Drove to Montana & back and the deer were in bad shape

[MIKEXRAY]

Drove I 90 to Montana and back over the weekend and all the deer I saw in East Wa, Id and Montana looked like hell. Worst I've seen. Most looked like they were barely making it, very skinny with skin hanging. Very sad to actually see. The elk all looked very healthy and putting on weight, weird the contrast to deer. Every elk looked fine. I did see a lot of fawns and calves, lots of does had two fawns and nice to see the fawns surviving.

[boneaddict]

Yep, that seems to be the norm.

[Wea300mag]

The spring deer usually look like hell warmed over. The two most pathetic deer I've seen were at the end of the Twisp River Rd on Memorial weekend a few years ago. I hand it to them for even making it through winter in that country.

[jackelope]

not to go against the norm, but all the deer i saw in the woods over the course of 2 trips to e-wa and about 4 days total in the woods, i never saw a winter kill deer or elk, i saw lots of yearling fawns that looked in good shape and aside from the scraggly looking hair, all the deer looked to be in pretty good shape. lots of elk, all of them looked good and so did the sheep. these were all in the blues and were a combo of whitetails and muleys. for what it's worth, a lot of the muleys will head down to the snake river breaks where i was at, so maybe they live a better winter down there. they were all back at 3500+ft a month ago. there was 48" of snow in january down there at 3500' and it did not go above freezing for all of january.

[Muleyslyr]

Look at the winter they just went through.  At least they made it.  I thought the same thing about all the deer I saw up in Winthrop last weekend, but they got all spring and summer to get their coats back in shape and fattin' up.  As long as they made it through....they'll be just fine.  Let's just pray for a little more mild winter this year.

[Ray]

I saw a nice elk heard east of Missoulla a ways that looked like they were having a dandy time. Also a number of deer but could not determing if they looked healthy or not. Saw more pronghorn and ground squirrels than any other species though.

Looking forward to some hookey in the woods over the next few weeks. Hope there's a few deer creeping.

[popeshawnpaul]

The deer in Montana looked like they were in really bad shape to me.  Most of them had their hips showing and many had their ribs showing.  I didn't find any winter killed deer but the deer I did see were really hit hard.  I got some pictures detailing this at home...

[Skyvalhunter]

Then there is the Late springs which is detremental to the off spring.

[Ray]

Just near the continental divide east of Missoulla..

[Skyvalhunter]

It's good to see some healthy young ones. Been hearing plenty of drumming and hooting from the grouse during my treks

[cascademountainhunter]

those deer in the pics look fine to me

[Dman]

 We saw a huge 7pt whitey killed right near where you took that pic last year Ray. Lot's of whitey's between there and Great Falls.