The Complete Guide to Mule Deer Hunting: Tactics and Strategies for Success [Hardcover]

Sam Curtis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2003

Deer hunting has often been termed difficult, humbling, and ceremonial. This is because to do it correctly, a hunter has so much to learn-including learning about mule deer habitats, and how deer use those habitats at different times of the year, and under diverse conditions.
Found within the pages of The Complete Guide to Mule Deer Hunting is a wealth of solid, useful information on hunting tactics, as well as mule deer habits and habitats from which the reader will greatly benefit on his next trip to the West.
Like the soft-heeled step of a still-hunter Sam Curtis writes with a fine
balance between an instructional how-to voice and light-hearted humor. With detailed photography and step-by-step illustrations, as well as comprehensive practical advice and encouragement throughout, this book will remain a classic reference on the subject for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you're a begging hunter, the book will walk you through the process...expert hunters can also pick up some tips. and even if you're not a hunter, you can learn a lot about deer..."
--Wyoming Wildlife

From the Back Cover

A symbol of the West, the mule deer can be one of the toughest animals to hunt - especially when you're after a crafty, trophy buck. To be successful, you need to understand the subtleties of mule deer habits and habitats. This ultimate guidebook is packed with tips, techniques, and stories for both beginning and advanced hunters, including: the behavior, ecology, and habitats of the trophy buck; the top methods for mule deer hunting, including still-hunting, glassing and stalking, driving, and stand hunting; the methods for learning a buck's feeding, bedding, escape, and migration habits; the art of hunting deer trails and how to look for and interpret sign; where mule deer go to hide and escape hunting pressure; how mule deer use different habitats; secrets of effective scouting and much more.
The Complete Guide to Mule Deer Hunting is filled with useful information that will help you get a trophy mule deer this season. Whether you are a beginner or a pro, the expert advice in this book is certain to help you become a better, more efficient hunter.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592282040
• ISBN-13: 978-1592282043
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, March 30, 2006

By 

Steve Dilley (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Mule Deer Hunting: Tactics and Strategies for Success (Hardcover)

I think Sam Curtis' book is excellent for several reasons. First, Curtis provides an extensive examination of mule deer hunting in different togographical regions. He analyzes how to hunt muleys in foothill/mountain regions, on the Great Plains, in coulees, in alpine areas, and elsewhere. Readers will likely find information relevant to their particular hunting region. Second, Curtis draws on both many years of personal experience as well as professional biological research. The combination provides a nice balance between ancedote and objective facts. Third, Curtis explains a number of very practical tactics to use when hunting muleys in a variety of situations. I found his advice on how to pursue spooked mule deer very helpful. Fourth, the book is clearly written. Finally -- and perhaps most importantly -- Curtis communicates not just disparate facts and tactics about mule deer hunting, but *understanding* of mule deer and their environment -- what their habits are, how they respond to varoius weather patterns and dynamics, how they react to hunting pressure, how bucks function in rut and non-rut times, how they use topography, what their core habitat is, and so on. So many hunting books today are largely 'how to' books; they do not take the extra step of communicating a mentality or cognitive strategy about how to think. Curtis does this admirably. I enjoyed this book as much as I did Dwight Schuh's Hunting Open-Country Mule Deer.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced information., November 17, 2006

By 

ThomasBlock (georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Mule Deer Hunting: Tactics and Strategies for Success (Hardcover)

Although I generally believe in the axiom of "you get what you pay for", this book by Sam Curtis is an expensive lesson in exceptions to that rule. It is not so much that the book is really bad, it's just not very good. He does provide a lot of legitimate information on the biology of the mule deer and its habitat, but many of the conclusions he draws about tactics for hunting them are suspicious at best. I lived in Montana for 15 years and I have hunted extensively in many of the same areas Curtis talks about in the book, . He make HUGE generalizations about mule deer behavior which are supported by a few flimsy observations in the field. Many of these I have found to be arguable at best, and purely wrong at worst. This pattern goes on and on in the book. There are several books that are great resources for the serious mule deer hunter; this is not one of them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A few really good chapters, a lot of mediocre chapters, June 27, 2008

By 

Rockies Hunter "rockies hunter" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Complete Guide to Mule Deer Hunting: Tactics and Strategies for Success (Hardcover)

This book gives a lot of good information about where to find deer and how to approach them, but a lot of the information if very basic and is repeated too often. Repetition is good to some degree, but after six or seven times, you just want some new information. Depending on where you hunt, the book gives information on a lot of different terrain. For me, I don't ever plan to hunt some of the terrain he addresses, so it was wasted space. Overall, not a bad book, just pick and choose which chapters you read.