Trying to draw a top tag is becoming more frustrating. But if you're lucky and do the groundwork, you can turn that frustration into success. Photo by John Higley.

Has this happened to you? After years of applying for a tag to hunt mule deer, you finally get drawn! It's a great day. For a while, your feet don't touch the ground. But then reality sets in. You begin to fret about just what you've gotten yourself into. On a whim, you had put in for a hunt that you heard about from a friend, only to realize now that you have no first-hand experience in the area to draw on.

What now? These days, your life is so hectic that time literally flies. Opening day will be here before you know it. No sweat, you decide, after mulling things over. It's a special tag, so the deer ought to be thick.

Heck, even if there's no chance to scout, finding a nice buck to tie your tag on should take only a day or two.

Oh, really?

'THERE AIN'T NO DEER!'
That was our theory several years ago, when a buddy and I drew tags for a high-desert mule deer hunt in an area we'd heard about, but had never seen. Being young and way too energetic, we figured we'd just drive to the area, set up camp, and then locate and kill some dandy bucks in a few days' time. Confidence is a wonderful thing. But it wasn't long before ours dissolved into frustration.

The area was huge. To us, it all looked the same, but most assuredly not to the deer. There were rugged canyons and serpentine draws, mahogany and juniper-smothered hills, even a few springs here and there.

We hiked into likely-looking spots and drove our pickup miles and miles on the back roads -- they were all back roads -- hoping to find some game, somewhere. Even tracks were scarce, and well-used game trails were nowhere to be found.

We hunted hard from daybreak to dusk. While taking a new route back to camp one evening, we spotted a dim light shining at the base of a rolling hill. To us, it was a beacon of hope. A few minutes later, we were parked in front of a dilapidated house trailer.

A dog barked inside as I summoned the nerve to knock on the door. In a nearby corral a horse whinnied, but it was too dark to see.

A skinny old guy answered the door in his undershirt He had at least some of his teeth remaining and a white, week-old beard. He was pleasant and chatty, perhaps because he lived like a hermit for months at a time. Turns out he was a cowboy who kept tabs on the open-range cattle.

Not surprisingly, he knew the country like the back of his hand.

I asked him if he knew where we could find some deer. And I'll never forget his reply.

"Podner," he said, "there ain't no deer!"

Considering our tender ages, I honestly don't know if my companion and I would have done things differently, had we taken a more thoughtful approach to our pre-hunt planning. But I certainly hope we would have!

Obviously, since we did practically no homework before our hunt began, we inadvertently settled on a location that looked good, but held no deer.

With the aid of a spotting scope, we eventually did locate a couple of bucks. But they were a long way off, across a deep canyon. We crossed that canyon on foot, which took us a couple of hours, but never saw those deer again. In the end, we went home empty-handed.

That was back in the days when there were a lot more mule deer around, and you could realistically expect to get a tag for the same area practically every year.

Times have changed. According to game department records, mule deer numbers have declined throughout their range. A variety of factors have contributed to the drop, but the bottom line is that lower numbers mean less hunting opportunity.

Bear in mind, the decline doesn't mean there aren't plenty of mule deer for the hunting, just that there aren't as many deer as there were a few decades ago.

Tags must be limited accordingly. So if you're one of the chosen few who get a tag, it makes sense to exert the effort to make the most of your good fortune. You never know when the opportunity will surface again.

STAY UPDATED
Even if you've been to the area before, it may have changed significantly since your last visit. It's most disconcerting to find that a recent wildfire has turned your favorite place into a charred moonscape, or that roads leading into it were washed out by winter flooding.

Moreover, even if you are familiar with the area, you may find that for one reason or another, its deer are hard to come by.