Tips and Tricks for Hunting Mule Deer 2nd Rifle CO

[Fever Buck]

Howdy y’all,

I have a 2nd rifle tag in Colorado (Oct 28 - Nov 5). This will be my first time hunting 2nd rifle in CO. The unit ranges from national forest at 12k ft all the way down to BLM at 7k feet. I’ve never deer hunted during this time of year and really have no idea what to expect. So far, I’ve just been putting escouting points on OnX where I can glass into lower BLM pockets and into higher up drainages. Will the deer simply be where you find them (as the saying goes) or by late October have they started to drop elevation at all? So far my plan has been to glass timber edges all day and hope something pops out. And tips or tricks for hunting deer this time of year would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks y’all!

 

[Hnthrdr]

Very weather dependent, I imagine the bucks will be starting to stage for the rut, so I would guess they will be 1000ft or so higher in elevation than does. Biggest thing is glass, glass, glass, oh and pray for some cold snowy weather to get animals up and moving, if it’s warm, expect the first and last hour of daylight to best. Good luck to you!

 

[Fever Buck]

Very weather dependent, I imagine the bucks will be starting to stage for the rut, so I would guess they will be 1000ft or so higher in elevation than does. Biggest thing is glass, glass, glass, oh and pray for some cold snowy weather to get animals up and moving, if it’s warm, expect the first and last hour of daylight to best. Good luck to you!

Awesome. Good tip. I’ll keep an eye out for does and look higher. Do they ever congregate prior to the rut when they come out in the evening?

 

[Hnthrdr]

Yes if you see a bunch of deer feeding a hillside there might be a mix of bucks and does, I’m sure smaller bucks will be the first to start checking the does out at least that’s what I’m familiar with bigger bucks typically off by themselves now getting ready to rumble in the coming weeks.

 

[Fever Buck]

Yes if you see a bunch of deer feeding a hillside there might be a mix of bucks and does, I’m sure smaller bucks will be the first to start checking the does out at least that’s what I’m familiar with bigger bucks typically off by themselves now getting ready to rumble in the coming weeks.

Sweet. I’m not too picky yet, only harvested a forkie so far. So hopefully a medium sized Buck decides to check some does out early. I believe you also chimed in on my elk post last week so really appreciate all the help on this stuff.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Sweet. I’m not too picky yet, only harvested a forkie so far. So hopefully a medium sized Buck decides to check some does out early. I believe you also chimed in on my elk post last week so really appreciate all the help on this stuff.

For sure man, I’m not an expert. Definitely still have lots of questions myself. Like talking tactics, good luck on your hunt and shoot something that tips your trigger

 

[street]

I've seen a few big bucks pretty close to the does that time of year. Once the sun is out though, they break off and go into thick stuff. Just my experience. Been hunting the 2nd for quite a few years now, it's not like the 4th where sometimes bigger bucks won't leave a hot doe. Again just my experience. The little boys will be with a doe though. The bucks tend to move a lot too from what I've seen.

Comes down to effort and persistence and even then you may not get lucky. Do not miss first and last light.

 

[Caseyj1961]

i too am hunting 2 rifle. FNG here. Unit 85. I‘m thinking I’ll spend time of the purgatory. Gonna set up camp and see. I also bought OTC elk.

 

[adbowhunter]

This will be the hardest time of year to hunt mature mule deer, but its the time of year I choose to hunt, due to personal and professional schedules. It can produce, Weather opening weekend got them moving and I saw several bucks cruising checking does...I think with the warm up we'll see a slow down for the last weekend. I eat a tag quite often but its more because I want to kill mature 4.5+ old deer. Not because I'm better or trying to be some savior for conservation, just the experience of the hunt and being out is what I look for nowadays. I would look to higher country...The recent storms wasn't enough to push big bucks down...

 

[Fever Buck]

This will be the hardest time of year to hunt mature mule deer, but its the time of year I choose to hunt, due to personal and professional schedules. It can produce, Weather opening weekend got them moving and I saw several bucks cruising checking does...I think with the warm up we'll see a slow down for the last weekend. I eat a tag quite often but its more because I want to kill mature 4.5+ old deer. Not because I'm better or trying to be some savior for conservation, just the experience of the hunt and being out is what I look for nowadays. I would look to higher country...The recent storms wasn't enough to push big bucks down...

Gotcha. Thanks for the info. Been hitting it pretty hard and haven’t found a single Buck so far. Pretty discouraged. Only seen one set of does on private the first day. Pretty astounded to not even see bucks in the private farm land. Gonna try to hike high up into a wilderness area to see if maybe I can spot something.

 

[kellyguinn]

Been in S Colorado elk hunting and the muleys are.very thick. Mainly doe but have seen 2 for sure shooters. Both midday

 

[Mpmoody15]

Just got back from CO. I saw multiple bucks per day but didn't fill my tag.

On opening morning, my group decided to sleep in due to the falling snow. That turned out to be a mistake as the spot we hunted for most of the time was full of bucks on Saturday per the elk tag holders. On Sunday I had a decent 3x3 at 400 yds that appeared to be rutty at around 9000ft. He didn't stop long enough for me to get a closer look. Monday was -6 degrees and I saw a herd of big bucks over a mile away. They were spooked and ran uphill to bed in the timber. We saw a few other smaller bucks throughout the week.

On Tuesday, I decided to hunt lower elevations and my buddy had a 4x4 nearly bump into him at 150yds at the higher elevation spot (10000ft). He tagged this one.

I went back up high for the rest of the week. I wish I did better research as I would have picked up a cow tag and OTC bull elk tag. I only saw one cow but she was close. I did spot a 2x3 buck at 800yds thrashing small trees. He came down from timber in the evening then I saw him the following morning go back up.

The weather was progressively warmer throughout the week. On Thursday, my buddy spotted a nice buck bedded up high in the timber over a mile away. I made a move but ended up missing this buck by about 15 minutes as he moved deeper into the timber.

Plenty of opportunity for this nonresident 0pt hunt. Depending on how 2024 in AZ and UT pan out, I'll probably return next year and stick to the higher elevations.

 

[mcseal2]

I just got back with an unpunched tag also from CO. We hunted a new unit we had not been to before. We saw a lot of deer just not the age class I was holding out for. My buddy and I scouted for 4 days this summer and identified some areas we liked that were difficult to get close to with a truck. We figured these might see less elk hunting pressure and be a good starting point. For our hunting trip we drove all night and got to the unit at dawn with 2 days to scout before season.

We had a UTV to get to where we wanted to hike from on both the scouting and hunting trip. 2nd morning of the hunt we broke the lower A arm on the back left of the UTV, spent the rest of the day getting it back to camp with a ratchet strap suspension. The next morning we were at the nearest Polaris dealership when they opened, but they could not get parts before our hunt was over. We lost a day and a half of hunting, plus access to much of the ground we'd scouted.

We hunted some different areas and checked out a lot of the lower BLM. The higher country that you could get close to by truck had a lot of elk hunters. We probably looked at over 400 deer in the 8 days we spent between hunting and scouting this trip. We did not see a buck I judged to be 4+ years old. I did not even find many tracks in soft dirt, near water, or in snow from bucks big enough to be what I was after. My buddy shot a small buck for meat on our last night. If I had it to do over again I should have made the decision early to backpack into one of the higher areas I'd planned to day hunt using the UTV to access instead of spending so much time lower.

Even though I did not tag out, I got to see a lot of really cool country. I know when I go after a mature muley without having pre-scouted target bucks to focus on in a new unit, I'm facing long odds. I like the challenge and accept that it may mean not filling tags. Muleys are my favorite animal to hunt due to how challenging they are for me. I got one buck that breaks 200" due more to luck than skill, I keep wanting to get another big mature buck I can take more credit for.

We may return to this unit when we build points again. We now have enough days spent in the unit I feel like we have a good idea where to invest time on a future trip. Depending on how things fall I may even try saving up for 3rd season next time.

Best advice I can give is to focus on what the deer are eating that time of year, and if there is water available. Once we identified the preferred feed, we tried to focus on it in areas that saw less pressure. If we return to the unit, we will have a much better idea of where to find all these.

 

[Fever Buck]

I just got back with an unpunched tag also from CO. We hunted a new unit we had not been to before. We saw a lot of deer just not the age class I was holding out for. My buddy and I scouted for 4 days this summer and identified some areas we liked that were difficult to get close to with a truck. We figured these might see less elk hunting pressure and be a good starting point. For our hunting trip we drove all night and got to the unit at dawn with 2 days to scout before season.

We had a UTV to get to where we wanted to hike from on both the scouting and hunting trip. 2nd morning of the hunt we broke the lower A arm on the back left of the UTV, spent the rest of the day getting it back to camp with a ratchet strap suspension. The next morning we were at the nearest Polaris dealership when they opened, but they could not get parts before our hunt was over. We lost a day and a half of hunting, plus access to much of the ground we'd scouted.

We hunted some different areas and checked out a lot of the lower BLM. The higher country that you could get close to by truck had a lot of elk hunters. We probably looked at over 400 deer in the 8 days we spent between hunting and scouting this trip. We did not see a buck I judged to be 4+ years old. I did not even find many tracks in soft dirt, near water, or in snow from bucks big enough to be what I was after. My buddy shot a small buck for meat on our last night. If I had it to do over again I should have made the decision early to backpack into one of the higher areas I'd planned to day hunt using the UTV to access instead of spending so much time lower.

Even though I did not tag out, I got to see a lot of really cool country. I know when I go after a mature muley without having pre-scouted target bucks to focus on in a new unit, I'm facing long odds. I like the challenge and accept that it may mean not filling tags. Muleys are my favorite animal to hunt due to how challenging they are for me. I got one buck that breaks 200" due more to luck than skill, I keep wanting to get another big mature buck I can take more credit for.

We may return to this unit when we build points again. We now have enough days spent in the unit I feel like we have a good idea where to invest time on a future trip. Depending on how things fall I may even try saving up for 3rd season next time.

Best advice I can give is to focus on what the deer are eating that time of year, and if there is water available. Once we identified the preferred feed, we tried to focus on it in areas that saw less pressure. If we return to the unit, we will have a much better idea of where to find all these.

That’s good info. Thanks. Unfortunately for me, I never found a deer on public all week. Just insane to me as normally you bump into deer all the time in Colorado. Only saw 2 groups of does and they were on private. Was a ghost town. Pretty frustrating. Gonna give this unit one more try next season as I’m able to build preference points and hunt at the same time. At least I can cross off a lot of the spots where there wasn’t deer.