Tips and Tactics: How to Hunt Mule Deer (Part 3)
A Great (and Cheap) Mule Deer Rifle
Serious mule deer hunters spend thousands on high-end rifles and optics, but sometimes a more modest setup works just as well.
I killed one of my best bucks with one of my cheapest rifles, a USD $400 Ruger American, topped with a Weaver scope and shooting a premium bullet, Federal’s Trophy Copper. I chose that rifle specifically because of its repeated precision and its ability to function in cold, snowy, and muddy conditions.
The buck, an ancient loner, had been shot in the jaw and front shoulder weeks earlier, which prevented him from moving much. Even during the rut, he bedded in a huge alfalfa field bordering my property. I couldn’t hunt the field, and I think he knew it. For two days, I set up on a snow-covered hump, covered up with insulating blankets, and waited for him to make a mistake.
On the third day, he did. He bedded on the edge of my property, a long 410-yard (410-meter) shot from my hide. I knew I’d have to thread a shot into his vitals as he lay on the sidehill. I consulted my bullet-drop table. With a 200- yard (200-meter) zero, my 180-grain Trophy Copper bullet drops about 24 inches (60 cm). Knowing that a mule deer’s ears are about 8 inches (20 cm) long, I factored the amount of holdover my shot required. I killed that starving old buck in his bed with a single well-placed shot, ending
the suffering that had started with another hunter’s poor shots.
The Holy Grail for many Western hunters is a mule deer that breaks the 200-inch (500-cm) mark. This is a remarkable trophy indeed, combining antler spread that nears or exceeds 30 inches (76 cm), main beams that stretch over 24 inches (60 cm), and cumulative mass measurements of more than 16 inches (41 cm).
Consider that the world’s record for a typical mule deer is 226 4/8 inches (575 cm), a Colorado giant killed in 1972, and that the minimum score to qualify for Boone and Crockett Club’s all-time records is 190 inches (483 cm). Bucks wearing headgear this impressive need three main things: time to get old, sanctuaries where they can stay hidden, and good forage throughout the year, especially during harsh winters.
So where do these bucks live? Your best bet remains Colorado’s Western Slope, but other trophy areas are Saskatchewan, northern Arizona, and southern Utah, where drawing a buck tag in some units is harder than drawing a bighorn sheep tag in most states.
Can You Call Mule Deer?
Whitetail hunters carry a veritable orchestra of noise makers: grunt tubes to challenge mature bucks, bleat cans to mimic the estrous wails of ready does, squeaks to sound like lost fawns. Mule deer hunters, on the other hand, are a relatively laconic lot.
Do mule deer respond to calling? Conventional wisdom says no. Because they inhabit wide-open habitat, muleys rely more on their eyes than their ears to make contact with their herd mates. But that doesn’t mean you should never try to call mule deer.
Sometimes a fawn bleat will attract a curious doe, and especially as the rut approaches, a mature buck will follow the doe to your call. And high-pitched predator calls will sometimes prompt a bedded buck to stand up and look around, giving you a shot opportunity that you wouldn’t otherwise have.
