[De Jager]

I have been bowhunting for a few years now and enjoy it alot. Last night I made a stalk on a really nice deer and got within 115 yards of him. I did not know he went to the right of me and therefore I was not paying much attention to that area. I was hidden to the side of a pine tree and on the other side I heard him take off. It did not sound like he went that far, but I could be wrong.

Question: If there has not been that much pressure on him and his buddies, do mule deer generally come back to their area?

This is the second time I have seen him in this area of only 2 days of even being up there. So since Friday, he had not gone anywhere. He was definitely a pleasant site to see after hiking in again. I am just not giving myself enough daylight. I should have been up there 2 hours earlier to get on the game trail he took and then waited for him to move.

Anyway, let me know what you think about mule deer and even elk about what they do once they have been spooked.

Thanks,

 

[dkhntrdstn]

I would say with teh elk if tehy get pushed to much they will get out of that area. that what i ahve notic with the elk.The deer i have seen the same but then i have seen them stay in the area to. last week i hunted soem deer that took off on the first sound or just seeing us they where gone. but like you said it didnt sound like they took off and keeped going. it sounds like they took off an dtehn just start walking again. I would get up there ealryer and get set up on his trail and wait for him to come by. good luck.

 

[tapehoser]

Last year I hunted mule deer near the Devil's Armchair. Beautiful area. I was able to sneak within about 100 yards of some feeding deer. Mostly does with a few smaller bucks. As they detected my presencce and scattered, I got to within about 60 yards of their little feeding area. Sure enough, within 10 minutes, a bunch of deer came right back to the same spot and started feeding again. I shot my buck at 60 yards. I also used a grunt tube. They were nervous at first, but a few good grunts fooled them that there was a buck in the area, and not a human, because they just went right back to feeding.

I think they are mostly habitual. It has been my experience that unless they receive an extreme amount of pressure, they will come back to that same area again....soon.

 

[truemule]

They will absolutely return if they have not been spooked or pushed to hard. I have hunted and seen on several occasion when a deer was kicked out of a bed and just ran up the hill around the side and came back to the exact same spot.
Elk seem to run a little farther and less likely to return but, I have seen them return within minutes of being spooked when called at with a simple cow call. A cow call seems to get rid of a case of the spooks and bring them right back.

 

[threshershark]

I saw a study a few years ago, and I wish I had the source, that tracked a sample of mule deer bucks over a period of years. The conclusion was that most bucks spend nearly all of their time in a 1 to 1.5 square mile area, and rarely leave it unless extreme conditions like drought are present. Pressure and disturbance did not cause the deer to leave their territory, but rather resulted in them becoming mostly nocturnal.

 

[De Jager]

Thanks for all the replies. Hopefully he stays there. He is a dandy with 2 others that are lookers as well.

 

[dkhntrdstn]

will good luck hope you get him.