Mule deer in canola?
 

My fiance drew a tag this year and she is hoping to get a velvet buck with her bow, I've taken the first week of September off to hopefully help her out and find her a nice buck. When ever I have spare time I have been out scouting in her zone to hopefully find some nice bucks and have an idea where to start for when the time comes.

While out scouting I am finding most of the bucks in the canola crops, the crop is in bloom right now. So I guess my question is, are the mule deer still hanging around canola crops that opening week? With it being such a hot year are farmers going to harvesting about that time? I'm finding that the canola is so tall in our area that the bucks are very hard to find and we wouldn't be able to get a shoot because the crop is over their back.

There is lots of wheat, barley, and peas in the area. Once these other crops head out are the deer more likely to moving into these areas over the canola?

I've killed a few 170s archery mule deer in the past but I've never gone after them so early in the year. Either way I will figure it out but I was just wondering if anyone to like to share some tactics for early season mule deer. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a16f975704.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7ad26adedc.jpg

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http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=348213

might be worth keeping a eye on this thread in hunting section as well. Unfortunately I don't have any experience to share.

They will stay in the canola for a while after season opens, maybe as long as the canola stays green. Maybe it's a coincidence but the best tasting mule deer I've ever had were shot early in bow season in canola fields

Mule deer seem to like the canola fields but other animals seem to care less about it. Kind of funny differnt tastes I guess.

My first year of hunting, I was hunting near valleyview. There were about 8 moose hanging out in one of the canola fields pretty much every morning. So, I guess it’s not just mule deer. I did see a couple muley bucks hanging out in a canola field last summer though. It must be a regular thing for them.

Sit and ambush in the morning evening around water or the transition zone between bedding and eating.
Or which is a blast to do is set back and glass them coming off the fields in the morning, watch them bed down, pick out the one that will give you the best chance for a spot and stalk.....you can get real close but they usually bust you...it's a rush....

nice pict

They will stay in there as long as it’s green. First of all it is a safe place they won’t leave that crop unless they are scared out. Muledeer can go a couple days without water and will probably find water while its pitch dark or they may even be a water hole in the crop someplace and that mean they won’t be leaving. It is not hard to sneak up and get into bow range in that high crop. It is however almost impossible to get a kill shot every single time I seen it , guys will shoot high. If you spine them well that is just pure luck. But to get an arrow past all that brush and into the lungs is well pretty much a shot in the dark your arrow looses so much energy I won’t work out the way want it to.

Nice

I have noticed the same. I see many nice mule deer bolt out of the canola when I am spraying fungicides in July when the crop is in flower.

Mule deer will be back in the field after it is harvested if you got/have any moisture and some heat. Can't resist the green sprouts