The Late Season Doldrums
December has come again. The season started with such promise, full of aspirations for massive antlers fitting perfectly in the empty space on the wall. A winter of deer steaks and chili enjoyed while retelling the story of conquest, of trials and tribulations that lead to the meal before you. A summer spent practicing with your rifle and optics, buying the newest “must have” gear, and watching every Mule Deer hunting video on the internet lead to a September full of deliberate scouting and combing the fields and sage flats for your target buck in anticipation of opening day.
But the October opener came and went without a shot fired. Maybe you didn’t see the buck you were after, maybe you saw no bucks at all. “Oh well” you thought the rut will be here soon; it will only get easier. Before long, it was Halloween, then the first week of November and still your tag stayed intact. As desperation mounted so did the snow and the weather which you thought would surely push the bucks down from their alpine peaks full of creaking and cracking timber. But now December is here. Your tag is unfilled, and the creeping anxiety of an empty freezer lingers on the outermost fringes of your mind.
Have no fear, the Mule Deer Foundation is here for moments just like this. Our staff of over twenty biologists, ecologists, botanists, and lowly writers live for these moments where our skills can be put against the odds. Our time to shine where we can help share the joy of a come-from-behind victory for the dedicated conservationists we call our members.
Late Season Mule Deer: How to find success.
As the snow piles outside your window and you struggle against frozen fingers to strap on those tire chains to climb up the mountain pass it’s easy to fall into a pit of continuous despair. You lament the opportunities you passed on earlier in the season and wreck your self-esteem fixating on blown stalks in the October sunshine. But fear not, as the temps plumet the hunting can actually get hotter!
Big cagey Mule Deer bucks are killed with persistence, experience, luck, and especially by being out in the field when that buck finally makes a mistake. Some bucks make their mistakes early by staying in a field 15 minuets too late, or not finding a midday bed soon enough. Most bucks make their mistakes in the rut with the help of a hormone cocktail clouding their vision and only letting them focus on that swishing black tipped tail on the doe ahead of them. The last major event of the year that causes these mature specimens of the species to error is winter weather. This is the best opportunity you could have all year to be there when one of these kings of the mountain is forced from his thrown and breaks his movement cycle.
I won’t lie to you. When the weather shifts and you’re pulling out layers you haven’t used in years preparing to stumble through the snow for miles chasing grey ghosts in a grey world it can be downright miserable. But it’s also miserable on the deer. Late season hunting is all about finding a way to put yourself in the best place for success with as little effort as possible. Where would you go if you were that deer? While environments and habitat type swill vary across mule deer range there are a few late season constants you can cling to for increased chances of success.
Safety First:
Safety First, Then Teamwork! There is a huge difference between,
“I am cold and wet and uncomfortable, this sucks”
And,
“I am cold and wet and uncomfortable , and this is dangerous”
If you are going to go chase Mule Deer in the late season you must learn the difference to be effective, especially in the northern most reaches of the range. Take the time to study the symptoms of hypothermia and frostbite and understand your own physical limitations. Learn what is your limit of uncomfortable vs what is dangerous. Symptoms like the below must be considered:
- Confusion.
- Drowsiness.
- Pale and cold skin.
- Slowed breathing or heart rate.
- Uncontrollable shivering
- Weakness and loss of coordination.
- Sudden stopping of shivering due to extremely low body temperatures
But the real challenge is understanding when these symptoms are uncomfortable versus life threatening. All of us are built different, and all of us have slightly different reactions to adverse weather conditions. Consider those old men exhibiting the extreme testicular fortitude to take the polar plunge every winter versus someone like me who prefers the sand and salt of the Bahamas during the winter with a fly rod in hand and sea breeze in my hair. One of us is much more accustomed to the cold than the other.
After a decade of hunting and trapping in the far northern reaches of the continent the best advice I have is to know your own body and the only way to do that is by getting in the field and experiencing how you react to various cold weather situations. Always play it safe and have an evacuation plan. No one wants to quite early but no buck is worth your life, when in doubt get out.
Reading The Weather:
In the late season you should be checking the weather app on your phone as much as you pull up your OnX. Changes in temperature especially 15–20-degree swings can make or break your hunting this time of year. Lower temps are great, but while they are a good indicator of deer movement, they are not a guarantee that big bucks will be on the move. What you are really looking for is precipitation. Snow baby Snow! While it’s true that a cold front will get deer on their feet and moving the real controlling factor is when the mountain gets a foot or more of snow dumped on it overnight. When this happens, call off work, cancel your daughter’s wedding, drop the kids off at grandmas and get out in the field.
Snow like this will break the habits of deer more than anything else. Mule deer in the winter are focused on one thing, surviving till spring. They are hyper focused on food sources and caloric intake. When a foot or more of snow drops all at once, those natural calorie sources deer have been using the past few months are covered and sometimes ruined, forcing a hungry deer to go off course and find something else. This puts deer in different areas then they have been all year. The deer don’t know the new area as well and they are less focused on predators like you then they are in their more comfortable areas. Has your target buck been holed up on private land all year, or stuck across an impassible boundary? Snow like this could push them off it.
Alright its 11:00 pm and the snow is falling in clumps outside the window. You have your hunt area pulled up on your computer. You know the deer are moving, but where are they moving to? Now is the time to put all the hard-earned knowledge of you hunt area you developed in the off season to work. Here is where all that scouting from late summer comes in to play more than ever. Remember those escape routes you focused on? Those areas of easy transition from high country to lower more open areas and food sources. This is where you are going to find those bucks in the morning. Desert deer, mountain deer, plains deer, it doesn’t matter in these conditions find the avenue to the food and that’s where you will find deer.
This doesn’t mean it will be easy. Most deer will only go as far as they must for food. They will conserve calories in a hidey hole somewhere only moving to eat when they need to. Focus on south and southwest facing slopes in late afternoon. These areas and the likely routes of approach to these areas are extremely likely to hold deer in the late season.
If you are hunting an area with protein rich agricultural elements, you can treat those as great food sources as well. Mature bucks will break cover and come to the edge of a food source eat for a few minutes then return to the timber and out of your reach. Don’t expect them to linger in the open long. Find a place you can be comfortable enough and warm enough, that you can be ready to put an accurate shot on these avenues of approach within minutes of seeing a shooter buck.
Late season hunts are all about making your tools work for you, so your body doesn’t have to. Make sure you have great water and wind resistant gear. Scout from your vehicle when possible to cover more ground quickly. Using your weather app and digital mapping system to put you in the right place for success are key. Watch the weather, find the food, and stay vigilant and you could find your way to that notched tag and bowl of delicious venison chili after all.
Good Luck this Winter
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 Feathers and Whiskey, among others.
