Question about mule deer habits
 

Around this time of year, will mule deer still be up high in the sub-alpine areas? Or should I be looking for them a bit lower? Should I find a water source? And if Elk are bugling in an area, should I look somewhere else for mulies? The highest are I will be hunting is around 9,500 feet elevation, but I could go higher to the more sub-alpine type of terrain. There are quakies, pines, sagebrush etc.

Where R U at??????

If there is any hunting pressure up there at all, expect many of the mature bucks to drop into more timbered areas. Look for lower ridges and finger ridges shooting off them. If it is not a pressured area, I expect you could find bucks at all elevations.

Don't worry about elk. My experience is that I tend to see more big bucks when I'm in an area working vocal elk. I don't think that the elk themselves are much of a factor, but I think that the deer are less wary of movements and sounds then. Elk make a lot of noise and commotion. I.e., I expect that the deer assume the noise and movement caused by the hunter are elk.

God!!!! I just can't wate to see what gets posted here!!!!! R people really this clueless????? Dude .....mule deer ain't anything like elk!!!!!!! talk to some locals!!!!!!
most mule deer I have shot have beenin the 1000/3000 ft range..in the sage brush... as with alll the elk I've shot none have been in the timber...all have been in the sage brush!!!!!

Well, this goes to show how different hunting can be in different locations. In Colorado, *all* of my mule deer have been taken between 8000 and 9000 feet, as have all my elk. Both have been in thick timber near edges of clearings, food, or water. I always thought one hunted them the same ways, except for calling.

So there's no sage brush in CO????? or did YA just go high up because somebody told ys to?????? The famous breaks along the snake river in ID that produce many big mulies is very low and in the sage.......like I have said before I have never shot a elk in the timber!! or abouve 4000 ft!!!! there R NO HARD and fast rules about hunting ....no matter what all these site and experts want to tell U... I say again talk to the locals!!!!!!!!!:confused0024:

Asking the locals is a good idea. There are many areas not far from here where mulies hang out in the sage. Here they are in the mountains and are found in the timber. Bedding, they will be in the timber, or on the slopes in the shade of a tree or overhang. The buck I shot on Friday was under a tree at the top of a ridge, in the timber. There are sage slopes in the mountains here that the deer often feed in, but they don't bed in it.

We have a good elk herd in the red dessert and in a few places east of Evanston the elk come down occasionally into the sage. Later they come down and enjoy the ranchers' hay. Here they are in the timber.

I live at 6500 ft, and tend to hunt 8000-9000 feet, where I get all my deer and elk.

Yes, ask the locals, because as we've seen here their habits vary by region.

Yes, there is sage brush in Colorado but it's at lower elevations. I almost always hunt in the later seasons (there is an archery season, a muzzleloader season, and FOUR rifle seaons...I'm usually 3rd rifle season), so the deer / elk are already heavily pressured by the time I get to the field. By then they're not hanging out down low, but have gone up and into the thick to escape the pressure.

Where I hunt (near Gunnison, Colorado) there is NO low ground. The lowest ground is around 6000 feet above sea level, and this is where the roads, parking lots, and camp sites are -- there are no deer or elk there by the time I get there! You'd have to dig a big hole to get down to 4000 :)

Finnbear is right, theres no set of rules to any hunting as each year and area can vary from year to year depending on weather, hunting pressures, delelopments, preditors, etc etc. Thats why its called hunting and the reason I enjoy the sport. Ive hunted for both deer and elk low and high. Ive watched herd of elk with bulls bugling with deer standing in the same meadow just this past week, so no, dont need to look elsewhere if you hear elk in the area.....