Patterning Mulies

I'm pretty new/novice to Mulie hunting. I got on a good one this weekend but couldn't quite make it work. On the second morning i saw him, i got to within 100yds before he slipped into a ravine. He really seemed to just come out for like 30 min at first light and then go right back into cover. My question is do they generally keep the same pattern this time of year, and does it get easier or harder to pattern them as the season goes on? I saw him within 200 yds of the same spot both mornings, and felt like if i had one more i could have had a pretty good chance at him. Not sure when or if i will get back out there, probably will be at least a month.

Patterning Mulies?

You have a better chance Predicting Women IMO.

guywhofishes said:

Patterning Mulies?

You have a better chance Predicting Women IMO.

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Haha, yeah that's kind of what i was thinking. I just don't know how much these things tend to wander in the badlands, or if they will generally stick to a certain area.

they will typically pound the same alfalfa field or ditch for weeks - I know that

I've tried to pattern them that way with no success - but I'm no deer patterning expert by any stretch

I've heard of guys pattering them but are easily bumped out to some other place. I would just try staying on him but I wouldn't hold my breath that he will be there next weekend

To a point when they become hard horned little harder and out of their bachelor groups. Now you have seen one of his escape routes keep track of that and now there is a few secondary ones you need to find. The closer is comes to the rut the harder it is to get a pattern.

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I have been watching the same deer in the same area for 3 years and have not killed him yet hopefully this is the year

I went with my son one year.
For three days he had me sit at various hills both morning and night while he did the same.
At first nothing and then for a few minutes it seem like the mule deer where like mice coming out of the woodwork. Same every day.

Finally on the third evening he had me sit on a hill to watch as he was going to sit in a spot that the deer would come by before the sun went down.
And that is how the hunt ended with his bow kill on a mule deer buck. db

I just scout and drive around a ton. Never have really been able to find a pattern for the bucks.

I pursued a group of muley bucks really hard one fall. I just never could get an arrow into the bigger three bucks even though I had several opportunities at some of the smaller ones. The problem for me was there were just too many eyes as it was a group of about 7 bucks (from forks up to a couple really nice ones) and about 8-10 does/fawns. Mule deer are just really different than white tails, they will often stick within about a 2 square mile area using the same pathways this time of year, but if you push them too hard they will be over in the next township by sunset. Once they move, it's hard to know when they will come back.

Yeah i was careful to not push him, he didn't ever know i was there at any point. He was kinda by himself for the most part, there were other deer in the valley but he didn't really seem to be moving with them. The first morning he was near two does, the second morning he was near and sparring a bit with two smaller bucks, but both mornings he moved away from them and back into the thick cover very early.

Yes, mule deer can be patterned but just based on the type of country they typically live in, they can be a bit more unpredictable. Earlier in the season you'll have much better luck sticking mule deer to a pattern than later in the year. They typically have fairly large "home ranges" and will use all of it. I have a friend who hunts mule deer hard all year and watches cameras pretty consistently. One morning he tracked a buck that he saw at a watering hole over three miles away from that watering hole. Had pictures of that same deer the next day at the same watering hole. As stated earlier they will have numerous routes into and out of specific areas and you're best off knowing them all, because the one you don't know is the one that buck will use to bail on you.

So that’s patterning? Sounds more like a game of leapfrog.

To follow up on what my son did.
It had a lot to do with the terrain he was working plus there was a small field (maybe 10 acres at most) of green whatever in that area.
The mule deer where coming, again due a lot to the lay of the land, a couple of different ways to that field where the greens where growing. So it was just a matter of sitting up shop(it was a ways away from the greens), hoping they continue to use that same path which they did as they had been doing.
Not sure if that is patterning but one sits and watch and one should be able with some luck to outsmart a deer in time.

My last hunt 3 years ago for my granddaughter(on land next to a mule deer unit). Spent 6 days out there looking with very little luck the first few. A rancher then inform me that the deer will come from the high ground to the north on his land and come down one of those draws in the morning to bed up in the valley. So I sat and sure enough they would come that way. On the six day in the morning five bucks came, I was quite a ways away but watch three bed down in one area and two in another area(also watch 2 hunters with ones son walk within 300 yards of the bucks I was after, they turn before they got to the deer). My son and granddaughter left earlier in the morning and got out there at 1:30. She had a school function the night before. Two hour stalk to within 163 yards and by 3:30 the guts where on the ground. Priceless and who knows, maybe her only mule deer hunt in her life.

On a side note she had clear this trip with her volley ball coach. Missed practice on Monday and on Tuesday the coach told her she would not start any more. Coaches for the most part are jocks, think like a jock and act like one but the family has a great, lasting memory as does the grandfather and I am sure the granddaughter. European mount is on the wall. db

db-2 said:

On a side note she had clear this trip with her volley ball coach. Missed practice on Monday and on Tuesday the coach told her she would not start any more. Coaches for the most part are jocks, think like a jock and act like one but the family has a great, lasting memory as does the grandfather and I am sure the granddaughter. European mount is on the wall. db

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That's part of the reason i was done playing organized sports by high school. Tired of missing fishing and hunting, and tired of coaches who thought their particular sport was the only thing that mattered in the world.

They can be patterned, they just cover more ground.

Bfishn:
So she continue to play volley ball and last year as a junior I thought she did fine out there (yes I'm looking through the eyes of granddad).
Played a lot. Short, but did a good job of setting and serving, worked hard with a good attitude, started the games. The team wins a right to go to state and they did take second in state.
But before they went the coach told her she was not state volley ball material so she could not go. Coach got a girl on the c squad to take her place. Two sides to every story but it is all part of life and there will be more of that in her life so a good time to learn and how to handled. Not playing this year as she has a job. I hated to see that but it is her call. We all learn from it except the fricking jocks out there.
Has not been drawn for a permit to hunt since then but hopefully in time. Working on a bow for her. (maybe get rid of all those archery hunters and give those permits to the kids, as a archery and seldom rifle hunters just had to throw that in there to be in line with those who feel archery hunters should not be able to apply for big horn). db

Patterning mule deer is definitely not the same as patterning whitetails. I grew up hunting mostly mule deer and have since moved to whitetail country. I can sit on a trail and as long as conditions are similar (nothing bumps them from bedding areas for example) whitetail move like clockwork around feeding areas for the most part. However, if you are not hunting a food source for mule deer (like db's "green stuff") patterning them is much more difficult. Like many have said, I feel they have more of a home "area" than a particular trail that they regularly use. I hunted the Sandhills of western NE and if we didn't chase them out, the mule deer would stay in the same range of hills, but setting up to intercept one on a trail with a bow had more to do with luck I would say.

I also agree with db's sit for 3 days and observe from good vantage points.

Bfishn and db- Coaching is a job or part of a job and if you are not good at your job you get fired, so yes, most coaches do take their sport very seriously. Also, most coaches are very passionate about the sport they coach and they put in a lot of time and effort into improving themselves so their team has the best chance to have success. My son has a chance to go elk hunting in MT for the first time this Nov-Dec and I have already talked to his basketball coach about him missing practices and I fully expect and accept (as does he) that it will negatively affect his playing time. If hunting and fishing is higher on a kids priority list than attending practices and they miss practices for those reasons then they should not expect zero consequences for missing practices. However, I do not agree with db's granddaughter not going to state IF she was seeing regular playing time at the varsity level and even starting in games for the varsity. That makes no sense...

Short:
Yes I understand a coach expecting 100% and if you cannot give it then it is what it is. At the same time there is a lot to coaching besides the score at the end of the game, what is the goal of a sport program and what do you want to see in the kid after you had him/her for a season, their development from that setting, how can I as a coach help bring that kid into the adult world. A coach can have a huge influence on a kid's future with the sport program. He or she can also have a huge influence the other way. I believe a coach can help make or break a kid. It has happen in the raising of my kids and it went both ways. Parents can be a coaches worse enemy at time when they have there own agenda and want to relive their life through their kid. And that does influence the coach.

One story, my kid and another got kick out of practice for screwing around. Understandable, no problem with that but once they went to the locker room the coach told the remaining players that he expected them to go the locker room and take care of the problem. At that point it got interesting. When I found out a few days later and told the school what happen they said no way. They asked the coach and the coach said yes, I told the kids to go down and take care of those two. End result he kept coaching and no more was said. A friends daughter as a senior went to every practice that my kid was also at and not once for even one second did she play in a game. And no one including me said anything.
Raising 5 kids in a class b school who all were part of every sports program and summer program, there are good coaches and buttheads and no the buttheads do not get fire in a high school setting. For what ever reason the Valley city, Mayville state ect teaching schools fail to teach the whole concept of being a coach. Many parents do not understand. Punishment for missing one practice for a family event, having practice on holidays, only allowing your players to take part in open gym during the off season, practice on Wednesday that was at one time a church night for the kids (and God forbid if he or she chose the church), the list goes on, no.

Yes we were hunting by food and that is not like patterning without food. Made that statement and I agree with your statement. And yes the handful of times I have hunted mule deer who knows where they will be at times. The only thing when the mule deer sees you it does not normally run like hell in the other direction as a whitetail will. I believe I can stalk a mule deer but a whitetail, I doubt if I have that patience or ability. Bow hunting mule deer for me would be find where laying and then try to get close enough to let a arrow go.
I really did enjoy your comments and do thank you for them. db

db- I agree 100% with your last post. Coaches have a huge responsibility and can have a huge positive impact or negative impact on a young adults life. The lessons a coach teaches should go beyond the field of competition and better prepare their athletes for life beyond the sport. "Most" was the key word in my previous post. You are correct, some terrible coaches do not get fired, but many times that is because unfortunately the school has no other willing bodies to fill the spot...it is getting harder and harder for schools to find ANYONE to coach, much less find a GOOD coach. There are too many teachers who do not want to stay two hours after school for practices, or get home late from games, or give up Saturday's for tournaments and games. For the time commitment coaching a sport requires and the minimal pay compared to hours involved, it is not very appealing unless you are basically forced to coach, or you truly love the sport.

When a student signs up to play a sport, they are basically signing a commitment to that sport, their coaches, and their teammates that they accept everything that goes with it; Practices, games, weekends (Saturdays, not Sundays), etc. There are always going to be consequences for missing a practice. However I believe, there should only be optional practices or no practices over holidays, no practices on Sundays and limited practices on Saturdays if at all, Wednesday nights are still church nights around here, and practices should be abbreviated to allow for church night.

The coach in your son's situation should have been fired, suspended, or put on a coaching improvement plan. That coach is a scum bag...

As for the mule deer I agree- spot and stalk is how I would go about it as well.

short
thank you. A school member came to me about my son and he could not believe it happen but did nothing and the wife and I for reasons did nothing to push it. Our son handled it well in the end and in the end the kids understand it was not right to do what they were asked to do. He is no longer in coaching as far as I know. The way it was. It was just there was a chance to make a better coach out of him if he would of accepted it.
I feel a major concern at least for a younger coach is the pressure for success as judge by the win/lost record they feel they have from the community. And it is out there at least in the small class b school. I seen it when I taught and as raising kids. And yet there are parents that understand what a coach is there for but it seems we remain silent on it. Hoosier the movie. It took a kid in that show to straighten out the whole community.

So bfishn with limited knowledge I say sit on a high point and watch. Unbelieveable what one can see. A good scope will find deer laying where ever and as it work for me and granddaughter in the morning as they came home to sleep I seen where they laid down. It was with a rifle and not sure if we could of got closer than the 160 yards But with a Matthew bow anything is possible. db