Montana Deer Hunt - Great hunting day.

[KimberRich]

Took my annual trip back to the family ranch in Montana last week.  We generally go the week of Veterans Day but the schedule dictated an earlier trip this year.  My brother has never gone back there with us in the fall and he decided to come this year which was great.  To top it off, on the ride over he informed me that I'm going to be an uncle for the first time which started the trip off great! We met my Dad and Uncle in Missoula Friday night and had plans to leave early Saturday morning. I had a Buck tag and 2 Whitetail Doe tags and I was dead set on shooting at least one deer with my bow this year as I have yet to kill something with my bow.  I sat in multiple tree stands over there for 6 days last year and drew on one deer but didn't get to release an arrow.

Oct 20th @ 12:00 pm -  We arrive around noon, I dump my gear in the house, unloaded the quad and up the mountian I go.  I drive to within a half mile of the bottom where my stand is set up and the wind iss wrong so I snuck over to a good viewpoint 100 yards away to watch what was moving.  The deer started moving around 5 and around 30 deer crossed the bottom near my stand, and headed into the alfalfa fields so I was excited to sit in the stand if I could get the right wind the following evening.

Morning of the 21st - Hiked about a mile in the dark out to a viewpoint I wanted to watch at first light. Daylight comes and nothing.. I sit for 2 hours.. still nothing.  About 9:30 I decide to go for a hike and after going about a mile, I'm in the middle of a wide open field headed for the next drainage and as I kneel down to get some water from my pack I see movement coming straight up the trail towards me. Coyote and it's close! He drops into a small dip out of sight and I turn my scope down to 3.5x and click the safety off.  He appears at 34 yards and bang. He literally s**t himself and sat down like a decoy and tipped over.

21st @ 12:00 pm - I'm going through the last gate before I head up the hill the last 1/2 mile to camp.  I spot a small Mule Deer buck bedded on the hillside about 200 yards across the draw.  After watching him for 10 minutes and glassing everything I can see, I decide to keep hunting up the old skid road.  I take about 3 steps and a deer busts out of the bottom 150 yards away, directly between the bedded buck and I, and bounces quartering away from me to the right.  I can immediately tell it's a decent Mule Deer buck so I sit down on the cut bank, get a rest on my knee, and wait for him to pass through an opening on the hillside.  As he hits the only opening where I have a clear shooting lane, I whistle and he stopped for about .2 seconds. As he turned to leave, I could see he was as wide as his ears and tall so I fired.  He took off like I had missed but after about 75 yards he started to wobble then fell over and rolled down the hill and out of sight.  That's when reality and the remorse set it... seeing the deer and shooting all happened in about 1.5 seconds.  It's not that I didn't think it was a good deer but I've had 365 days since last year to talk myself into not shooting the first nice buck I see and holding out for a great deer.  Between the cost of a non-resident tag and the timeframe in which I have to wait to do it all over again, I was going to be disciplined but I hadn't gotten a great look at this deer before I shot. As I walk up to the deer I can't help but laugh at how he ended up.  The ATL pic is great. He looked like a dog wanting to get his belly rubbed..with his tongue out and everything! I didn't even have to roll him over to gut him.  After looking him over I was happy.  I ranged it and it was right about 215 yards from where I had shot from.  Model 70 Winchester XTR Featherweight in .257 Roberts w/ 3.5-10 Leupold shooting 117 gr. Hornady's.

21st @ 3:30 - Deer is hung, skinned, and it's time to think about the evening hunt.  There's a weather front headed in tomorrow and the wind has shifted and is blowing consistently out of the north which is exactly what I need to sit in my tree stand.  My brother decides to come hunt with me for the evening which is great as he's not a hunter so this will be the first time we've ever been together in the woods so I was excited.  He sat on the viewpoint where I had sat the previous night and I climbed into the tree stand at the bottom of the draw about 100 yards from him. 

21st @ 5:30 - I see 4 small Whitetail bucks and 2 does working their way down through the timber in my direction @ about 125 yards.  The light wind is perfect and I get my bow off the holder and clip on my release and try to calm myself down.  Within 5 minutes all 4 bucks and directly under my stand between 8-15 yards and the 2 does are hung up in the brush feeding.  Finally after about 10 minutes the small doe walks out then the larger doe and she begins to feed exactly in the direction I had hoped.  It was so quiet and they were so close, I was certain I would spook them when I drew but they didn't even pick their heads up from feeding.  She was just in front of the bush that I knew was 20 yards so I settled my 20 yard pin and squeezed the release trigger.  Whack! She took off like a shot directly away from me.  I got my binos up just in time to see her run through an opening about 100 yards out, and I could see most the arrow hanging out the back side of her so I knew it had good penetration and I was confident of the shot placement.  I waited 10 minutes then climbed down and met up with my brother who was ecstatic! He had watched the deer feed down through the timber for alomst 400 yards before they came under the stand. We waited about 30 minutes and decided to go look for her as light was fading quick.  We followed the blood trail about 200 and found her lying in the thickest pile of brush she could find.  The shot was slightly quartering towards me so I got the near lung and liver. 

I have to say it was the best day I've ever experienced in the woods for so many reasons.  Shooting the doe with my bow with my brother there, was truly the highlight and something I'll never forget.  Also, the buck ended up being the best buck I saw all week.  Awesome day and awesome trip.  The skinning picture is my Dad and Uncle's.. "we retired this year and we're going to relax and drink whiskey while you work" picture.  Hahah.
Can't wait to go back next year.

[deerslyr]

Awesome trip!! 
Im headed out in a few to give er a go. Little ones are starting to get dummed up already.

[270Flat]

Sweeeeeet!

[stickbuck]

Congrats on a great trip! Thanks for sharing your pics and story.

[elkoholic1]

   saweet!!!! congrats on a awesome trip

[CedarPants]

Nicely done!!

[huntnphool]

Fantastic

[ShaneTyTrey]

Awesome, great buck!!!

[YellowDog]

Awesome.  I would be real happy with a buck like that when I make my first trip to Montana next week.

[Selkirk]

Awesome hunt!!!

[runningboard]

congrats on your success 

[Michelle_Nelson]

Great Job!

[bearhunter99]

Nice buck and great coloring on that coyote too.  Congrats on a succesful hunt!

[HookedOnQuack]

nothing to be ashamed of with that buck Rich! nice work

[Jonathan_S]

Nice muley, thanks for typing it all up for us.  Some of us are living vicariously through hunt wa and this one just made my day.