MULE DEER
HUNTING EXISTS
ACROSS MUCH
OF WESTERN
CANADA ,
ALTHOUGH
MANY OF THE
BEST AREAS ARE
DRAW ONLY AND
GETTING YOUR
HANDS ON A TAG
CAN BE LIKE
WINNING THE
LOTTERY.
Luckily many areas offer an early general
Archery season, so if that isn’t enough to
get you into Archery, I don’t know what is,
as it can take years to pull a draw tag.
I’ve often chuckled over hunters
chatting and hearing someone say how
dumb Mule Deer are. Thinking to myself,
that in my opinion it is tougher to harvest
a big mature Mule Deer buck than it is a
Whitetail buck. It takes more than just a
little luck to consistently take mature Mule
Deer buck with any weapon. Here are a few
tips that should help you out next time you
head afield with a Mule Deer tag in your
pocket.
wild guide: itching for mulies
the spring, you know they exist and will
have to put your time in to find where they
are spending their time during the Fall.
In other areas, they will be living exactly
where you pick up their sheds.
I remember a buck I hunted hard for two
years with archery gear. The first time I saw
him was a mere minutes after I picked up
one of his massive sheds from the previous
year. I was literally admiring it when I
looked up and there he was on the horizon,
less than 800 yards from where his huge
shed had laid for months. He truly was the
buck of my dreams.
TAKE ADVANTAGE
Pulling a draw tag always gives a hunter
the upper edge, but many hunters just
wait patiently for the rifle season to come
about and head out for a weekend of Mule
Deer hunting. If you want to kill a Giant
buck, it takes more than a weekend to do it.
Remember, drawing a Mule Tag in some
provinces gives you an extended season for
archery as well as a Muzzleloader season to
take advantage of. September and October
are great months be out hunting the
warmer weather and longer days. All I’m
saying is why wait for that little window
to hunt a monster Mulie with a rifle, when
you have the upper edge with archery gear
and the smoke pole as well.
If you are unlucky like me and never
seem to pull a draw tag, you need to hunt
with archery gear. Tis isn’t a bad thing as
there are opportunities for a general tag in
many areas, giving hunters an early chance
to harvest a whopper buck.
OPTICS
The biggest key to hunting Mule Deer
is having the best optics you can afford.
There isn’t much cagier that a big ol’ Mulie
buck, a mature deer with massive antlers
that spends much of his time living in open
country, yet can remain almost invisible.
Plan to spend plenty of time parked behind
your optics, a quality 10X binocular is
a must, as is a spotting scope and steady
tripod. These items will be worth their
weight in gold, helping you pick the terrain
and prairie sagebrush apart looking for
that one glimpse of a massive antler. A
mature Mulie can be one of the most
elusive critters out there, heading back to
their bedding areas as the first glimmer of
light hits the horizon. Get as high up on
a vantage point as you can and park your
butt behind your optics.
Take your time glassing, as the area can
be void of any deer one minute and have
a herd appear in front of you the next.
Mulies are professio