Prairie muley tips?

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shepodyguide

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Hi All,
I've been applying for an Alberta antlered muley tag and should have enough priority points to draw one this year.:D I've never hunted muleys, nor have I hunted on the prairies. I'm looking for a bit of feedback concerning the muley population in SE Alberta where I may end up hunting. I don't need a monster buck, just a respectable fork tined buck. I would also appreciate a bit of experience from someone experienced in hunting muleys concerning strategy.;) I know that top knotch optics and flat shooting rifles are the order of the day, and I have both. But as I found out to my extreme frustration in a rocky mountain elk hunt in Alberta a few years back, where the "experts" say the elk should be, and where they really are, are not necessarily the same.:eek:

I will not have a ton of time to hunt and will probably just have a week, with only Thu-Sat. to hunt due to prairie hunting restrictions. I'm thinking the rest of the week should be devoted to glassing/scouting. Am trying to plan the hunt late in Nov. as I think this coincides with the rut.

Thanks for your feedback,

Gord
 
What zone do you plan on hunting? We hunt 108 when we can draw a tag, and there are plenty of big mulies around. Depending on how many days you can get out, I wouldn't shoot the first fork tined buck you see because there are some big mulies around.

One good strategy is to look for grain fields with cover near by, such as a river bottom. I wouldn't want anyone to mistake it for "truck hunting," but if you cover some area, it's amazing how many mulies are around. Sometimes the trick is just having permission to hunt on someone's land. I've found in 108 at least that most farmers / ranchers don't mind hunters as long as you walk and as long as they don't have livestock in their fields.
 
do not shot the first buck you see! you will regret it.

definately go scouting tues/weds to see what is out there.
 
I live in SE Alberta and hunt mulies down here quite a bit. Not sure of the area you're plannin on hunting but I'm around Medicine Hat and hunt all the areas around it lately with bow and then last season with my rifle. We had a great season and connected on 5 out of 5 bucks.
There are plenty of 'mature' deer around so I would wait before you shoot the first 4x4 you see (unless he's a pig). Mulies always look big when you arent used to hunting them, but the trophy quality is so high in the south that you can hold out and still be successful on a nice mature trophy. Learn how to judge mulies and decide what type of buck you want so you can make a quick decision if you need to. Score isnt important to me, but I want something that makes me happy.
The area I hunt is all sage-bush and rolling hills. Not many bushes, trees, etc around for the most part. No crops or any fields, all natural grass. I usually hunt the ridge lines and glass from a long way away. Seems it all depends on the weather where they'll hang around. I found most of our bucks in the low spots as the wind is really heavy most times. All the bucks we found were with does except the one I shot. We also did a lot of glassing from the truck on a windy day to save the walking and ended up spotting a pile for stalks.
Send me a PM if you want some more detailed info on SE Alberta and where you're plannin on hunting when you get drawn. The 2nd and 3rd week seemed to be the most productive times to hunt last year with the rutted bucks all crazy. All in all, most areas should produce at least 10-15 mature buck sightings a day, with some days producing a pile more. Its not uncommon to see a few hundred deer in a day.

Pic of my mulie from 2005 Season

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My girlfriend had one day to fill her tag, so we decided to take the first respectable buck we could find that morning. We saw over 10 bucks about this size in the first 20 minutes of hunting and passed on a few other bucks that might have scored better than this. We had this one down by 9:00 and it was a very enjoyable hunt. Plenty bigger out there (and we saw a lot that day in the 160-170 class) but this one just made for a fun hunt.

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MiG25 said:
do not shot the first buck you see! you will regret it.

definately go scouting tues/weds to see what is out there.
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I am all for scouting but the first one you see might be the best one. If you are going to live by this quote( and I outfitted for 8 years and think this is nonsense) you better be prepared to be happy with not harvesting anything. I have seen alot of hunters come to my camp and talk amongst themselves and I bet just about every batch of new hunters that come in someone says this exact thing. All I can say is that you better not shoot anything on the last day that wasn't good enough to shoot on the first, just for the sake of shooting!! You have to learn what a trophy is , if that's what your looking for. I have piles of unused tags just for this reason. I wish all my hunts could end the first day.
when I go to the hills here in sask. I like to find the biggest hill I can and at daylight just watch and spot some good deer and make a stock. Most times they are not what I am looking for but I think this is a great way to hunt as the game doesn't even know you are there. my 2 cents;)
 
Get into position early in the day for the first couple of days just scouting, get close to cover ie. river bottoms, coulees, drainages and buckbrush and use good glass. Mulies have an amazing ability to hide themselves where you think there can't possibly be something there so good glass is important.

When glassing be patient, its easy to look down a coulee and say there is nothing there. Look for the smallest signs like part of an antler, an ear twitching, a black nose, part of the white ass on a mulie or lines that don't go with the surroundings like the back or rump of an animal. My brother is unbelievable at picking up these features and I have learned so much from him.

When you do go to pull a stock on a deer in a coulee never approach from the top coming down, they will pick you off as soon as they see something strange on the horizon, approach from the side if possible.

Last point, Know what you are after. If it is a 180 class buck, learn how to judge them from a distance! I have shot more than one 180 class buck that turned into a 165 in the time it took me to walk over to the dead deer. They were still great deer but they shrink fast after you pull the trigger.

Good luck and post pics after you kill the big one!

Ivo
 
If you want a monster mulie get a whitetail tag. I saw a couple of real monsters this season. One 5x5 just hung around my stand for hours. If you come up north by the N. Sask river you should do allright.
 
Hey guys,
Thanks for the info. Everything that I have read indicates that muley population in se Alberta is good and I should see lots of deer. And Adog, you're right, when I was out last time to AB, we saw a huge rut crazed muley buck trot within 30 feet of our truck right on the highway outside of Cowley as we were lugging our whitetails to the butcher. I'm from New Brunswick, and I know what a big deer looks like, our bucks are as big bodied as anywhere and routinely dress over 200 lbs and I can usually field judge body size to within 20 lbs+/- on the hoof with decent light and good optics. I use Bushnell legend 8x40 binocs, B & L Elite 15x45x60 spotting scope and weaver grand slam 3.5x10x40 scope. Learned the hard way that cheap glass is no bargain. I also consider myself a good judge of antlers, but what I've learned the hard way from experience is that you've got to have REASONABLE expectations going into a hunt if you plan to be successful. Here in NB I am a licenced guide I and on an honest week-long whitetail hunt here, you may reasonably expect to get one shot opportunity at a respectable buck here (decent mass and tine length). Tight cover, hunting pressure and relatively low deer population density are all factors here. I have seen it so many times when someone comes here to hunt, passes on a pretty respectable buck the first day, and then gets skunked and goes home bitter. I know as well as anyone that there are no guarantees, that's why they call it hunting, and I'm a big boy, been skunked before (@#$%&*?! Alberta elk!:eek: )I won't cry if I don't fill my tag:p . But I know around here you'd better not be holding out for a 150 class buck if a 120 class 8 point dressing 200 lbs steps out. Likewise I would be sick if I shot a small fork muley on the first morning, and then spent the rest of the day shooing monster muleys out of my way trying to get that deer back to my truck.

I want a muley for a shoulder mount, as we can't get 'em around these parts!;) A trophy to me would be any buck with a big frame rack, at least as wide as his ears and reasonably tall. Not a booner. Just a representative buck that would look good on my wall.

Bottom line of what I am hearing from you guys is that if I put in an honest effort at scouting and hunting, find decent habitat, and put my time in, I should not shoot the first thing I see, and I should at least give it a day or so to see if I can get a shot at what I'm looking for.:)

Thanks again for all the feedback.

By da way, my weaver grand slam wears a Tikka 695 whitetail classic .270 win shooting 130 grain Barnes TSX handloads. When I shoot a deer with that, they just die......:cool:
 
One question I did have was concerning footwear. What type of boots are best for this type of hunting? I know that there are rattlers in SE Alberta (we don't have those varmints here:p ), but I'm guessing they would be denned up by November. Do I need snake books? What about cactus? I wanted to get a nice pair of boots that will be comfortable and stand up 'cause I plan on logging lots of miles walking, stalking and scouting.
Thanks.
 
shepodyguide said:
One question I did have was concerning footwear. What type of boots are best for this type of hunting? I know that there are rattlers in SE Alberta (we don't have those varmints here:p ), but I'm guessing they would be denned up by November. Do I need snake books? What about cactus? I wanted to get a nice pair of boots that will be comfortable and stand up 'cause I plan on logging lots of miles walking, stalking and scouting.
Thanks.
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I usually just wear comfortable hiking boots when I hunt the prairie zones. You won't have to worry about rattlesnakes, and as far as cactus goes, just watch where you sit / kneel. It depends on the weather too, this year we didn't have to deal with snow, other years there might be a lot on the ground.

Honestly, if you get a tag, I'd go out of my way to make some extra time to hunt. It probably takes 5 years give or take to draw a tag, and you will see bucks if you put the effort in. It's not unusual to see 100 or more deer in a day, if not 100 deer at one time in a field. There are lots of 4 points around, although they don't all have a lot of mass.
 
The area I hunt has a pile of rattlesnakes but you wont come across any by November. They'll all be in their holes by then. During September I saw a few while bowhunting but its often too chilly for them by October around here. I work my Meindel's out this year but any good pair of hiking boots will do the trick. The cactus is something to watch out for like Scott pointed out...
 
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