Mule

[Dorarem]

​How is October season for ya?
I’ve been around Kamloops for the last 3 weeks and have seen only 1 nice buck 4x4 and over 40 does. Not a single 2 pointer or spiker...what the hell is going on? Where are all deer?

[Rattler]

40 does and a good 4x4 sounds decent to me. Have hunted over 14 days in West Kootenays and have seen a whopping 6 MD and only one 2pt.

[Dorarem]

My bud was out today. Saw 80 does but no bucks

[Fixxer]

Out in the Merritt area last weekend and saw 30 doe and no bucks. Thought it was just me. Guess that’s why it’s called hunting, not catching.

[russm]

Hunted 4 days and saw 10 or so spikes and 2 points, lots of does, connected on 2 bucks last weekend and focused on birds for a couple days.

[HarryToolips]

If all the bucks hung around the easily accessed areas they'd all be dead by now....they notice the pressure..many stay in the thick stuff

[Buckmeister]

I'm hearing the same stuff from everyone around here, no does or bucks, very little sign, predator sign way up!! I've been concentrating on getting our second LEH Moose and I have seen plenty of sign the areas I'm going to, but only a few does.

I have two theories:
1: I'm only seeing the sign where it is darker and moister with heavier timber. Never seen so many young dead trees before. Deer are held up in the thick stuff where it stayed moister and there is still some quality eats.

2: I am seeing consistent, heavy, road hunting going on. Doesn't matter what day of the week or time of daylight hours. People racing, and I do mean racing (skid marks all over all the roads), along the roadways with big noisy trucks or SXS's you can hear from miles away. Never seen this kind of activity before in the bush. Nasty. And people complaining that they are not seeing anything. DUH, I wonder why???

But once you get off the beaten path in the moister areas, wow, am I seeing some good sign. They're out there people.

[finngun]

​How is October season for ya?
I’ve been around Kamloops for the last 3 weeks and have seen only 1 nice buck 4x4 and over 40 does. Not a single 2 pointer or spiker...what the hell is going on? Where are all deer?
Ah ya little late 2weeks ago me and sons took 3 deer,,,out of kammy hills,,,all mulies,,
I guess some was still left,,,but butcher by airport was really busy..hard to get them in..we did lucily

[hoochie]

I saw 4 bucks,
2 of them came home with us. Russm says he took 2...
uh oh... no deer left.

seriously though, they are probably pushed back by all the road hunters, and will be coming back out soon.
After all the snow, things got quiet and we moved out of the area we were in. Dont get discouraged just yet. Be patient.

[hoochie]

2: I am seeing consistent, heavy, road hunting going on. Doesn't matter what day of the week or time of daylight hours. People racing, and I do mean racing (skid marks all over all the roads), along the roadways with big noisy trucks or SXS's you can hear from miles away. Never seen this kind of activity before in the bush. Nasty. And people complaining that they are not seeing anything. DUH, I wonder why???


Had a few blown out deer from road hunters.
had 7 deer in the binos, was watching them for a bit. I was trying to see if the buck lingering off to the side was a 4X4 or a 3X3.. anyway... im sitting there and i can hear an engine in the distance....
for about 10 seconds, then at 15 seconds all the deer run like hell in all different directions... just scattered
at about 30 seconds I see a side by side come burning out of a snowmobile trail with 2 guys in it.
they booted off.
I found that if the deer heard engines, they were gone. And I could see them hear it before I could. ears perk up, posture changes etc.
Anyway, after that last one with the side by side... I had enough.
I mumbled something under my breath... "Happy birthday" I think I said.. ya thats it.
So, walking out.. I come across people in a truck. They look confused. "You are walking?" they ask. "Yup"
Then they say " we've been driving all over the place and havent seen anything all day"... but it was like they were suggesting to me that walking was a waste of my time.
I smiled and carried on.

[604redneck]

Ahhhh and all the bs stories come out.

[skibum]

I saw two nice three pointers and a large two point this weekend - all in town before 6:00am on my way out

[Wild one]

This might be a streach but is there a chance that just maybe it's not the area but instead how the hunter approached the hunt

Just say I have been guilty of being a bad hunter sometimes too

[Darksith]

​How is October season for ya?
I’ve been around Kamloops for the last 3 weeks and have seen only 1 nice buck 4x4 and over 40 does. Not a single 2 pointer or spiker...what the hell is going on? Where are all deer?
its been crazy due to the wind and now the warm. That snow fall caused in my area from what I can gather all the deer to leave a week or 2 early. Start looking at their wintering areas, but this wind has then all in the timber and hunkering down I feel

If you know where there are deer, walking is your best bet as always. They do leave open areas when they hear engines, early season not so much, now, most definitely. Enough bullets been flying over their heads to get them moving

[Linksman313]

​How is October season for ya?
I’ve been around Kamloops for the last 3 weeks and have seen only 1 nice buck 4x4 and over 40 does. Not a single 2 pointer or spiker...what the hell is going on? Where are all deer?

Jelvis got them all!
No really I am seeing a large increase in Mulie does over last year same time/hunting area
Snowed heavy at altitude in the Boundary this weekend, sat up in my fav spotting perch and spotted 7 Mulie does 3 with fawns before 11am.
No scientist here but maybe the winter past was harder on the populations of WT than I thought whereas Mulie's pulled through with better success?

Hoochie - same here with the traffic, starting to adapt myself now, positioning myself on known escape trails hoping to cut them off there.

[Ryo]

My region 3 buck (shot last week) had the thickest layer of fat I've encountered. Big boy had a better summer than I would have anticipated!

[lakelander]

I was out yesterday and saw 85 bucks, no does. Damn

[BCJaeger]

First week of October I spent the whole week scouting/hunting around Kamloops. I saw over two-hundred does and two bucks on farm fields (no hunting!). Anyhow my passion is still hunting the timber. Saw all kinds of critters there too: many does, black bears, one coyote, grouse, moose cows, horses (!) and only 1 spike buck. Latter I passed up.
So my lesson learnt was that bucks seem to be nocturnal hiding in thick stuff in October. It seems very challenging to be successful if you don't know the area.

[boxhitch]

So my lesson learnt was that bucks seem to be nocturnal hiding in thick stuff in October. .........winner winner , chicken dinner


know the area

[Fisher-Dude]

The day I got mine a few weeks back, I saw 23 mulies, including 4 bucks.

The day before, in the same area, I saw zero deer.

Timing is everything.

[BCJaeger]

boxhitch I know it seems too obvious what I posted before. The thing is that many guys here say you got to get away from the roads. What I tried to say is that in October it isn't enough to get away from the roads into the timber. You actually need to know exactly where a particular buck lives to go after him in the timber otherwise chances are very slim to see any buck at all. Even at first and last light they seemed to hide. OR I was talented enough to hunt exclusively areas not holding any bucks.

[VFX_man]

Come Nov 1st the doe sightings will stop . . . since I have a Mule Deer Doe LEH. :lol:

[boxhitch]

BCJ, I'm agreeing with you and your findings, as do many deer biology reports, for the most part bucks and bulls are mostly nocturnal in October
Thus the point about know the area is important. Once and a while a buck will make the mistake of laying out in the open at the top, back end of a cut on a little bench, and knowing that bench is there can be the key to success.
Had one that even in the spotter was hard to see, but knowing the spot I kept looking til I spotted a tine.
Another favourite is a little bench on the side of a timbered slope that had some select horse logging years ago, nice and open. Found the bench while following tracks in fresh snow when I realized the few deciduous with yellow leaves were the only ones on that slope. The trees gave away the fact there was a bench and water, turned out to be a very active spot for deer, and so far only 3-point bucks. Knowing the bench is there allows me to change tactics according to the wind and have spied several deer bedded on that little spot.

[Brez]

Keep shooting all them little bucks as soon as any bucks opens. You'll have lots more in a few years, lol. No worries, there are lots of deer, or so everyone says.

[Brian011]

The Kamloops area in general is probably the hardest hit area for deer hunters. Any buck that hangs out by the road is probably already dead, and the rest stay in the thick stuff and only move around at night.

[russm]

I saw 4 bucks,
2 of them came home with us. Russm says he took 2...
uh oh... no deer left.

seriously though, they are probably pushed back by all the road hunters, and will be coming back out soon.
After all the snow, things got quiet and we moved out of the area we were in. Dont get discouraged just yet. Be patient.

Lol ours were private property bucks, that's why we saw around 10 in 2 days, delicious alfalfa bucks, Ive learned over all of my strike out seasons that region 3 seems to be all about timing where I hunt, definitely on a migration route, Ive had years where there's non stop sitings and you wake up the next day and it's a complete ghost town...

[Bugle M In]

Lol ours were private property bucks, that's why we saw around 10 in 2 days, delicious alfalfa bucks, Ive learned over all of my strike out seasons that region 3 seems to be all about timing where I hunt, definitely on a migration route, Ive had years where there's non stop sitings and you wake up the next day and it's a complete ghost town...

If your really lucky, they almost run you over!.....
Other times, it's if the place is dead.

[HarryToolips]

Jelvis got them all!
No really I am seeing a large increase in Mulie does over last year same time/hunting area
Snowed heavy at altitude in the Boundary this weekend, sat up in my fav spotting perch and spotted 7 Mulie does 3 with fawns before 11am.
No scientist here but maybe the winter past was harder on the populations of WT than I thought whereas Mulie's pulled through with better success?

Hoochie - same here with the traffic, starting to adapt myself now, positioning myself on known escape trails hoping to cut them off there.
Possibly but even with the hard winter that region 4 experienced, I was surprised at the amount of WT that survived the winter in the area I hunted there..

[albravo2]

I saw two nice three pointers and a large two point this weekend - all in town before 6:00am on my way out

What he said... you see way more bucks when you can't shoot them. Like today, when I packed my rifle away before driving from the cabin out to the highway. Grrrrrr.

[walks with deer]

pretty typical..dumb bucks are dead and smart ones are hiding..
they will show themselves in the rut.
as the winter sets in they will allreafy have moved locations not all but some.
i saw two guys hiking on saturday right beside two bucks feeding..neitheir new the other was there...timing and location..
i also noticed when a cougar comes in the deer leave.