There are deer in these mountains that have never seen a hunter. And your best chance at spotting one of these big, old mule deer bucks is when they drift out of the tops and down toward the river valley in November.
I first heard those words on a late hunt in Idaho. I heard them again in British Columbia. They ring in my ears whenever I find myself on a late-November or early-December mule deer hunt. It might be hyperbole, but it can be true in parts of the Mountain West.
The Arapaho called it the “moon when the rivers start to freeze.” The Cheyenne called it the “deer rutting moon.” We call it November, but they had it right.
When the snow begins to fall in earnest, mule deer work down the canyons and into the prairies and desert. Some bucks trail with
