Since it's the off season, and I've been asked, I thought I'd start a discussion about how to hunt desert mulies.
The true desert where I hunt mine, here in Kalifornia, is a very different place than the usual deserts where mulies are hunted. It doesn't snow there, ever. Rainfall runs about 3.5 inches a year, usually in the summer in the form of thunderstorms. And it can vary alot from year to year from less than 1/2 an inch to well over 10 inches. It may do either of these extremes in back to back fashion as well.
This results in a deer range with a very low deer density. The overall average for the entire range is .6, that's .6, not 6, deer per square mile.
Not only that, but it can vary alot. So, odviously, you need to find the deer concentrations first.
Because of the above, usual methods don't work. Believe me, I've tried. Still hunting simply produces nothing. Sitting on a high point with binoculars and a spoting scope can go on for days and show you nothing. Even in areas where the sign indicates where they are there.
Most of the better areas are very rough, with big washes, some of them over 1/2 mile wide, and surprisingly thick with Desert Ironwood and Paloverde tress along with some other scrubs or small trees.
The upper drainages are a series of canyons and narrow, deep cut washes among flats and low peaks of various sorts. Many of these places have natural basins which store water for varying lenths of time.
The usual way to hunt these deer is to drive the washes and look for deer. But, again, you really need to know where they occur in any kind of numbers. So, again, you need to look for fresh sign. The trouble is that the deer, and especially the older bucks, in the public land where I hunt can hear you coming a long way off. It is not at all hard for them to slip away as you approach or to simply hold still in the cover and let you drive by them.
What I've learned to do is look for fresh tracks most of all. Fresh tracks of a large buck or two. Then the real hunting begins. Because what I then try to do is track him to his bed, while he's watching the back trail he left for hunters both two legged and four legged.
So, how do you hunt your desert mulies ? E

If I can ask a silly question, why do you hunt this area if it has so few deer?

Airplanes were specificaly designed to locate desert bucks,2 hours in a chartered flight can save hundreds in gas and wear and tear on your equipment.I hunt them because I don't care what anybody says big high mountain mulies and big desert mulies are the hardest things out there to hunt!

I lived in Phoenix for five years but only hunted deer three times. I hunted once in Sycamore Canyon north of Jerome. I hiked in about a mile upstream from the springs, sat in the shade of a juniper on a point that overlooked the main canyon and a couple of side canyons. I bivouaced there and spent several days glassing. Eventually took a respectable buck.

Another time I hunted the Gila Bend Mountains. I scouted the area ahead of time and found a spring. Well not really a spring, but a place where there was water near the surface that the animals could smell and dig for. There were tracks everywhere. A couple of weeks before the season opened, I built a blind with a sun canopy using brush (ocotillo, mesquite and greasewood). On opening morning, I walked into the area in the dark, carrying enough water and food to stay for several days. I sat and waited, ocasionally napping. Got another buck. I tried the same spot and tactic a year later and came up empty.

KC

I used to hunt in D17 when I was a kid. Talk about some frustrating hunting. My dad and family friends didn't know anything about hunting and it didn't take much convincing from me to go somewhere new and finally start seeing deer. I have no doubt they grow em big out in the desert ( I finally got my hands on Cali's population stats two weeks ago), as it looks like they are only taking about 5% of the bucks per year (which would put it on par with any state's best trophy unit), but you're only looking at .1 deer per square mile, which is about the worst deer density for any unit in the western US.

Not a silly question, just shows you've never hunted desert mulies.

I've been hunting them for over 20 yrs in an area near Big Bend.

I love the country, its harshness, its beauty. The animals that live there facinate me, the fact they can make a living out of such harsh land.

Desert mulie bucks are as smart as mulies come in my opinion, and I've hunted plenty of Rcoky Mountain mulies and plains mulies to compare.

My largest mule deer came from Colorado, but the buck I'm most proud of is my biggest desert buck.

Alot of people can go to the mountains and plains and kill good deer, when you can take a big desert deer especially more than one, you have by God hunted!

Bill

Desert mule deer populations run about two deer per square mile, but (of course) they are not evenly distributed. Groups tend to be widely scattered. Therefore, spot and stalk will find you more mule deer to look at than sitting and glassing like you would do for Coues deer. Our hunts here in New Mexico are pre-rut, so the bucks are still running in groups of 3-6 or so. There will usually be one or two good bucks in any group. Desert mule deer generally range in the foot hills where they use draws for cover and shady or sunny hillsides for bedding, depending on the weather.

I am going back to hunting desert mule deer because my legs won't allow me more than one day without a rest hunting Coues deer in the mountains. I like to hunt and would rather hunt the entire five days of the season as opposed to only three. I see good mule deer every year as I leave my truck and head up into the mountains, so I am going to take advantage of my experience...

Never hunted there but know acquaintances who have. It's a tough unit to score but it grows some dandies. If one can kill a mature buck in E's unit he will have a trophy second to none, imo one of the hardest trophies to obtain. And their racks can grow big down there.

MtnHtr

I have hunted them in barren, mountainous country with brushy "gulleys"/canyons and hunted them much in the same manner as E (i.e. glassing and/or driving canyons with one to three people). Also have hunted them in sandhills, which is another experience and hunting style entirely in that the big ones will try to play "ring around the rosey" around the sandhill/s with you and you may never see the deer, despite being 20 yards from them.

I've hunted mule deer for the past 38 years, and the desert bucks in the sandhills are my favorite. We face much the same situations as you guys do with your desert bucks......pre rut, low deer densities over vast areas, little if any natural waterings, etc. One particular problem we have is that in the W TX sandhills we have nothing very tall to glass from, tallest dunes being maybe 20-25 feet. The pastures are full of shinnery, which produces abundant acorns, which means food is everywhere and the deer do not have to move a whole lot. All this means we cover as much ground as possible, climbing atop the tallest points and glassing with high powered spotters and the best binos we can afford. After all you can see for miles across the rolling, undulating sandhills and mesquite filled flats. As I said we cover as much ground as possible, but not before glassing from these spots for an hour or so, due to the fact that deer can take a step or two and be suddenly in sight, or out of sight too. If we're lucky enough to spot a shooter, the stalk can be a quiet one through the sand, it just takes time and getting in no hurry. I can't hurry much anyways anymore walking through sandhills. The great thing is that the big deer are there for sure. We've taken (my buddy and myself) one 200", and two 190" bucks between us the last two years. Don't let anyone ever tell you big mule deer bucks are dumb or easy. I set up a game camera for the first time ever at a watering, and captured pics of several real brutes. We never saw hide nor hair during the season. Two weeks after the season ended we video taped a 36-38: giant right where we'd been hunting. It never fails.

Interesting thread.

Mulies rule!

Check this out....the kids sent my video clip of the 36"er to youtube....(please let me know if you still can't see it)

I could not view the video. It says it is private.

Because it has a good population of really outstanding throphy bucks. I can, or could, get a tag any year I wanted, although this may change this year.
In addition, the weather is usually warm and dry and the areas I hunt sometimes offer quality bird hunting.
Very few hunt these areas except on the opener and the weekends. E

E: I've hunted D-17, NE corner around the Clark Mtns. Man that is some tough but interesting area! this was some time ago, and only hunted there once. Saw tracks in some gullies and canyons, never saw a mulie tho. Pretty much hunt the Eastern Sierra's, when I can. Wouldn't mind trying those desert mulies again sometime. A little older now, but probably a more patient hunter than before. Tom

Where I hunt in D-12, I spend most of my time looking for tracks. If it weren't for the fact that the bucks can be found in the same areas year after year, I'd have very little chance of ever seeing the tracks of a big one.
If I find old tracks, say a day or more older, I make note of where they were and keep an eye on that area. I do the same if I, or someone else, sees one there.
Sonner of later, I'll see fresh sign. Then I try to track him. I say "try" because I fail to get him alot more often than I do harvest him.
However, I can guarantee you that you will learn all sorts of fascinating things about him, and bucks like him, if you track him. The most challenging and fascinating hunting I've ever done.
It's also teaches you things that I suspect will help you track other animals, like elk, in heavy timber. All you need is some not too noisy snow and you've get the potential for a really exciting hunt. E

I've heard good things about D-12. Thats a pretty good drive from where you're coming from. How often do make the trek down south? Tom

Thanks E and I can understand the reasoning. Alot of my friends used to question my reasoning for going to Sask because they too have lower numbers, but no where else, IMO, do you get the opportunity to take a brute like they have up there.

^^^

Usually I hunt there when I don't get an out of state tag.
If you go and give it a try, be flexable. This is one zone where you want to hunt where other hunters hunt. I've known lots of people who have hunted there and have never seen a deer, let alone a buck. Some of it, perhaps maybe most of it has so few deer, you'd never find a buck.
The iron clad rule is if youy aren't seeing deer or fresh sign, you are in the wrong place. Move. In the big washes, one side's side washes may have no fresh sign but the other side's do. Or they may be in certain areas but not others.
You may find areas where there is nothing but does. Sometimes they have young bucks with them, but almost never a large, older buck.
Plan on spending lots of time there. If you can't do at least nine days, go somewhere else. Most of my bucks were taken in the second or third week. It takes a while to find just where they are. E

Thanks E. Well like you said, its a tough area to hunt. And I MUCH appreciate the tips you have given. I suppose I'll have to rise to the occasion soon, and tear myself away from the Sierra's, and hunt those great desert mulies! Thanks again E. Tom