hunt the treelines", what exactly do you mean by that? what does that process look like for you?

Your glassing advise correlates very strongly to what I've read in both David Long books, and what I've tried to follow in the past. Last year I was able to spot several bucks I would have been happy to tag, but it was during my brothers muzzleloader season and I had no tag. I planned a stalk and advised my brother, but he went past the spot I told him to set up and walked right in front of the buck out in the open only 20 yards away when he blew the deer out. But hey, it was his tag, and that was a close encounter with a good buck. I on the other hand am determined to fill a tag, and will only be pleased if I either fill the tag, or at least giving it all I've got trying to.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Yea, specifically high country with alot of high basins. assuming I am drawn (it was 100% with one less point than I have last year), I will be getting to the unit around Sept 2nd or 3rd, and the hunt would start Sept 6th. There should be an abundance of water, so that's not a limiting factor. I wouldn't say I've had "alot of experience on similar hunts". I have been to CO only twice. My brother had mule deer tags both times, but this will be my first. We did spot a few the first year, but it was at the end of our hunt and we never saw them again. I was able to spot a few last year and planned a good stalk that led to my brother going beyond the spot I told him to set up and walking in the open to 20 yards from the bedded buck and blowing him out... So instead I am trying to create my own luck by picking the brains of you guys with more experience than I have.

Gotcha, that's earlier than I was thinking. They’ll be above and at the treeline, get up there and dig them out. Spotting them should be the easy part. Lots of good advice so far, good luck.

 

[UTJL]

This is encouraging, because this is similar to what I've been trying to figure out with my planning. I've been marking off spots, and my map is full of high basins marked off as potential areas. I do keep noticing a "top 3" that stand out to me. One is a long drive on a rough 4x4 only road, where I should be able to glass and potentially camp without much of a hike. One has a mosaic of private that may deter some other hunters, and I have a buddy that knows of a good buck being killed there 5 or 6 years ago. The other is about an 8+ mile hike with a couple thousand feet elevation gain just to a camp spot back to a basin that looks like it has potential, with another basin just across a saddle from my planned glassing spot that could serve as a really nice 4th basin to glass. We plan to be there 2 or 3 days prior to the tag & 7 days of legal hunting, so up to 10 days of time in the mountain. That limits the total number of times we can move to a new spot. I think your point of finding different types of terrain is something I need to add into my planning. If there are no deer in those high basins, I need to find some areas that have more thick timber that appear to have potential in case there are none in the basins. That one tip feels like it could be a game changer, so I'm really glad you mentioned it. In the basins I get how to set up and glass to find bucks, but what would you look for in finding timbered areas? Are you still trying to glass into small openings from a vantage point? are you scouting for tracks and sign? What becomes the process if the high open basins seem to be void of bucks?

If you have 10 days and no prior knowledge I’d skip the rough 4x4 road and 8 mile hike in. Those will take a large amount of time to get in and out of and the condition of the 4x4 road could be worse then you expect.

How are you planning to camp? Camper, big wall tent, in the back of your truck? When I bounce from spot to spot I sleep in the back of my truck, eat fast easy meals and do other small things to save time.

But if you want a fun hunt I agree on finding a spot that has several basins within reasonable hiking distance. Either way let your glass doing the walking for you.

 

[Brad1974]

If you have 10 days and no prior knowledge I’d skip the rough 4x4 road and 8 mile hike in. Those will take a large amount of time to get in and out of and the condition of the 4x4 road could be worse then you expect.

How are you planning to camp? Camper, big wall tent, in the back of your truck? When I bounce from spot to spot I sleep in the back of my truck, eat fast easy meals and do other small things to save time.

But if you want a fun hunt I agree on finding a spot that has several basins within reasonable hiking distance. Either way let your glass doing the walking for you.

We will be hiking our camp in with us so we can stay wherever we need to. This trip will be a little different than the past few years, because there are some spots that we may go that are not too far away from the jeep, so that could make things a little easier.... although I'm not sure if we really want it to be easier. Part of what makes these trips so amazing to me is being out on the mountain with only what we have on us.

I've been thinking about hitting that 8 mile hike spot first as well, but there are a few reasons I think we'd probably try the 4x4 road first. First of all, if that spot is accessible, it would give us another day or two to get acclimated to the elevation without requiring a strenuous hike. We're coming from around 700 ft elevation, and going to 12,000 ft. If we find what we're looking for there, that's a bonus. Then if we get there and find out the road isn't going to work we could head to the other trailhead that same afternoon and likely still get to camp that night. I have seen some comments from guys who hunted that unit previously that "most" of the hunters seemed to be along that area around the 4x4 road. If we get there and see too many other hunters, we could leave. If we go to the 8 mile back spot first, and it doesn't work out, our plan B would be going to an easire access spot where I feel like there will more likely be more pressure... It appears that I really need to find a few more spots that have potential and are more likely to be overlooked.