Mule deer questions

[JStark]

I've been blessed to hunt some friends' small parcel of land for muleys, and I've got a couple of questions:

1.  Are there any good books on hunting mule deer?  Everything I've found has been either for whitetails, or generic deer hunting (which usually means whitetails).

2.  Would a little noise (like a kiss or quiet whistle through the teeth) be a good idea to stop a muley for a shot, or will it just spook them?

[wingnut]

Dwight Shuh (sp?) has a good book on Open County Mule Deer.  I read it quite a few years ago and should give it another go.

Don't make noise at a Mulie if you don't have too.  They will be bouncing away.

Mike

[Deff]

Having hunted both whitetails and muleys, my experience has been that muleys are much easier to approach to within 50 yards or so but much harder to fool once you get within bow range.  Muley's hearing and eyesight seems much more acute than whitetails.  If they haven't been hunted too much, muleys are curious and a little noise will stop them, but my experience has been that they almost seem to be able to hear or your eyelids blink, so usually the noise that stops them is purely unintentional. They are a little less high strung than a whitetail so they aren't quite as apt to jump the string. Both bucks and does travel  in groups and if one spots you, all you will see is the whole herd bouncing off into the sunset. Muleys can be fairly easy to pattern. A good strategy would be to glass out the trails they are traveling to food sources or water and set up ground blinds ahead of time.

[elk ninja]

In my experience, making noise with mulies is about 50-50 at best.  50% of the time it will stop them, 50% of the time it will blow them out and you won't see them again.  Other senses, I'd rate the mulies nose lower than a whitetail's, but his ears and eyes noticeably better.  I'd also check out "Hunting High Country Muledeer" by Mike Eastman.  Great book even if you aren't hunting the high country, this guy, like Dwight Schue, KNOWS mule deer.  Other than those two books, I can't really recommend any others.  

Good luck,
Mike

[dan ferguson]

The only thing bothering me alittle is how small or large is this parcel of land? Here it means less than a section. If its small I would try the ambush method, because John is 100% correct about the sunset thing especially if it a mature deer.

[Allan Hundeby]

I have Dwight Schuh's book and would recommend it.  He's definitely spent a lot of time with muley's, and it's a good one to have - even if you're not necessarily in "open country" (i.e. I hunt in the prairies).

[JStark]

Thanks, folks.  I'll be building a ground blind this week.  And, thanks for the book recommendations, too, I'll head on over to the local library, and go from there.