Montana Deer

[idaho guy]

I’ve never seen so many posts on MT deer hunting than I have this year, it is now on my research list. But it also sounds like I’m a few years too late and drawing tags in the future might get pretty tough. Love/hate, mostly hate what the internet has done to hunting.

 

Montana sucks. Most of the positive posts are just to keep hunters out of their Washington honey holes. Don’t fall for it 😂

[Landerfish]

Been hunting eastern Montana for years, it was definitely slower this year for big muleys We hunted 7 days (3 of us) on block and a piece of private ground. Mainly in the morning and a short afternoon hunt. Usually hiking around 7 miles a day. We ended up seeing 43 3 point and better bucks. We passed on some pretty nice ones looking for the big boy.  Only saw 1 very heavy wide 4 by4 and couldn’t connect . Ended up shooting this one for a go home buck the morning we were leaving. We also shot a small 3 by 4 .
 Deer count seemed to be down as well as big bucks in the area we were hunting.
As far as the hunting pressure issue I didn’t notice a increase ,  but the hunters we spoke with were not having much success. Not sure if we will be heading back next year or not.

[Mulie87]

It sound like those are the exact opinions of most of us that hunted MT this year. It’s a lot of money for a 1-3pt buck. My wife and I hunt SE Mt and are looking for another area of MT or a different state completely.

[spoonman]

It sound like those are the exact opinions of most of us that hunted MT this year. It’s a lot of money for a 1-3pt buck. My wife and I hunt SE Mt and are looking for another area of MT or a different state completely.

Nebraska is a sleeper state for mule deer!

[257 Wby Mag]

Lotsa tags available, several with no quota. It’ll come to head before long.

[Craig]

Had plenty of opportunities to shoot medium size bucks and a couple close calls with good bucks. Held out and me and my son are eating tag soup. Numbers were way off from normal. Hopefully we left a couple bucks to enjoy the rut.

[Craig]

Our Montana Bucks from the last few years. Makes it easy to pass medium sized bucks and eat tag soup.

[Craig]

My sons last buck

[JakeLand]

Those are studs !!

[Stein]

Just got back, our normal go-to spot for small to medium bucks and does (WT) was a total bust.  There was about 9500 acres of new BM in addition to my two go-to spots that failed to turn up a single deer!?  We literally didn't see any deer anywhere we could legally hunt but did see a few close to town and in the wrong unit.

Not sure what the deal was but there were WAY less deer than any of the last 7-8 years I have hunted.  Less deer everywhere even by town.
I'm not sure if it was full moon related, different crops or some disease.  MT's hunting outlook looked good, so winter kill wasn't the reason. 

I didn't run into farmers to see if they knew but will be checking in with the bio to see what the story was so we can adjust for future years.

Weather was great, family were great and we had a great hunt overall.

[Brushbuster]

Saw about the same amount of deer as usual (1-4 bucks/day) this year. Didn't see any really big bucks though. I got this guy on the last hour of the last day. He & his harem were headed for the haystacks. Due to the drought & locusts, the rancher needed to buy 2/3 of this winter's hay when he normally would raise all he needed. He was happy he had one less mouth to feed this winter. 

[Jimmy33]

Saw about the same amount of deer as usual (1-4 bucks/day) this year. Didn't see any really big bucks though. I got this guy on the last hour of the last day. He & his harem were headed for the haystacks. Due to the drought & locusts, the rancher needed to buy 2/3 of this winter's hay when he normally would raise all he needed. He was happy he had one less mouth to feed this winter. 

Nice work sir!


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[vandeman17]

One less wolf in Montana now so that is good 

[idaho guy]

One less wolf in Montana now so that is good 

If you shot a wolf we need pictures 😄

[vandeman17]

One less wolf in Montana now so that is good 

If you shot a wolf we need pictures 😄

I will try to post story and pictures tomorrow but here is a teaser