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Team 4

Back up doe since the first was questionable lmao…I got two cameras out at this state park been catching that buck at night in the spot I killed this doe tonight. He happened to show up on my other camera at 5 while i was hunting this spot…lol
 
swing n fling said:
In general mulies are much dumber than whitetails. They are fairly good at getting out of bow range but they haven't figured out the rifle thing yet. If you bump them they'll trot out to 100-200 yards and turn around to see what bumped them. They typically dont give you a third chance to kill them tho. Whitetails, at least the ones Ive hunted, just seem to head to the next county if a fly farts. Ive just gotten into hunting whiteys the last 4 years or so and its a whole different game. Hunting in CO my whole life its been a pretty steep learning curve with those sketchy son of a guns.
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Being from Pennsylvania and having never seen a mule deer in my life I would have thought they were much like whitetails in their paranoia. I’m sure if I were to start chasing mulies I would have the same feelings as you do with whitetail, just the natural learning progression. I do see those videos where guys stalk up to mule deer and shoot them with a bow at 20 to 30 yards in fairly open tall grassland tho. I always thought vids like that are filmed on farms or ranches.
 
Some of them probably are on farms and ranches. That said when bow season comes around, even on public, people haven't been chasing deer for about 9 months. In CO the rifle seasons are short and all done by December with very few obscure exceptions. That gives them a lot of time to chill out until bow season starts early Sept. When they find a safe spot and get confident in it they get pretty comfortable. A good approach with a decent wind and you can stalk right up on them. I feel like the whitetails that I have hunted in the Deep South never get comfortable. They get chased around for a real long season and after that goes out in mid Feb there are still guys in the woods shooting pigs (and probably deer) all year long. They really dont have a chill season where they dont feel pressure so they are wired tight all year round.
 
Bow season started here yesterday. It's going to be in the 80's all week until the weekend when it is supposed to drop to the 60's. Hoping to get out on Saturday evening.
 
swing n fling said:
Some of them probably are on farms and ranches. That said when bow season comes around, even on public, people haven't been chasing deer for about 9 months. In CO the rifle seasons are short and all done by December with very few obscure exceptions. That gives them a lot of time to chill out until bow season starts early Sept. When they find a safe spot and get confident in it they get pretty comfortable. A good approach with a decent wind and you can stalk right up on them. I feel like the whitetails that I have hunted in the Deep South never get comfortable. They get chased around for a real long season and after that goes out in mid Feb there are still guys in the woods shooting pigs (and probably deer) all year long. They really dont have a chill season where they dont feel pressure so they are wired tight all year round.
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I agree. I don't think our deer ever calm down.
 
Haven’t been out since I killed that second doe…I’m starting to get the itch again. I was working 10 hour days when I had that buck daylighting on my cam. That is swamp edge and I knew the movement was going to be heavy it was right after a nor easter I wish I could have got out there. I’m going to hit October hard here at this close by swamp and my travel hunt spot up north. I pinned down a nice travel corridor from two bedding areas I will be hunting up north.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I agree. I don't think our deer ever calm down.
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Having something in season all year round I can see how it puts them on edge all year round. I can also see how it would push them to areas that they feel are safe almost all year round to, but I’m sure your moves have to be perfect.
 
Im headed for a pronghorn hunt this weekend. I wont be chasing any deer until later in November and then right at the end of the contest. Im jealous of you guys that live where there are long seasons and high bag limits but it is nice to chase multiple big game animals each season. Im super lucky to get to taste both worlds.
 
swing n fling said:
Im headed for a pronghorn hunt this weekend. I wont be chasing any deer until later in November and then right at the end of the contest. Im jealous of you guys that live where there are long seasons and high bag limits but it is nice to chase multiple big game animals each season. Im super lucky to get to taste both worlds.
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I’m jealous of your other game seasons. Totally up for a trade?! Haha
 
First hunt if the year is in the books. First hunt on public land and first hunt using the two tether system.

I went to an area where I found some fresh big tracks. Spooked a doe in the way in and that was it. Beautiful night after the rain stopped.
 

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I went out Tuesday and today. All I've seen so far is 3 coyotes and a couple of squirrels. I'm not sure where our deer (singlar) is spending its time, lol. It could be just about anywhere on 50,000 acres.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I went out Tuesday and today. All I've seen so far is 3 coyotes and a couple of squirrels. I'm not sure where our deer (singlar) is spending its time, lol. It could be just about anywhere on 50,000 acres.
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Hunting and scouting public has been an eye opening experience so far for me this year. I've scouted a couple hundred acres of public. The area I've scouted is managed for wildlife and appears to be prime habitat(to me at least). However, I've found considerably less sign and spooked fewer deer on all the public I've hunted and scouted so far than on my 10 acres of private - which doesn't seem to be near as good whitetail habitat.

I definitely haven't put the pieces together yet on public.
 
That seems to be the way it is around here. On the public I hunt it is big woods and there is no agriculture within 40 miles or so. That makes for some very low deer density. I would estimate we have 5 deer per square mile (640 acres). I was talking to a Forestry Service guy the other day and he agreed. They also don't plant many food plots and the few we have become bubba magnets, lol, so I steer clear of them. It is just very hard to actually see a deer, any deer, much less kill one. I'm truly envious of folks who go out and see half a dozen deer in a day.
 
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