Mature Deer Tactic Discussion

The purpose of this question is to hear the perspective of mature mule deer hunters out there, and it's offered with the acknowledgement that there is no right answer. What do folks think is the best tactic for hunting a pressured mature mule deer?

Let me provide some context to the question. Let's say the buck is still in his summer range during the season, that is he is still on his summer diet and has not shifted due to weather or rut. There are several schools of thought out there. For example, a buck does not leave his home range, but becomes nocturnal. A buck transitions to a remote location within his home range to wait out the season, etc.

Certainly, one cannot go wrong spending as much time as possible in the area where you know a mature deer lives. However, what do you guys think is the best strategy? Do you think one is best off holding steady in an area where the buck's preferred area is? Do you hunt the thick, remote areas knowing there is a good chance the buck will not show himself in daylight? Stillhunting doesn't seem solid unless you specifically know which patch of timber the buck is bedded in.

I'm really curious to read the discussion and perspectives this question generates.

Following along on this one.

If you think he's still in the area, I would hunt that area by glassing for as long as possible from as many different vantage points and angles as possible. You may never find him and will probably have some really long days, but I think that is your best chance. I've blown it a couple times by being overly aggressive.

Again, every scenario is different.

Glass until your eyeball fall out. Track him if conditions are right. Good luck

LAST EDITED ON Oct-12-17 AT 09:56PM (MST)[p]Well I've been hunting mule deer for close to 20 years and I'm a information junky but by no means an expert. I would say your question will have two or three scenario's that could all be the right answer, I believe mule deer are like people and each one has a personality of there own.
Here is a true encounter with 2 deer
I live in the prairies In an area that has very little mule deer presser I watched 2 mature mulie's for a few years that summered in about a 2 mile radius area where I hunt white tails. The bigger deer would disappear as fall rolled around and the leafs began to fall and the other would stay very close to there ordinal area but very rarely showed him self in good light. I would always thing something happened to the bigger deer but the next year he would return in the summer.
Last year driving home late at night in the middle of november with wt season in full swing I see the big mulie cross the road in to an area that I know well, this is over 15 miles from his summer/fall home range. with out a mule deer tag I venture out to try an photograph him the next morning. I head strait to the land owners house to let him know I was heading back in his paster, low and behold I tell him the story and he tells me where the deer is and knows him well. for 3 years this deer would winter in a small coulee behind the farmers house once the cattle were moved out of the quarter section. he would feed right in his yard and even bed amongst some old farm equipment close to the house and then disappear in Jan/Feb .
I have often thought about this deer what what made him move every year to this location, was it safety, food, where he was born, maybe just a preference that this particular deer had?
One of the biggest lessons I have learned about deer hunting is they are complex animals and as soon as you think you have them figured out they will soon prove you wrong!

Don't die dreaming
DIE TRYING!

Thanks for the feedback thus far, guys. And, great story, groundhog999. Your story really shows how unique an individual buck can be. Every deer and every scenario is different, which is what makes it so fun.

So, I agree with all the posts thus far. And, I admit I have a bias to being less aggressive and sitting behind a spotting scope. Some deer's habits are going to make certain bucks more or less vulnerable.

So, to add a little twist to the original question. Do you guys think that there are certain bucks that their habits make them unkillable in the hunting season? Or, do you think all deer eventually screw up (hunting in the rut excluded)? Groundgog999, do you think the deer in your story's habits took him to a place he would not be killed in the hunting season?

I don't think any buck is "unkillable". Pure dumb luck sometimes puts a hunter in the path of even the smartest buck.
However, aside from fateful bad luck, I know of at least one buck that outlived our best efforts. He was a monster that we found four years running during the archery season but we could never locate any other time of the year. His home range was in a heavily hunted area with a well used road down the middle. The last year we saw him, he had to be 9 or 10 years old, because the first year we found him he was at least 4 or 5. The last time we saw him his face had gone white like an old labrador retriever and he walked with a limp. He always ran with other small bucks that seemed to tip off intruders and he knew every escape route in the canyons he lived.
I believe some bucks develop habits that make them ALMOST impossible to kill.

Good point, littlebighorn. Unfortunately, giant deer are killed every year out the window of a pickup. As they say, it's better to be lucky than good. Do you think the buck in your story was still with younger deer, using them to tip him off without being seen? Or, do you think he changed his daily habits when he felt pressured?

>So, to add a little twist
>to the original question.
>Do you guys think that
>there are certain bucks that
>their habits make them unkillable
>in the hunting season?
>Or, do you think all
>deer eventually screw up (hunting
>in the rut excluded)?
>Groundgog999, do you think the
>deer in your story's habits
>took him to a place
>he would not be killed
>in the hunting season?

In my opinion I think that particular deer moved into an area that was safe when he felt pressure, I'm sure there could be many debates on that though.
Is any buck killable? The rut, chasing girls has got us all in trouble at one time or another or if you can get in his bedroom. Bucks spend a lot of time bedded, a good bedding area is big bucks safe haven or just strait up luck will get a lot of bucks killed. On the other hand there are deer that will never leave those safe areas like a national park, wild life refuge ect.
So I would say if he's in a huntable area he can be killed.

Don't die dreaming
DIE TRYING!

My current situation precludes me from caring about your opinion but go ahead and give voice to it anyway...


There are unkillable bucks, but as mentioned above it is because they live in unhuntable ground.

Our big deer almost never get a chance to die of old age if on huntable ground they step out sooner or later and get whacked. 12 years of rolling the dice catches up to them all sooner or later, especially after they get "named". This is mostly due to the printing of so many tags it is just simply inevitable, no matter their IQ.

Try tracking in snow in pre rut conditions if you want a challenge as the old guys are generally solitary without a friend on earth and spook at the slightest reason. You may not kill him but you will taste humble pie and learn a ton about mulie behavior during your pursuit.

Early season "glass more" just doesn't work as they bury themselves in brush so thick they generally jump at under ten yards in their preferred habitat. Only an eagle could spot them curled up in their hidey hole.

WyMont,
I don't know for sure what he did after Archery season when he was in the velvet and visible. Since we never saw him after he lost his velvet, I can only assume he went into the black timber and became nocturnal. I know at times he ran with other very good bucks, but he was always the biggest/oldest in the group.
If I had a guess, I would assume his groups got much smaller and he went into hiding. I'm confident that he died on his own.

>Early season "glass more" just doesn't
>work as they bury themselves
>in brush so thick they
>generally jump at under ten
>yards in their preferred habitat.
> Only an eagle could
>spot them curled up in
>their hidey hole.

Squirrel, your last thought actually hit the genesis of my original question. When you've got a pressured deer acting nocturnal, the short of it is, he's a low likelihood buck to kill. So, any tactic is likely to be unsuccessful. That said, the real question is wait him out or dig in after him? Waiting him out, you're less likely to see him, but higher kill odds if you do. Digging in increases the likelihood of seeing him, but pretty low kill odds.

Anyone had better success with one tactic over the other?

Man, hunting mature animals is so much fun.

LAST EDITED ON Oct-15-17 AT 10:03PM (MST)[p]Digging in can be successful, but I think it is easily the most mentally challenging hunt. The level of concentration it takes to hunt a bedding area phenomenal. Everything has to be seriously slowed down too. Not just the speed which you move through the area, but even the lifting and setting down of the binos, etc., takes care. I've never pulled it off when it wasn't raining and the ground quiet. It takes a lot of faith too, as you are committing a half a day to a couple of hundred yard stillhunt. You have to believe the buck is in there. That being said, I've seen some shooters hunting that way and even got a couple.

In my experience, It all comes down to two things. Possessing the skills and patience necessary to get on a big deer and outsmarting the deer. To outsmart them, you have to think like them and as said earlier, each deer is unique. Your best chances are to spend as much time as you can learning their behaviors. If you can find a Deer in its winter range, that is the Kryptonite to learning their behaviors. They hide less and are more focused on survival. They will not act the exact same way they do in their summer range but they will display their personality that will help you think like them. Things like whether they run and hide in thick stuff or flee from the area to go somewhere else. Whether they find a stable food source and stick to it, or eat wherever they can find food. If they find a place they feel safe or constantly move. What type of terrain they stay in. In my experience, Those same personality traits will be the same in their summer range and help you figure out how to pursue them.

The buck I shot this year, I was able to pattern and watch in his winter range the last 3 years. He wintered in the thickest patch of evergreen timber he could find in his wintering area He had specific times he liked to get up and feed during the day. Those timeframes matched in his summer range. He had preferred food sources and would stick to them rather than feed on whatever he could find. There were several other ?personality traits that helped me to ?think like him? as well as helped me pinpoint him in his summer range. He always stayed in thick cover and hardly went into the open. I spent More than 100 hours patterning him by sitting on him
Elvis, a buck scoring 207 when he was killed, was a deer that would bed in tiny patches of trees next to big open sage brush fields in his wintering area. He would rarely get up during the day but when he did it was always at first light. He never got up until five minutes before dark. He would summer in an area that had patches of trees surrounded by big open ridges. Very similar to his winter range. His feeding patterns matched those in his wintering area. He would feed on whatever was around him and did not have a preferred food source. He would also at random move around to different spots that were almost a mile away from each other during the winter and summer. I had several close calls with filling my tag on him before another hunter lucked into him. More than 200 hours of my time was spent physically watching him. E.T was a buck that scored 211 when he was killed. His wintering range was a wide range of wooded area that made it difficult to pinpoint him. His summering area matched his wintering territory. I was only able to pattern him for a year and had very little time on him before a group of hunters managed to harvest him. Some deer will make it extremely difficult to get on them and not every hunter will possess the skills it takes to get on those deer. Hunting is just like any other activity. Some people have the skills it takes and others just don't.

>>
>
>Squirrel, your last thought actually hit
>the genesis of my original
>question. When you've got
>a pressured deer acting nocturnal,
>the short of it is,
>he's a low likelihood buck
>to kill. So, any
>tactic is likely to be
>unsuccessful. That said, the
>real question is wait him
>out or dig in after
>him? Waiting him out,
>you're less likely to see
>him, but higher kill odds
>if you do. Digging
>in increases the likelihood of
>seeing him, but pretty low
>kill odds.
>
>Anyone had better success with one
>tactic over the other?
>
>Man, hunting mature animals is so
>much fun.



My current situation precludes me from caring about your opinion but go ahead and give voice to it anyway...



The specific habitat I was referring to is above tree line willows , less than 5 yards visibility and 6-10 feet tall. Using rocks and the wind you can flush them out and hope they stop in range (if using primitive weapons).

Best to make the first stalk count while they are still na?ve, than to have to do it though, easy to say, harder to do.

Either way the odds favor him especially if he has the balls to just not move. I got one once who jumped at 2 yards, but I knew where he had bedded. Did not go in cold.

Lots of times the younger bucks will stay out longer and pinpoint the chosen bed of the day even if the senior members are already settled in by daylight.


Tracking in early rifle (October) is a tough game to win but fascinating and intense, you will sleep well after a day of it. Judging of trophy size is difficult as snap shots rule or at best threading a bullet through a softball size hole into what appears to be deer hide below those pieces of antler.

Personally I think an early October mature mule deer is the hardest mulie you will ever hunt, I've certainly been humbled many times, a month later they are the village idiot. A month earlier they are smart but very visible.