“Powder River Mule Deer”
Chasing bucks in the tall grass or the Powder River Country
My passion for the Grasslands of America is evidenced through this organizations literature over the past 5 months. In the mountains you never feel alone, as you are surrounded by the purple majesty of innumerable wonders. The plains by contrast are full of melancholy, the howling wind and vastness of sky are constant reminders of loneliness. In this landscape I find peace.
“This story of Powder River is—in reality—the story of grass,” Struthers Burt wrote in his lyrical 1938 book Powder River: Let ‘er Buck. “The search for it. The fight for it. The slow disappearance of it.”
Mankind has lived in and hunted on the Powder River of central Wyoming for at least 6000 years. Archeologists are unearthing ancient bison fossils bearing arrow and spear wounds from its banks every year. It is a unique landscape offering both challenges and advantages.
In the Shadow of the Bighorns:
The Powder River flows out of the bighorn mountain range before looping north into Montana and joining the Yellowstone. While this icon of western exploration myth and heritage stats as a trout stream, frustrating fly fisherman in Sheridan. By the time the river meanders through sage country towards to Montana boarder it is famously an “inch deep and mile wide”, “too thin to plow and too thick to drink”. The grass bloomed in the river country fed millions of bison before surrendering to 20 or more cattle companies who settled in the area in the 1880s with over 100,000 feed cattle.
Today the Powder is know for Mule Deer hunting and energy development. As much as 1/5th of the nations coal being mined in this segment of Wyoming. The best way to hunt this region today is meticulous spot and stalk. The winds and sun weather your face. As you press harder into your glass desperately searching to the grey deer against the October Prairie grass. South facing slopes hide hundreds of bedded deer throughout the day.
Your best chance at spotting these grey ghosts is first thing in the morning. As thhey head from their feeding areas back to their hidey holes in the hills. My strategy is to get as far from any BLM dirt roads as possible before the sun rises. Set your tripod in the high ground and let the deer moment catch your eye.
Optics are key:
Once you spot your target buck that checks your boxes for success. the stalk starts. Count the miniature ridges in the corduroy landscape and start crawling through the sage and cactus. In places your head will be taller than the vegetation. It will take all your power to pull yourself through the dust. The bino harness on your chest acting like a plow pushing the grit and sand into your neck and mouth.
Finally cresting the final hill, you see you buck and his harem slowly feeding into the open. You wait for the doe’s to clear the shot. Steady your rifle against the beating in your chest and exhale into your natural pause as the trigger pulls.
The grasslands of the Powder River basin is some of the coolest landscape in Wyoming. It is well worth your time to draw a tag in this region. Experience the hunting heritage permeating this ancient migration corridor.
Good Luck!
Good luck this fall. Send pictures or stories from the field to Web@muledeer.org to be featured on our website or in our magazine. If this article, or any of our articles helped you become a better conservation steward, join the mule deer foundation. Click here to join: https://muledeer.org/product-category/membership/
Trevor J Hubbs https://www.instagram.com/trevorhubbs/
Trevor is the Communications Manager for the Mule deer Foundation. He grew up hunting and fishing the eastern edge of the Ozark mountains for quail, ducks, and bucks. Trevor is a contributor for “Fur, Fish, and Game”, Lethal Minds Journal, Strung Magazine, and Shooting Sportsman among others
