I'm definitely over analyzing as I approach my Wyoming Mule Deer hunt. Admittedly, I've never gone out on a mule deer buck hunt.
I'm obsessing over where to focus my time - elevation wise - for an October 1-14 hunt. I mean, this probably describes everywhere, but this unit encompasses sagebrush rolling flatland, sagebrush and aspeny/timbery foothills, to thick thick timber mountains. The only glassable areas encompass the sagebrush, aspeny, timbery foothills, (and of course the sagebrush rolling flats) yet this is the "transition" zone for mule deer in this area for when winter starts to hit. I'm fairly certain winter really won't start to hit too much in the first half of October to cause this "transition" zone to really light up. Cross my fingers fingers. Yet, my other school of thought is that Mule Deer can really be found anywhere there is food, water within, what? a mile? and cover, and this seems to make this transition zone quite ideal.
From my perspective I seem stuck to the transition zone cause I'm not too interested spending upwards of 8 days blindly still hunting thick timber and occasional little open meadows. Maybe I should spend a day on the BLM rocky lowland areas?
For those of that have hunted Mule Deer in Wyoming in the not so easy time of year that is the first half of October, have you found that things are just really slow and you have to be lucky in these 7500 to 8800 foot zones before the snow hits? Or am I correct in thinking that if I glass these steep hills covered in sage, aspen, and pine, that I'll be finding bucks?
Before I started obsessing over this I figured these areas would be ideal, but this warm september combined with my neurotic brain and having to wait until October to do any hunting is causing me to overthink this daily.
Success is good in this unit, over 50%, I've never been too worried. But the more time I spend in this office chair on slow work days the more I analyze and over analyze this. I want a public land buck in this unit - I do have a private land option in my back pocket if I suck so hard or the hills are so barren that I come up empty handed after the first five days - but that's not what I'm looking to do. I shot a deer there once on a meat hunt, I wanna go out and find my own Muley Buck.
I'm obsessing over where to focus my time - elevation wise - for an October 1-14 hunt. I mean, this probably describes everywhere, but this unit encompasses sagebrush rolling flatland, sagebrush and aspeny/timbery foothills, to thick thick timber mountains. The only glassable areas encompass the sagebrush, aspeny, timbery foothills, (and of course the sagebrush rolling flats) yet this is the "transition" zone for mule deer in this area for when winter starts to hit. I'm fairly certain winter really won't start to hit too much in the first half of October to cause this "transition" zone to really light up. Cross my fingers fingers. Yet, my other school of thought is that Mule Deer can really be found anywhere there is food, water within, what? a mile? and cover, and this seems to make this transition zone quite ideal.
From my perspective I seem stuck to the transition zone cause I'm not too interested spending upwards of 8 days blindly still hunting thick timber and occasional little open meadows. Maybe I should spend a day on the BLM rocky lowland areas?
For those of that have hunted Mule Deer in Wyoming in the not so easy time of year that is the first half of October, have you found that things are just really slow and you have to be lucky in these 7500 to 8800 foot zones before the snow hits? Or am I correct in thinking that if I glass these steep hills covered in sage, aspen, and pine, that I'll be finding bucks?
Before I started obsessing over this I figured these areas would be ideal, but this warm september combined with my neurotic brain and having to wait until October to do any hunting is causing me to overthink this daily.
Success is good in this unit, over 50%, I've never been too worried. But the more time I spend in this office chair on slow work days the more I analyze and over analyze this. I want a public land buck in this unit - I do have a private land option in my back pocket if I suck so hard or the hills are so barren that I come up empty handed after the first five days - but that's not what I'm looking to do. I shot a deer there once on a meat hunt, I wanna go out and find my own Muley Buck.
