CO High Country Deer Habits

[Roadgoat]

Does anyone have any insight on general habits of CO high country deer in early September? Not talking locations, units, etc but curious what everyone's thoughts are on:

1. Will the deer shift to a certain aspect of the mountain as the grass dries up?
2. Do the deer focus on a certain food type (Willow, etc)?
3. I suspect you'll find a fair number of younger deer in the high alpine open country but perhaps the older deer will transition to the timber either once there is pressure or when the upper grass dries up? Or does this coincide with the loss of velvet?
4. Will they concentrate in a certain elevation band during September or will they be spread from low to high?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jvanhoy]

Wish I had some good advice for you but I am curious about this also. Planning on a high country September rifle hunt in a few years. From my experience archery hunting well below timberline seems most of the better bucks I’ve seen has been in the aspens. Rarely see mule deer in the timber where I elk hunt.

 

[Roadgoat]

Thanks, @jvanhoy!

 

[Ckleeves]

I’ll throw out my observations, keep in mind YMMV.

1: Yes and no. I have seen deer move off a slope/food source they used all summer but they don’t usually go far. The grasses vary quite a bit in 500’ of elevation and the bottom of pretty much every basin has some sort of very small creek/drainage so there have been years that at first light your catching deer more in the bottoms on that grass.

2: They are where you find them, and it might change area to area and year to year depending on snowpack/moisture and reasons unknown. I picked up a tag in a unit I had never hunted before a few years ago and I had to adjust to where the deer were. The bucks were almost all in tall willows even though the upper parts of the basins looked exactly like what I normally look for. Even in areas I have hunted for 15 years some years I will turn up a Bach herd in a basin that I have never glassed a buck in before and then it will be empty for 5 more years.

3: Hard to say. Seen big bucks bed in truly un stalkable spots after getting bumped- mine tailing piles without a blade of grass taller then 6” for 300 yards around them, the honest TOP of peaks, willow jungles etc.

As far as when I think that depends on the individual deer. Some disappear for a few days then pop back up in the same place missing velvet, some rub and you don’t see them again and some will flirt with the alpine and timber edges until mid October. One of the biggest bucks I have ever layed eyes on ghosted after a Aug 26th snowstorm and couldn’t turn him up to save my life. Buddy turned him up 4 months and 20 miles away while lion hunting that winter.

4: Not at all. I’m driving past bucks in hayfields at the bottom of the mountain every morning I’m hunting. I see bucks in the aspens below the stuff I’m deer hunting while I’m elk hunting. If I wear out on hunting the high stuff I’ll hunt the sagebrush in the same unit and find deer.

 

[Roadgoat]

Thanks, @Ckleeves. That's all great to know! Really appreciate the insight.