Madeson
11-11-2010, 10:21 PM
Hello everyone. I’m a pretty new hunter, new to this site, and still consider myself to be a drooling, crawling infant when it comes to hunting experience. Still learning the ins, outs, dos & don’ts.
I could really, really use some area specific advice and tips for a specific ranchland hunting situation. I would appreciate hearing from those of you who have successful experience hunting mule deer and/or Whitetail bucks on ranch land near Merritt and are willing to share a few secrets that will help me bag one of each before the end of this season. Hope to hear from you wily, wizened, hunters who know Merritt well.
Here’s the current situation that has me Mulie stumped so far (and whitetail buck too). I have permission to hunt on a fairly large ranch near Merritt. On this property is both mule deer and white tail deer. But during daylight hours, almost nothing moves on this ranch. There is very little Mulie or white tail deer movement at all that I have seen on my 4 trips there.
Along the length of this ranch is a medium sized creek meandering along with a lot of very thick deciduous trees, grasses, willows, etc. growing either side of it. I’m told White tail deer use this for bedding areas. But I’ve not seen a Whitetail buck yet. On both sides of this creek are fairly steep, high, arid hill sides which hold a lot of Mulies. But only at night, when its too dark to see them let alone see to shoot, do these Mulies come down out of the hills to feed and lay in the alfalfa fields. This last trip, I found a couple of their paths into a particular alfalfa field where they jump the barb wire fence. I picked a large rock about 75 yards up the hill from this fence to sit behind while waiting for them to come out of the field and was sitting there at about 5:45 a.m. It was pitch black, and long before the first glimmer of daylight, when I could see nothing in the field below or the area around me, I could hear them jumping the fence as they left the field to head back up the hill. I’m not sure if the wind was in my favor sitting there, but they passed by probably within 25 to 50 yards upwind of me. I could faintly hear them passing by me; definitely smell them but it was too dark to see them. When it got light enough to see into the field with my binoculars, the field was completely empty of deer. Looking up the hill behind me I saw a number of does bounding away higher and higher away from the field. What has surprised me each trip is these deer are so nocturnal that well before it begins to get light, they are already out of the fields and safely disappeared. The only ones I saw that morning were does. I’d have to guess that the bucks had left the field earlier still.
That afternoon, I tried the opposite strategy. Before noon I found a nice place in the tall grass on one edge of the same alfalfa field in which to hide but with a good view of the field’s fence where I knew the Mulies were entering the field over that barb wire fence. Around 3:30 pm I walked into the field to my chosen hiding spot in the tall grasses. I came from the opposite side of the field in the opposite direction of the hillside. Then I waited for sundown and the hoped for appearance of mule deer. From my ground seat , hidden by the tall grasses, I had hoped to see the deer moving down off the hillside and into the field; identify a legal buck and fill my tag. The wind was in my face the whole time and I'm sure they wouldn’t have smelled or seen me. But darkness came and I saw not one single deer move down into the field from the hillside I was watching. Yet again, just after it was too dark to shoot I caught the distinctive scent of deer musk. They were close but I couldn’t see them.
About 90 minutes after last shooting light that evening, I was driving past the field on the road and turned my headlights into the field to see what was in there. Happily munching green were about 20 Mulies. In the 4 times I’ve been to this ranch to hunt, the only time I've seen bucks is when they’ve been on the road showing up in my headlights an hour or more after last shooting light.
This is frustrating. So I was hoping someone on this site could suggest how to hunt these Mulies that are so skittish, so nocturnal. How does one successfully hunt Mulie bucks under these kinds of circumstances? Is there a technique, a strategy? Likewise hunting for Whitetail bucks. The peak of the rut is coming up shortly. Do you think that might help & if so, what strategy or techniques do I use for Mulies then? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If I get a Mulie or Whitetail buck, it’d be the first of my life. Please help if you can. Thanks in advance.
I could really, really use some area specific advice and tips for a specific ranchland hunting situation. I would appreciate hearing from those of you who have successful experience hunting mule deer and/or Whitetail bucks on ranch land near Merritt and are willing to share a few secrets that will help me bag one of each before the end of this season. Hope to hear from you wily, wizened, hunters who know Merritt well.
Here’s the current situation that has me Mulie stumped so far (and whitetail buck too). I have permission to hunt on a fairly large ranch near Merritt. On this property is both mule deer and white tail deer. But during daylight hours, almost nothing moves on this ranch. There is very little Mulie or white tail deer movement at all that I have seen on my 4 trips there.
Along the length of this ranch is a medium sized creek meandering along with a lot of very thick deciduous trees, grasses, willows, etc. growing either side of it. I’m told White tail deer use this for bedding areas. But I’ve not seen a Whitetail buck yet. On both sides of this creek are fairly steep, high, arid hill sides which hold a lot of Mulies. But only at night, when its too dark to see them let alone see to shoot, do these Mulies come down out of the hills to feed and lay in the alfalfa fields. This last trip, I found a couple of their paths into a particular alfalfa field where they jump the barb wire fence. I picked a large rock about 75 yards up the hill from this fence to sit behind while waiting for them to come out of the field and was sitting there at about 5:45 a.m. It was pitch black, and long before the first glimmer of daylight, when I could see nothing in the field below or the area around me, I could hear them jumping the fence as they left the field to head back up the hill. I’m not sure if the wind was in my favor sitting there, but they passed by probably within 25 to 50 yards upwind of me. I could faintly hear them passing by me; definitely smell them but it was too dark to see them. When it got light enough to see into the field with my binoculars, the field was completely empty of deer. Looking up the hill behind me I saw a number of does bounding away higher and higher away from the field. What has surprised me each trip is these deer are so nocturnal that well before it begins to get light, they are already out of the fields and safely disappeared. The only ones I saw that morning were does. I’d have to guess that the bucks had left the field earlier still.
That afternoon, I tried the opposite strategy. Before noon I found a nice place in the tall grass on one edge of the same alfalfa field in which to hide but with a good view of the field’s fence where I knew the Mulies were entering the field over that barb wire fence. Around 3:30 pm I walked into the field to my chosen hiding spot in the tall grasses. I came from the opposite side of the field in the opposite direction of the hillside. Then I waited for sundown and the hoped for appearance of mule deer. From my ground seat , hidden by the tall grasses, I had hoped to see the deer moving down off the hillside and into the field; identify a legal buck and fill my tag. The wind was in my face the whole time and I'm sure they wouldn’t have smelled or seen me. But darkness came and I saw not one single deer move down into the field from the hillside I was watching. Yet again, just after it was too dark to shoot I caught the distinctive scent of deer musk. They were close but I couldn’t see them.
About 90 minutes after last shooting light that evening, I was driving past the field on the road and turned my headlights into the field to see what was in there. Happily munching green were about 20 Mulies. In the 4 times I’ve been to this ranch to hunt, the only time I've seen bucks is when they’ve been on the road showing up in my headlights an hour or more after last shooting light.
This is frustrating. So I was hoping someone on this site could suggest how to hunt these Mulies that are so skittish, so nocturnal. How does one successfully hunt Mulie bucks under these kinds of circumstances? Is there a technique, a strategy? Likewise hunting for Whitetail bucks. The peak of the rut is coming up shortly. Do you think that might help & if so, what strategy or techniques do I use for Mulies then? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If I get a Mulie or Whitetail buck, it’d be the first of my life. Please help if you can. Thanks in advance.