What's the best way to find Mule deer in a Ponderosa forest? (now with picts)

[Bard1]

What's the best way to locate Mule deer herds in a high altitude ponderousa wilderness? Altitudes go from about 2,000ft to 8,000ft.  

What do Mule deer eat in the wilderness?  (please include picture or link to picture if possible)

thanks for any info.
D-

[wingnut]

Derek,

Scout in the summer time and go high.  You will find groups of bucks in high basins.  They are browsers so look for the brushy plants that have been browsed.

Lots of walking and twice as much glassing.

Pick up Dwight Shoes(sp) book on hunting high country mule deer.  It's a great read.

Mike

[Whip]

I just got back from a couple of weeks in New Mexico in some of that type of country.  The area we hunted had some small scale logging going on and the deer flocked to the freshly cut tops like they were magnets.  At least the does and small bucks did.  They were also feeding heavily on what I think were Juniper berries throughout the forest.  

Bigger bucks were tougher to locate.  Basically just a lot of shoe leather and eventually would jump some.  Suprisingly, we were able to go back to the same areas and relocate the same deer again the next day.  My partner saw the same large 4x4 four or five times, all within a 2oo yards of the same spot.  Just could never close the deal on him.  

I sure don't have much experience at it, but that is what we seemed to learn.  Anxious to try it again someday and have a head start on what we think is going on.

[Missouri Sherpa]

Mule deer will frequent grassy meadows and feed on the alders along the creeks morning and evenings.  Usually expect to see does and younger bucks at these lower altitudes.  This photo was taken around 9500 ft in the valley floor.  During the summer mule deer will stay in the same general neighborhood until something drives them out or till they start to migrate for lower elevation.

 

Mule deer bucks will tend to bunch up in bachelor groups for the summer and will frequent the high country along treeline and above.  Look for alder bush thickets, mountain mahogany and serviceberry at higher elevatons.  They will eat on sagebrush at lower elevations.  They will stay up high in bachelor groups until they shed their velvet.  When the velvet comes off they seem to disappear from these higher places.  This picture has at least two tall racked mule deer right at treeline.  There were three deer but I cannot make out the third one from this poor quality photo.

 

[Missouri Sherpa]

I might add that when you find a place that has several mule deer, find a good vantage point where you can glass shady pockets on the opposite side of the canyon.  Mule deer tend to make a bed in the shade and ruminate during the hot part of the day.  Often you can find a morning bed and and afternoon bed under the same bush where they move to keep out of the sun as it passes over.

[Bard1]

Thanks for the great tips ya'll.  You can be sure I am taking notes!
I'll try and pick up that book Mike.  
The area I am exploring doesn't have a any tree line, the mountains just arn't that tall or cold.  I took my first initial scout into the area this weekend.  
D-

[Dmaxshawn]

What helped me was reading this book so I would know where to look and what times of the year for all the different regions.  May seem like stuff we already know but it sure was a great read and it helped me this year in tagging a beautiful 6 x 5 muley

 http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Open-Country-Mule-Dwight-Schuh/dp/0912299231

Shawn

[Whip]

The deer we were hunting in New Mexico were in their winter habitat I think.  Didn't see many deer rubs, (although LOTS of elk rubs!)  so I'm guessing the deer were in the high elevations earlier in the fall.  We were hunting between 6,500 - 7,500 feet.  

When will you be hunting them?  Where they are now versus where they were in September are more than likely two different things.

[Bard1]

Last year I would have agreed with you Whip, but this year there has been very little snow up on the hills.  I was up there this weekend at the summit and there was patchy snow at best. Temps were a sunny 56 degrees.  I believe the season opens in Augest in this unit.  I know every one says to glass, and I will, but this is very hilly country with deep and steep draws and just enough trees to make spotting any thing  from a distence difficult, so I thought I would try to locate areas that would hold deer based off food, cover and water, but I don't know what mule deer eat.  Most of the info I can find on the internet is about hunting Mule deer in the open country where you can see for a mile or more.
Here are some pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bard1]

Missouri sherpa, that's awsome info, thank you.  We don't have service berry here as far as I have ever seen.  According to the net it's a midwest and east coast plant.  In my short walk I saw one Alder bush, so I will look for "thickets" of those for starters as well as clearings.  Do Mule deer need an actual body of water to drink or can they get what they need off morning due on plants and the like?

[Bard1]

ttt

[Missouri Sherpa]

FYI about mountain serviceberry in Colorado

Serviceberry is a large mountain shrub that increases in abundance in Colorado from south to north. Mottes of this species make extremely dense cover. Mountain mahogany has a structure similar to that of serviceberry, but in Colorado it does not create thickets as dense as serviceberry. It grows with and adjacent to oak and serviceberry, but on drier sites. Chokecherry is a large shrub common to mountain shrublands, but it rarely dominates large areas.  They are about the same height as sagebrush. Other shrubs occurring in mountain shrubland communities (e.g., Squaw apple, curl-leaf mountain mahogany, buckbrush, and mountain spray) do not become widespread dominants.  Copyright 2000 - Colorado Partners In Flight.

 http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_amut.pdf

 http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/Purpus/imagehtml/1348_3151_2510_62sm.html

[RickH]

Bard,
I've had real good luck hunting waterholes. Mule deer will hit water daily if it's hot. If there's snow on the ground they can get what they need from it. In the ponderosa forests around here we also have a mix of Gambels Oak. If we have a good moist spring/early summer the acorns off of the oak are like ice cream to the deer and black bears. Mountain Mahagony is another favorite browse. Also, around here we have some areas with Ponderosa, pinyon/juniper, oakbrush forests bordering agriculture, usually alfalfa fields. The deer in these areas obviously will hit the alfalfa daily or nightly.
If you can get around in your country this time of year I would be scouting for small spring seeps and waterholes. As summer approaches the feeding habits will change but the watering areas might not.
Good Luck

[Bard1]

Thank you Sherpa!
Thank you RHooley.  I'll be sure to do that!
D-

[DoubleLung]

I suppose I'm just getting into the high country mule deer game and have realized that it's completely different then the low country mulies I've hunted all my life. The bucks up high don't go to water everyday as there is enough moisture in the grass that they are eating that it's not necessary. As mentioned above I'd find large basins with good feed in the bottoms. It's been my experience that the big bucks will feed until just after first light and then head for some safe timber thats near impossible to sneak. The glory about this kind of hunting them is finding them is 10% of the battle   .

[DoubleLung]

Oh, one other thing I've noticed that seems to be the rule of thumb where I hunt. If you're seeing quite a few does and possibly smaller bucks, you're not high enough to see the big ol' boys.

[pdk25]

Man, that is some beauiful country.  Good luck with your hunt.

[Bard1]

Yeah it is beautiful.  Half the reason I want to hunt there is for that.  I am told there are places with higher deer populations, but heh, it's close to home and look at the views.  Who wouldn't want to hunt in that?
D-

[JOKER]

Bard, That's a cool looking dog. What breed is it. Steve