Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Utah Paunsaugunt Deer, anyone here experienced?

'sonora, after this year, I might have to take up archery hunting for mulies... Too hard to get rifle tags, but man, I do not care for velvet bucks.

ha!

It is a kick in the pants! Seriously a damn good time! It's easy to strip velvet and there is a guy in Iowa that can paint racks and make them look like they would if they had rubbed naturally. He is freaking amazing, in fact, you may know him from the taxidermy world

Drum

HS said....."My guess is that JG could come up here and not be as successful as a Dogcatcher "

I couldn't agree more. I'm not an expert anywhere! You understood my point perfectly well.......there's more to killing them than showing up on good ground.
Dogcatcher makes it sound so ridiculously simple.

If I'd ever killed a buck like that one you got in Mexico, I'd quit mule deer hunting!...

Not bragging. Point being they're here, and you wouldn't know where to start with 65,000 acres of sand, few roads, no elevation, and one deer per 1000 acres. You wouldn't have any Christmas money left.

GW, I've said it so many times, and Dogcatcher is right on.....I was so lucky and in the right place at the right time. I was able to knock him over but that's where the skill in that deal stops. Thanks though, he's literally a 1 in 1,000,000 buck.

My buddy's tell me to start looking for a huge nontypical..........

I'd rather be lucky than good any day of the week! That being said, I think that the guys that get lucky more than others have a knack for creating their own luck and that is a skill in itself. You've killed some absolute GIANTS bud! Cannot pin that on luck alone

You guys probably think Garth Carter is a good hunter too. He is good at hunting down private land that has giant bucks, i will give him that.

My cousin's wife got to hunt the same ranch he does, and also whacked a 190+ deer. Right out of the hay field. Guess I need to start asking her for mulie hunting advice...

No hay, wheat, alfalfa, oat fields, etc here. Just miles of sand, mesquite, and shinnery. Don't know Carter myself.

Your place actually sounds like a crappy place to hunt...

I'm certain there are private land setups for big mule deer....despite hunting them 30+ years, I have not bumped into them....must be in the wrong places.....

Course my biggest came off public land in Colorado....but I've been lucky on private ground, too.

I have also hunted unmolested and virtually unhunted mule deer in Canada, in regions with not 5% of the pressure they get on public or private land in the Lower 48.This country holds some very BIG mule deer by any definition.....the big boys are largely nocturnal as bats,and no pushovers...

Come to think of it, I have not hunted mature bucks anywhere that are "easy"......

I will bet it is as big a rodeo in JG's Sandhill Country as it is in the oakbrush jungles of SW Colorado,or the aspen thickets in the breaks of the Peace....

You think guys like Randy Ulmer go to crappy areas with the intent of hunting big bucks? There is a reason he is hunting places like NV and the strip. Same reason I have never ran into Chuck Adams hunting elk in an OTC Colorado unit...

You want to shoot big animals, you have to hunt where big animals are.

Nobody's disputing the fact that you must hunt where they live. I'm disputing the fact that you said and believe that's all there is to it, you need not have any knowledge of how to hunt big mule deer, and BS like that which is ridiculous. I would bet you don't have as much experience chasing them as you would lead us to believe, and as many here do including BobinNH.

Elementary my dear Watson........ THAT is like, Rule Number One ....cause ya can't kill....what ain't there...

I never thought Randy hunted crappy areas but I can tell you for a fact that the areas he hunts are tough to kill a deer in.


Ask me how I know...



Drummond

Flinch, where did you go?

Damnation what a buck!



He's scrambling for evidence.................which ain't there. That's a tough obstacle.

No, I said if you are good at mulie hunting, then the size is luck. Either you are a good hunter, in a good area, or not. I consider myself a good mulie hunter, and I have hunted places that I could only find a 2 point.

Big mule deer bucks are dumb...they always stop and look back at you before they go over the ridge....grin!

Seriously, the good big buck hunters I know and hunt with either kill hogs or nothing at all. They have standards and stick with them...and that means coming home empty handed way more than killing one. I would rather hunt an area that has one B&C buck per 200,000 acres than a place thats stacked full of 150 and 160" bucks.

I think it's an awesome place to hunt! Any area that has big ass mule deer is a great place to hunt