Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

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keb
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Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby keb » Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:34 pm

So we all know you do what everyone else does you get what everyone else does, right? I'm planning a DIY high country archery mule deer hunt in colorado. Tags been put in for got my units plotted. I went with unpopular units, no heavy ink on them, plenty of country public to hunt.

Here where I'm getting confused, I'm not ever hunted theses animals, so it's like starting over. I don't expect to go to the pretty basin with the lake and glass up a 180 and kill it. I'm trying to develop a out of the box approach for such.

What have you guys done with you whitetail tactics or experience to give you a leg up in this type of hunting, be it elk,deer or what ever.

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Milk Weed Seed
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby Milk Weed Seed » Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:41 pm

I think hill country tactics can be applied to mule deer and elk. In the hill country DVD Jarod references a elk hunt using thermals I believe.

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hunter_mike
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby hunter_mike » Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:05 am

Keb,

I havent done any muley hunting myself but I am also planning a muley trip in the near future. I watched a really good video "hard time bucks" by Eastman Outdoor Journal and they were out finding world class muleys on public land and went really in depth on how they were locating the big ones. Then there was one hunt where after they killed a muley they went and looked at where the buck was bedded and they were talking about how the bucks have been using that particular bed year after year. They talked about how the muleys were bedding on the leeward side of the hill. Basically every behavior they talked about was ringing bells in my head with the behaviors and bedding tendencies that were talked about in Dan's hill country bucks video.
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby MattyG » Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:53 am

a lot of the mule deer i have seen and kicked up are pritty spot on with the hill country dvd just on a biger hill scale haha.
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby JoeRE » Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:49 am

I would say the biggest asset to chasing anything out west is being in really good shape. That is what will give you an edge over the competition, I have never hunted mulies, only elk, and I have hiked around out west quite a bit....it always seemed like the biggest obstacle is the terrain, NOT the animals themselves. Elk are not as wary as whitetails and mulies did not seem to be that wary either. The seeing them bit isn't the hard part, so much as the getting close to them bit.

Walking a mile or two to a deer stand around here is nothing compared to out there. The distances and elevation changes are bigger by a factor of 10 than midwest hill country. I was in the best shape of my life elk hunting, doing crossfit/p90x style workouts combined with 8 mile runs, and it maxed me out to keep going every day for a full week at 10,000 feet.
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby 365buckin » Sun Sep 30, 2018 7:59 am

hunter_mike wrote:Keb,

I havent done any muley hunting myself but I am also planning a muley trip in the near future. I watched a really good video "hard time bucks" by Eastman Outdoor Journal and they were out finding world class muleys on public land and went really in depth on how they were locating the big ones. Then there was one hunt where after they killed a muley they went and looked at where the buck was bedded and they were talking about how the bucks have been using that particular bed year after year. They talked about how the muleys were bedding on the leeward side of the hill. Basically every behavior they talked about was ringing bells in my head with the behaviors and bedding tendencies that were talked about in Dan's hill country bucks video.


Im going out to WY in Nov for a Muley rut hunt. Would you recommend getting "hard time bucks" DVD or just rewatch the Hill Country DVD before I go. I don't know what to expect out in the mountains. And what happens if there is fog or a blizzard or something in the morning and you don't glass one up? Do you just start glassing potential bedding sites looking for white rumps and big racks, or still hunt through stopping and checking?
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby tbunao » Sun Sep 30, 2018 9:36 am

Over looked spot/back door. Deerdylan and I got on a bull that was bedding behind some other hunters with his cows. The hunters were focused in the upper meadows while these elk were going around them. Why these hunters would camp where they did is beyond me but the elk knew where they wanted to be and where it was safe.

I think a lot of what hurts flat landers out west is they are just to gear focused. What poundage? What broadheads? What pack? They forget to focus on the most important aspect... the species it’s self. We know nothing of these animals and those said hunters fail to really dig deep on the how’s, why’s and what’s that make these animals tick.
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby hunter_mike » Sun Sep 30, 2018 11:29 am

365buckin wrote:
hunter_mike wrote:Keb,

I havent done any muley hunting myself but I am also planning a muley trip in the near future. I watched a really good video "hard time bucks" by Eastman Outdoor Journal and they were out finding world class muleys on public land and went really in depth on how they were locating the big ones. Then there was one hunt where after they killed a muley they went and looked at where the buck was bedded and they were talking about how the bucks have been using that particular bed year after year. They talked about how the muleys were bedding on the leeward side of the hill. Basically every behavior they talked about was ringing bells in my head with the behaviors and bedding tendencies that were talked about in Dan's hill country bucks video.


Im going out to WY in Nov for a Muley rut hunt. Would you recommend getting "hard time bucks" DVD or just rewatch the Hill Country DVD before I go. I don't know what to expect out in the mountains. And what happens if there is fog or a blizzard or something in the morning and you don't glass one up? Do you just start glassing potential bedding sites looking for white rumps and big racks, or still hunt through stopping and checking?


We ended up antelope hunting instead of muleys but i dont think you would need a particular video. I think if know how to find whitetails in hard to reach or overlooked places i am sure you will be able to find muleys using the same train of thought with proper amount of leg work. I would recommend watching hushin on youtube, those guys really getter done on the muleys
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby PK_ » Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:17 pm

You do not have to start from scratch. Think of how big whitetails live in the seems and fringes of pressure on public. I have NOT hunted out west but it is similar IMO.

1 thing you could try is to hunt areas that are tough to glass.

If there is a perfect glassing knob where you can see 80% of a beautiful basin, where do you think 99% of the hunters who hunt that basin are going to sit and glass from. Where do you think an older age animal will be spending most of his time if he has evaded all those hunters? You need to glass the 20% of the basin that nobody else has.

Or just hunting more broken country in general. An area that has lots of nooks and crannies and is a pain to glass and navigate vs a pretty open area.

No matter what you are hunting, on public you have to outwork/outthink the competition. It used to be just going in farther, but those days are pretty much over. Everyone is a hardcore diy guy now.

Not really anything ‘out of the box’ but just a thought.
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby Brandonkinchen » Sun Sep 30, 2018 4:02 pm

There is one common theme I've noticed in all terrains when using beast tactics............hunt where people Aren't! Even if you've never been to an area. Scout for human sign while scouting for game sign. Hunt where there is low pressure.
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby swampyak » Mon Oct 01, 2018 9:10 pm

Don't forget the very basics also. I was in a fire camp out west this summer and spent a lot of time around an older guy. He was very succesful mule deer, blacktail and elk archery Hunter. I asked him to brake it way done and give me in his opinion what was the most important thing to remember. He said stay down wind and be very very quiet. After thinking about it for a bit I had to agree that it was a very good tip that most people forget.
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Re: Big game beast style?? Out of the box stuff

Unread postby flinginairos » Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:33 am

Just coming back from my first western hunt for mulies in Wyoming I will say that they are very similar to whitetails in habit. All the theories and principles taught on this site most definitely apply! The terrain is bigger/steeper but they bed the same exact way and avoid human pressure just the same. The area we were in had a lot of pressure from guys hunting off of horseback and there wasn't a distance from the road they wouldn't go. We out-hiked pretty much everyone else hunting by foot and got to the top but that's where the horse guys were. After a day of not seeing much we realized we needed to be lower, closer to cover and in an area where people hadn't been. Turned out a small finger ridge just below the main basins above was holding several bucks and we almost got one of them the last day. Guys were riding right by this spot on horses heading to the top and didn't bother to glass it because it was mostly timber. A solid day of glassing it almost paid off. 8-)


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