I just went through the same learning curve as this year was my first mule deer hunt and I was successful in harvesting a mature buck in the Coulees of southern Alberta. Check out my other thread for an update.
What I found out on the first day is that concealment and skylining are more important than wind direction and being quiet. Mule deer in the prairies seem to rely on eye sight a lot. I had great wind and was silent as a mouse going into a couple draws and the deer would be bouncing before I even saw if they were bedded down or anything. That was because of skylining. Walk the coulees below the lower edge and you will have better success in spotting deer. Glassing is also important but I found that a really good set of binos works better than a spotting scope in the areas I was hunting as not many coulees were large enough or long enough to need to glass with a scope. I did use my scope to zero in and get some good pictures of a few dandy bucks but it was not always possible. PM me if you have any other questions because I went through the exact same hunting situation last week.
|