On our first day of hunting Marc Lafitte and I were guided by David Roe of Midland. We saw seven buck deer that morning, along with several does, but the first two bucks were spotted about 10 minutes after the picture you see with this column was taken. We tried to stalk that buck on foot, but the big deer was too wise and we never saw him again that day. On the Ligon the best way to find deer is to get on a high ridge and use binoculars to search deep canyons and hillsides for feeding or bedded animals. Davis Roe will sit in one spot for 15 to 30 minutes, carefully glassing the surrounding area and, more times than not a mule deer will materialize out of the distant cover.
Mule deer are amazing creatures.
Sometimes they'll stand stock-still on the barest hill in the county and stare at passing hunters like gawking tourists. Other times you'll find them bedded in a nest of dense cedar with only their heads sticking out. Two of the bucks in this herd were definite shooters with heavy eight and 10 point racks. These deer were located about 600 yards away, totally unaware of our presence, and we came up with a plan to put the unnamed hunter on a high bluff, about midway between our site and the feeding deer. After the hunter was in place, David would loop around behind the deer and attempt to spook the animals toward the hunter on the bluff.