JD IN ALBERTA

Nice deer Saskman! I've seen your pics on the Alberta bucks website as well. I'm hunting in Eastern Alberta in the badlands along a river bottom. The coulee has always been full of mulies and a few whitetails in the thick bush at the rivers edge. This year however the mulies are few and far between...by this time last year we'd have seen well over 100 mulies, this year I've seen about 10 mulies and 50 w.t.'s. I'm thinking alot of big bucks got taken in rifle season but that seems rediculous. We're hunting from stands and doing stalk/pushes. Out of curiuosity, do you spot & stalk or hunt a different way? I notice you do pretty well every year and usuall tag out in the first week or two. JDinAB

skeeter 7MM

Saskman congrats on your mulie buck. Nice to see good animals still roaming the Sask Landing area after all the CWD hunts. I assume this is still your stomping grounds???

JD have you tried doing a bit of scouting in other areas, it would seem that something has caused a shift in the deer patterns or species in the area. The shift might not be that far but the fact your seeing a 10th of the norm would make me branch out or search for some answers by way of scouting. Where we were scouting to hunt we knew they were around but just weren't seeing them until later in the summer, now they are around in full force like we expected. Our theory was/is the increase moisture allowed them to have more choice in food and watering locations thus equally fewer animals than the most recent drought years. Now that some of these options are dwindled they are back to previous routines. Just a thought! Best of luck.

Saskman

JD

We are hunting in the river breaks along the South Saskatchewan. We mostly spot and stalk and sometimes ambush the deer. This one was taken when we noticed several good bucks funnelling through a certain portion of a coulee coming back from feeding in a lentil field all night. We then set up to ambush them here. The first morning I sat there I had a huge wide typical 4X4 coming in at 58 yards. The wind swirled and he took off. The next day this guy came in and I was able to connect. We find that the deer shift general areas from year to year depending on the food sources. They prefer chick peas around here and we can find them congregating in the coulees closest to these chick pea fields. This year there were no chick peas in the area and they were feeding heavily on the lentil crops.

Skeeter

We are still hunting in the river breaks this year but the area we are hunting has not been in the erradication zone until this year. Starting Friday this area will be crawling with rifle hunters with free tags. there is a free for all on the deer for 3 months. It is a shame. There will not be many good bucks in the area next year. I have started to look elsewhere this year for deer and will more than likely be hunting somewhere else next year.

JD IN ALBERTA

Sask: A lot of people say mule deer are easy to stalk, but after doing it for quite a few years with a bow & rifle, I beg to differ. I definately give you cudos for getting such nice deer year in and out with the bow. I find it extremely hard to stalk them in the coulees here since they hang out in the heaviest/thorniest cover around, thats why we use stands and push. I would love to watch how you do it...it's alot easier with the rifle

Skeeter: We have a 1/2 section of river bottom to hunt but the rest is off limits. It borders a provincial park and can't even think of going the other way since there is definately no hunting allowed there. As for food sources, the fields above the coulees are canola and grain so they have feed everywhere for miles and no real pattern to get there since bow hunting pressure is nearly nil. We pretty much hang out near the bedding areas and wait for them to head to feed. There are so many trails it's almost impossible not to hit a hot one. I have set up in a big cottonwood overlooking some MAJOR trail connectors, but as I said only whitetails are running so far. Hopefully it'll start to cool down and I'm gonna start tickling the antlers. The w.t. bucks are already playing with the does but still pretty early for any heavy rut activity. Good luck fellas and thanks for the suggestions! JDinAB

skeeter 7MM

Saskman that is a shame and I truly hope this campaign provides some real worth to the game in the long run. Best of luck finding a new haunt and congrats again on another fine bow harvest.

JD, it is possible the whitetails have bumped the Mulies slightly. Mulies hate pressure while i have seen them live/feed with whitetails and cattle I have also seen them switch because of them as well...funny beasts them big eared deer. Seeing you don't have a lot of choice in the matter I guess waiting it out is your only option. Best of luck and sorry for the lack of help.

JD IN ALBERTA

Well it's unanimous...I'm s.o.l. for shooting a mule deer this year. I can't even get a doe to pass my stand. After hunting Sat. & Mon. I counted 30+ whitetails and 6 mulies[]. I can't believe 1 year would change so significantly. I saw a handful of w.t.'s last year in 3 months, and this year it's exploded! Was happy to have 2 real nice bucks (w.t.) run behind my stand though. I'm starting to think of taking one to thin out the herd. Best part of the weekend was finding a nice w.t. shed (pics to come). Final tally, 0 deer 5 sharptails & a goose. Bad day in the field is better than a good day in the office! JDinAB