Rifle Mule Deer Tag

Good afternoon,

Looking for some advise on hunting these majestic animals. Been hunting black tail all my life and have been very successful hunter. However i have never hunted mule deer in their environment. Complete different style of hunting is what Ive been told when picking a desert type of unit. This is my first year drawing a tag and heading over east. This will be my 2nd year ever heading east. Last year headed over for a spike elk only hunt out of Keating unit. So that being said i honestly dont know much about any of the units out east. I drew a mule deer tag for the Owyhee unit. no ryme or reason why i chose that unit besides of the 85% public land and good statics. Looking for any tips on hunting them in this desert type of unit and if anybody has been successful in this unit. I have hunted steep country here in southern Oregon my hole life and if anyone reading this knows how thick and steep it can be. Not a road hunter at all i put miles on my feet in gods country where there are no roads. Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mule deer numbers have been down for years and Owyhee is one of those units that took it REAL hard this last winter. expect tough hunting.

I haven't hunted it in years but when I did it was mostly around Mahogany Butte, like everyone else.


I'd check with the yocals but I suspect the south half will be better than the north half because the winter was lighter the more you travel south.















Stay Thirsty My Friends

Buy and read Hunting Open Country Mule Deer, by Dwight R Schuh for starters. Buy or borrow a good spotting scope and do some long to extreme long range glassing. Look for areas near water with lots of cliffs, bucks will bed under rim rock cliffs and in deep sage. If there is ag land anywhere close to the area a lot of times deer will use that as well and bed back on the public.

Make sure you are there early before daylight setup to glass and right at dark the day before, still hunting thick cover is also very effective during rifle season as the bucks won't be out in the open as much as early season. I would really suggest getting over there in August to scout, you will be able to glass bucks up much better when they are in the velvet and see what the area holds. There will be bachelor herds of bucks together, once rifle season starts the bucks will be in heavy cover (normally) and alone or in smaller groups. Buy the onXmap app for OR and find chunks of BLM surrounded by private that have one sided access and you may find a hidden spot. Areas with lots of rattle snakes also tend to have more deer especially older deer because a lot of people don't want to deal with the snakes. Robby Denning has a great book out also on mule deer hunting.

Thank you very much for the advise. Are you familiar with the area at all? We are planning to head over there and scout prior to season starting and perhaps it should be August now after your advise. I will definitely look into reading that book and getting that app.
Thank you.