Nebraska public land mulies

[DoggyDaddy]

My eyes hadn't woken up when I first saw this thread so I missed the "i" in "mulies" (ie. I thought it said Nebraska public land MULES). And then I thought, "Wait, you're going to be hunting Francis??"

 

[mulsas]

You might look into Wyoming or Montana for elk both have some decent options that shouldn't require 10 years to draw or the use of an outfitter.

Texas has some good public land options for whitetail, mule deer, hogs and exotics that you can draw permits for if any of those are of interest. Some are harder to draw than others but I've been drawn for 8 hunts in 15 years including a few hunts where the odds of being drawn ranged from one in several hundred to one in a couple thousand. Of course, that was with several applications per year and the mule deer hunts are among the harder ones to draw.

If you are interested in hunting bear at all, tags are easy to draw in several western states and with some research you can find areas that work well for spot and stalk style hunting.

Thanks for the tips. Had fun in WY, and have done some backpacking in Montana, it was awesome there. We saw a decent number of mulies in WY. But they were only either in the state park we stayed in, or just chillin on the private land side of the road, zero on the public land.

 

[amboy49]

This what you’re looking for ?

 

[42769vette]

This what you’re looking for ?

Im looking for about 1/2 of that. In a pinch Id take that. Nice buck.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

This what you’re looking for ?

Nice rack!

 

[mulsas]

This what you’re looking for ?

Dang, he's thick!

 

[amboy49]

If you enjoy going out west consider one of these also.

 

[Dirty Steve]

Ah speedgoats....one of my all time favorite animals to hunt and excellent tablefare, contrary to popular opinion.


Dirty Steve

 

[42769vette]

Update

I'm leaving a week from today. If the weather turns out as forecast ed, I don't think I could ask for better. No snow in the forecast, and not much on the ground now. I would like to have a couple inch's, but Im fat, and fat people don't like walking in waist deep snow. We are going to focus on Oglala. That might change.

We are going to pack everything in a mile or so to camp, and hunt from that location.

 

[two70]

Good luck! If nothing else that is an interesting area to explore for a week.

 

[42769vette]

Good luck! If nothing else that is an interesting area to explore for a week.

Id doesnt look like much of the area is over a mile from a road. It will be a great test to see what I NEED in the pack vs what I WANT in the pack.

 

[boman]

Good luck and have fun. If weather does interfere you can always visit the Museum of the Fur Trade just east of Chadron or Fort Robinson, where Crazy Horse was killed, at Crawford. We hunted out there about 30 years ago north of Hay springs on the Metcalf WMA with bows. we tent camped but no backpacking as it wasn't necessary. Deer were plentiful, both whitetail and Muleys but difficult to hunt due to terrain. Most of the local people road hunt(spot and stalk) from their trucks during gun and I doubt much has changed. Pretty common in all the western states because of the size of the country. Had a really good time and went to the two sites one rainy day.

 

[two70]

Id doesnt look like much of the area is over a mile from a road. It will be a great test to see what I NEED in the pack vs what I WANT in the pack.

It depends on what your definition of a road is. Trail is more accurate much of the time and there are plenty of areas where the trails rarely see a vehicle. Many of the trails that appear to be roads eventually disappear on you, especially as you get closer to the NW corner of Nebraska. Once you leave the more major gravel roads you probably won't see another vehicle and if there is any snow you probably won't know you are even on a "road" a lot of the time. Some of those roads exist more on Google Maps than they do in reality even without snow.

 

[42769vette]

Day one is in the books. It was a short day as we spent a lot of the morning setting up camp.

We got out for about 6.5 hours, saw some does, and saw no sign in one area, a ton in the other. Tomorrow we will be in the area with sign.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Looking forward to the updates now that you're there. Good luck!

 

[42769vette]

Day 2 in the books.

Basically the same as day 1, we found a place that deserves another look, and a few places not to waste our walking miles on.

 

[Hookeye]

Check out the two latest The Hunting Public videos.
Whitetails.
They went way back on one.

 

[42769vette]

Check out the two latest The Hunting Public videos.
Whitetails.
They went way back on one.

I saw that. 6.9 miles is a hike. One of the guys I'm hunting with talked to Zach yesterday.

 

[42769vette]

Day 3 in the books.

I put a stalk on a group of mulies today. I kept seeing does come in and out of a ravine about 1/2 mile away. I knew there were 15+ doe in there, so I took a try, got in range, and slipped over the edge to find 20 doe, and no bucks.

No shots fired, but it was a success in my book.

 

[roscott]

Sounds like a blast! Good luck today!