[simba]

I'm switching gears this year (I usually rifle hunt) and put in for an archery general deer tag and will most likely draw the Cache Unit (1st: Cache, 2nd: Ogden, and 3rd: Box Elder). Logistics over all else are why I chose these units. I'm using a recurve bow and want to establish a couple ground blinds using natural material during the scouting season.

What are the best areas within mule deer summer range to set up such a ground blind? What to look for when I'm scouting? I usually just spot and stalk when rifle hunting. If I had a compound and knew how it worked, I'd spot and stalk. Most traditional archery hunters tell me tree stands and ground blinds are best. However, I do know that mulies aren't as easy to pattern as whitetails as they use different routes through the mountains... I don't have money for a tree stand this year. Please don't suggest I use a compound. I'm locked into my recurve for this year. Thanks in advance for the info!!

 

[brendo]

I have nothing of importance to say besides it's awesome that you're doing it with a recurve! And If you don't draw any of those units on an archery tag you pretty much have the worst luck ever!

 

[GaryFish]

Mule deer are more predictable than you might think. In the summer, they stay in the same area most of the time. Really, any time of year, you'll want your stand to be on/near the place when the deer will find food, water, shelter, and cover. Where these things come together is where you'll want to be. Finding a natural funnel point due to terrain is also a good thing. For example, in the summer on the Cache, I'd see the same bunch of deer every single morning and evening feeding in the same area where the vegetation was cut for the construction of a pipeline. The terrain would funnel the deer to come out of where they'd bed in the day in the scrub oak, so they'd enter the pipeline strip at pretty much the same place each day. Setting up near that entry point is good.

Another place I've had experience patterning mule deer is on the edge of hay fields. Again, there were two steep hill slopes that came together forming a little "canyon" or sorts at the edge of a hay field. Each night, the deer would come through the mouth of the little "canyon" to feed in the hay field. This particular squeeze point was only about 40 yards wide, and the deer came through it every night for most of the year. A hay bale blind or brush blind on one side would have been perfect for a recurve ambush.

The thing in common with both places was the transition point between the feeding area, either the hay field or the pipeline cut, and the bedding area. If you can find a couple of those places, scout them with a hunting cam, you'll see just how active they are. Look for those fringes though where all habitat needs come together and you'll find your spot.

Just a suggestion anyway.

 

[manysteps]

Find water, then find a funnel point like GaryFish mentioned that leads to it... They'll hit water before and after feeding (weather depending), but they'll get to it eventually.

More than likely they'll get to the water before light/after dark, so you want your funnel to be "on the way" to it... you might need a couple blinds, but IMHO that's a good plan.

 

[simba]

Thanks. There are tons of those draw/small canyons at the valley's edge where the mountains meet the fields like you're saying. Do you think mature bucks would be down at those elevations during archery season? Or just does and fawns?