Tips for learning mulies?

Epfd217

Epfd217

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Feb 26, 2014
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376
Location
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Ive been on three western elk hunts now and two of the years in Wyoming we have hunted in good mulie zones and I have yet to see any bucks. Last year I saw quite a few does during an early september hunt and they were way up high. On a follow up hunt late season, we saw a few bucks but they were down low herded up in the brushy draws and season was long over.

This year we hunted in Zone G in Wyoming. We were there for elk and hopefully a little deer scouting for some day down the road. Even with a total of 14 days hunting, late september and mid-november, we never saw any deer. The locals we met were asking if we saw any big bucks and I couldn't even tell them about a doe cause we didn't see any.

As someone who is still new to elk, I realize there is a lot to learn, but so far we've been successful on cow elk two years in a row and each had shots at bulls this year so I feel like we are figuring it out.

Are there some tips or resources to learn more about hunting mulies and how they are similar or different in their habits compared to elk? I'm mainly referring to high-country deer. Thanks
 
Slow down on glassing and get as high as you can to cover as much ground as you can. I have watched deer appear out of no where long after I though all the deer were gone from the area, and they were the bigger boys.
 
I don't look for elk and deer in the same areas. I think the elk tend to crowd out mule deer. This is not a hard fast rule but more often than not I find it to be the case.
 
Speeddmn said:
Slow down on glassing and get as high as you can to cover as much ground as you can. I have watched deer appear out of no where long after I though all the deer were gone from the area, and they were the bigger boys.
Click to expand...

I'm far from a mule deer whisperer, but I have found that glassing is far more important for finding muleys than other game. If you find an area that has deer sign, try sitting, waiting, and glassing. If the deer are there, you'll eventually see them.
 
If you hunted for 14 days in what is Region G in Wyoming, you should have crossed paths with a few deer. My bet is you are used to glassing looking for the big tan bodies of elk, and not small gray deer. Took me a few years to figure out, but Elk hunting and Deer hunting are two very different things. Spend more time sitting in one spot and glassing the country very slowly. Don't concentrate your efforts looking for a whole animal, because you end up overlooking many bedded, or partially covered deer. If your looking for whole animals you end up scanning instead of glassing the country, picking it apart. You need to spend some time looking at some deer in the terrain you are hunting at a distance. You may be looking at deer and not noticing them because your assuming them to look bigger (like an elk). Don't spend too much time looking at big open slopes, look at edges, fingers, avalanche chutes, broken country etc. Lastly, if your there hunting elk, you may be hunting areas that are less favorable for deer. Elk are more or less in grassier type areas (grazers), while deer tend to prefer brushier type areas (browsers). You can find a few deer around where there are elk, but if you want to find the areas holding more deer, get away from the elk.
 
Thanks for the info. I can definitely appreciate the comments about glassing more. I'm trying to become a better glasser, but I have a tendency to scout with my feet.
I also have to agree with the habitat comments from Halface. I have learned that the food sources between deer and elk are very different.

Any other resources you can think of outside of on the ground scouting?
 
When I am elk hunting in September with my bow in good mule deer areas I rarely see mule deer just due to the way I hunt elk. I could go back and hunt muleys and turn some bucks up. Elk Im using a lot of my ears and covering ground. Mule deer Id pack spotter and sit for hours in a spot and glass everything
 
BOHNTR isn't far off. I've been on a couple of sheep hunts and a couple of goat hunts, none my own. We glassed up some impressive mule deer. Time behind glass, and learning what they eat and when seems to be the best way for me. I also like to hunt areas that are heavily timbered. Deer tolerate heavy timber where elk won't. My best bucks came from areas with very few meadows, but lots of lodgepole and fir. Part of that is that the deer can't be glassed easily, and have a chance to grow. The down side, you can't glass them, so you put a lot more miles on finding the deer.

They do live in the same places, but are usually in slightly different areas of the same place.

Jeremy
 
Do you have a good pair of binos, spotting scope, and tripod? I don't think I would hunt muleys (and other game without them). Get up high and spend more time using your eyes than your legs! If you are seeing fresh deer tracks that are running...that's a great sign you are spooking deer well in front of you. Deer often bed with wind to their advantage. Always keep wind direction in mind when hiking and stalking. You may also need to get away from the crowd and hunt more isolated country. Similar to elk...deer move to areas with the least amount of hunting pressure. They often get spooked off the open hillside and head into the trees where they are tougher to find.
 
Glass, glass, glass.

Be looking all the time. We are new to this game, but hours spent looking translates into animals found. They can be in some unlikely spots.
 
I would say I have a low-end of the mid-level set of bino's in 10x42. They are decent for my uses, but I can see there are much better units available. I do not have a tripod or adapter. I honestly don't know where to start with those items as I've never needed them until I started hunting out west two years ago. It seems like glassing is truly the best tactic to locate good deer.
 
No need to complicate it. A used Velbon tripod off eBay and a Vortex binoculars adapter will cost about $40. If you want better stuff after that so be it.

My three tripods are all kind of cheap. My adapters are a mix of various stuff. They work great.
 
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