Still Hunting Mule Deer in the Mountain West?

[AntelopeEater]

Do any of you still hunt for mule deer in the Western Mountains? Like Nevada, Utah, etc.?

From what I gather, it seems mule deer hunting in real life in places like Nevada and Utah seems to involve most hunters spending most of their time on or near roads, glassing, glassing, glassing, glassing for hours and hours.

Problem is, I don't find glassing fun. I like hiking and exploring on foot though.

Plus, outside the rut when the vast majority of hunts that don't take a bazillion points or extreme luck to draw occur, on a typical sunny day the mule deer are usually only active around sunset and sunrise.

On an early September day during muzzle loader season, this means about 10ish hours of the 12ish hours of light are kind of not that useful, at least for someone who gets too bored trying to glass without any deer to watch.

Anyone actually have success quietly walking thru stands of aspens or other trees/brush mid-day "still-hunting" for deer in their bedding areas?

Besides being slow and as quiet as possible, and always keeping wind in the face or up to 90 degrees from the side, and ideally having the sun at one's back as well, any other tips on how to do it successfully?

 

[AntelopeEater]

Oh, and avoiding sky-lining oneself when going over or along ridges, anything else?

 

[Reporchie]

As a youth, we would still hunt thick stuff and I saw one legal buck over 5+ hunt… convinced me to like glassing real quick. Switched to primarily glassing/spot and stalk and went 4 for 6. I’ve always been a fan of glassing in the mornings and still hunting in the evenings. The active period in the evening is just so small that even if I saw something my only move would be to wait until morning. But hiking helps break the monotony and feels more valuable to spend the evenings that way.