Snag, I've hunted the Rubies almost every year since the late 90's. The good news is it is a target rich environment. Lots of forks-mediocre sized 4 points. When I first started hunting up there, I called it the 140" factory. There were bucks right at and just below the P&Y minimum all over. Now, that is a different story. Too many years of too many tags. Still a healthy deer population, just smaller bucks and more lopsided ones (4X3, 2X3 etc). Despite the reduction in trophy quality, I can't stop going. I switched from wheels to a stick a handful of years ago and that has made the hunt really fun again. I was having a hard time finding deer I'd want to punch my tag on, with my stick, virtually every buck is in danger of being stalked. You'll want to prepare to backpack in to get away from the road hunters. I'd suggest avoiding camping at a lake, you'll probably have company. The Fish & Wildlife doubled the number of deer tags for that unit a couple of years ago, so working a little extra to put yourself away from the trailheads is effort well spent. The Rubies are suffering from the lowest winter snow accumulation they've experienced in 30+ years. Keep an eye out for water sources when you are planning for your hunt location. There are creeks in the bottom of most canyons, but you don't want to have to drop 1,000+ feet in elevation to get water. Look for springs on the map that are higher up. There are a few commercial packers that work the Rubies, you might want to consider getting dropped off and picked up later. It is about 4,000 vertical feet on average from the valley floor to the top of the mountain and it is a HOT hike up from the bottom. I've had great success glassing from a vantage point, watching them bed up and then slowly stalking from above. Drop your boots and put on 2-3 pairs of cheap, thick socks for closing the gap. The terrain can be favorable for stalking if you find areas that have some broken topography to work with. Prepare for shots in the 20-30+ yard distances. The bucks will be in bachelor groups, so there are a lot of eyeballs to contend with. If you want to PM me to bounce locations off of me, I'll give you whatever feedback I can. I've hunted out of the same trailhead the whole time I've hunted the Rubies, so my knowledge is somewhat geographically limited, but I'm happy to help out however I can. Watch the video on my site to see some of the country that you'll be hunting. The buck I missed is exceptional for this area now, in my recent experience. I've seen a couple of good bucks in the last 2 years, so they are out there. Good optics are a MUST!!!!!! I think 10X is minimum. If you mount them on top of a tripod, you'll be amazed at how many more deer you'll find. Good luck, I'm up there opening week. Can't wait!!
Topic: Nevada muley tag! (Read 903 times)
