DIY Mule Deer Hunting with Dusty Coryn

DIY Mule Deer Hunting with Dusty Coryn – An Interview – Part 1

The American West offers some incredible DIY public land mule deer hunting opportunities. For eastern hunters who haven’t experienced a mule deer hunt, it can be a trip of a lifetime. In this interview, western New York’s Dusty Coryn breaks down how he pulled together his first western hunt & offers five priceless tips  which will surely shorten our learning curve.

Can you tell us a little about your background?

 My name is Dusty Coryn and I am from Canandaigua, NY. I attended West Virginia University and graduated in 2012 with a degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Management, with minors in both conservation ecology and agri-business. My college years were where I met my western hunting partners. Upon graduation, I moved to northwest Wisconsin for a few years and managed a whitetail deer farm, eventually choosing to move back east to pursue a different path. I am currently a dairy farm supplies route salesman for IBA dairy supplies and have been doing that for just over 3 years. It is a demanding career that leaves me with very little vacation time to pull these hunts off. Therefore, I must make the time I do get away count.

How did you get into hunting, who exposed you to it, and how old were you when you were exposed to it?

I was not raised in a hunting household – my grandfather was a skilled hunter and outdoorsman but passed away when I was just 4 years old. My father and step-dad had no interest in the outdoors either –  so it’s truly a miracle that I ended up with a passion for the outdoors. My earliest memories of the “hunting itch” were caused by my Uncle Roy and his son Jimmy on my step-dads side of the family. Our family’s Thanksgiving parties used to be at their house every year, right during the peak of the New York deer gun season. There always seemed to be nice bucks hanging in the tree behind the house and of course antler mounts and turkey fans throughout the house that must have caught my attention.

When I was about 5 years old, my cousin Jim started sending me home from the parties with turkey feet, cutoff antlers from dead bucks he had found, and whatever else he had laying around the house that I found interesting…much to my mother’s dismay. Over the next 6-7 years, this continued and my passion for the outdoors began to grow. At  age 12,  I took my hunter safety course and was ready to take on turkey hunting just one month after my birthday. My cousin and uncle set it all up.

From what I recall, we had several close calls in the first two weekends of hunting, but we couldn’t get it done. This brought us to the third weekend of the season and it all finally came together. Jimmy called a group of jakes into about 5 feet, I pulled the trigger and only two got to fly away. I was instantly hooked, and my passion has continued to spiral out of control since that first season.

I will be forever grateful that Jim and Roy took the time and made the commitment to make sure I had these opportunities. This came full circle in November 2017 when I was able to take Jim and his two kids Austin (11) and Katelyn (13) to my college roommate’s farm in West Virginia and help both kids harvest their first deer. It was a truly special experience and I would urge everyone to take a child hunting. It will change their lives and fill yours with joy.

Can you describe your first western deer hunt – how did you choose the location, species, trip planning etc.?

The idea for my first western deer hunt came as a result of a long frigid winter on the Wisconsin deer farm. We had almost 40 days in a row where the temps never rose above zero. This gave me plenty of time to get the ball rolling and start making plans. It didn’t take much convincing to get two college friends to commit to a hunt for the fall of 2014. They pretty much gave me full responsibility for planning the hunt and choosing the location. That leaves a whole lot of choices to pick from and a lot of pressure to make the right decision. I talked to everyone I knew that had been out west on hunts to try and narrow down my choices. Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, they all made the list, but I was still wet behind the ears when it came to this type of research.

Frankly I was overwhelmed, and I’d like to think most first time DIY hunters get to this exact point when planning their first adventure. At the time, I had a second job working at a local gun club bartending and helping around the club on nights and weekends. One Saturday night there was a group of pheasant hunters at the bar that had finished their hunting for the day and had come in for some refreshments. I made small talk with them and somehow the western trip planning came up in conversation.

I was explaining to them that I was struggling to choose an area when all of sudden one of the hunters piped up and said, “you should go to *********, Montana, there’s lot of good deer to be shot there”. He was by far the drunkest of the group and he didn’t know me from Adam, so I figured he had no reason to lie to me. I finished my shift that night and immediately went home and started researching the area on Google Earth and looking at BLM maps to see how much public land we would have to work with. Everything the guy had told me seemed to be true. It might seem crazy to take advice from a drunken bird hunter I’d never met before, but that’s exactly what I did. I don’t recall that hunter’s name, but if I ever run into him again I owe him a beer.

We bought our Montana deer tags that spring and began counting down the days until we headed out. Lots of people doubted us and thought we were just wasting our time. But their attitudes changed quickly when we doubled on the first day and had 4 bucks on the ground in 4 days. The spot had paid off and resulted in a truckload of respectable bucks. The double was a nice mature 3×3 and a smaller 2-year-old 4×3. The third day we made a mile-long stalk crawling over cactus and barbed wire to finally seal the deal on a 141” 4×4 right at last light.

The very next morning, I was able to harvest a beautiful 171” 4×4 to finish out the trip. We really hadn’t done any e-scouting or anything of that sort. The only real technology we had was a small Garmin GPS and an OnXmaps chip I had bought. We had a little knowledge of the roads from Google Earth and for the most part we just “winged it”. That trip changed my life and instantly turned me into a mule deer addict.

What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned from hunting in multiple states for mule deer?

I have now hunted mule deer in Montana twice, Wyoming once, and Colorado once. On all four trips we have had 100% shot opportunity. All four of these hunts were in different landscapes, weather conditions, and season dates.

 Tip # 1 – In my opinion the key to success is simply being willing to adapt. Just because one hunting method worked well in Montana does not mean it will have similar results in Colorado. Hunting the sage flats at 4000’ requires a different “system” than hunting the dark timber at 12,500’. On any trip its beneficial to have one full day of scouting before you start hunting. This day gives you a chance to drive the area you will be hunting and get a feel for the populations and quality of the animals in it.

Tip # 2 – One secret we have figured out within the last three years is to visit local butchers on your scouting day. Most people try and contact the wildlife biologists and game wardens etc., this information can be useful. However, every single nonresident hunter calls the same number and gets the same information. We were struggling to find game at all in Wyoming on our scouting day and in a moment of frustration I decided to stop at the butcher to see if it was as bleak as it seemed. Unfortunately, he informed us that the area our tags were good for would be very difficult to hunt with extremely low deer numbers. We hunted hard for a week and ended up with half the tags filled and a few missed opportunities. The butcher’s advice was spot on and after that experience I added that tool to my arsenal. The butcher’s business depends on your success, they have no incentive to lie to you or stretch the truth.

Tip # 3 – After the scouting day is over and the hunting begins the most important thing to do is to stay positive and optimistic. Negativity will get you absolutely nowhere when trying to turn up seemingly nonexistent groups of muleys. Keep an open mind and just keep hunting hard, the big buck you are looking for could be just over the next ridge.

Tip # 4  – That brings me to another point, choose your hunting partners wisely. After hunting all day and hiking 8-10 miles nearly anyone will be grumpy and tired, just make sure you aren’t hunting with people that start their day that way.

Tip # 5 – Another extremely useful bit of information I have picked up along the way can be summed up in one word “networking”. Get to know as many people as you possibly can, in as many places as possible. When planning future hunts ask these people for advice, ask as many questions as possible. I have an extensive network of friends across the country from another hobby of mine (collecting trophy shed antlers) and have been given boatloads of valuable intel from lots of individuals. My Colorado hunt this past year was planned on advice from an “antler” friend of mine who had hunted the area for 14 years but no longer goes. He freely gave up all the details of where and how he used to hunt the area. We were very successful and ended up connecting on a 200” + muley on day 5 of the hunt as well as another respectable buck on day 2.

Dusty Coryn  has a Wildlife and Fisheries Management degree from West Virginia University. He is a member of New York Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (NY BHA) and is an avid shed antler collector.