Question : our mid-western bowhunters

[mtshooter]

I was 15 yards from a billy, nanny and kid for 15 minutes. All the time in the world for that perfect shot. Just no tag

I love these encounters

[mtshooter]

With the majority of our Mule Deer and Elk hunting done by spot and stalk it takes a lot of patients and very good optics. Like Royden we hunt the edges of open parks and known waterholes or springs. Mule Deer are different animals though, they aren't like Whitetails and Elk that will follow the same trails and paths daily. They are pretty tough to pattern plus IMO their eye sight is as good as or better than an antelopes, so if you can put one to bed you have to play the wind, the contour of the land, all the luck you can come up with and patients, you do have a chance to come out on top and get a chance to arrow one.

IMO any animal with a bow is a trophy, but a mule deer buck with a bow, no matter the size is a true trophy.

[azslim]

To hunt mule deer and elk don't skimp on your glass. Buy the best you can because you are going to spend some time behind it. To hunt mule deer in the desert you either hope there hasn't been any rain in a while and hunt water or you climb to the top of a mtn and sit and glass. The deer usually bed on the north facing slopes, altho I have seen some goodies down in a wash or out in a creosote flat. Once you find them and watch where they are heading you try to cut them off or wait until they bed then put on a stalk. Pretty much the same for elk unless it is in the rut. Then you run to the bugles and that is pretty exciting. I also use calls with elk. A spike bugle to locate them then cow calls to either call them in closer or keep them in the area. If they bed down you wait till the herd starts moving, way too many eyes to stalk them in bed and if you blow them out of their beds they may not stop for 5 to 10 miles. If you can bed a solo bull then you may be able to stalk. The weather has a big impact too. If it is hot the bulls will sometimes come into dirt tanks for a swim in the middle of the day but are pretty much guaranteed to come in for a drink in the evening. Deer tend to drink more in the morning before they bed but will come in for an evening drink.

The number one thing tho is still good optics. I pack 8x32 bino's, a range finder and 18-45x60 spotting scope & tripod on my archery hunts and 12x42 bino's and the spotting scope on gun hunts. Get to your glassing point before daylight and stay put for several hours - a pad for your butt is nice too.

[Deleted]

Dunno if I qualify for MID-western but I'll throw some thoughts out here anyway.BTW the info above is excellent IMO.

For a first Mule deer , Alfalfa feilds cannot be beat, if you're in an area that has them.Getting permission to hunt them is the trick here.A big key to this style is hunting the travel routes into the feilds, preferrably in adjoining trees sitting next to a good trail.This is where mule deer are most easily patterned (aside from watering holes), as they seem to take the same basic route in and out, so long as no one musses with them, the trouble here is that the smaller bucks and does are usually out on 'POINT' and will bust you alot of the time .I've actually tried to stalk the bigger bucks in the open feild (belly crawl) and it is really tough.Not impossible but tough,usually there are way too many eyes and ears for a close up shot, expect long shots if you venture here.

While you may find nice bucks in the feilds or water, the real trophy animals are usually in places described as above or above timberline where few hunters will venture (most World record bucks are killed in this type of area, in Colorado too I might add ).Big bucks like being up high with the best vantage of the lower land around them, they are difficult to pattern and as mentioned above good optics are the key here.Stalking them whist bedded down is near impossible,the terrain is your ally here,as is the wind.In fact I like the most wind possible here, although it isn't the best for a shot, it is a tremendous help in covering your sound, and it helps cover movement as well.Still, dont be suprised when you make it to your predetermined spot for a shot only to find the deer gone or looking directly at you ;D.BTW if the buck you seek is in the company of does', add about a million points on your difficulty factor as a mature doe will nail you every time .

All in all these are a tough animal to hunt, yes you can kill spikes and two points and three points, and smaller fours all day with a rifle in a hay feild, but a real muley buck with a bow is another story.They don't respond to calls, Scents don't seem to do much, I've heard rattling works but haven't tried it myself ,and stalking is a real challenge.
Younger Muleys are usually curious,standing and looking at you for awhile, which is no doubt where people came up with the 'MULE DEER ARE STOOPID' idea.However a mature buck will vanish in nothin flat.Perhaps I'll share one such story with you folks later on.
Sorry I'm so long winded.
Good luck and good hunting,
Ster

[mtshooter]

Great Post Wapitifever, this has been my point all along. Any mule deer with a bow is a trophy and if you are lucky enough and all things come together, you will have one of the "Ghosts of the Mountain"

You have been Exalted as soon as my hour is up ;D

[Doegirl]

You can almost divide Ohio diagonally from the northeast tip (Ashtabula County) to Cincinnati when it comes to deer hunting. East of that divide-good deer hunting and a decent amount of public land. West of that divide fewer deer, hardly any public land, and getting permission to hunt private land is very difficult. Guess which side I live on Lets put it this way, in my home county,Ottawa, had a total harvest, gun and bow, of 341 deer. The east central counties typically give up 4000-5000+ deer for each county.

[kipohio]

I gues that is true about the line. I live in Ashtabula but I also hunt in Wooster and Coshocton countys. I have never hunted in the west of our state. I think trying to find privite land to hunt is getting harder, I belong in a club with a little over a 100 acres. My wife and I also lease 140 acres with a few friends. the only reason we lease this land is that we have hunted it for years and the preveous owner sold it, there were alot of people trying to lock it up but he let us have first dibs. The farmers are having a hard time and they know that there are alot of hunters willing to pay to hunt.