How To Kill Big Bucks During General Rifle Season

The sea of silver-tipped sage was vast. Creeks and coulees that hadn't seen water in a decade diced the landscape. Glassing was challenging. All that stood out was a left nostril, whitish/gray muzzle fragments, and an eye.

Thank God I'd attached my 12s to a tripod before I started dissecting the terrain. Free-hand glassing should be outlawed when hunting mule deer. At the time, I couldn't tell if I was looking at a buck or a doe, and I didn't want to say anything. It had been a tough six days of hunting, and my buddy, who held the general season rifle tag, was getting anxious.

Switching from the 12s to the spotter, I was able to zoom in and find the buck's right-side front forks. They were deep. The buck was less than 300 yards away; there was no wind and zero chance of getting closer. After getting my mule deer amigo in position, we waited. Two hours later, one well-placed 162-grain ELD-X Hornady Precision Hunter dropped the 176-inch buck in his tracks.

Big deer are where you find them, and if you're willing to look and, more importantly, eat your tag if you don't find what you're looking for, you can kill stud mule deer bucks in general, easy-to-draw units.

Sage, Prairie, & CRP

When I think of big mule deer, I don't think of unsullied alpine basins and towering peaks. Do big deer live in the mountains? Absolutely. I focus my western general rifle deer efforts in locales others overlook, though.

The sage-dappled prairie landscape of the West covers millions of acres. Most locales feature a cottonwood or 10, no-name creeks, coulees, natural lakes, and old dryland farm fields planted to CRP spring up here and there.

The heavy cover and semi-rolling, often sandy terrain make a mule deer mecca. The sagebrush and prairie grasses are an excellent food source for area ungulates, and the sage and fractured terrain provide remarkable bedding. Stop if your plains mule deer journey leads you to an area of CRP fields. Mule deer love the shoulder-high cover. Two years ago, in eastern Colorado, I glassed the biggest mule deer of my life in a CRP field surrounded by sagebrush.

Success in the sage, prairies, and CRP comes down to patience. You'll need to spend loads of time behind your optics, systematically picking apart the landscape. Quick bino scans won't work, and if you operate that way, chances are reasonable that you will pass right over a shooter buck.

Use your favorite digital scouting app and switch it to topo or hybrid mode. Look for terrain rises. Understand that these areas may have a small hill or tiny plateau. I keep a safety harness in my truck and climb every windmill. I find a lot of deer when I can get 20 feet in the air, strap in, and use both hands and a windmill bar to help with optic stabilization.

Bonus Tips

• Sagebrush is often taller than it looks, and deer can disappear quickly. I carry two tripods. The second I find deer that aren't covering a lot of ground, I lock one optic on them and use the other to watch the deer and scan for others. You don't have to panic when you suddenly look away, look back, and the buck you're watching is gone. You don't have to wonder if you're looking in the wrong area. There is another optic set on the area. Get on that optic and relocate the deer.
• In many western mule deer areas, sagebrush and CRP fields butt up to the prime-time private agricultural country. While you better have a big bank account or go with an outfitter to access most private mule deer dirt, focus on areas with excellent bedding cover on the fringe of private-land agricultural fields.
• Pin all water sources. Water is typically tough to come by. Mule deer know where it is; you should, too.
• Many rifle mule deer seasons in the prairie country occur during the rut. Use your vehicle, UTV, etc., to cover the ground and find deer.

Cedars, Pinions, and Canyonlands

The West is unique. Rolling plains quickly change to cedars, pinions, and steep, jagged, deep canyons. The more hellish the country, the more you should want to investigate it.

I find 90 percent of my mule deer when hunting canyon country by sitting atop a canyon rim and picking apart the head end of gnarly canyon fingers littered with boulders and heavy pockets of cedar. Deer will bed in these areas and then move out to the canyon slopes to feed on grasses or travel to the top of the canyon rim and access open pasture ground.

Again, quality optics win. Have nothing less than the best glass you can afford, as well as quality tripods. Ask any serious general season mule deer what their best weapon is, and they'll tell you it's their glass. That means top-end binoculars, spotting scope, and scope. Don't skimp on glass!

I stay away from areas of ultra-heavy cedars. The deer are too tricky to find and challenging to keep track of if you locate them. I pay close attention to any cedar-lined cuts that branch from a main cedar/pinion pocket and lead to small, isolated, grassy openings. These tiny cuts often run water and hold green grass late into winter. Like water, area deer know where the best food sources are. If you're scouting/glassing and find areas with green grass, pin them on your digital mapping app and spend a morning or evening watching the area.

During prime mule deer months like November and December, deer are often on their feet due to the urgency to pass on their genetics. If snow blankets the landscape, focus on south-facing canyon slopes and areas where the snow will melt quickly, exposing prairie grasses and herbs.

If you're hunting during October, another standard open-season timeframe in this landscape, note all water and likely food sources. Over 50 percent of a mule deer's diet in these areas comes from non-woody herbaceous plants like vine weeds, flowering weeds, and plants, etc. Mule deer are selective feeders. They like variety. If you find an area with multiple food sources with excellent bedding cover nearby, focus on these areas. October temperatures can be hot, and mature bucks can be tough to find.

Bonus Tips

• Mature mule deer bucks are selective about where they bed. Always glass boulder fields and rocky areas on canyon slopes between the top of the rim and the bottom for bedded bucks.
• During late September and throughout October, mature mule deer in these landscapes can be remarkably tough to find. Bring as many glassers as possible and spread out across an area.
• Don't give up. I went on a three-day October stretch and didn't glass up a single mule deer, let alone a buck. On day four, I glassed a 170-inch buck stroll across a semi-open canyon slope and bed under a massive boulder that provided shade.

The Mountains & Foothills

You won't find many general season rifle tags in the high country in September. Why?

Early September is mule deer primetime. Many bucks are still in velvet and extremely visible on green mountain slopes, in avalanche chutes, etc. This timeframe is one of the best to harvest a mature mule deer buck, and if you have a rifle and some patience, you'll kill a slammer. For this reason, these permits are typically reserved for draw hunts that take many points.

Don't fret; there's still plenty of general season mountain mule deer hunting to be had. The problem: October is a difficult month in the mountains. Hard-horned bucks move into heavy timber pockets. This is where the term "timber bucks" comes from.

Call me old-school, but one of my favorite October mountain mule deer techniques, especially when hunting a pressured general season unit, is to locate flat, benchy areas and still hunt above them. When morning thermals switch and travel uphill, deer are in their beds, making this a perfect time to move at a turtle-like pace and glass into likely bedding areas. Keep your scope on low power and be ready for a quick shot.

Another top October mountain technique is to locate food-rich areas. October is a transitional food month in the high country. Hard freezes suck the life from nutrient-rich grasses, forbs, etc. Acorns become a staple. If you locate areas with dropping acorns, you'll find mule deer. Mountain clover is another October mule deer food source, as are the leaves and twigs of shrubs and trees. During this timeframe, a mature buck's lifecycle revolves around cover, water, and food.

Snow becomes more common in the high country during late October through the first two weeks of November. While deer may hold up during periods of heavy snow, they will move before and after the weather system. If the snow is heavy, deer will drop to lower elevation areas to find exposed food sources.

Bonus Tips

• Don't be afraid to go old school and slip through the timber looking for a timber buck.
• Spend time behind your rifle and get comfortable shooting at longer ranges. I'm not telling anyone to be unethical, but when I'm mountain hunting pressured general season mule deer, I want to know I'm ready and able to make a killing shot out to 500 yards.

Final Thoughts

Don't let the title of this article fool you. Many mule deer fanatics don't consider anything under 180 inches a "stud." I disagree. Remember, you're hunting general units with high pressure, often low deer densities, and locations managed more for opportunity than trophy potential. I aim to harvest a mature buck that is an excellent area representative.

That means my general season mule deer crew and I harvest multiple bucks in the 160 to 170-inch range as well as old, heavy, thick, 3x3s, and 2x2s. Be willing to hunt hard and willing to eat a tag if your primary goal is to harvest a mature mule deer buck during any general rifle season.

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