Deep Canyon Mule Deer

[brant89]

First time hunting mule deer in the mountains this fall and I've only hunted mule deer once before this, so I'm pretty green. This October we are heading to an area with a good mix of dark timber, aspen draws, rolling sage foothills, and deep rugged canyons. Naturally I'd target the aspens first, but most of those areas are relatively easy access, so I've located a spot a few miles back where we can hunt the border between the dark timber and the sage foothills. My question is, if that proves to be a bust, would it be worthwhile to glass down into the deep canyons from whatever vantage points we can find or would we be better off to move on to another area? I don't hear much talk regarding mule deer in the deep canyons, but our tag is good for whitetails too. Also, how long would you glass an area before switching to plan B (one day, two, three...)? Any advise or insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Mule deer like Sage. Good browse for them. And close to cover is a good recipe for success.

Not knowing what state or approximate area is hard to give good strategy or advice. I can't see it being a lot different than where I hunt. But, getting away from roads is always a good thing once hunting season starts. When bucks get pressured, they tend to head for the nasty stuff where they can hole up during the day.

If it was late Nov/early Dec, my advice would be a bit different.

 

[brant89]

This is what the canyons look like in the area we will be. State is Wyoming. Elevation here is 5-6k and we will be parking the truck at about 8k. I can clearly see trails in the canyon that I would guess to be game trails. It looks good to me but I never hear anything about deep canyon mule deer.

 

[Chadp82]

It is hard to generalize, but I can point out a few things belayed on the image. I have only hunted CO.

I hunted sheep in canyons where the rim elevations were 5-6k ft a couple of years ago. This was my first experience hunting this type of area with the canyons. I was looking for sheep but we saw plenty of deer at the spot in southern CO.

The area to the bottom of the photo on the rim (east rim) where there are juniper or similar may be a good area to glass if you can get above it. Deer will hang in the shrub areas at times. On my hunt we did see a lot of deer in the canyons also near the water. This was about the only fresh water available. We would see them bedded alongside the banks of the stream under rock outcroppings or grazing along the stream also.

If you do hunt the canyons, sit and glass. Glass for as long as you like, but we glassed for sheep for hours from the same spot once we set up. We saw deer in the bottoms frequently tucked in shady spots. They were actually easier to spot than sheep because they would travel the bottom along the water where as the sheep would stick right below the cliffs and at times were right under us. The elk and deer hunters were not in the canyons and I imagine this is part of why some were down there. We saw elk down there too.

If you do hunt the canyons, mark routes to the bottom on your GPS as you see them. You may need to hike a couple miles along the rim before finding a viable path down.

I am sure others have some advice, but hopefully you have some luck. If I hunted the sheep unit for deer I would personally stick to the sage and juniper on top. Packing out of a canyon flat out sucks. Would I do it again, probably. . But it would have to be a nice deer. While walking between glassing points we jumped a lot of deer on the rim of the canyons that were grazing in the sage/juniper areas, but the biggest bucks we saw were in the canyon or right below steep hillsides they could climb/escape in a hurry if something bumped them.

 

[Recon$$]

Don't waste your afternoons. While they won't move much they'll still mill around. The last two years I have shot bucks around noon. If you get in canyons watch the bends hard. They like to bed on them for easy escape routes.

 

[brant89]

It is hard to generalize, but I can point out a few things belayed on the image. I have only hunted CO.

I hunted sheep in canyons where the rim elevations were 5-6k ft a couple of years ago. This was my first experience hunting this type of area with the canyons. I was looking for sheep but we saw plenty of deer at the spot in southern CO.

The area to the bottom of the photo on the rim (east rim) where there are juniper or similar may be a good area to glass if you can get above it. Deer will hang in the shrub areas at times. On my hunt we did see a lot of deer in the canyons also near the water. This was about the only fresh water available. We would see them bedded alongside the banks of the stream under rock outcroppings or grazing along the stream also.

If you do hunt the canyons, sit and glass. Glass for as long as you like, but we glassed for sheep for hours from the same spot once we set up. We saw deer in the bottoms frequently tucked in shady spots. They were actually easier to spot than sheep because they would travel the bottom along the water where as the sheep would stick right below the cliffs and at times were right under us. The elk and deer hunters were not in the canyons and I imagine this is part of why some were down there. We saw elk down there too.

If you do hunt the canyons, mark routes to the bottom on your GPS as you see them. You may need to hike a couple miles along the rim before finding a viable path down.

I am sure others have some advice, but hopefully you have some luck. If I hunted the sheep unit for deer I would personally stick to the sage and juniper on top. Packing out of a canyon flat out sucks. Would I do it again, probably. . But it would have to be a nice deer. While walking between glassing points we jumped a lot of deer on the rim of the canyons that were grazing in the sage/juniper areas, but the biggest bucks we saw were in the canyon or right below steep hillsides they could climb/escape in a hurry if something bumped them.

There's a fairly good access point directly between that location and where we are planning to camp, so packing out should only be somewhat terrible. I don't plan on focusing our efforts in the canyons right off the bat, but it would be nice to have another area to look over before packing out of that basin if we aren't seeing much. My original thinking was that most hunters aren't going to drop in there since there are only a couple places that it would even be possible.

 

[Recon$$]

If they are rutting or close you shouldn't have too. If they aren't you'll end up in the canyon in my experience.

 

[brant89]

If they are rutting or close you shouldn't have too. If they aren't you'll end up in the canyon in my experience.

I'm not expecting them to be rutting since it's a mid-October hunt. It's my understanding that October is one of the most difficult times to hunt them, but the season is only 10 days long. I'm glad to hear that I'm not completely off-base for thinking the canyons might hold some deer.

 

[Recon$$]

If that's the case, personally I'd plan on getting in there moving slow and working the terrain. I'd also break off from my buddy and try and predict escape routes and place a shooter in an advantageous spot while one works an area. They can be tough when they are solo or not moving. Not how I prefer to hunt but I suffer the same non rut hunt garbage in NM.

 

[brant89]

We have a couple good vantage points to glass a lot of terrain, so I think we will probably spend at least the first two days doing that. I'm still undecided on whether we should glass the aspens near the trailhead on opening morning or just move right through to our main objective which is about 3 miles in. That area appears to be on at least two escape routes in some pretty good looking country, so we are thinking that hunters on the other side of the ridge might send something through if the deer aren't already there. We are probably going to stay the full 10 days unless we tag out.

 

[cabelasken]

If there's any mohaganies in the area, make sure you take the time to glass them thoroughly. I jumped an 8X7 out of a mohagany patch twice before I finally caught up to him just before the rut. Towards the end of Oct., he was bedded in a 1/4 acre patch where he could keep an eye on his herd of ladies and on the last day of the season, he had moved down the hill to get closer to them and I finally got him after three tries. On the way out of that bowl, we noticed other nice bucks bedded in small mohagany patches, but all of us had already tagged out.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Muley generally rut in early Nov. End of the first week, and heavy in the 2nd week. Fish and Game has gotten smarter over the years. It seem they try and stop the hunting before the rut really gets into full swing.
Have a good set of binoculars on a tri-pod mount. Spotting Scope would help to really determine if the buck is what you want. Get a good spot to watch from and don't sky light yourself either. Have brush behind you or rocks. Don't stick out like a sore thumb.
Muley ears are about 22" from tip to tip. So the ears stuck out parallel with the horns. That will give you some sort of an idea of wide the horns are. You wants to see the curve to outside the ears. Do some reading on how to judge horns, it will help. If you are lucky and there not much pressure with other hunter. Don't do a lot of walking around and stay our of where the deep bed down. Don't push them. Let the binoculars do the walking. Shots can be anywhere from 20yds to 500+yds. Mike Eastman has a good book on hunting muley.
Don't be talking to others while hunting about what you are seeing. The best is say you haven't seen much and planning on moving. Most hunters just look quickly and drive on. Heavy forest, and aspen the deer only us if being pushed that much.
If in an area where everybody else is. Kind of like Utah were hunting deer open up for week or so. Everybody is out there. After couple of days the deer will hold up in small pockets of aspen to hide in. Most people don't hunt those areas. just drive by. Set up if hunting them to have people to be able to see all the sides. Have people walk though there to push the deer. Go over where it's safe to shot from too. People get stupid when it comes to hunting a deer are showing up and running. So be careful.

 

[brant89]

I can't tell what kind of vegetation there is from Google Earth, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for mahogany.

 

[FEENIX]

This is what the canyons look like in the area we will be. State is Wyoming. Elevation here is 5-6k and we will be parking the truck at about 8k. I can clearly see trails in the canyon that I would guess to be game trails. It looks good to me but I never hear anything about deep canyon mule deer.
View attachment 367707

Pulling the trigger is easy; hauling it up is another story.