Mule Deer Mindset

A couple of weeks ago as I write this, I scored a records-book mule deer for a fellow who shot it on a ridge in Washington's Cascade Range, where he was hunting bears. The buck walked from the forest, looking toward a group of hikers in a basin far below. The hunter fired his 6.5 Smith--a wildcat on a .270 Weatherby case--and watched the deer bound away. He found it after a long search in thick cover.

Records-book mule deer are in short supply these days. But you've a better chance of killing one than other hunters will tell you--provided you don't think like they do. It is indeed true that in almost every enterprise, whether you think you can or can't succeed, you're right.

Thinking this bear hunter got lucky is missing the point. Good luck, observed one astute hunting guide, is preparation meeting opportunity. Opportunity comes most often to hunters who think unlike other hunters and behave more like deer. For example, they see deer country not as an expanse, but as a complex of routes and hideouts. That's how deer see it. Just as you follow specific roads and highways to your home and know where to look for things within your house, deer move on routes they know well. As you notice a set of dies out of place on your loading bench, or strange music after someone changes the radio channel, so deer notice your solid form in brush that otherwise lets light through. Human footfalls and human scent send bucks into hiding.

Once, eating lunch under a tree in a rainstorm, I looked up into the eye of a buck just thirty feet away. The eye and an enormous antler burr were all I could see. Dropping my gaze for a second to shoulder my rifle, I found not a sign of the buck in the scope. He had vanished like smoke. Another time, I tracked a big buck for most of an afternoon, glimpsing him only twice, though he never left open basins. I recall circling a garage-size rock outcrop to investigate a sound on the other side. A buck tip-toed around the rock instead of running off. On a hunch, I reversed direction and sneaked into him sneaking away from me.

The bear hunter who got lucky may not have been thinking of deer that evening; he was, however, on the mountain. Many deer hunters give up too soon. Just spending time in the woods boosts your odds of seeing big deer. Mule deer hunting is like running a marathon. It's as much a mental challenge as a physical test. You have to be comfortable afield to spend enough time there. Beyond that, you must stay in "predator mode"--just as deer behave like prey. When they forget they're vulnerable, they become vulnerable. When you start acting like you do when you're not hunting, you're not hunting.