how early is to early?

Can't help you with New Mexico, but the majority of the deer in Southern Utah have shed IMO. Still several packing, but I'd say 60-70 percent have dropped from what I saw just yesterday.

Thanks for you info MuleyMadness. I am going to try and keep tabs on the herds in the unit I get picked in to try an pick out a buck. like I said I don't want to be clueless when i go out opening day this year. Do you usually use this tactic before the season starts?

I'm not sure about New Mexico, but here in Colorado the deer are still on winter range. Scouting now won't help much for the fall.

No I don't use that tactic, like Muley Stalker said. The deer move a LONG ways from summer to winter where I live. Scouting does me ZERO good until I'd say June in my area.

Ok, I will wait for later in the year to scout. Like I was saying i want to be more prepared this year. How do you guys deal with the muleys that are in the thick mountain ranges were you cannot really spot and stock? I tried that in the other unit i was in but there were large clearings and big water holes it was more like sage brush meadows. The unit I am looking at is thick forest. Atleast one of them is. I just want to be more knowledgeable about the deer for this upcoming season. I learned quite a lot this last season no luck but I enjoyed it due to the amount of knowledge I attained. Thanks for answering some of my questions also guys. I appreciate the attention considering i am still a newbie. :thumb

The timber will be a different type of hunting than spot and stalk. The timber is the only kind of hunting I do. I use the still hunting method. I find it very rewarding, but it does take a few years to get good at it. I've been doing it for 60 years, and still find it an exciting way to hunt.

I'd be here for hours explaining it all. Do a search on Google on Still Hunting to get an idea about it.

Thanks, muley stalker. I find walking instead of sitting around all day much more exciting. I have become a lot more patient form hunting turkeys but I like to walk around a lot more. So you pretty much are mimicing a deer sort of right? I will look into greater detailsn as i research this technique. I have a question for you guys as well. This question seems unclear online. Were do the bucks like to bed down? I heard really nasty thick areas but i guess the real question is do the bed on the side of bluffs? Is it like a specific side of the mountain or hill? I heard they like to get up and out of the sun under shade. I stalked some deer this last january just for practice being that they all were does. I noticed they set up on a slight incline facing the east under a overhanging tree. there were 5 deer one was facing east, one was looking north east, and one was facing south east. To there back they had a slight hill so nothing could pretty much get them from the back and i noticed one of the deer was walking around on that hill kinda keeping watch. They had an escape route to the north and to the south. In my observation I learned that day how smart they were I seen also the wind, They would smell anyone coming from behind as well as the wind was blowing from the west. I just want to learn more about here bedding nature that way I can get an idea of my possible areas to start. Sorry for the giant paragraph. Thanks for your help.

This time of year I do all my scouting on google earth and looking at maps. You could go to these areas this time of year and find the trailheads and even hike into areas you want to scout this summer.(If there's not too much snow) I will do this sometimes just to see how long it takes to hike into where I want to glass from. That way I know how early to start hiking in the morning and I have an idea where I'm going in the dark.