distance and water for mule deer

utarchery

Active Member
Messages
506
i know this is quite a bit early but it has been killing me for awhile now. ive been hunting a couple really nice bucks for 3 years now and i cant seem to pattern them let alone locate them 70% of the time. i cant seem to find their water source as the only springs there have been dry for about 5 years now and the only other water i know of is a reservior thats close to 5 or 6 miles away. ive hiked every canyon and drainage imaginable in july and there is NO WATER! so i guess what im getting at is how can i pattern these bucks? should i make a water source?
 
Pattern their bedding areas. That's what I would do. Most of the really old bucks I have ever killed had very specific bedding spots that they used. I am not an archery hunter but if I did locate a hiding spot of one of these bucks I would not stalk it unless conditions were absolutely perfect. If you blow an old buck out of one of these safety beds he won't be back there.
 
Some claim that mule deer will indeed travel 5-6 miles to water if that is all that is available. Of course, in that scenario, they won't water on a daily basis...they will get water from other sources, such as various vegetation; including cactus as well.

There is an area I hunt in Wy where the only water for several miles are a couple of guzzlers. Most summers, the guzzlers dry up. I have found a couple of steep and deep canyons that will hold rainwater on their solid rock bottoms for months after a good rain.
 
I tend to agree with tristate. I haven't had much luck with water. If you do find a good water hole for deer, it seems the smart bucks only come in after dark anyway.

Eel
 
I would think that they hang around that resivore and don't go very far from it do you know if the travel away from it
 
My opinion is there are some wise old bucks that survive by not following a pattern. They live in a core area, but know the landscape so well that from day to day they can choose from multiple spots in multiple canyons to bed, eat, and water.
My son and I hunted such a buck 4 years in a row. He lived in two main canyons and often show up on the same open hillside. But as hard as we tried we could never find a pattern. We would always find him from a distance in that general area. Then once we located him, we would try to put him to bed and then stalk in on him. In the four years we got close several times and once my son got a shot at him, but the wind drifted his arrow, just past that old bruiser.
The last year we saw him he had a limp and his face was getting grey like an old dog. He gave us the slip that year as well and we haven't seen or heard of him since.
So, my advice is to just keep after him and maybe he will make a fatal mistake.
 
>Pattern their bedding areas. That's
>what I would do.
>Most of the really old
>bucks I have ever killed
>had very specific bedding spots
>that they used. I
>am not an archery hunter
>but if I did locate
>a hiding spot of one
>of these bucks I would
>not stalk it unless conditions
>were absolutely perfect. If
>you blow an old buck
>out of one of these
>safety beds he won't be
>back there

i did find one of their bedding areas and they would come in to bed around 8 or 9 and would be there till 2 or 3 sometimes but only once a week or so in july. last year they did the same thing but then two weeks before the opener they disapeared. i had put my ground blind in there and it didnt seem to bother them and i practally lived in that thing for the whole archery hunt but they never came back. i wonder if the trophy rock had something to do with it
 
Obviously I wasn't there so I can't tell you for sure but if I had to imagine someone went in there scouting before the season opened and bumped them out of there. Many people don't understand you have to scout like you hunt. In and out silently and let your glass do the walking when you can.

Better luck next year.
 

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom