Photo by Dave Dietrich
success rates as high as 45 percent for mule deer — deer hunting still can be challenging. Follow these tips to improve your chances of filling your tag. Hunt varied terrain. Mule deer don’t spend much time in heavy timber, preferring aspen and forest edges, low shrubs and varied vegetation. In warm weather, look for deer along ridgelines. Hunt at dawn and dusk. Mule deer are most active at night and often can be found in meadow areas during low-light hours. During the day, they bed down in protective cover. Scout out edges. During low-light hours, hunt in meadows at the edge of thick cover. Deer move during the middle of the day toward the areas where they feed in the evening. Stalk slowly. Spend time scanning slowly with binoculars. Monitor wind direction. If the wind is blowing in the direction you’re moving, a deer likely will pick up your scent. Also, avoid hunting near moving water during the day. Play off their curiosity. When mule deer are spooked, they’ll often run a short distance then turn to see if they are being pursued. This may offer the chance for a shot. Go to snow. Light snow will get deer moving quickly out of high-altitude areas to their winter range areas. Aim for the vitals. It’s a small target — about the size of a dinner plate just behind the front quarter — but it represents your best chance for success.
How to Hunt Pronghorns Pronghorn hunters enjoy the highest success rate of all big game hunters, with success rates often as high as 60 percent. Still, even with Colorado’s population of 80,000
pronghorns (many of which are in the northwest part of the state), filling your tag isn’t a sure thing. While they’re easier to locate than deer or elk, pronghorn hunting requires a different set of strategies. Ask for private land permission early. Never wait until opening day. If properly asked in advance, many landowners are willing to allow access and might even offer directions to the best locations and information about watering holes and road access. Keep hidden. Pronghorn have the vision of looking through 8X binoculars. They also can burst into a sprint of more than 60 mph to stay out of range of even expert marksmen. Be patient. A stalk may include crawling on your belly for an hour only to have the animals spook and quickly move. Only one out of five stalks gets you close enough for a shot. Be prepared to crawl the final few hundred yards — even if it’s through yucca, sagebrush, cactus and cow pies (some hunters sew leather patches on their knees and elbows for added protection). See them first. This gives you a huge advantage. Avoid ridge tops and hills, and move through draws and along the back sides of ridges to avoid detection. Consider wind direction. It’s easy to send a foreign odor in their direction. Winds change direction less frequently on wide-open prairies. Catch your breath before firing. Crawling can be exhausting. Steady yourself before the shot. Try an ambush. Waterholes and fence lines are good places to wait (they tend to go under fences rather than over). Pronghorns alternate between feeding grounds and watering holes during the day. But they move unpredictably. Practice flagging. Pronghorns react with curiosity to shiny things and other objects. Flagging piques their curiosity and gets them to come to you. After you 2013 | colorado Hunter
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