The off-season is tough for avid hunters. We all wait for fall so we get back in the woods and pursue big game. But what do we do in the off-season to get prepared? Scouting can be essential for a successful mule deer season.
There are a few tools and tips I would like to share, that you will want to keep in mind for timing your scouting trips correctly.
As a general rule, you want to start scouting in person, as close to your season opening day as possible. This is because deer are constantly migrating based on food sources. Where you see a nice buck in July doesn’t mean it will be there in October.
Getting the timing right
You want to do your due diligence when scouting. Maybe you are going camping throughout the summer, in the same area you want to hunt this fall, and want to also see what is moving around during this time of the year.
You run into some nice mule deer bucks that you would like to run into again with a tag in your pocket. But it is important to note that the deer are constantly reacting to the vegetation around them.
For this reason, you want to scout in person as close to your actual hunting dates as possible. This ensures that you find the deer in the areas where they are currently eating and living in.
That is not to say you still can’t find the deer in the same area as you did in the summertime, but the situation can change from area to area.
Things like drought and climate change will be affecting the food supply. Mule deer like to eat leafy soft plants and flowers where it can be found. So that is why timing is so important.
If these patches of vegetation where you saw your summer bucks dry up by the time you are in the field hunting, then the deer will have moved on to find other sources of food.
Mule deer really like Geraniums and other leafy plants and flowers. Aspen trees are a great place to look for deer in any season because the environment they occupy provides a haven for other vegetation that deer love.
However, these sources may dry up or change and the deer may move on to other harsher types of food such as the tips of various nearby bushes.
Summer: E-scouting season
When you are in the summer months, this is the time best-spent e-scouting using electronic sources or maps to find out where you want to scout in person closer to the season. There are some great tools out there to help you with this to include:
- Onx (paid service)
- GoHunt (paid service)
- Your state’s game management website (free)
- Google earth (free)
Some of these apps like onX and Gohunt are great for identifying your unit’s boundaries, and then browsing over 3d models of terrain. They are also a huge help in identifying private property and public property boundaries.
Food and shelter
Things you may want to look for are vegetation such as broad-leafed plants, and sagebrush and trees for cover. This will likely make up some desirable habitat. Of course, this will vary based on the region you are hunting. The point is to find cover and food.
Use Terrain to Your Advantage
Once the mule deer habitat staples have been identified, then you want to look at the landscape. There is a lot of land out here in the west. Where are your best chances of channeling this animal? Think of places where you can likely predict where a deer would have to move.
Terrain features like a saddle on a mountain ridge would be more likely to be walked across than the sharp point on a ridge. Use that to your advantage and monitor it closely to see if there is any activity there throughout the day.
Heavily used trails that run through thick timber might be worth your time as well. Just do not spend too much time on the trail itself. Maybe it comes out of the timber into an opening where you can observe what goes in and out.
Access
Next, you will want to keep in mind access. The tools above will help you identify roads that will determine where you will start out your hunt on foot. You also need to keep in mind how you will pack an animal out as well.
I’ll admit sometimes I am so anxious to get out there and find a good deer, that I find myself in some steep country way too far from my truck.
So just consider your situation and have a good plan to pack out your animal for your preferred method.
Backup plans
So you have identified all the great features of the landscape and have found some places you want to check out when you go to the field. One more thing that you will want to keep in mind is backup plans and areas that may be subprime areas to hunt during the season. Why? Other hunters.
You are not the only hunter in the world. After the pandemic especially, the west has filled up with more people than ever who also will want to be out enjoying hunting opportunities. So you will want to identify things like a secondary trailhead, a ridge with a good observation point that may be a little further away from the road.
Think about where you are going to go if someone is in your primary and secondary spot. Think about the following:
- Where would the animals go when they are pressured?
- Where can I use pressure to my advantage?
- Fly-over places: Are there places that are in my unit that I can hunt that most people drive by with no thought?
Glassing in the field
When you have done your due diligence e-scouting the unit you will be hunting and found where you would like to access certain terrain features, it is now time to get out there with your optics and start looking for deer.
Right off the bat, I’ll just mention for any new hunters, that the most active time of any big game animal in the west is generally dawn and dusk. So it would be wise to already be in your glassing position before these times of day, so you can see any animals moving about.
Again the closer to your season the better. Around September and October time frame, the bucks are going to be in dark wooded areas or thick sagebrush with plenty of cover and shade.
This means you have to have extreme patience when looking for mule deer since they generally are not making any significant migration movements.
You need to break up the environment into sections and glass each section thoroughly. Start looking for body parts of the deer. You need to look with that much attention to detail to find mule deer bucks that are bedded in the middle of the day, or have half their body behind some cover.
Hit the trails
If you aren’t seeing any deer where you thought there may be some, it might be time to hit the trails or start covering some hillsides on foot. Start looking for any sign that deer are in the area.
If you know there is fresh sign, at least you know there are deer there. You just have to find them.
If you enjoyed this article, here are some more helpful articles from Pinetrees And Solitude.
- What You Need For An Idaho Mule Deer Hunt
- Catch Mule Deer While They Are Active
- What Should I Bring Elk Hunting? Idaho List
- Hunting Elk In Timber: Tactics To Even The Odds
(This article was originally published on Pintreesandsolitude.com. If it is now published on any other site, it was done without permission from the copyright owner.)