rtraverdavis
Well-known member
More than anything in hunting, I’d like to kill a big mule deer. The unit I hunt here in Oregon isn’t known for big deer, but they can be found from time to time. Like this one that was killed by a guy I know a couple years back: (not my deer)
But it takes a lot of looking to find deer here, and they’re spread thin in really specific patches of habitat, like this:
My strategy has been to get high, get low, get medium, just get where I could see the most, put binoculars on a tripod, and spend hours looking. But I’m starting to think that for this country at least, that’s the wrong approach. I think I need to move around more, cover more country, and not spend what little time I have on hunts examining the intricacies of each piece of sage brush waiting for an antler tine to flash. I usually don’t have a lot of time on my hunts, what with two little kids and a job that makes taking time off in the fall tough. So in the last five years that I’ve been a hunter, most seasons of which have been spent looking for mule deer in this unit, and I’ve been learning, changing, and trying to crack the code for finding a big deer. I haven’t cracked it yet, certainly not this year, but I can feel it getting closer. I just need some more time.
On these hunts I have, however, gotten to spend some of the best time of my life with my dad. This year I was able to help him get a cow elk. He’s got some serious hip problems, so I had the honor of doing a little retrieving for him:
One more landscape pic, because I like it out there:
I can’t wait to get back at it again next year.
But it takes a lot of looking to find deer here, and they’re spread thin in really specific patches of habitat, like this:
My strategy has been to get high, get low, get medium, just get where I could see the most, put binoculars on a tripod, and spend hours looking. But I’m starting to think that for this country at least, that’s the wrong approach. I think I need to move around more, cover more country, and not spend what little time I have on hunts examining the intricacies of each piece of sage brush waiting for an antler tine to flash. I usually don’t have a lot of time on my hunts, what with two little kids and a job that makes taking time off in the fall tough. So in the last five years that I’ve been a hunter, most seasons of which have been spent looking for mule deer in this unit, and I’ve been learning, changing, and trying to crack the code for finding a big deer. I haven’t cracked it yet, certainly not this year, but I can feel it getting closer. I just need some more time.
On these hunts I have, however, gotten to spend some of the best time of my life with my dad. This year I was able to help him get a cow elk. He’s got some serious hip problems, so I had the honor of doing a little retrieving for him:
One more landscape pic, because I like it out there:
I can’t wait to get back at it again next year.