Hunt Alberta Mule Deer | Mule Deer Hunts | Facts for the Hunter

Mule Deer Hunts

Hunting Season for Rifle and Archery

Mule deer season begins in late August for archers and in mid September in some zones for rifle hunters and runs right through until the end of November. Archery hunting is available in all zones prior to the beginning of the rifle season and there are three archery-only zones throughout the province that harbor mule deer. The rut usually starts in early to mid-November and typically continues until the end of the season. While mule deer are often more visible during the rut, excellent action can be enjoyed during the early part of the season as well. It is not uncommon to run into bachelor herds of a half dozen or more bucks at this time of the year. Seeing a group of big bucks together is a sight not soon forgotten.

Spot and Stalk Hunts

The mule deer's propensity for open areas lends them perfectly to spot-and-stalk hunting and in the prairie, parkland, foothills and mountain zones, this is the preferred method. Hunters need to be in fair physical shape to enjoy a hunt in these regions, as steep climbs are often required to reach the deer, although typically, horses or vehicles can be utilized to get within close proximity. Mule deer are not as flighty as whitetails and even archers have an excellent opportunity to sneak within bow range of a bedded muley. The key here is good optics and patience. It's amazing how you can look at the same coulee for several hours and see nothing, only to have a couple of monster bucks stand up a few hundred yards away. Spot and stalk hunting is true hunting as it pits the hunter's instincts against the instincts of a wild, free ranging animal. For most hunters, this is the hunting style of choice and is used extensively in the southwestern Alberta foothills mule deer hunts.

Tree Stand Hunts

In the more heavily treed areas of the foothills and boreal forests, mule deer are often hunted from tree stands, similar to the way whitetails are hunted. Hunters are positioned along favored travel routes or near feeding areas where they wait in ambush. Often these hunts can be combined with whitetails as well, as there is considerable overlap in ranges of the two species. While open-country bucks will often only bound a hundred or so yards away before stopping to take a look behind them, the big forest bucks become as wily as any trophy whitetail. In fact, those that regularly hunt them rate them as a far tougher trophy to harvest than a whitetail from the same area. Many outfitters use tree stands for both whitetail and mule deer hunts, in spite of the fact that hunters can sit in a tree 'back home'. Although this style of hunt can produce the odd excellent mule deer, it is usually not the preferred style for experienced mule deer hunters who find more fun and challenge and generally better results on spot and stalk mule deer hunts.