Trail K: All right, everybody. ⁓ welcome back to the Game Trail Podcast. ⁓ took last week off, but I've got an episode for you this week. ⁓ it's Wednesday. ⁓ it's gonna be a solo podcast. So you're gonna get me at a mic for the next 45 minutes to an hour. ⁓ hopefully that's okay. I've had people express they like solo episodes. ⁓ I know that they're a little bit harder, which is probably why it takes me An additional week sometimes to get one out if I do it solo because I kind of got to get my head right before I can dive into it and talk for an hour. with that, before I get going, I'm gonna hit you with the promo code. You guys can use the promo code GameTrail. That's just G-A-M-E-T-R-A-I-L. ⁓ you can use that if you want to sign up for a Go Hunt Insider account. If you do that, you're gonna get 50 points back in the Go Hunt Gear Shop. ⁓ also if you're shopping in the gear shop and you're already a member, or if you just want to save 10% on Pretty much any gear in the shop, you can do that with that same promo code GAMETRAIL. ⁓ ton of gear in the gear shop. ⁓ I'm always buying new gear. Last week it was some arrows. Seems like I'm always buying arrows. arrows and inserts, veins, ⁓ helping friends get their bow set up. ⁓ it just seems like I'm always buying something down there. ⁓ picked up a new R seven rest. So that's the second R seven from Hamski that I've got in my possession. ⁓ I like it. ⁓ I think I'm probably gonna put the other one on an indoor target bow so that I can do some some indoor shooting once ⁓ the fall's kind of wrapped up and try to get try to get ready for Vegas next year again. ⁓ that's the one archery shoot that I shoot every year, and I'm just trying to basically improve on my scores. ⁓ been up shooting the bow and I finally got it shooting good, got everything tuned up, ready to go. ⁓ like I said, I was building arrows. I bought some arrows this last week from the gear shop. If you guys can see those right there, but I think this is going to be what I'm going to hunt with this year this year. ⁓ this is my you can see right there, it's the A plus arrow. This is the straightest arrow out of the dozen that I built, but it's a ⁓ gold tip platinum pierce 250 spine. ⁓ I've got four mil Easton Nox, the micros, the small guys. ⁓ I like those, they're durable, they seem to fly great. ⁓ on the front end of that arrow, I've got an Easton half out. That's the stainless steel aluminum version, which is 75 grains and then a hundred grain tip. ⁓ total arrow weight, ⁓ these are a little heavier than what I was hoping for. ⁓ but they wrapped up at 492 grains. I was a little bit worried that they were gonna be slower than I would like, ⁓ although they do hit pretty hard. ⁓ but I shot them through a chrono when I was in Vegas last week, and with my increased draw length, which I increased. ⁓ which I've talked about. ⁓ I ended up maybe about 30 and three quarters on the draw length. ⁓ I'm hitting about 295 feet per second with that arrow at four hundred and ninety-two grains. So should be a hard hitting arrow. ⁓ seems to be shooting really good. But ⁓ yeah that's what I did over the weekend. Build some arrows. Like I said, if you want to use that promo code ⁓ game trail, you can get yourself some arrows and build some up for the approaching archery season, which will be here Before we know it, ⁓ and that's what I'm gonna talk about today. ⁓ kind of my my prep. ⁓ I want to talk more specifically about archery mule deer. ⁓ my plans are pretty well set for the year. ⁓ you know, I've got tags in my pockets. ⁓ I got my final unsuccessful notifications from the state of Idaho. So unsuccessful ⁓ for antelope deer and elk. ⁓ those are the controlled draws. Didn't draw any of those. I did. Take kind of a swing for the fences approach. So I didn't anticipate that I would draw, but man, I always hope. And then ⁓ Arizona was the last kick in the teeth. So no deer tag in Arizona, no sheep tag in Arizona. ⁓ so that kind of wraps up for me as far as my applications for the year. ⁓ I do have a full fall though. ⁓ enough that I'm I'm genuinely starting to get a little bit anxious about it. ⁓ I will be gone. Basically from about August fifteenth, ⁓ on an archery mule deer close to home. And then ⁓ I'll move into September where I've got three elk tags, it looks like. So I think the entire month of September I'll be elk hunting. ⁓ and then I've got that Kansas Whitetail tag, which I'll be putting my time in ⁓ probably late October and November ⁓ into. Sounds like a lot of tags it is. I don't know what the likelihood of filling all those permits is gonna be. I like my chances for Mule Deer, ⁓ and that's what the bulk of the podcast is gonna be today. ⁓ I like my chances on on Elk Hunts. ⁓ but you know, three tags in a month is a lot to fill. And to be honest, if I don't fill them, that's okay. you know, I'm I wanna at least fill one of them, put some meat in the freezer. ⁓ if I get lucky and I fail a couple, or if I even fail all three, ⁓ I've definitely got friends and relatives that are going to benefit from putting that elk meat in the freezer. And certainly I'm gonna make some memories. And then ⁓ Whitel Kansas, which obviously I've talked about, I'm super excited about. ⁓ before I dive into kind of the the meat and potatoes of the podcast today, which is gonna be archery mule deer. It's kind of I want to take this. ⁓ a little bit deeper into what I'm going through this time of year and kind of offer some ideas and talk through some ideas that I've got on finding deer and then also being able to kill them. ⁓ I'm gonna look and kind of talk a lot about habitat. I'm gonna talk about scouting quite a bit. ⁓ and it's it's time to get out and and go scouting. ⁓ I've always said that that July fourth weekend, which is approaching way quicker than I I would have thought. Seems like every year ⁓ I've got big plans to get all my summer scouting done, get all my equipment completely dialed and set in. And ⁓ I'm doing I think a little bit better this year than I have in previous years, but inevitably, ⁓ having three kids and you know, my two youngest being a lot more busy, it just creeps up on me. It just seems like my weekends drift by and before I know it, it's you know, July. Which is quickly approaching, as I said. ⁓ that July fourth weekend has kind of been in years past my kickoff. I would say that's like the weekend I want to be out scouting. I wanna be actively looking for a buck. And I've always felt like if I can find a buck or a couple of bucks, ⁓ at least that I can get eyes on ⁓ in that first couple of weeks in July. ⁓ you know, I've I've got a reasonably good chance to kill that buck as long as I've got enough days to put into it, which I do. you know, this year I basically got about the fifteenth of August through ⁓ you know, September first. So I think I've got the time to hunt. I just need to find a buck. And, you know, I'm looking forward to getting out there that first week of ⁓ July and and hopefully some subsequent weekends in July to try to find a buck. ⁓ which has me thinking, ⁓ you know, how do I find a buck, right? So I wanted to to do a podcast on that, talk about what I'm looking for. not just in terms of size and trophy potential, but ⁓ in terms of habitat and ⁓ also kinda how how do you find a buck? It seems like an impossible task at times, especially if you're looking for a buck of ⁓ of a bigger caliber, right? And ⁓ you know I wouldn't I wouldn't mix words or mince words, I guess as the saying goes. ⁓ I'm really looking for a buck that's one eighty plus. ⁓ and ideally ⁓ you know something you know 190 plus ⁓ if it was the first day first morning and there was a you know 175 to maybe 180 inch deer it's a deer I might pass. ⁓ and that's just being honest kind of where where I'm at and kind of my goals for for this coming fall. I think the potential for a big buck definitely exists. And if I got the days to hunt, I'm gonna try to pour those those into it. And really I'm I'm looking for something you know special. And I've been fortunate in that I've been able to kill some good bucks on some general season units in the state of Utah. ⁓ kind of this process, I was trying to think about how to do this podcast and hopefully offer something that would be helpful to people that are going out on a R tree mule deer hunt this year. And as I was trying to sort through it, figure out what to talk about and how to break it out, ⁓ I had this idea, and it's not my idea by any means. I've heard Brady talk about it a bu a bunch, and I've heard You know, other people talk about it as well, but kind of this idea of going through your inventory of previous experiences, you know, deer that you've killed in the past and putting some data to ⁓ those those kill sites. You know, when you first saw them, even, you know, your scouting efforts that went into that, ⁓ the slope, the aspect, the vegetation types. you know, I think I already said the elevation, but ⁓ I thought it would be kind of fun. So basically what I did. Is I sat down maybe two days ago and I made a Excel spreadsheet and I listed out ⁓ nine of my very best bucks. ⁓ I've killed a few others, obviously, ⁓ over the years. ⁓ I've been hunting a long time and I've had some some good fortune, but there was like nine bucks that have jumped out at me ⁓ that I put statistics to. And I thought that would be kind of a fun. Little exercise that I could run through and then ⁓ also, you know, talk about on a podcast. So I'm gonna kind of run through those. ⁓ so I've got nine ⁓ listed out by score. So scored them all out, ⁓ listed by elevation, listed by slope and aspect on where I killed them, and then also listed by vegetation type and then the time of day that I killed them. And I had some there were a couple things that actually surprised me, primarily the the the slope and the aspect. And I'll get into that later when I talk about bedding and kind of where I think dare are more more likely to bed. ⁓ but I was a little bit surprised based on you know where I killed these bucks when I actually sat down and listed it out. So Maybe I'll go through and just kind of list. So my my eight, nine biggest bucks. So I've got a couple of bucks. One that's ⁓ he's just shy of 206. I've got another buck that's just shy of ⁓ two ⁓ five. you know, my third biggest buck's about 193. ⁓ I've got a couple bucks that are 182, 183. ⁓ I've got a buck that just is one just shy of 180. So he's this like 179, some change. And then I've got some other bucks mixed in this that are, you know, 170, 175, 165, kind of in that time frame. ⁓ all these bucks were killed early season. So I'm talking ⁓ you know, August September time frame, which is when my tag is good for it's an archery tag. And you know, most people, if you're headed out, ⁓ if you've got a Colorado archery tag, you're gonna be hunting that September season. ⁓ we're lucky in that some of those states like Utah or Nevada open up in August, which give you the opportunity to hunt ⁓ a little bit earlier. And I do think it's it's advantageous. I think it's better to hunt, you know, those August time frames. I think the earlier you can hunt a buck that you found, you know, the better the likelihood that you're gonna kill Just because they are so much more patternable. ⁓ you know, they're gonna be in bachelor herds during the summer. They've got that red-orange coat. They're a lot easier to see. It seems like they've got much more of an affinity for a home range, like a smaller home range. And it seems like you can turn them up a lot easier. Once you get into, you know, the the middle of September when they start to go hardhorn, they scrape all that velvet off. It does feel like they their senses just get that much more heightened. ⁓ they definitely start to convert that orange summer coat to that gray fall coat. And you know, if you're hunting some of that mixed sagebrush, ⁓ maybe mahogany, even aspen, it just seems like that gray coat they blend blend in a heck of a lot ⁓ easier. They're harder to find. So I really think that that earlier is is better. It just seems like that's when their behavior patterns and kind of their demeanor is more conducive to spot and stock hunting. ⁓ You know, when I looked at elevation, so I thought this was kind of interesting. My two biggest bucks, which I said, the one is ⁓ about two ⁓ six, the other one's two ⁓ five. I was a little bit surprised to see that those two bucks are the two bucks that were the highest in elevation that I killed. ⁓ one being, you know, ten thousand two hundred and fifty feet, the other being ⁓ about ninety one hundred. you know, some of the other bucks that were more notable, ⁓ You know, the one of the let me let me look here. I'm I'm just looking as I'm talking. ⁓ so one ninety-three buck I shot, that was eighty, seven hundred feet in elevation. ⁓ I've got a couple of one ⁓ eighty type bucks that were a lot lower, you know, seventy-three hundred foot in elevation. The other one was seventy-one hundred and forty feet in elevation. ⁓ I even got a buck that I killed that was just shy of one eighty, that's gonna be about six thousand eight hundred feet. ⁓ and I live at like fifty, seven hundred foot here in Cedar City. So you're you're talking mostly open ⁓ sagebrush and pinion and juniper type of country. So some of these bucks, as I look through three of them at least, were in that same belt. And as I went through and kind of listed out the vegetation types that I killed each one of these bucks in, ⁓ you know, obviously it it correlated. ⁓ I've killed buck all the bucks all the way from, you know, the low stuff. out in the sagebrush in the the pinion juniper, the oak type terrain. And then, you know, I've obviously killed them up in the aspen and pine. ⁓ you know, my two biggest bucks were both up in elevation, higher than higher in elevation. So nine, nine thousand foot to, you know, up to ten, two. ⁓ I wondered as they started to look through this, is there a correlation between you know, the size of those bucks being bigger and then the elevation is the feed just that much better at elevation, so that ⁓ you know, they have the the potential to grow bigger. ⁓ that's an interesting thought. I also, you know, there's a there's big bucks that get killed out in the low stuff. I mean, I don't live that far from Nevada, and some of their best units I know are just pinion and juniper and sagebrush type areas, and they kill some giant deer out of there. ⁓ You know, the potential there might be because the permits are so limited. But it does have me thinking, you know, if if you're hunting a general season unit and you've got all kinds of vegetation types everywhere from like the valley floor at ⁓ you know, maybe six thousand feet where you've got that sagebrush, ⁓ pinion junipers belt up to aspen and pine, if if there isn't better, you know, trophy potential. And I guess it it would make sense as you think it through. ⁓ it's ⁓ it was just a fun little thought exercise to go through. it does have me wondering, you know, I've got this tag in my pocket. I know that those types of environments exist within the unit that I'll I'll be hunting. ⁓ do I spend more of my time high? Where historically I have spent a lot of time ⁓ hunting low, even early season. And I think I've said before, probably at this microphone, that I love a low country buck. Especially early, like archery hunt muzzle owner hunt. One of the reasons I really like to hunt a low country buck is because it seems like there's just generally less pressure early season. It feels like a lot of people wanna go up into the aspen and pine and they wanna hunt that 'cause that's cooler. ⁓ the camping is definitely a hell of a lot better. And, you know, if you get a ride out in afternoon, it's a lot easier to find shade. It's a lot cooler, it's just a better camping experience. So I think that's the reason why a lot of people wanna go up in elevation and You know, that's one of the primary reasons why I'd like to go low. But ⁓ you know, kind of looking at some examples over some bucks that I've killed. Maybe there just is better greener groceries at higher elevation and thus the potential for a better buck exists. So I'm gonna have to think about that. ⁓ as my scouting efforts are getting really ready to kick off here in the next couple of weeks. You know, do I spend more time in the high country? ⁓ and I think I probably will. To be honest, I just think, especially on a year like this where it's really dry in southern Utah. It's been really hot. We have not had the greatest of winters. I do think that the groceries are going to be better at higher elevation. So that's one consideration that ⁓ this little exercise already helped me kind of sort through as I process it. And I probably will end up spending most of my time, you know, anywhere from ninety five hundred to, you know, ten, five, eleven thousand foot looking for ⁓ a bigger buck. man, speaking of dry, this fire that's burning. So the Cottonwood fire, I lived, I grew up in Circleville. ⁓ for those of you that might, you know, not know, but ⁓ I saw today on ⁓ social media that they've got ⁓ not evacuation orders, but they've got those those small communities junction in Circleville on standby ⁓ to be ready to evacuate if they had to. ⁓ that Cottonwood fire is is the quickest, largest burning fire that I can remember, maybe other than the Milford flat fire in my lifetime. ⁓ I think I saw on Monday that there were about 750 acres burned. And as of today, I want to say it's what 40,000, 50,000, something like that. ⁓ you know, maybe even even pushing 60,000 acres in two days is just crazy. ⁓ man. ⁓ I feel for feel for those communities. I I certainly would anticipate that some of those cabins that were up there at elevation were lost. man, in the grand scheme of things, it's gonna go do really good things for that landscape and for wildlife. But man, rough. I think we're in for a rough, a rough burn year. ⁓ that was a complete tangent. I dog walked that one all the way, but it was ⁓ on the top of my mind. ⁓ something that really surprised me going back to this data that I I looked at. was the slope aspect to where I killed these deer. ⁓ now when you think about where a mule deer is likely to bed once you get to August September time frames when the weather's hot, you know, my gut would tell me that they would be most likely to bed and that most of my stocks and and kills subsequently would be on, you know, north or east facing slopes, right? if you think about the classic example of spot and stock archery mule hunting where you glass up a buck in the morning, you're probably gonna wait for him to bed, you probably wait for him to get up and feed a little bit and then bed again for that second time. And then after they've bedded for that second time mid morning, maybe ten o'clock or you know, ten thirty in the morning, they're gonna be bedded for a while. Once they've they've bedded kind of that second time, which is where I've had my most success. ⁓ I can I can pretty well ⁓ suggest that they're gonna stay bedded from, you know, that time frame to maybe two or three in the afternoon. So you've got about three hour window there where you can pull off a stock and you can you can get at it. ⁓ so if you think about that, you know, you think that they're mostly gonna be end up betting on those those shady northernly ⁓ facing slopes or you know, maybe those ⁓ eastern slopes, right? ⁓ and that's kind of where You know, my my head was that. That's kind of what I was thinking. ⁓ but as I look through this little exercise that I did, that was not the case. And that one actually surprised me. So as I look through this, ⁓ my two biggest bucks, one was killed on a southeast facing slope, the other one was killed on a south-facing slope. As I look down through the rest of them, ⁓ west facing slope in the evening, ⁓ which is interesting because you think the the sun's gonna set in the west, that would have had the the sun on it. You know, I would have thought he'd have been over on an eastern facing slope in the shade. Not the case. ⁓ as I ran down through the rest of this list, and I'm just gonna read them off. ⁓ I won't co-correlate him to the elevation or the the score of the buck, but ⁓ south, west facing, southeast facing, southwest facing, southwest facing, southwest facing. The only one that I killed was on a northeast facing slope was ⁓ about a hundred and eighty-three inch deer ⁓ that I killed pretty low. ⁓ ⁓ you know, in the afternoon, almost out in a flat. That actually really surprised me. you know, I did an I did not anticipate that to be the case. ⁓ when I get down further into this podcast, I'm gonna talk about bedding areas and kind of some of the things that I've read, but just keep that in mind. I know that for me I've certainly kept that in mind. It's kind of opened my eyes as I I went down through the list of the ⁓ slope and aspect and kind of retracing my tracks and where I killed these bucks. ⁓ it's just interesting. It's ⁓ that's a little tidbit. And it doesn't seem to me that it's completely you know, random. okay, so I kind of ran through that. ⁓ I would encourage you, ⁓ if if if you've killed some deer, if you've been out and you know you're you've had some success in archery deer hunting and I don't care if it's even one, you know, or a couple. I would encourage you to to do this little exercise. Go through and include all the information that you can about those hunts, ⁓ including your scouting efforts where you saw deer. ⁓ that's my next step. There's certainly I have way more bucks that I I hunted that I didn't kill ⁓ than I did. And ⁓ that's gonna be the next exercise is to run through and make a list of those and include this type of information. ⁓ you know, the vegetation type, the the time of day that I killed them, the elevation, anything that you can remember about ⁓ I think you do that, you kind of build up a database. And ⁓ even if you lay those on a map, which I think is a great exercise to do, ⁓ I know that's what Brady does. I think pretty soon you could start to see patterns of where you found success. And you might even be able to start to see patterns in where the best trophy potential lies. You know, distance from a road is another great ⁓ statistic that you can add to your table. The other one is maybe distance from water. I think it would be really interesting to look at that. ⁓ but yeah, I would encourage you to do that. I'm gonna continue to work on that. ⁓ I think it's gonna be a a pivotal point in my scouting efforts. okay, so where to find deer. ⁓ you know, I'm gonna kind of address this just because I I I hope that it can, you know, help people. ⁓ I would say that all things being equal, the more the the diverse the habitat is, the younger the habitat is, the better it it is for mule deer. ⁓ mule deer love a burn. They love a disturbance, they love young plants. ⁓ and while generally I would say ⁓ mule deer prefer more open habitats, ⁓ the diversity of the vegetation type I think is really key. And By that I mean a diversity in the types of plants, the types of vegetation, ⁓ and then also the different age classes of vegetation. So different heights, patchiness, ⁓ you know, young, vigorous plants mixed with some old growth, which you know helps for escape cover. ⁓ I think those types of areas are really built for for mule deer and they they tend to love that kind of stuff. And I think when you're you're scouting for mule deer, I think understanding what they eat is vital. In being able to recognize a country that is is probably going to hold a big buck or just hold mule deer in general. ⁓ you know, mule deer are not grazers like elk, they're they're browsers. ⁓ they have a much more selective diet than an elk. An elk can eat just about anything and get by. And you know, they do. They're as much as I hate to say it, Brady likes to call them mountain carp, but that might be the case, because it does seem like they will graze off a whole heck of a lot more different types of vegetation. than than mule deer will. Mule deer are are much more selective in what they need. And ⁓ they're primarily feeding on forbs and shrubs and maybe some grasses. I know that during summer and early fall ⁓ in the high country, it does offer some of the best forage of the year. And if you think about it, that time frame, summer timeframe, and then you know August, September, right there during you know the heart of the the archery hunt. If you think about that window, it's one of the most pivotal points or the key points for a mule deer in his year because what he's trying to do is he's trying to put on as much fat as he can. So he's trying to put on those reserves for the rut and then also to hopefully help get him through the winter. So they're really trying to pack on the weight and they're trying to prep for the rut. And they're trying to prep for that next, you know, first round of of big snowstorms. And I think if you want to find a mature buck consistently, you need to know ⁓ what they're eating and where they're eating. And a buck won't waste a ton of energy, especially during that time frame. If you think about it, they're not gonna move ⁓ to feed if they don't have to, because everything is important that time of year. Their whole goal is to put on fat and grow antlers. ⁓ So really they're they're going to key in on ⁓ a relatively small area where the food is the best. They're not gonna waste energy traveling to to find feed. ⁓ and that that's just at least in my experience, that seems to be the case. ⁓ I've often said that ⁓ I think the bigger the buck, the older the buck, I think the smaller the home range. I think what they do is they find the best vegetation, the thing that's gonna help them put the most weight on, grow the best set of antlers that they can. For the rut, and they're gonna hole up and they're gonna use that landscape as as efficiently as they can. The reason I think that they do that is because if you think about an animal traveling, especially a mule deer, which is a heck of a lot more prone to predation from a lion than that an elk would be, right? The more that they move, I think the more it opens them up to predation, to issues. So I think they keep a tight home range. I think they get to know it really, really well. ⁓ they may go nocturnal if they have to, if they feel a little bit of pressure. ⁓ they may only feed, you know, right at dusk and right ⁓ right before dark. ⁓ dawn. That's the word I was looking for, dawn and dusk. but yeah, I I th I think they just learn to use that really ⁓ efficiently. And I think, you know, the more secure that they feel, you know, they might feed a little bit more openly, but ⁓ I think they keep a a pretty tight home range. That's why I've said in you know previous podcasts and in this one before, I really feel like if I can find a buck, like if I can just see that buck, if I need a trail camera photo of that buck, ⁓ I can then figure out the most likely areas where he's at. And if I can find those glassing points, ⁓ I can probably turn him up. And I've hunted deer, one of my biggest deer that I've ever killed, which I don't you You probably can't see his antlers, but he's just off my right ⁓ pink or finger right here. That buck right there, I saw him you know, opening day of the archery hunt. I did not see that buck again for what two and a half, three weeks. yeah, about three weeks. And when I did see him, and I actually killed him, he was no more than a hundred yards from where I'd very first seen him. so he hadn't gone anywhere. He was right there in that same little pocket, that same little home range. He'd obviously just using it differently. And maybe he was only using it at night, but goes to show you that ⁓ he was right there. and and that's hard hunting. And I'm not gonna say that's for for everyone, but I think if you you find a buck and you really want to kill that buck, I think sometimes it just takes time, but I would not give up on that area. I would stick with it. ⁓ Going back to diet, ⁓ mule deer are lovers of Forbes. They love Forbes. They love those leafy green, non-grasy plants. They're high in nutrition. And ⁓ I was reading some papers earlier on. I think that I read that new ⁓ researchers have found that forbes make up nearly half of a mule deer's nutritional diet in the summer. you know, they will still browse, they'll consume leaves and twigs and buds from trees, and they'll consume some shrubs. But that ⁓ taste for forbes usually takes them into areas where those plants are the most abundant during the summer. ⁓ I would spend some time, if you're not really familiar with what you're looking for when I say forbes, I would spend some time on the internet looking for what are forbs that mule deer eat. And I would look specifically at pictures of them. I would get to know and be able to identify them when you're in the field. ⁓ Along with that, like I already said, they love that different age class in ⁓ structures of vegetation. ⁓ you know, Colorado High Country, that's everybody's dream to go up into the high country, spot, stock mule deer above timberline. A lot of those videos that you see are guys hunting above timberline, that is those alpine basins. And You know, I I really haven't had a ton of opportunity to do that. it's on the list. I'm building some points in some states that are going to allow me the opportunity to do that. ⁓ unfortunately, here in a lot of southern Utah, that type of terra doesn't exist. But for many of you, that is the type of terrain that you will be going into this coming fall, ⁓ in September to hunt mule deer. When you're looking at those high alpine basins, ⁓ I would be looking for patchiness. So good varieties of plants. I would be looking at willow. So if you've got some subalpine willow in it, ⁓ I would be looking at the height of those willows. Is there a variety of different heights? You know, some taller, some shorter. Are there patches and clumps of them that are kind of scattered throughout a basin intermixed with some open areas? ⁓ you know, those that alpine tundra country, is it intermixed with some? you know, grasses and those succulent forbs, dandelion even, for example, intermixed with ⁓ you know, willows and different age classes of willows. And, you know, as you you start to evaluate those alpine basins, you know, I would be looking for things like those broken rocky outcrops and those avalanche chutes. You know, those little avalanche chutes that sit between, you know, a couple of timber patches that have got those green, grassy ⁓ you know intermixed willow patches kind of in it that is classic you know high country mule deer and if you can find those little pockets those are going to be prime areas for ⁓ good bucks ⁓ that's really what i would be you know be be looking for ⁓ when you talk about lower elevations which like i've already said i i typically hunt a lot of lower elevations ⁓ my first step in habitat may not be ⁓ feed I it will be feed, but primarily you know, I might start looking at water. So if I'm looking at like those Ponderosa pine or those aspen forests, if I'm looking at pinion and juniper and sage brush flats or that oak country, oak brush country, ⁓ you might have some of that mountain mahogany or bitterbrush intermixed into it. ⁓ all that's good feed. Deer can eat all that. There's also going to be some Forbes intermixed down in in that lower elevation country. Certainly less so than those higher alpine basins. But when it comes to looking at lower country, ⁓ I probably would start with water. And from that water source, I'm probably gonna extrapolate it out and I'm gonna start looking for the best feed ⁓ in proximity to that water source. So I'm I'm I'm kind of flipping the script on it that way. I may not be hunting feed. Whereas at Alpine Basins, I probably am. I'm probably just looking for feed because I think, you know, deer are gonna water up there in elevations, but they're probably getting a lot of their winter their ⁓ water intake on the daily from the feed that they're eating. ⁓ even at lower elevations, I think they still get quite a bit of moisture from the vegetation they're eating. But ⁓ where it is lower and it's probably hotter, they're gonna they're gonna end up having to water a bit more often. You know, I would say maybe every day, every other day. ⁓ whereas up in those higher elevations, they may only hit water every three or four days, to be honest. ⁓ depends obviously on you know how much it's cured out and how hot it is, but definitely a difference between the two different types of ⁓ elevation, which most of us are going to be hunting this this fall. So I would say if you're looking low, find water, then fight feed. If you're looking high, ⁓ I'd be looking for those little micro habitats in those avalanche shoots in those alpine basins that have a good intermixed ⁓ range of species and age class of species. ⁓ yeah, so really again, just to to rehash it, ⁓ best eat feeding zones, I think they've got a variety of nutritious plants, a variety of age class in it. They've got a ⁓ proximity, so close proximity to bedding cover, ⁓ you know, relatively low human. or hunting pressure ⁓ also is a a nice thing to have and one that's really rich in Forbes and ⁓ I think if you find that you'll probably find find some deer. ⁓ I'm gonna touch on pressure real quick and I'm not gonna go too deep, but ⁓ when I was looking I I did my little exercise and I ran through you know my my nine best bucks that I've killed. ⁓ I was curious as to distance from roads or distance from trails. And I'm not gonna go deep, ⁓ but I am going to say, a lot of my best bucks are not that far from a road. They're really not. They're really not that far from a road. ⁓ shockingly close to roads in a lot of cases. ⁓ they are in areas that are not readily glassable. So areas that are not ⁓ Areas that are just no brainers, like every Tom Dick and Harry is driving down the road and popping up to that single glassing point and spending a bunch of time behind it, they're not being seen from those types of areas. They're in micro areas. So they're in smaller areas, not that far from roads, but ⁓ are glassable if you're willing to get creative and you know, do a little hiking on on your own. ⁓ just a tidbit. That I picked up when I did this little exercise. ⁓ so that's all I'm gonna say about pressure. ⁓ betting. So this is something I wanted to talk about betting. so the research that I did, read it reading online, ⁓ certainly, you know, talking and reading from a bunch of different bow hunters that are, you know, more successful than I am. ⁓ and then, you know, what I could read online. ⁓ a lot of people suggest that north and northeast aspects often hold the densest. Patches of timber. So you're talking mahogany, ⁓ pine, aspen. ⁓ those are the areas that are shaded. Those are the areas that have the coolest ⁓ temperature in the soil. They've often got a lot of good vegetation growing in that because the the soils are generally cooler and better. and they they use those to to stay cool, meaning that deer don't necessarily have to get up and you know, re-bed during the day when when the sun hits them. ⁓ I will I'll go on and say so northwest aspects. ⁓ generally suggested that they're highly favored in the early mornings, which should make sense if you think about where the sun comes up. ⁓ as the sun hits those eastern slopes and those southeast slopes, ⁓ bucks will often transition to those northwest-facing slopes, sustain the shade ⁓ while still being able to retain you know visibility and and ⁓ the thermals as they're moving up the hill. All that makes sense to me. As I read it, it absolutely makes sense. I don't think you should cross those off your list, but I will say going back and looking through the examples of the bucks that I've killed, most of them were on southernly facing slopes, which I find interesting. So I'm also not going to to to cross those off. again, this is one of those things where, you know, real life practical experience might, you know. conflict with with some of what the the data suggests or you know what research suggests. And I'm not saying that that's wrong. I'm just saying that a lot of the deer that I've killed have been on south, southeast, ⁓ southwest facing slopes even early. ⁓ and I've killed some bucks where, you know, the very limited shade, not that much shade, but they found the shade. And reality, ⁓ it might have made them more easy to kill because I I don't have as much Of those big thick timber patches to sort through to try to find a buck. Whereas if I can find one on a southernly facing slope, he's probably limited on his options for shade, which made those make those ⁓ those pieces of vegetation easier landmarks as you're moving in closer to them. ⁓ so yeah, just interesting, food for thought. ⁓ okay, moving on to kind of some scouting efforts. you know, what are you looking for when you're scouting, right? ⁓ so I would say for me, I am looking for a specific buck. I'm looking for a buck. And I'm not just simply hunting ⁓ habitat. I'm I'm really looking for, I am hunting habitat. I'm looking in the best habitat, but I'm looking for a single buck. And when I'm when I'm scouting, before I've even find a buck, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to break down the mountain into smaller areas. That are going to be more effective for me to hunt when the fall rolls around. ⁓ one of my very favorite questions to ask really successful arch cream muulder hunters that I've had on the podcast is when you go into an air new area, you've never hunted it. And in a lot of cases, if you're coming from the Midwest or the East, there's a very high likelihood that you won't have the opportunity to come out and scout. So you won't have a a buck found. So, you know, all your scouting is going to be done via e scouting. You know, maybe talking to some people, biologists, game wardens, that kind of thing. But in a lot of cases, you're not gonna have had any eyes on the unit. You're not gonna have any idea of what, you know, a buck that you're looking for. and one of my like I said, one of my favorite questions is to ask these really successful mule deer hunters is, you know, are you looking for a buck or are you looking for a area in that unit that is conducive? To finding mule deer and to spot and stock hunting. And in a lot of cases, their answer has been I'm looking for an area that's conducive to spot and stock hunting. ⁓ I've hunted bucks on multiple occasions, which is fun, that I have been unsuccessful in killing, which is not fun, because the areas where I found these was extremely difficult to spot and stock. The types of vegetation, the terrain, just was not conducive to spot and stock hunting. And so when you're scouting, that really leaves you with a decision. So if you're looking for a buck of a lifetime, a buck of a lifetime not he might not be in the area that is most conducive to spot and stock hunting. There's a reason I think that some of those bigger bucks live in those more difficult areas because they're harder to kill. and I think it really leaves you with a decision. ⁓ I think you gotta decide when you're doing your scouting, is you know. Do I look for, you know, a buck of a lifetime? He might be impossible to kill with a bow and arrow. Or am I looking for an area where I am likely to find some deer and it's more conducive to spot and stock hunting? ⁓ so I think you gotta be, you gotta kind of go into your scouting, especially if you're e-scouting with that mindset. And I guess I would encourage you to kind of set your expectations, do some thinking about that. And and kind of decide. because I think if you are trying to fill your permit, you're trying to maximize your chance of killing a buck. I think it makes more sense to scout areas that are conducive to spot and stock hunting. So you're looking for areas that are ⁓ you know, a little bit more open that have more predictable ⁓ you know, betting areas, you know, areas that have got those. Classic cliff bands where you're gonna have some bucks that are gonna bed up underneath them, or you know, those alpine basins where it's not so thick and they're gonna kind of bed in those willows, or they've got a few patches of timber versus an entire north facing slope that's completely timber covered where you have no idea where that buck is going to bed. ⁓ you know, I've killed some of my better bucks in areas where you had a lot of aspen regeneration, not conducive to spot and stock hunting. It's very, very, very tough. But that's why that buck lived there, I think. ⁓ so I think as you're scouting and you're kind of looking doing your e-scouting before the season starts, ⁓ I would do some thinking about that. ⁓ is the area conducive to spot and stock hunting based on the vegetation type thermals? Are they, you know, more predictive? Does it have that classic look where the buck is likely to bed up underneath a rock or a ledge where he's got some shade and I can come in above him? You know, is it some more open country? So I wanted to include that because I definitely think it's a distin a distinction that you have to make before you go on your hunt. And definitely is as you're doing your scouting, whether it's on your computer or in the field, ⁓ you know, what what's your goal? And ⁓ you know, be realistic. And I would say for most people, especially if you're coming out of state, look for those areas that are more conducive ⁓ to it. ⁓ okay. This is kind of a last little note that I wanted to include. Things that I do during scouting. ⁓ so when I am scouting, ⁓ I'm gonna be out here, I think, most weekends in July, and then definitely a number of days in those first couple weeks of August. you know, what do I do when I find a buck? Well, I I will say for me, finding glassing points. Identifying areas, then finding glassing points. Those are my my first two big steps. ⁓ I am going to be there well before dark. So probably 20, 30 minutes before ⁓ before light, I should say. I'm going to move midday to another one because I want to cover as much country as I possibly can. ⁓ I'm going to stay after dark. I'm going to glass clear until dark, till it's too dark to see. ⁓ I'm gonna put my time behind the glass. I'm gonna cover as much ground as I can as I find a buck. you know, I'm gonna key on an on him, and I'm I'm probably going to start watching that one individual buck. ⁓ I think it's good if you can find multiple bucks, but I think if you find a buck that really trips your trigger, like that is the buck you want to kill. I think the more time and effort you can put into getting to know that buck, the better off you'll be. ⁓ I want to know. the date that I saw him, every date that I saw him. So I'm gonna write that down. I want to know the times that I saw him. So I'm gonna write that down, keep notes of it. ⁓ the location. So I'm gonna drop a pen in ⁓ my maps. I'm probably gonna name that buck because I don't know. It just feels like if you name them, you start to build this personal relationship with them, as stupid as that sounds. ⁓ it makes it a lot easier to refer to that book should you have some help if you want to talk to a buddy and say, Hey, I saw old, you know, Max or whatever that dare's name is. ⁓ it's a lot easier to talk about them. So I'm gonna name them. ⁓ I want to collect digiscoping footage. I want to note things like the weather. So I want to know what the temperature is like. I want to know the direction the wind is blowing. ⁓ I want to make notes about the cloud cover and kind of how they react to it. ⁓ I might look at the weather forecasts both previous and post when I saw that bug. And I might be able to use that as a predictor should those same weather conditions come available later in the fall and being able to predict where that muck that buck might be. I want to make special note of what time of day that the thermals changed. I want to make note of where the buck bedded. If he stayed bedded for how long, when he got up, where he went. I want to definitely mark his beds if I'm able to watch him bed. I want to be able to document the travel direction. So which way did he come from? Which way did he go? I want to know how long he stayed. ⁓ I want to make sure that I make note of any kind of hunting pressure so ⁓ or scouting pressure if there's camps. Along the road, if I saw bootprints, if I saw anybody else in the field that was glassing, I want to know how many. I want to know the direction they came from. all those types of things. I'm gonna build out essentially a profile. It's like you're building ⁓ you know, you're a lawyer and you're out, you're about ready to prosecute somebody for murder. You want to ⁓ build out this entire case and almost have a file on that individual animal and that buck. ⁓ and I think. If you're able to do that for multiple days, your chances of killing that buck go way, way up. you know, I've I've told I've told this story before. you know, my my two biggest bucks, when I became aware of them and I found them and I knew what I had, which was, you know, a two hundred and six inch buck and another one that's like two ⁓ five. ⁓ when I found those bucks, I essentially told my wife, ⁓ I'm I'm gonna move in. I'm gonna move in with this deer. ⁓ I'm gonna live with it. Like I'm gonna spend as much time as I can this summer. And, you know, once the hunt starts, I'm gonna hunt this buck as many days as I possibly can. Some days I had to break up into like three and four day ⁓ weekend trips, but you know, I I hunted those bucks as hard as I possibly could. which might sound selfish, and it is. ⁓ you know, there's no no mixing words, ⁓ definitely selfish endeavor on my part. My my wife has been ⁓ understanding. ⁓ and you know, I appreciate that. She's been a great mother to my kids for sure in and helping me out while I've been gone. ⁓ but it's a sacrifice, a sacrifice definitely on your family's behalf. ⁓ I just know that for me that's like what does it for me. It's it's what I love. And I just couldn't live. I couldn't live with myself knowing. That a buck like that existed on landscape and I had a permit in my pocket and I did not give it my maximum effort. ⁓ and it worked out. And I will tell you that on the back end of that, it's one of the deepest levels of personal satisfaction that I think I've ever felt. It just really felt like I accomplished something. And ⁓ you know, that ultimately that's like the the feeling that I'm that I'm craving and chasing with hunting and you know, specifically with bow hunting. ⁓ so I would I would encourage you if that's what you're into, definitely take notes, do your homework. ⁓ hopefully something I said here on, you know, helping you find deer this year will help. And then, you know, hopefully you picked up on something ⁓ in regards to how to build a a case file on these deer. And, you know, I my hope is that you'll you'll find one. You'll feel you'll feel your tag on a on a buck of a lifetime because there's really no no feeling like that. ⁓ I've often said, And I think this is the case. I've I've always said all your hunting gets done in the summer. All the hunting gets done in the summer. ⁓ that's when you kill a deer, is in the summer. And then opening day is for for really killing a deer. The more that you can know about those deer in the summer during your scouting season, the better it will be come opening day. And ⁓ you know, I really feel like that's the case. I think it's part of the process and I think that's what makes it fun. ⁓ I like to I like to dog on mule deer hunting a little bit, but ⁓ I do certainly love the challenge. And you know, there there really is a sense of satisfaction with killing a big mule deer because it is so hard. ⁓ where I think mule deer, archery mule deer hunts are one. And specifically, I'm gonna wrap up with this. So where I think they're w they're one is where they are betting. So classic spot and stock, which is most of the cases for us when we're hunting with the bow. We have to know where they're bedding. We have to know their favorite beds. We have to know, you know, which direction they travel from ⁓ feeding to their bed in the morning. ⁓ ideally you kinda understand also where they're feeding from their bed toward, you know, feed in the evening, but you gotta know their bed. That is critical. That's you know, where they're they're one. ⁓ f I would put feeding, probably secondary. You know, ambush hunting is a possibility for archery hunting, maybe ambushing a buck as he feeds to or from a a source. ⁓ so I definitely want to know that. ⁓ it's definitely, at least in you know, my opinion, it's not as ⁓ doesn't work as well as, you know, spot and stock hunting on a buck that's bedded. But I do want to know where they're feeding, and that can be a piece of the puzzle, especially if the buck is prone to bedding in an area that you you just don't know. You can't see him, so you can't get close to him. So if that's the case, I want to know where he's the most likely to feed ⁓ when he leaves that feeding area and you know the route that he travels towards his bed. And then lastly, I would I would put water, and this is You know, these last three that I'm talking about, these this is in terms of actually killing the buck. ⁓ you know, finding, I think these are all important, but when when we're actually get down to killing a buck, I would I would rank ⁓ bedding, feeding, and then water. ⁓ I've known guys that have shot deer off of water. I don't think it's all that common, especially as you move through a lot of these northernly states where water is is more readily available. You know, some of those areas that are more arid and dry, Arizona, Nevada. You know, some of that country you might be able to set up on a water source, an ambush hunt. It's just less effective in in my opinion. you know, it might work. And and really I think I've talked about this with elk hunting, but I think you have to be ⁓ pliable. You gotta be able to adapt your hunting strategy. ⁓ you know, I remember I remember hunting a buck a number of years ago. He's a five by five by five. ⁓ he's got, you know, inline tripods on his back end. He's a really cool buck, but you know, I couldn't kill that buck. He was just in a spot that was kind of open, and I just could not figure out a way to get to that buck before he made timber line. And once he hit timberline, I had no idea where he was betting because it was just a sea opinion of juniper, just everything looked the same. I had no idea he could have been anywhere in that big sea. And ⁓ I tried to figure out how to how to kill that buck. I tried ambush, I tried getting over there. ⁓ you know, I was never really early. early enough to like catch him and I was kind of in the wrong spot. I couldn't get the wind in my favor. And I I hoed and hummed about this for a really long time. And ⁓ you know, I remember I remember having this feeling like I didn't want to get too close to him because I was afraid of blowing him out of the country. And I think this is a big mistake that people make. I saw Travis Nowotney, ⁓ who's arguably, you know, top five, I would say, if not the the best. That guy's an incredible spot stock mule ear honor. ⁓ I saw him talking recently about being aggressive. And I basically remember him saying, you know, you can you can sit there on a hillside and you can watch deer, you can watch a buck, you can fall in love with just sitting there and watching them and never make a stock because you get ⁓ you know, too intimidated or too worried about blowing that deer out. It's like, what if I, you know, what if I blow him out? I bump him and I never see him again. ⁓ whereas if you just sit there, you know you'll probably see him tomorrow. You know, real reality is you're you're not gonna get a shot at him, you're not gonna kill him because you're just sitting there. And he kinda went on to say, you know, make the stock. You know, do everything that you can. A lot of cases the stock is not perfect. You know, the win may not be absolutely perfect. You may not know exactly where the buck is, you know, you might have a general vicinity. But but make the stock, you know, do your homework, do everything that you possibly can, but make the stock, you know, go for it, right? And, you know, that's that's kind of what happened with this buck is eventually, ⁓ you know, I just made the decision, like I I just gotta go over there. Like I the wind's not perfect. ⁓ it's pretty open where he's feeding, but I'm gonna have to get as close as I possibly can. So what I did is I went over in the middle of the night, dead middle of the night. I think I backpacked over there at like midnight and ended up going down into the bottom of a ravine. And just slept in the bottom of the wash. And I got up the next morning and hiked up as close as to where I thought this buck would be on where he passed through. ⁓ based on, you know, watching the previous days. And I remember thinking the wind was not perfect. It was a little bit swirly, but I had to get close, right? ⁓ so I got close and you know, as luck would have it, that buck feeded fed by the wind held during that little time frame just enough that he and you know the group of deer that he was with that they fed by. And ⁓ they were not in range, but they were close enough in range that I was able to then get to the edge of the timber with them and, you know, actually see them, kind of get an idea on where they were headed. I was able to sneak in and get a shot and and ended up killing that buck. But You know, I had to take some risks, I had to take some gambles, I had to think a little bit outside the box and that like, hey, I'm gonna have to go there over there in the middle of the night. I'm just gonna have to get as close as I possibly can to where I think he's gonna be in the morning and just risk it and go for it. So I would say, you know, if you find a buck, you wanna kill that buck, you know, you might have to get creative in the way that you do it. You know, it might have to be an ambush. ⁓ it might have to be you setting up in his bedroom so that he feeds back into you in the morning. ⁓ but yeah, get creative, think about it. ⁓ that's gonna be the podcast for the week. ⁓ I don't know how long that one was, but hopefully you guys found something that was interesting in it. ⁓ if you guys got any other tips and tricks, I'd love to hear them. So, you know, shoot me a DM if you think I missed something. But thanks for listening to this week's podcast and ⁓ get ready to get out and and do some scouting. I hope you all have ⁓ you know, a happy Fourth of July weekend if I don't get another one out before then. man, we live in an incredible country. ⁓ we we really do. And ⁓ I know that every fall when it rolls around, my opportunity to get out there and experience ⁓ hunting on public lands where anybody can do it. You know, anybody can get a tag, anybody can go out and roam around and test their wits with these big wiry smart mule deer. I mean, that does not exist most places throughout the world. So ⁓ yeah, we we really do live in a an incredible country and I hope you guys have a a happy Fourth of July celebrating it. So with that, ⁓ that's the week's podcast. ⁓ you know, get out and do some scouting, find a giant buck.