I've made the trek twice now to the Big Horn Mointains of Wyoming. I'm Looking for anyone with experience hunting Mountain Muleys. I'm not sure if this type of terrain would be considered hill country or something of a different caliber. I'll be Gun Hunting this October and would like to shoot a respectable Buck. Previous two years I've one taken small public land bucks on the last day within hours of the time we head back. Eventually I'm looking to bow hunt in the Buffalo area of the Bighorns. But that's in a few years.
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Mule Deer hunting Big Horn mountains Wyoming
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Re: Mule Deer hunting Big Horn mountains Wyoming
Wish I could help you out but have never been. I'd love to hunt out there one of these days!
- stash59
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Re: Mule Deer hunting Big Horn mountains Wyoming
Lived and hunted mule deer in Montana. With my serious hunting done in SE Montana. Around thanksgiving. Not really mountainous. But big hill country near private with hay fields. Lots of open areas mixed in with Douglas fir stands and some kind of thick nasty brush in the lower shaded draws.
I would get high and walk the ridges glassing the edges where the timber met the openings. For feeding and rut chasing bucks. Or the ends of the finger ridges (similar to what Dan calls military crests) for bedded bucks.
In October the bucks main attention will still be on feed. Get in touch with the local biologist and find out what types of food sources the deer will be concentrating on at that time. Figure out what these plants look like and where they usually grow. Then find these types of locations on topo and aerial maps.
Like mature whitetail bucks. Older muley bucks like to bed with some cover at there back if possible. Although they will bed behind a tree or bush if that's where the flat spot is.
Remember that unlike elk mule deer prefer south facing slopes. So if the area has lots of timber the south and west facing slopes will hold more deer. Like elk and whitetails they will use small flats and benches to travel and bed on. Look on topos to find these. Locate ares that are steeper with a spot where the contour lines are just a little bit farther apart. Sometimes this is an area with just enough of a flat spot to bed in. Still hunting these more open timbered southerly slopes can sometimes be quite productive.
I'm no expert but hope this helps.
Good luck! Chuck!
I would get high and walk the ridges glassing the edges where the timber met the openings. For feeding and rut chasing bucks. Or the ends of the finger ridges (similar to what Dan calls military crests) for bedded bucks.
In October the bucks main attention will still be on feed. Get in touch with the local biologist and find out what types of food sources the deer will be concentrating on at that time. Figure out what these plants look like and where they usually grow. Then find these types of locations on topo and aerial maps.
Like mature whitetail bucks. Older muley bucks like to bed with some cover at there back if possible. Although they will bed behind a tree or bush if that's where the flat spot is.
Remember that unlike elk mule deer prefer south facing slopes. So if the area has lots of timber the south and west facing slopes will hold more deer. Like elk and whitetails they will use small flats and benches to travel and bed on. Look on topos to find these. Locate ares that are steeper with a spot where the contour lines are just a little bit farther apart. Sometimes this is an area with just enough of a flat spot to bed in. Still hunting these more open timbered southerly slopes can sometimes be quite productive.
I'm no expert but hope this helps.
Good luck! Chuck!
- hunter_mike
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Re: Mule Deer hunting Big Horn mountains Wyoming
I wouldn't call myself "experienced" but I did get my toes wet on my first out west trip last fall in SE Idaho. I posted about it on here, link to the thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26782&hilit=idaho
I put some maps and stuff in there.
That hunt was pretty tough because it was really hot and dry (noisy movement) and I came into the hunt thinking I would be able to spot and stalk, but really I couldnt do that because there was so much trees and vegetation I couldn't usually see very far.
One other thing that I have heard twice from two totally different sources (both experienced sources, one is an elk guide, the other was an elk hunter I met out in Idaho) they said that you will see lots of the younger bucks hanging around kind of random, but the big slob muley bucks will be loners and will hang out in nasty rock outcroppings.
Good luck!
I put some maps and stuff in there.
That hunt was pretty tough because it was really hot and dry (noisy movement) and I came into the hunt thinking I would be able to spot and stalk, but really I couldnt do that because there was so much trees and vegetation I couldn't usually see very far.
One other thing that I have heard twice from two totally different sources (both experienced sources, one is an elk guide, the other was an elk hunter I met out in Idaho) they said that you will see lots of the younger bucks hanging around kind of random, but the big slob muley bucks will be loners and will hang out in nasty rock outcroppings.
Good luck!
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
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Re: Mule Deer hunting Big Horn mountains Wyoming
I hunted outside of Casper 5 or 6 times in the 90's when I was in my teens. Spent the mornings going from draw to draw and checking what was in there. Once the last morning came, it was glassing hill sides and maybe a few pushes of draws. It takes time but glassing ridges always paid off more than pushes. Then would spend the evenings going from draw to draw checking for deer feeding. Mountain Lions had a lot to do with our success. The year populations were low we would see a lot of nice bucks, including a bachelor group of bucks that I swear were all over 190". I'll never forget the site of those three before they busted me and I could get a shot. The years the Lion population was up it was a whole different story. Some good country, fun to hunt the last time we were out there we got snowed in for 4 days in an old linesman cabin that was over 100 years old and hadn't been stayed in since the early 70s. The trip out to the road usually took 60 minutes, getting out after the snow storm took 18 hours.
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