aaron_a
New member
Hi everybody. New member here, occasional lurker. I just sold my house in pittsburgh, pa and am traveling around in my trailer for the winter before we settle down in whitefish, mt in the spring.
I am currently in Arizona hunting mule deer (unit 22). This my first time hunting for mule deer, or hunting out west (or even out of my old state of Pennsylvania for that matter). I was hoping some of you folks could give me some advice to help ease my learning curve here in the desert.
How do you cover ground out here/how worried should I be about noise? I feel like every step I take is just earth shatteringly loud. I am trying to get away from the roads a bit to glass the long low ridges in the area I am hunting. But feel like I am blowing every deer out of the unit with my footsteps crunching in the desert gravel. Will deer out here tolerate a bit of noise? I never hunted in a stand in Pennsylvania, but would still hunt the timber, and feel like I could cover ground quickly and quietly while moving through unproductive areas, but I feel like I need to still hunt my way to every ridge or knob here, is this what most people do?
I’m seeing a few doe every day, and a ton of fresh sign and feel like I’m starting to figure out the terrain the deer want to be in, but I have not seen a buck after 3 days. I’m thinking just my walking might be giving any wary bucks plenty of notice to my presence. The area seems pretty busy with a few hunters and tons of recreational ohv traffic.
I am currently in Arizona hunting mule deer (unit 22). This my first time hunting for mule deer, or hunting out west (or even out of my old state of Pennsylvania for that matter). I was hoping some of you folks could give me some advice to help ease my learning curve here in the desert.
How do you cover ground out here/how worried should I be about noise? I feel like every step I take is just earth shatteringly loud. I am trying to get away from the roads a bit to glass the long low ridges in the area I am hunting. But feel like I am blowing every deer out of the unit with my footsteps crunching in the desert gravel. Will deer out here tolerate a bit of noise? I never hunted in a stand in Pennsylvania, but would still hunt the timber, and feel like I could cover ground quickly and quietly while moving through unproductive areas, but I feel like I need to still hunt my way to every ridge or knob here, is this what most people do?
I’m seeing a few doe every day, and a ton of fresh sign and feel like I’m starting to figure out the terrain the deer want to be in, but I have not seen a buck after 3 days. I’m thinking just my walking might be giving any wary bucks plenty of notice to my presence. The area seems pretty busy with a few hunters and tons of recreational ohv traffic.