Recently, I have found myself pondering on some memorable days of hunting. I haven’t harvested that Boone & Crocket deer, but I have enjoyed many moments in the field that would match — or beat — the feeling of that yet-unattainable trophy. I am sure most would agree the experience and camaraderie is our “true” trophy. Experiences like a trip that I took with three friends, near Hanna, Alberta, a few years back.

After learning we were successfully drawn for a mule deer hunt in Wildlife Management Unit 160 — situated just on the south tip of Hanna — we began to plan our four-day trip. Although I was given the tedious task of making calls, lining up access, determining hunt locations and putting together a map, I knew I would be rewarded with a memorable trip in the end.

We had agreed to leave one day early so that we could familiarize ourselves with the area. The open season for both antlerless and antlered mule deer runs from a Thursday to a Saturday — three days. On Wednesday we took it upon ourselves to drive out to the locations and meet a few of the landowners. It was also an opportunity to compare the map with actual physical land locations. The mule deer were plentiful and visible, which gave us the feeling that it would not be difficult to successfully harvest a doe and buck. At the end of the day we had formulated a game plan for the following three days.

The first day came with success with Curtis, Mitch and I each harvesting a doe. It was at the end of day two that I decided to go down a draw by myself, and have the other guys go off on the other side. My intention was to make my way down to where two draws intersected and just sit for the last hour. However, at the bottom of the main draw I had stopped in a low spot when I heard something scuffling. The bouncing of big ears to my left made me take position to one knee. There were several other heads bouncing into the picture — including one with antlers. The first doe spotted me in the snow and hit the brakes, thus causing a chain reaction. The others stopped as well, but the buck couldn’t see me quite yet. I could see antlers coming my way — he wanted to see why the rest had stopped. At the last second he saw me, but everything was perfect — a deep breath and the squeeze of the trigger had put the finishing touches on my three-day hunt. Although he wasn’t the big buck I was hoping to harvest, the way it happened made him the one to talk about. And from that whole experience, I picked up six tactics for taking mule deer.

Coulees & Creek Bottoms

I always use to think that if you pushed deer in a coulee, they would always funnel to the bottom and head out the top. Deer in general will avoid coulees that have wide and open bottoms with no or very little cover and so this causes them to hop-scotch from draw to draw. I have found that if the coulee is of a significant width, mule deer will not head straight across the bottom. They will move parallel to the coulee and travel from draw to draw looking to hold up in some thick cover.

If you have glassed some mule deer on the hillside, the first thing to take note of is wind direction. Whether white-tailed or mule deer, these animals will almost always run with their greater senses to the wind. Secondly, look ahead of them — are there any other draws? If so, then where are they likely to hold up?  Look for the draw that has heavy cover — that is likely a start of where you may want to be when they are on the move.  

It may be a miss the first or second time — but it will not take long to get it right. If on the other hand the coulee is deep but narrow, mule deer will either break over the ridge into another part of the coulee or they will stay low and funnel through. When approaching these deep coulees, quietly get positioned to the edge and take a peek, you may have deer holding at the bottom. Also be aware that you may have deer bedded on the east-facing slopes first thing in the morning. Mule deer in brush-covered creek bottoms, will re-act in the same manner as deep coulees — they will either bust out the top or funnel themselves through.

Pattern Recognition

If you have ever moved deer in a location a few times — you will have seen they tend to use the same trail(s) as their escape routes. Whether it be two or three of these “safe zones” — they will always return to them time after time. If you move a deer from a hawthorne patch and it bursts out over the knoll, heads part-way down the draw and then over another knoll into a second draw and holds up. There is a very good chance that if you went back tomorrow he would do it again. I have watched the same deer move into their safe zones four or five days in a row. The deer are comfortable and feel secure in these locations; they will not venture into the unknown. A big part of being successful in these hunts and any hunt for that matter is being able to effectively pattern deer. I have harvested deer a long way from their forage and bedding areas because I was able to determine where they were coming from and going too. Furthermore, when the pressure picked up I had also learned where their escape routes were situated. Patterning takes a lot of legwork, time and patience — in the case of my mule deer hunt we may not have had the time or opportunity to pattern a buck, but we were still able determine where some would travel from taking our time to look ahead of them.

Think Management

At the end of the day (or the end of the season for that matter) — when you have yet to find your ideal buck — think hard about filling your tag anyway. Today, deer numbers have increased substantially thus creating many vehicle/wildlife collisions. If deer numbers are on the rise and many more vehicles are hitting the highway, the end result unfortunately is more collisions. From province to province thousands of wildlife/vehicle collisions are reported annually. Vehicle collisions are not the only issue — there are others. In some regions, mule deer are getting into feed thus making them a nuisance to farmers. We have long said that hunting is a management tool; therefore if we have it, we should use it as such.