Well, I will tell you about a great idea, I thought I had. I have hunted Lake Meredith for two seasons, previously. This year was my third season. I have never hunted mule deer before two seasons ago and never hunted mule deer anywhere but Lake Meredith. So I am still trying to figure out mule deer, my deer rooted ideas on how deer move or what they do and why through out the day, are based strongly off of 38 years of hunting whitetails. It has been a dream of mine to hunt mule deer since I was a teenager. I am finally doing so.
My first year of trying to hunt Lake Meredith, was delayed by work repeatedly. Then when I was finally able to get off of work, it was the Friday, before the season ended. I decided to go anyway. I got up there and hiked probably 12 o 14 miles the first day, saw nothing. I did find a lot of coyote tracks and droppings. Then horse tracks everywhere and two guys on horses, everywhere I went. The second day, I tried a new area, right off, first thing in the morning, I found a mule deer buck chasing three doe. I shot him, loaded him up and went home. Basically learned nothing the first year I hunted up there.
The second year, last year I hunted up there. Again, I was hiking probably 12 miles a day minimum. I finally started finding deer trails. Saw lots of coyotes, found some scrapes, found a lot of deer beds, found a hell of a rub. Started figuring out where they were moving to and from in one particular area. I saw what I though might have been a large mule deer bedded down, but was not sure enough to do anything, then could not tell if it was a buck or a doe. The next day, that bed was empty, I figured out at that point, it was a mule deer bedded down. I started getting a handle on how the muleys do things. Took me three to four days of hunting over two seasons, but I started to get a better understanding of them, at least in that area. Then I had driveshaft problems with my truck and got stuck in Borger for three days waiting on parts. It really sucked, because less than 8,000 miles earlier, I had two new driveshafts built for the truck. The first two lasted almost 200,000 miles, then the second one, did not make it 8,000 miles. So that brought my hunt to a abrupt end last year. But while I was stuck in Borger, a cold front blew in. Before I got stuck in Borger, I noticed there were no road killed deer anywhere on any of the roads I drove up there. But then the cold front blew threw, I got the truck on the road again, then took off to go home. I saw road killed mule deer about every half mile, between Borger and Amarillo. So the cold air, definitely gets them moving.
The day I left, was the second Saturday of the season, I decided to hunt the first week of the season last year. So I could have stayed and hunted Saturday and Sunday last year, but was quite irritated by that point and just wanted to get home, which was 10 hours away. So I left and have been trying to plan out this years hunt ever since.
My first year of trying to hunt Lake Meredith, was delayed by work repeatedly. Then when I was finally able to get off of work, it was the Friday, before the season ended. I decided to go anyway. I got up there and hiked probably 12 o 14 miles the first day, saw nothing. I did find a lot of coyote tracks and droppings. Then horse tracks everywhere and two guys on horses, everywhere I went. The second day, I tried a new area, right off, first thing in the morning, I found a mule deer buck chasing three doe. I shot him, loaded him up and went home. Basically learned nothing the first year I hunted up there.
The second year, last year I hunted up there. Again, I was hiking probably 12 miles a day minimum. I finally started finding deer trails. Saw lots of coyotes, found some scrapes, found a lot of deer beds, found a hell of a rub. Started figuring out where they were moving to and from in one particular area. I saw what I though might have been a large mule deer bedded down, but was not sure enough to do anything, then could not tell if it was a buck or a doe. The next day, that bed was empty, I figured out at that point, it was a mule deer bedded down. I started getting a handle on how the muleys do things. Took me three to four days of hunting over two seasons, but I started to get a better understanding of them, at least in that area. Then I had driveshaft problems with my truck and got stuck in Borger for three days waiting on parts. It really sucked, because less than 8,000 miles earlier, I had two new driveshafts built for the truck. The first two lasted almost 200,000 miles, then the second one, did not make it 8,000 miles. So that brought my hunt to a abrupt end last year. But while I was stuck in Borger, a cold front blew in. Before I got stuck in Borger, I noticed there were no road killed deer anywhere on any of the roads I drove up there. But then the cold front blew threw, I got the truck on the road again, then took off to go home. I saw road killed mule deer about every half mile, between Borger and Amarillo. So the cold air, definitely gets them moving.
The day I left, was the second Saturday of the season, I decided to hunt the first week of the season last year. So I could have stayed and hunted Saturday and Sunday last year, but was quite irritated by that point and just wanted to get home, which was 10 hours away. So I left and have been trying to plan out this years hunt ever since.
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