I think most of us make a mistake over and over again. We go on a hunt, but don’t make the effort to think critically about 1 thing we learned and will do different next time.
Think about it, how often do magazines write about a hunt, but fail to single out an action item to change in the future? Just 1 thing, maybe something you learned about elk behavior, your rifle setup, clothing, camping system. We can consume all the information we want, but if we don’t change anything, did it really do us any good?
I’d like to start the series of discussions to get us in the habit of reviewing our hunt, and share highlights about the 1 thing we learned on a particular topic. To start, 1 thing I learned about my central Oregon mule deer came from Robby Denning’s book “Hunting Big Mule Deer”. The country was wide open wheat land with rolling hills, some scrub oak trees, and a brushy creek bottom. Most people spent their time perched up on top of the hill trying to see as much of the open ground as possible. I remembered reading that even in this open country, big bucks will hold tight to any cover if they think they can’t be seen.
With this information, I allocated the precious time right before shooting light ended to patrolling the bottom of a brushy creek. It was 75 yards away from a busy highway, and we had driven past it half a dozen times already that day. Visibility was not very far, but just as I was about to put my rifle away, I saw the white rump of a mule deer 30 feet away holding perfectly still, looking back at me. This old buck thought he was hidden and held like a rock. If I had just been driving around or trying to glass as much of the open country like I used too, I would never have been able to see into the brushy mess this deer was holed up in. Now I resist the urge to only go where it’s easy to see a bunch of ground and spend the best parts of the day focused on small patches of cover in an otherwise open landscape. 1 thing learned, then changed per hunt, and I’m a better hunter for it.
So how about you, what is one thing you have learned about mule deer? (include pictures if possible)
Think about it, how often do magazines write about a hunt, but fail to single out an action item to change in the future? Just 1 thing, maybe something you learned about elk behavior, your rifle setup, clothing, camping system. We can consume all the information we want, but if we don’t change anything, did it really do us any good?
I’d like to start the series of discussions to get us in the habit of reviewing our hunt, and share highlights about the 1 thing we learned on a particular topic. To start, 1 thing I learned about my central Oregon mule deer came from Robby Denning’s book “Hunting Big Mule Deer”. The country was wide open wheat land with rolling hills, some scrub oak trees, and a brushy creek bottom. Most people spent their time perched up on top of the hill trying to see as much of the open ground as possible. I remembered reading that even in this open country, big bucks will hold tight to any cover if they think they can’t be seen.
With this information, I allocated the precious time right before shooting light ended to patrolling the bottom of a brushy creek. It was 75 yards away from a busy highway, and we had driven past it half a dozen times already that day. Visibility was not very far, but just as I was about to put my rifle away, I saw the white rump of a mule deer 30 feet away holding perfectly still, looking back at me. This old buck thought he was hidden and held like a rock. If I had just been driving around or trying to glass as much of the open country like I used too, I would never have been able to see into the brushy mess this deer was holed up in. Now I resist the urge to only go where it’s easy to see a bunch of ground and spend the best parts of the day focused on small patches of cover in an otherwise open landscape. 1 thing learned, then changed per hunt, and I’m a better hunter for it.
So how about you, what is one thing you have learned about mule deer? (include pictures if possible)
