How would you hunt?

dirtygrass · Sep 28, 2017

My son and I have really good 4th season mule deer tags this year, my father has a second season tag in the same area. I have hunted this area for 20 years and know it really well. My plan is - while scouting and hunting with my father to mark on my map everyplace I see does, and rank the spots by how many does I see. The does seem to stay in the same area year round. The area always has some decent bucks year round but the last weekend of the 4th season many bucks that I have not seen show up. During the early seasons I usually hunt one area and do the same loop with glassing points along the way every day.

How would you hunt the rut for mule deer?

Cover as much ground as you can?
Cover one area really good the whole season?
My plan.
Another way?

elks96 · Sep 28, 2017

Not me, I would be mobile.Yes checking does will produce bucks, but in units I hunt the biggest bucks only seem to be after the 1 or 2 hot doe. Also the 4th is still a little early for full on rut the bigger bucks might still be a little holed up and not out and about. If you are hunting a unit I know, you can PM me and I can give you a better idea on what might happen in those units.

Also in a lot of units where the deer are at during 2nd season are not the same locations where they will be during the 4th. In my units the 2nd they are still really high, they are starting to move and transition from higher to lower grounds. This years early snow may have them a little lower, but the difference between 2nd and 3rd as far as deer location/elevation can be a huge difference.

Mobile and glass a ton. Especially since the bucks, if rutting will likely be extremely mobile....

dirtygrass · Sep 28, 2017

Thanks for the insight, usually the weekend hunt, the last two days are pretty spectacular. The first three days are usually slow for the better bucks. We have an ok local population of deer, slowly on the decline. As far as my plan to watch the does, I would be very mobile its big country most of which you can't drive. Usually during the early part of the rut when one doe heats up she will have several bucks working her. I have three honey holes that hold does year round and they are big areas, usually take one day to look over each one. Im thinking if I watch the does and they don't have a buck, move to the next set of does and so on.

kalielkslayer · Oct 1, 2017

Good luck.

You know the country, that is part of the battle.

dirtygrass · Oct 2, 2017

Has anyone ever tried mule deer doe in heat scent, besides me? I wasn't sure it would work and still not sure it did but...I put out some scent the day before season opened (Tuesday). I dint see much for deer activity where the scent was. By Saturday the place was loaded with deer including several older bucks. The group was about 200-300 yards from my scent pad, downwind, so maybe it worked.

littlebighorn · Oct 2, 2017

While you are covering lots of ground, I would also make sure you are sitting on doe groups at day break and at dusk. Smart OLD bucks will often only show themselves during dim light hours. Also when you are looking over doe groups, be sure and really check the tree lines near them for bucks laying back in the shadows. That has worked for me. I killed a 200" typical during a Colorado third season as he slipped out to check a small group of does.

I had a friend try doe heat scent in CO to help keep a buck around that he knew about. He didn't know for sure, but he killed the 35" monster and it seemed to work for him.
I'd hunt every minute because you don't have many days.
Best of luck and keep us posted.

dirtygrass · Nov 29, 2017

So..I ended up not shooting a buck. I helped my son shoot a decent buck Saturday morning. Tuesday night scouting was pretty phenomenal, saw about 10 bucks chasing does, two decent bucks. Opening morning was even better, saw 5 bucks around 180" with big groups of does. By Wednesday evening the bucks had broken up the big groups of does into small groups scattered all over the mountain. Bucks everywhere, deer everywhere, it was very hard to keep track of things. It seemed to me that the longer the hunt went the more scattered the deer were. I did a lot of moving and glassing, it took discipline to stop looking at 180" deer and move.

So my plan to check on groups of does did not really work. I was looking for 195" or better. I found him in my horse pasture this past Sunday with 4 does. Ha!!

DeerHunter53 · Nov 30, 2017

Hey dirtygrass

I used the hot doe sent a few years ago on a late hunt. The day before I used it I saw maybe 5-10 deer in the area I was watching. I put out the scent on one of those units that have the cotton sticking out of them and put it in an tree.

The next two days I did see an increase in the amount of deer in the area I was hunting. One buck walked right up to it and sniffed it so I assume it was working. Certainly it can't hurt.

I love when they put up their nose and curl their lip when sniffing a hot doe.