Hunting Fun

Mule deer hunting is often considered to be easy compared to hunting whitetails. While the bucks of the West generally inhabit more open landscape than whitetails do, they’re far from pushovers, especially because they live in a variety of environments.

If you look at the West from an airplane, you’ll see a mosaic of forests and brushlands. Each area is unique and muley’s must be hunted according to terrain, vegetation, and the climate in which they live.

For example, if you’re looking for deer on sagebrush hillsides across from dense, oak brush thickets, you might spot them feeding there just after daylight in little clearings adjacent to the dense oaks. But if your plan is to search those expansive slopes with little cover all day, you’ll come up empty. Muleys probably feed on those open hillsides during the night, but will move into the oak brush as dawn starts to break.

Yes, if there’s a formula for hunting mule deer, it’s simply to match techniques to the country you’re hunting. In the West, the different environments can be grouped into six categories: desert, pinyon-juniper forests, low brush, high brush, aspen, and evergreen forests.

Each environment has characteristics that hold advantages and obstacles for both the mule deer and the hunters who pursue them. Just as one might expect to have little success at playing the game of golf while using the best techniques for playing tennis, to hunt these deer successfully you need to effectively execute appropriate tactics for hunting them in the specific areas that you target.

So, if successful mule deer hunting is one of your goals, learn about the different environments that they inhabit and the techniques that work best within them. Your results will improve dramatically as you apply your new knowledge and skills in your muley hunting adventures.

By: James R. Nelson

About the Author: