Elephant Mountain mule deer archery

[medic1042]

As of bow the weather is looking like 70’s and 50’s, hope it holds. Gonna start making a list to pack for camp.
Been battling walking pneumonia the last month so not as in shape as I wanted but working on it. I’m ready to get going. Been wanting a mule deer hunt for a while even tho I know getting a shot at a shooter is gonna be tough.

Kactuskiller info please!
Hi, saw a thread in which you stated you have hunted in the Elephant Mountain WMA. I was drawn for archery and had pretty much decided to stick it out over water since something may come to it. The hunt is only 4 days and I was thinking stalking and glassing may take too much time. I know not all deer come to water daily but if there are more than one something may show up and I thought this may be the best bet to just sit on water the entire time. Any thoughts? would like to hear from someone who has been there and ask other questions. Thank you in advance.

[medic1042]

Before the weather got cold and wet, we saw deer heading to the water in the morning before going to bed and also early evening before feeding. They also used it at night.

do you recall what compartment you hunted at in Elephant mountain?

[KactusKiller]

Do not sit water, you may get lucky but you may see two deer. Get up a couple hundred feet above valley floor where you can glass then make a stalk. Working with a partner helps because the terrain look totally different once you get down there and they move a lot. All of our deer were in the bottoms not on the mountain. Get up there before light as they were usually moving at the crack of dawn and moved good most of the day if temps are good.
Also the deer will generally stand and look at you for a good bit when they see you but once they start running they don’t stop until in next county. Our compartment was in the opposite side of the mountain from head qtrs but the north end of the mountain seemed to be best for most.
Also prepare for any weather no matter what forecast says. We got all day light rain one day and the yr before they were getting snow.

[tdwinklr]

should be a good one!