Hunting Mule Deer

Think of deer as having travel and behavior patterns there are only 4 needs that a deer has daily.  Food, water, seclusion, and ....   Deer travel back and forth to meet these needs.   Mule deer become creatures of habit.  Once deer get to an area such as a bedding area Mule Deer don't just stay there instead deer continue to move and mill around just as you would get bored with sitting in one spot.   But simply because you found an old trail doesn't mean that they are still there.

Mule deer behaviors become patterns that can be read like a book if you are hunting them.   Deer will travel in repeated and therefore predictable patterns whether Deer live in or Montana.   Deer normally follow the topography of the land so that they take the least amount of energy to get from one place to another.  Deer stay just inside cover along the edges where brushy areas meet fields or trees meet brush.   Mule Deer use connecting woods that connect feeding areas to bedding areas to safely travel.

 Scouting Mule deer in the spring allows your to observe their normal patterns and discover what these patterns are and where to place your stand in the fall.  It is far too late if you are trying to unravel mysteries while you are hunting them.  Which is why 90% of the hunters never harvest a trophy Mule.  Most hunters never scout an area before they hunt it or if they hunt the same area year after year they make the mistake of never scouting new areas.  

Hunting Mule Deer requires that you hunt them where they are.   You can go deer hunting from a tree stand, ground blind or run them down.  You may go deer hunting with a rifle, bow or spear but if you are hunting trophy Mule Deer and deer aren't in the area you wont get one.  If deer are there then you will eventually collect one regardless of your method given enough time.   However if you want to reduce that time then your job is to scout and to find the one spot from which to hunt that has the most deer traffic.

Elk Hunting  Deer Hunting Mule Deer