I'm heading out on Thursday for my first mule deer hunt. Has anyone heard any reports from over there? It will be a freelance hunt and the weather shows it will be windy. The rancher told me there is a water tank on the place and that it was the only water for miles around. I thought about just sitting at that tank the first day and seeing what comes to it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also what are my chances of seeing aoudad or whitetails?

Which direction from Van Horn are you hunting? In my experience out there, you glass, glass, and glass some more. Seems to me like most of the deer come to water at night. Depending on how big the place is and how much it's been hunted driving around with a sharp eye open is often a good method. Most of the time muleys are not as eager to run like the wind as soon as they see you as their white tailed cousins do, if they've not had much pressure that is. In the evenings I've often found deer on west facing slopes of hills, and in the mornings seems like I've seen them more in the bottoms. I'd say you're chances of seing auodad is greater than seeing white tails. Keep an eye out for javelinas if you've got permission to hunt them. They seem to be thick all around Van Horn. Take a comfortable pair of shoes, a good pair of binoculars, and go practice your long shots...

Don't bother sitting on the tank. It depends on how much land you'll be on and how long you'll be there, but you need to cover as much ground as possible and look through the glass all day. They'll be reasonably close to water but I swear a desert muley might not drink for a week so you can't count on them coming in to it. Ditto on the above question...how far from Van Horn and in what direction?

Just thought of something else that might prove helpful if you're new to muleys. A lot of the time mule deer will stay in a very small area for much of the day, where as whitetails are on the go most of the time. I've seen them stay within a 100 yard circle for over 10 hours. Don't hesitate to take the long way once you've spotted them. Take your time and put a good stalk on him. Just as with whitetails stay out of sight and watch your wind. If you haven't already done so, learn your ballistics, carry a range finder, and when in doubt never take it off of hair.

We will be south of Van Horn in Hudspeth County I think the ranch is like 10 miles south of Van Horn, it has some hills and some flat land so There should be some good vantage points. I got a good pair of binocs and a range finder. I really just want to see a mule deer. Never seen one while hunting so i'm not expecting much. I'm really just scouting and getting used to it for next year. When is the rut for this area? Cody I will be leaving from abilene, I live here.

The rut should get going in the next week. My cousin just shot a muley on our place on Friday and he was already hanging out with a couple of does. We're in the Eagle Mountains which it sounds like is pretty close to where you will be.

GEt up high and look until your eyeballs hurt. Glass the water, but do not sit by it. Also do not disregard the flats. I used to live in Van Horn and a lot of times, the biggest deer would come from the flats. Remember, you can cover a lot more ground from a good vantage point by glassing rather than by walking. Find them first and then d oyour stalking. You will be looking for rump patches, ears or antlers on the horizon, an antler sticking out of a patch of brush. Look for parts of deer and not the entire deer. Hunt out of the wind, which would be oin the opposite side of the hills from which the wind is blowing. It blew like a son of a gun out of the west yesterday out here, but you can still find deer on the east side of hills out of the wind. I would do more driving than walking because you can cover more ground that way. You may go the entire trip and see nothing and then see 25-30 deer in the last 15 minutes of the last day. Good luck and if you need anything else, give me a holler.

I'll be out there Thu for the last weekend too. I will be NE of Van Horn about 20+ miles. As this is my tenth yr out there I've seen more by jumping up from brush as I agree they stay pretty close and hunker down most of the time and feed at night. I have a feeder they go to and I don't know if its the corn or the bottles of vanilla I pour over it but that is where we have shot most.
Good Luck!

What factor will the wind play. Will this make it any harder. They are saying 20-35 mph. And it doesnt seem like its going to be very cold. Good because, we are tenting but bad because I heard the colder the better for mule deer.

I shot this last year north of Van Horn. Temps were in the 50's and the wind was blowing about 40 mph out of the north. He was feeding on the west side of a big hill about 3:00PM in the afternoon. Put lots of miles on your boots (or your truck).

Dang thats a nice deer. Was that a free lance hunt?

It wasn't really a guided hunt. We were with the ranch foreman, who was a really great guy I might add, but he didn't care about deer hunting. We were mainly along for the ride while he checked waters and flow lines. We found this guy on the third day of hunting. Those deer can disappear into open country for sure.

Were you in an accident?

No, I was messing with the photo bucket edit and saved over the original picture. I still have the non swirled one somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it.

Should I hunt all day long or should I just hunt them like whitetail? Go out in the morning and then again in the afternoon? I'm really getting nervous that I will just go over there and not even see a dang thing. But I guess you gotta role those dice.

I would stay out most of the day. We hunted all day when I went. You need to be doing lots of glassing during the heat of the day. When you're trying to find mule deer while glassing, the easiest thing to pick out is an ear. That is what always gave them away to me. It takes a while to learn what you're looking for when you go from whitetail to mule deer. They don't act the same as a whitetail. Keep at it, you'll figure it out.

Stop by here when you come through and I will just go with you. I guarantee you we will see deer. Hunt all day and rehunt a lot of the best looking areas, as these mule deer will lay there when you drive by. I had to drive to a ranch yesterday and saw 25 deer, 4 whitetails and 1 shooter and the rest were mule deer with 6 bucks and 1 nice 10 point. They were out yesterday. If you need a spotter, give me a call.

BenBob where are you located? We arent leaving till friday now. Dang final got moved on me. PM me.

I am located in McCamey, Texas, just east of Ft. Stockton. Where you going to school at? Final does not sound like much fun. Deer were really moving yesterday.

Yeah we saw a lot moving over the past couple of days but the rut has definitely not gotten going in Hudspeth County from what I saw. Saw one group of 6 young bucks and many groups of 6-8 does, but no big bucks anywhere near a doe.