Mule Deer live in the open range and oftentimes in very hilly, mountainous terrain. That puts a quality pair of binoculars on the top of a hunter's gear list.
More than anything else, glassing is the key to a successful hunt, but there are several wrong ways to do it.
• Narrowed search. If you spend all your time staring at clearings, waiting for a deer to materialize, you're in for disappointment. Despite their size, mulies can use 2-foot high sagebrush or a four-foot dip in the terrain to become invisible.

• Looking for whole deer? Many hunters don't train themselves to look for anything other than a deer's entire body. Study photographs of the animal before your hunt, particularly the details of its features. That will make it easier to identify the small parts you're most likely to spot.

Look for ears, antlers, body lines, and the white patch on the rump or on the head. Even eyes, noses and feet may be all a deer shows. But if you know what to look for, that will be enough.

• Looking too close. Bottom line, if you don't have a spotting scope, you've come into the field without one vital piece of equipment. That can limit you in two ways. First, you'll tend to focus your glassing within a few hundred yards, instead of looking out a mile or more, where you can spot a buck and plan out a stalk. Second, using a spotter can save you hours of time and effort, and even save your hunt. The last thing you want is to spend hours stalking a non-shooter buck -- or worse, a doe.