When do mulies migrate out of the South Chilcotin mountains?

[Redemption]

What's the migration pattern in Sept/October for the South Chilcotins? How late would an alpine hunt still be productive?

Cheers, Redemption.

[Jagermeister]

It depends on the snow pack. Lots of snow, they’re gone to lower levels. Generally, the monster bucks are the last to vacate.The does and smaller bucks leave when the snow hits their ankles, the monsters when they’re dragging their balls through it. The area you ask about, the migration is toward the west side of the Fraser River.

[Bugle M In]

My understanding, those deer on the west side of Fraser can come from a long ways away.
So said to me by an old x MD Bio.

[srupp]

hmmm does/fawns head west 18 " of snow..the big bucks later I have seen bucks pushing snow to where their neck meets their body..very relable valley where these big old heavy bucks take a valley and head to the Fraser..some days along the FRASER 1,000 deer seen in a day..
thats 40 years of info
srupp

[horshur]

What's the migration pattern in Sept/October for the South Chilcotins? How late would an alpine hunt still be productive?

Cheers, Redemption.
They bail early. First snow.

[dino]

I've hunted the south chilcotins for years. The deer leave early wheather there is snow or not. I've made the mistake and hunted mid September on a few occasions only to see nothing with absolutely no snow hopeing to shoot a large stragler. Timber was also a desert.
In region 8 the deer are up high until late because they have a short migration to winter grounds. Sometimes only an hour or two away.

[Bugle M In]

That’s how I always understood it.
Deer with ling migration routes do have to leave areas much earlier.
Makes sense, as they could not physically endure huge travel plowing snow every step.
I think we all know areas where you see deer in September, think it’s a great area only to find it’s a ghost town come mid October and certainly by November.

Where as, you will see deer chest deep in snow if all they have to do is drop over the cliffs to get to low ground.

And yes, there are times deer get it wrong, and get stuck in high country, because of an early heavy snowfalls.
And the worst situation for them is if the snow was previously followed by rain that freezes the ground first with a layer of ice.
Cant remember the year that was, but it devastated a lot of our md.
Some areas they estimated a 50% loss.

[whitlers]

Seen some decent bucks in the alpine up there in September and harvested a couple in the valley bottoms in October. It totally depends on the year. Like this year it was very warm up into mid October where previous years you had snow in September.

I will agree with above. If their winter grounds are far away they will travel earlier. Makes sense to me.

[swampthing]

I have found they leave the actual alpine early. I believe they lose their feed in the alpine [above treeline] after the first few frosts. I hunt one specific area and if I am not there before sept 15 I never find bucks above tree line.

[rageous]

Early season has the best odds for finding deer in the alpine. And the deer can be somewhat patterned.



October can be a great time to hunt migrating mule deer. But they can really cover ground this time of year.

My observation this year I had noticed lower deer numbers than usual in the late October timeframe where I was hunting. This October was unusually warm which I believe was the reason. Deer were still higher.

But this November had more snow than usual.

[ACB]

I would think it isn't a general thing, ie, all the deer migrate at a certain time or snow level. I'v hunted what is called the southern Chilcotin area and been there in Nov. and have seen good bucks very close to the Fraser R. but that said on the very same trip we had seen big bucks and smaller younger bucks chasing does at over 7,000 ft. in fact we picked up dropped antlers at over 6,500 ft.

[MichelD]

I'm no expert but I know that I have seen hudreds of mule deer on the Blue Ridge Ranch lands between the West Pavillion road and the Fraser River on the November long weekend.

I've hunted along that road all the way to Big Bar ferry and up French Bar Creek road at that time too and never saw a buck, but lots of fresh tracks in the snow. Didn;t see a thing on two trips to Slok Creek in October too.