Mulie Method

[Vital Shock]

I've never really had a good serious mule deer hunt. Got lucky road hunting last year, but am wondering the best method of mule deer hunting? Spot and stalk I guess....? what about still hunting, calling, etc.? Good article in the BC Hunting magazine this fall. What are your thoughts. Im interested to hear some methods used.... thanks.

[d_k]

my success has mostly been still hunting.
I find a nice clearing. something with lots good food water etc.
Look for sign, tracks, poo, lots of trails comming to this spot.
sit your self down with a good view of the entrance trails.
chances are if every thing is right, something will walk out.

[BlacktailStalker]

I would define that as sitting.
Still hunting is usually slowly stalking, looking for game, stopping often for 'x' amount of time and carrying on.
I prefer to still hunt and glass when I'm stationary.

[huntwriter]

I am not a mule deer expert, whitetails are my kind of game, but what I have figured out so far is similar to whitetails. Once the first shots are fired mule deer stay the hell away from logging roads. The hunter that drives along logging roads will get lucky ones in a while. But to see and shoot deer consistently leave the road and walk the ridges or find out the travel pattern and then hang a treestand.

Example: I went hunting yesterday and sneaked - when I say sneaked I mean "Sneaking", not slowly walking - along a ridge top. In no time I discovered a doe, then another and another. Then a small buck materialized seemingly out of nowhere and before I knew it I was seeing 16 deer milling around inside 50 yards from me.

While that was going on I could hear several trucks just below and out of sight driving along the logging roads. I could hear the trucks approach from miles away. I am partially def. Think the deer heard them too? You bet. That was the reason why the deer came to that ridge from across the logging road long before legal shooting light and before the traffic started.

[Jordo]

I think I read that same article in the BC hunting magazine. It was very interesting and It made me wonder as well If spot and stalk was the best method.

[Jelvis]

I find that in Kamloops type of hunting up the north river etc is find a steep hill by the road and hike up and onto the bench or little bowl and you see deer and leave mo$t other$ behind. Once you see the deer moving up there you can go back season after season for a great hunting spot above the road and easier to drag down. This is when you will appreciate your legs and health and eyesight and ears. Then you will say, I got my $pot to inve$t my energy and effort and time to equal a trophy buck.
Jel -- Park it, lock it and hike up a steeper hill to a ridge, and see the buck$
all around mule deer country do some foot work -- effort, time and determination

[husky30-06]

we generally do a group push and intercept... though lots of times I hunt by myself and that method is not possible... when i hunt by myself, I will just walk through a clearing (old and new) watching the tree lines and the small groups of trees in the middles of cut blocks. the last few years I have found myself wandering through areas not accessable to vehicles and even road hunters. i have also been in the situations where I have been tracking a muley buck (usually the bigger) through the bush just trying to out last him as I wear him down..... with the use of my GPS, I will venture well into the bush after a buck and one day I will last that last few miles and get the good shot, usually I zig while he zags and the chase is over....:sad: but what a chase!!!!!!!!:-P

[hoho]

we generally do a group push and intercept... though lots of times I hunt by myself and that method is not possible... when i hunt by myself, I will just walk through a clearing (old and new) watching the tree lines and the small groups of trees in the middles of cut blocks. the last few years I have found myself wandering through areas not accessable to vehicles and even road hunters. i have also been in the situations where I have been tracking a muley buck (usually the bigger) through the bush just trying to out last him as I wear him down..... with the use of my GPS, I will venture well into the bush after a buck and one day I will last that last few miles and get the good shot, usually I zig while he zags and the chase is over....:sad: but what a chase!!!!!!!!:-P


Wowwww That is what we call hunting!!!!

[blacktailslayer]

I like still hunting them in the timber, or cut a big track in the snow and track him down.

[husky30-06]

Wowwww That is what we call hunting!!!!

NOTHING LIKE THE CHASE!!!!!!!!:tongue: Chased one last year... we went 4 km before I had to go and get help from my dad who was about 5km away having lunch. when we got back to the last point of track... we continued on the track and he only lasted about 30 yrds after our chase and bedded down. we picked up the chase form there and chased two big boys and then again we zigged and they zagged and the chase was over. funny...I tried to cut him off and as I was making my way down to the next clearing.... he crossed behind me and dissappeared!!!!!:razz::razz::razz:

[Vital Shock]

thanks for all the great insight!....

[Flingin' Sticks]

Still hunting ridges covered with big old fir trees is usually pretty good, but you've got to move really carefully...the fir ridges are where they bed down quite often. We've also got our high country alpine spots picked when we're feeling a little bit crazy, and that's where we've seen the big boys...

[LYKTOHUNT]

For me it is getting in the timber watch for sign and go slow and I mean SLOW a few steps stop listen watch check your back trail, try to sound like a deer feeding. I do some calling with that little Deer Talk call And it does work, it brings in does that sometimes have bucks following.
Of course when there is snow on the ground if you can locate a group of tracks where they have been feeding recently be on high alert and then go slower.And oh yea did I mention to go slow.

[hawkdog]

The method I prefer (as I dont have a nice farmers field to watch) is to scout a nice cutblock or nice south facing slope that has a seepage at the bottom with lots of aspen and shrubs, one that has lots of sign. Then go at first light or in the evening and sit up high on the slope and watch for deer to come out and feed, got a nice 5x6 using that method.
Seems the big bucks like small openings with good cover away from the road.
Works good if you if have scouted and know there is lots of sign or you have had a chance to glass the area at dusk to see what route animals are using. I used to drive by this one block all the time and see does, so one night i went and watched where they came out, then went back the next night, sat 150 yards downwind and shot a nice 2 point.
Also if driving around, stop before you enter a cut block and walk in and check out gullies, low and high areas of the cutblock where they can hide out of sight from the road.

[r106]

delete

I'll start my own thread
________
Howler (http://www.dodge-wiki.com/wiki/Plymouth_Howler)

[Big Lew]

Although 90% of my mulie hunting is with a bow, it is similiar to "Jelvis" and "hawkdog", although I usually move very slowy, and quietly work my way along rather then sit. (haven't hawkdog's patience) Most of the good bucks I've taken have been beyond the roadside slashes in small shaded or quiet pockets amongst little ridges at the slash edges, or in depressions with ridges that have ample lush food and water in the middle of the larger slashes. I bowhunt during the first week of september, and that is when I find bachelor groups in the middle of large rough slashes without road access, quite often until mid-morning.

[hawkdog]

should mention depends on where u live, where i grew around merritt, its a lot easier to stalk and move around in the doug fir/ponderosa pine forest than up here in smithers wheres it spruce/pine, -- not as open, lots of shrubs its hard to walk quietly, i dont have the patience to watch every foot step.

[BCBigGame]

Good optics and glass, glass, glass, and when you are sure there is nothing glass, glass, and glass.

[The Hermit]

I love still hunting but it isn't effective on most of Van Isl as the salal is thick and loud! So I find most success in setting up on cut blocks and watching the timberline.

[kyleklassen]

sounds like the road thing worked last year.. ain't broke don't fix

[gibblewabble]

I still hunt as well, my grandfather taught me cadence, it goes like this when deer walk they take 3-4 steps then look around or browse so....when you still hunt you take 3-4 steps and pause, look around, 3-4 more and pause, look around. That way if a deer is bedded and here's you coming he will think you are a deer because you are walking in a natural cadence, and I quite often see deer bedded or before they see me. If you break a sweat you are moving to fast for still hunting and when you sit and watch you are stand hunting not still hunting:wink:. I do this on benches or ridges depending on the terrain.

[tackdriver]

Lots of great info for ya here i would like to add when you doo see deer watch them for a while they will teach tons where are the ears pointed, are they watching you, where did they come from, where are they going, how many are there, who seems to be the leader theres always one. Make some noise call a little how do they react. Glass glass glass let me tell you its a big surprise when you think theres nothing and one stands up, happened to me last year except 3 stood up watched them for a while till they layed back down in the slash in the pouring rain once bedded again i could not find them again in the binos at abou 200 yards. Long story short they can be any where and disapear just about any where. I personally believe that we as hunters drive by and or walk by MORE deer than we see.

[tomahawk]

I've used all of the methods, called about a dozen in, some that I had seen at over 400 yds and brought to around 50 yds, others that I had no idea they were in the area and brought to 11 yds. But mostly still hunt the cariboo country with some sitting and watching at times.

[mark]

Lots of good advise here, another quality of a "good hunter" is knowing which tactic to use on any given day. The variables being ...time of season, time of day, terrain, weather, snow conditions etc.

The bottom line when hunting is ultimately TIME...the more time you can put into it, the better chances of success you will have!

[swampthing]

I take it no alpine hunters out there. Well, the alpine of course. nothin but open basins and beauty glassin. eberlestock j107 with bonin tools and a game bag. Warning, this get harder as you get older.

[benbeckoutfitters]

can i suggest something real quick? I was hooked on high country mulies since i was young. My dad took me out on a backcountry hunt when i was 11 and since then mule deer are my number 1. i have killed 3 deer over 170" and one was 31" inside spread. I would suggest getting a couple books from eastmans. one is "high country mule deer" by Mike eastman and the other is "Public land mulies" by david. w long. Unreal books, they will give the best perspectives from spiken out to spot n stockn, to still huntn. Cripes they even give you examples as to where the bed, eat, and breed. Check em out, great books.