Ep. 116: Hunting the Mule Deer Rut

There's a few states out there that offer tags that go into the rut, and we're gonna be covering good tactics by exploring what deer doing and how to suss out big mature bucks at this most vulnerable time of the year by looking first at rut behavior, then focusing in on the places to concentrate your efforts and the tactics to employ. Before we do that, I want to share the story of the One Eyed Jack, one of

my best rut raged yal deer. Right now, I'm actually in my cabin and I'm looking up on the wall here and I'm looking at one of my probably one of my best bucks that I've taken during the rut um. This happened to be a season where I could hunt through the archery season, So starting in September hunt archery, and then it went all the way through pretty much the end of November. This particular year, I was wanting to find the best dear that I could. I had

scouted really hard during the summer. I mean I put all my time into chasing big meal dere from essentially, I think I started probably scouting in June or July and found some really really big bucks, and a couple had a couple of target bucks that I was looking for, and my dad had a meal deer tag, a friend of mine had a deer tag, and we were just kind of like dedicating this season to finding a big

meal deer. So I hunted all of archery season. I mean I put some stocks on some great deer, um got in within range and just passed because it wasn't the caliber of buck that I was looking for. I really wanted to take a buck that was over eight inches, and up until that point that would have been my my biggest year. So I mean I I snuck in with a bow within thirty yards of some mid one

seventy bucks. I mean I passed up. Probably I don't even know a hundred and fifty what I would consider like good solid one seventy type were once not on seventy, but like one to one seventy type bucks. And so the season continued on. UM I was also guiding during this time, so I was like, I hunted a lot of the archery season for myself. I did a lot of pre scouting and other things, and then I had

a few weeks during the rifle season to hunt. I was during general rifle season, so I UM I was still bow hunting the first part of the season, but as it winded down. It was during that last week of this season, I think we had three or four days left to hunt, and I thought that myself, Man, I put in so much time. I've been super diligent. Um I just hadn't found the book that I was looking for, and there's only a couple of days left. I'd seen some really nice dear but just nothing that

really was like that that buck. So as the rut was going through, we were I had a few different pockets that I kind of kept going back to areas where I saw a lot of really good rut behavior bucks kind of really corralling the does and then a lot of pockets of dos, and I just kind of keep cruising going through these these different pockets. Well, this one particular pocket I probably checked daily, maybe multiple times

a day. Big open basin had some trees and timber in it, but um, it's kind of one of those more dry south facing slopes, big kind of rock rims at the top, and it held held a lot of deer. So I'd seen a lot of the deer that i'd probably even some of the many of them that I had already passed on, and I was looking for one particular buck, but it just couldn't turn them up. So

I'm standing there. My dad was with me, and this particular day, I was like I carried the bow pretty much every day, and I thought, I'll just I'll just bring the rifle because it's a pretty open country here. I thought, man, if I see the deer that I'm looking for, you know, it doesn't matter rifle or bow. It's like that point in the in the season. So I actually had my rifle with me. Is like the first day I took the rifle and I'm like, this is area is just so open and there's i mean,

probably on average forty does in this canyon. So I thought it's gonna be tough to sneak in on one either way, and with limited time. Cool, So I've got my rifle with me. So we're sitting up there glassing and see some bucks, you know, nothing real crazy. There's like a kind of like a couple of deer doing the stomp rounds. So it's like big redded up meal. Their necks are just swollen. You know. These are probably some some nice decent looking bucks, like three by threes

or whatever, but decent looking bucks. And they're they're pushing the doughs around, they're stomping around doing their thing. They're kind of do this like stiff neck walk stomp grunting, and the way that I can actually hear some like a couple of grunts down below us. You can't see him, Like okay, and then I start hearing just like some major rattling two bucks fighting. I'm like, okay, but this blow is right below where we're glassing from. I can't

see him. So I start working down and sure enough, down below me's like the way the hills slope, there's these these two. This one buck runs out and he's like, oh, he's a nice buck, like mid one sixties type buck, and I'm like, oh man, And then I see the like the forks of this other deer, and I'm like, that's a big deer. But i can't see. All I can see is like his top back for so I'm like, man,

that that's a that's a good buck um. And I see that he's got a couple of extras on him, like inline, so he's essentially like four by main, four by four, and then he's got like these inline extra fifths and he's got eye guards too, So I us, if you're a white tail hunter, would that be six per side? Times to doing math, that would be twelve. It's a Texas twelve pointer. I would call it a five by five and uh, some people would call it a six by six. So nice, just a solid buck um,

definitely over that one eight benchmark. Uh. And I'm like, okay, it's it's this buck. So I'm being super cautious. I'm like, all, I don't want to blow him out, and I can't. Really. It's like he's actually pretty close the way the hills sloped, and I just hear him grunting, grunting, grunting, and I don't have a call or anything with me, but I give him a couple grunts like and and then I just see like antler tips start coming my way and he's working up the hill and he's just on a

cruising mission. So he goes and and now he's just like I'm pretty sure he won that fight, and I don't know why, Like he's just he's just rut raged. I mean he is full on beast mode, just stocky in the front moving and he's moving. Now, he's moving pretty good, and he's he's not running, but he's just like cruising and I don't have a shot. The way the hill is, he's like working up past me at this point, and he's going up over the ridge. So I'm like, oh crap. So I I throw up my

binos and now he's going he's like past me. Because I couldn't actually see him so that the hills steep, he like worked right below me. I could just see the top of his rack. He never stopped. I kind of went down and then I look up and he's already up and going over cresting over the ridge. I throw my binoculars up and I noticed something weird on his left side. I was like, guy, his face just looks like I was like, man Like, it looked like I could see blood, and I'm like, okay, well, he's

just got in a fight. I don't know if it's fresh or what. So that buck went over the ridge like a ways above me, and I'm like, gotta make a move because I mean, I don't know if he's cruising to the next set of doze, what the heck he's doing. Maybe there was some doze he was fighting about on the other side or pocket, maybe that's where he was. And I don't know what's going on, but I gotta move. So I run up over the hill, get to the top, and I don't see him. It's

the same deal. It's like I get to the top and then it's just super steep and I can't really see below that pocket. So I start working down. Now it's kind of like this is more of like a burned a little bit of cover in here. And I go and I I'm moving down and I hear it grunt. That's gotta be him, you know. I'm like, okay, So I start I started working towards that grunt, and I see antler tips and he's just like he's cruising, he's grunting,

he's moving. I throw out my binoculars and all I can see is like his neck and his head, and I look and I see that he only like he doesn't have a left eye, like it had been gored out while fighting, so that I'm like, oh, that's probably what happened. He's the bigger deer, but must have just lost his eye. And he's like, what's going on. He sees out of his right side his left eye is gone, and I'm like, this is my time. So I start, I start moving in. I mean, he's like, I'm like, okay,

nothing like stalking a blind deer, you know. So I'm moving down and he's definitely alerting. I'm trying to hustle because he's like cruising, So I parallel him on the ridge dropped down and I'm like, I can't get a good shot. I just gotta keep stalking in. So he stops. I grunt and I can tell like I'm on his blind side. Now. I'm just using this to my advantage. Although he's a d percent alert, He's got his other eye, you know, he's got his nose, he's got his ears,

so I start moving down, keep creeping down. He's so rut rage, like every little stick snap you can just see he's pretty much blown steam out of his nose. And I get to a point where I finally get like he's slowed down enough and stopped, and now I can get into position. Of course, the day that I take my rifle this deer, I'm stalking a one idea called one eyed jack and I'm like it probably thirty yards broadside, pull up, the rifle off and boom, shoot,

buck goes down. And I was still pretty stoked, because, of course, my first thought was like, damn it, the one day you don't take your bow and you're within bow range of the kind of buck you're looking for after pretty much ninety days of chasing deer. But on the flip side, I was pretty excited to take my biggest buck today to that point. Um, whether with a rifle wail or with a bow whatever, but just a a rut raged warrior for sure, And it was a pretty cool deer, one that I still look at and

have the memory of that hunt. When we're talking about rut tactics, when it comes to meal deer, we first kind of need to understand what the bucks are doing. The rut is really probably the best time, one of the best times, I would say to target mature mule deer because they're out searching for does, and there's a

couple of types of mule deer. You know, you can't just put a blanket statement of our mule deer and then assume that the behavior is the same between all mule deer, because there's some mule deer that are fairly localized, like their homebody mule deer. They might be in one canyon and they'll rut in that same canyon and they're going to do all their things in that canyon. They're just like very local to that particular area. And then there's other ones that are mule deer. Maybe it's a

more migratory area, maybe it's got a big mountain. It's like it's got mule deer that are just on a cruise mission. And either way, whether they're local or whether they're moving along ways into this area to rut, the goal of those boxes the same. It's to breed. Bucks are trying to find doughs that are going into heat. They're they're looking for those estrus doughs that they can breed.

That's their whole focus that time of year. Now, of course there's all that other behavior that coincides with them trying to breed, because the bucks are are essentially fighting for that right to breed those does. One thing I like to think about when it comes to hunting the rut, and one thing that's very cool is big bucks can

literally turn up anywhere. But when I concentrate on finding mature meal there when I'm looking for the best bucks um that I can, whether it's a general area that happens to be during the rut, whether it's a limited tag area, there's gonna be certain areas that are more productive than others, and those productive areas this time of year are where the does are. I always have the same to my brother would always say, find the does,

find the bucks. It's one of the things like when other times a year, if you're looking, maybe you'll see does. Even during that October phase. See does, it doesn't necessarily mean that the bucks are there. Once you've hit that rut phase, probably at the beginning of November, even when they're starting to cruise through the end of November. Once you find the dose the bucks will be nearby or

at some point will be there. So we're gonna focus our tactics on those pockets of doughs and then kind of how to exploit those dough pockets and the tactics that you want to use during the rut to kind of make the time that you've got more productive. When you're focusing in on buck behavior during the rut and you're looking at does you've got to think of them, it's kind of like two different species because what's happening is the bucks during this time of year are the cruisers.

They are moving from pocketed dough to pocketed dough. What they're doing is they're looking for uh, well, they're looking for a lot of things. Some of the younger bucks are probably looking for a dough that they can sneak away and nobody else has got. The bigger bucks are looking for those doughs that are ready to breathe that

they can kind of take control of that group. But they might even they might be there for an hour, they might be there for twenty minutes, especially early in the rut in that moving phase, mature bucks are doing a lot of cruising. They're kind of looking for groups of doughes that are clustered up that are kind of like, hey, more in one spot. It's like, if I take control of this zone, I've got thirty doughs to breed as

opposed to one dough off in the timber somewhere. So the mature bucks, as the rep progresses, are looking for those those good concentrations does. The bucks are the cruisers, but the does are more constant, you might find. So what I like to do is I like to look for what I call dough pockets. Uh It's it's a certain area that just has what does like the does. I mean, yeah, they want to breed, they want to procreate,

but it's not the same intensity. I feel like sometimes as those bucks go through, the does start clustering up and they're just doing their thing, and then the bucks come in and kind of disturb that. Their thing is eating, feeding, surviving.

Oftentimes they're gonna be clustered up and they'll be in these areas where they've got that food source, the things that they like, they've got that water, they've got that cover, they're they're safe, but they're in these kind of like ICLM pockets because it's an isolated uh area of habitat where it's got everything they need in a very small area. Because they're they're the constant. They know that the more they group up their sense gonna be around, it's gonna

attract more bucks. It's just lends to that breeding cycle. So the does are kind of going to pick these micro habitats where they've got a little bit of everything they need. Yeah, they'll travel a little bit of distance, but not like the bucks will. I've seen I've seen a buck that like one day during early rut phase on one area of the mountain and seen that same

buck about ten miles away later that day. Just like that deer never stopped moving, And what he's doing is he's he's cruising all these little micro habitats, all these little pockets, looking for those pockets of does. So what I like to do during the rut phase is find the pockets of does. That's gonna be kind of like my live bait. Those are going to be the places

that I focus and concentrate my efforts on. And knowing that bucks are covering country and they can kind of show up in these areas at at anytime, So what I like to do is I kind of do the same thing that a buck would do. I like to tailor my hunt thinking of like if I were a buck, what am I doing? And that involves covering country and

checking multiple pockets repeatedly. Uh, there is there is an idea of thinking like, Okay, I could just sit on this one pocket and anything could show up at any time. That is true. But what I like to do is I like to figure out where these pockets of dough is gonna be and then kind of covering a lot of country in between that, checking different pockets, seeing kind of the rut activity, and deciding okay, this is one where it's it's it's going to be create a really

good rut magnet. I'll talk about that a little bit later, but um, figuring out kind of like checking the temperament of each of these pockets. So when you're thinking about dough pockets, I like to find there's like different productivity levels of pockets of doughs. You might be in an area and you go, God, there's a hundred and fifty does in here. What I like to do is I kind of like to to factor in, Okay, how productive

are these doughs gonna be coming into cycle soon. And if I find a pocket that's like a lot of does and fawns, I know that yes, deer will like cruising, deer will go check them out, but it's not really they aren't especially early in the rut, it's not really going to hold the bucks. Um. There is that occasion like yeah, some some does with fawns can be bread, it's generally later. Um, sometimes you'll see a big buck

chasing a fawn around whatever. But it's the pockets of doughs that don't have a lot of fawns that are going to be more productive. Those are the ones that you're gonna get these like rut magnets where it's it's one buck kind of gets on that group, another buck comes in, they start fighting. They're creating more noise, spreading more scent, circling around each other, which is drawing in more bucks, which is creating this magnet. The larger it

gets in, the more it draws in. And that's what we're looking for, those high productive pockets where the bucks are really active and it's kind of drawing in the deer from other areas where it's pulling bucks away from those less productive pockets. Um, And what's gonna end up happening is the mature bucks are going to be in

those highest productive areas. They're gonna be the ones kind of fighting for those really good doughs, those those high likelihood of breeding doughs, Whereas you're gonna find probably your more immature bucks in those kind of nursery pockets with a lot Maybe there might be a lot of doughs, but um, you know they're gonna be trying to sneak away does that probably won't be receptive to breeding. Uh. Now, if you're just looking to shoot any deer, once you

find those pockets, like sweet, you're in the money. You know there's gonna be probably an ample amount of fork at horns and little three points cruising around. But if you're focusing on big mature deer or um, you know, trying to take better bucks, like better age class bucks, then you want to focus on those higher productivity pockets. Once I've got an area where I think, okay, here's where the doughs like, here's some good areas, then I then I spend my time. I do two different tactics.

One is kind of cruising and covering country, especially cover more country. It seems like I cover more pockets the later in the rut, so earlier in the rut when I've got good glassing vantages. So like let's say, beginning of November whatever, I'm generally looking for good vantages where I can cover a lot of country with my eyes. The reason for that is early in the rut, during that cruising phase, the mature deer are gonna be checking a lot of pockets and not really focusing in and

holding down on a certain particular area. As the rut progresses, as it gets actually closer to breeding time. So like what the bucks are doing earlier, they're cruising, they're figuring things out there, like where are the does at? What's you know? Maybe there's gonna be a hot dough here, and I'll spend a little bit of time. But they're

just they're cruising, they're checking, they're moving, they're going. So what I like to do is cover a lot of country the whole The whole key with rutt meal that you're hunting is covering a lot of country. Just how you do it might change a little bit. So the early stages, I'm doing a lot of glassing. I'm covering country where I can see a long ways, because at any point in the day, I know that a big

deer could walk through. Some of the best year I found early season like that or early rhut like that is from sitting in one van it's covering five or six miles and going, oh, there's one cruising across that opening. Now, sometimes by the time you get there, they aren't there. But if you'll watch and I'll say, oh, there's a pocket of dose here, Okay, he's going he's checking them out.

Gives me a little bit of time to try to get over there and figure out where the deer at or get into a nice area where I've got a good advantage and hey, uh there's some good does maybe a good pocket here that bucks are going to be continually checking and I can kind of cover multiple places with my eyes, with my optics, with my spotting scope

and binoculars and then just keep checking in on those spots. Now, as the rep progresses, I actually like to kind of figure out like I actually do more moving then because I've got pockets of does that go like, okay, maybe this this pocket is going to be the one that creates that that deer magnet today, it's the one where there's a doze gonna come into heat. Bucks are gonna be fighting for this one dough that sounds going to kind of be a natural call and a magnet to

other deer. So I just start going and checking different pockets of dose. I might move in if I can, if I can glass it, and it's that kind of country. If it's the kind of country where it's more broken like breaks type country, if it's more um, you know, like different canyons and goalies type country, then I use my feet or whatever however I need to cover more

country and find those little pockets. I'll then go in and I'll set up and I'll watch and say, okay, like you know, is this an area that's gonna be holding dear And you might even find those pockets that are really active in the morning, and then just kind of keep watching them because there might be bucks that were, you know, running hard early and before daylight hours bedded off, and then they're going to move in and try to

steal some dough during the day. So I'll then kind of focus in on those doughs and then see what gets drawn into that, and then I'll keep checking different pockets where I know or have seen doughs in the past. One thing to think about is when you find a pocket that's like pretty productive, has a lot of doughs, what I'll do is like I'll pull out my maps and I'll just try to find other areas that have

that similar type habitat. Whether it's you know, depends on where you're at what you're doing, but where you're finding does, like kind of pay attention to that habitat, pay attention to the hill orientation, that the type of terrain it is, and then find other places like that, and you're gonna start seeing a pattern where it's like, hey, now I'm finding more pockets of does, and it gives me more places the check to try to find the place that's

going to draw in those mature bocks. I appreciate everybody that's been sending me messages. Man, some really good October season bucks have been coming in Mule Dere. I've been getting some awesome pictures from people using a couple of the tactics from last week already. It's like, hey, caught that before I went out this weekend. Look what I got. And I'm like, heck, yeah, man. Uh. You know, if you've got a rut mule, der tag or whatever and you find some success, make sure to keep me posted.

I appreciate it so many awesome messages coming in. Don't forget to send in your questions because we're gonna be doing a Q and A here pretty quick. Next week. We're gonna dive into a little bit of fun gear stuff. I've got some like just I just kind of thinking about some of the fun things that I say when I'm out hunting. Um, I'm gonna get a little bit of a teaser one of my gear mantras protect the

puffy at all costs, you guys will understand. Next week, Um, but I'm going to talk about a little bit of some of the gear stuff, just some of the fun stuff that I've got tried this year, some of the other stuff. So I got a little bit of gear stuff coming up next week, and then of course some Q and A s and make sure to share your

success with me. Hopefully some of these these ideas kind of help, you know, maybe maybe things you already know, but it just resonates like, oh, I'm doing the right thing. I'm finding those pockets of does and this time of year, this is what we're looking for, So I think that there's gonna be a lot of good success had this season. I'm really excited to start doing some serious meal deer hunting. I've got a lot of late season elk hunting stuff.

My guide season starts kicks off rifle this weekend, So it gets to that time of year for me where I'm just like uncent going after elk and then we get a little bit of a break in that and have some guided meal your hunts and some other stuff. I've got a couple muleder tags myself, which man, I feel like, if you're gonna pick two species out west, it's like mule deer and elk are the kings of

the country. Of course you've got the sheep tags and the other stuff sprinkled in here there, but it's what most people hunt, and it's just, um, I don't know, there's something about mule there. Like if you're ask me what what animal antlers just kind of like make you the most excited. It's it's a big mulder, absolutely hands down. Now, giant elker or rad any elk is rad They're the most delicious creature on the planet. But when it comes to just hunting hunting deer, I don't know. For me,

it's just something so cool about mule deer. Actually, uh, you know it's funny man. This podcast is where it like episode what one sixteen or something like that. It's that's nuts. Uh. It just seems like yesterday I was talking about rattling in mule Deer and I was like, oh, yeah, I just I was trying to scroll back and like find the episode and like what this episode seventeen? Um. But today I'm going to release a video. I found all the like footage that I was looking for and

did just kind of like a little throwback video. So, uh, becall you can watch me rattle a mule deer off of private land to where we could shoot it. That's on my YouTube today, remy war on YouTube channel. Go check that out. And yeah, excited to keep leaving the comments and keep reaching out. I appreciate you all. Until next week, Find the does Find the Bucks