Eastern Montana Mule deer

[Rufenit]

I am new to this forum but have been reading several of the topics and find that there is a lot of good info here.

I am already starting to think about next deer season and am focusing on Montana. I realize there is a draw but hope to get lucky. I have hunted Mule Deer in Washington for the past 25+ years hunting the back country and have been fairly sucessful. The truth is Washington has way too many hunters and not enough game to allow the deer to mature.

I have been researching the area around Fort Peck Res. or the SE corner of Montan. I have found that there is alot of of huntable land around Fort Peck but I'm not sure of the SE area. My initial plan was to take a boat across the Fort Peck to attempt to reduce the amount of hunters seen. Does anyone know if this is a good idea. I know The Charles M Russell has a shorter season than the general so would that be a reason to look elsewhere.

I am primarily looking more for quality deer, 26" to of course 30" and am willing to work hard . If anyone can get me looking in the right direction I would appriciate it very much.

[JoeE]

I hunted my butt off on public land in Eastern Montana this year...some of which was in the Fort Peck. I will not be going back until the deer numbers improve.

[canyelk48]

Hunted SE Montana this past season.  Plenty of Block Management land available to hunt on, but in my opinion the area is way overhunted; not to mention they had a pretty big winter kill so the numbers were way down from normal.  Quality deer are there, just few and far between.

[DaveBTS]

I had to move to E Montana last year. There are plenty of deer. I've heard that mule deer numbers are down, but I saw more deer in a day than I ever saw in a season in WA. I shot a beautiful buck. I saw even more bucks after shooting mine and never saw another hunter the entire season.

[BrushChimp]

Eastern Montana can be a great opportunity for some hunters. To give you a taste of the terrain and size of average bucks you might see over there, you can check out our website gallery. We have three Mule deer hunts complete with kills in our gallery. You very may see bigger bucks than this on your hunt. Good luck! 

http://www.primetime-outdoors.com/gallery.php

[canyelk48]

I had to move to E Montana last year. There are plenty of deer. I've heard that mule deer numbers are down, but I saw more deer in a day than I ever saw in a season in WA. I shot a beautiful buck. I saw even more bucks after shooting mine and never saw another hunter the entire season.

No doubt you saw plenty of deer, but take what you saw times 2 or 3 and that's what we were seeing during a normal season.  Kind of got spoiled seeing those kind of numbers!  Nice buck, and there are still quality bucks over there in places that aren't overrun with hunters; Broadus being one of those areas that I think is overhunted.  So....if you compared MT deer hunting with WA deer hunting, then MT will win hands down every time (at least in the parts that aren't overrun with wolves)!

[C-Money]

Very Nice buck DaveBTS! Congrats!

[deerslyr]

Just like DaveBTS, I moved to MT this year. Like he said the numbers of deer you see is way more than in WA, and everone was saying this was a bad year. Having said that I didnt see alot of bruisers and the ones I did see I could never get a shot at. I was also hunting close to billings because I didnt have alot of time to take off from school so im sure that had alot to do with it. I ended getting this buck towards the end of the season. I passed on bigger bucks through out the season but ended up punching my tag on him.

[Rufenit]

Thanks for the info. I still think anything is better than Wa. I packed in three miles this year to see 6 does. I was also thinking about the Custer National Forrest. Is there anywhere someone could go that allows you to pack in 3-4 miles that might increase your odds.

Like you say a bad day in Montana is probably better than a good day here.

[BIGMIKE]

I just posted my deer hunt in Montana and we hunted Fort Peck. We all tagged a buck for the freeze :IBCOOL:r, there are plenty of deer and  other criters running around. But if you are looking for a trophy I suggest you look else where . Good luck.

[NRA4LIFE]

Interesting subject.  I have hunted SE MT for 20+ years.  In 8 or 9 years of Muley hunting, I have never left that state with an unpunched tag, buck or doe.  I typically see more deer in one day there than I have collectively seen deer in WA in 7 or 8 seasons of hunting.  With the price rise in the tags they are much easier to draw now too.  We drew this last season with no points.  I am about ready to give up on WA all together. 

[cem3434]

Lots of block management and lots of deer. The first time I hunted outside of Broadus, I seen over 20 bucks that were 3-point or better my first day. The best buck I seen was on that day and I left my gun in the truck to make sure I didn't shoot a little 4-point. I ended up shooting a 26" 4-point with eye guards the next day, so it wasn't all bad. I refuse to apply there because of the cost now, but maybe I will head back in a couple of years.

[Cap.Silver]

Great bucks boys , have a question about what do you do for living over there.?  I wouldn't mind to move ,the only thing I do well is construction -been at it for about 30 yrs . So could I make decent living and support my family ? Just a thought 

[deerslyr]

Im a full time student here at MSU. Economies doing pretty well in billings from the oil boom in eastern MT and ND and there's 3 oil refineries in billings/laurel. Me and my buddy are pretty good friends with his land lord and go hunting with him all the time, he owns a few developments and claims he cant put up houses up fast enough before they either sell or are rented out. Thats about all I know as far as construction goes in this area and couldnt tell you how factual that is, just what I heard from him.

[huntnnw]

make sure you do your research on FT peck...my buddys have and are not going there this year

[Arteman]

Nice Buck Dave    didn't even know you moved out or state.

[NRA4LIFE]

MT upped the ante on the tags again this year.  $561 for the deer combo and now $50 for the preference point if I'm reading it right.  Getting a little spendy over there. 

[bobcat]

It's looking like I won't ever hunt deer (or elk) in Montana again, unless I move there and become a resident. No way am I paying $600 for a deer. And how much is it for an elk tag? $1000?   

[bearpaw]

I hunt deer in 4 states every year for a living and Montana is one of them. Most any state has more mule deer than Washington. In 2011 the herds were down in every state we hunt due to the previous winter. But there are still deer to hunt. Montana did take a hard hit in some areas on deer and antelope numbers.

Here's how I describe Montana, some of the best deer hunting anywhere, lots of deer and some good bucks. But if you look at the record books, you can quickly see Montana is not where the biggest deer are taken. For the best bucks look at other states like Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Nebraska, etc, basically all the other rocky mtn states. But even in those states there are the areas that produce the most big bucks and a lot of those are draw areas.

My best advice for big bucks: Apply in as many states as you can for draw areas, hope to pull a tag here and there.

[GoldTip]

It's looking like I won't ever hunt deer (or elk) in Montana again, unless I move there and become a resident. No way am I paying $600 for a deer. And how much is it for an elk tag? $1000?   

Its actually just shy of $1000, but thats for a deer and elk combo.  Really not much different than Idaho for the non-resident buying both a deer and elk tag.

[JLS]

It's looking like I won't ever hunt deer (or elk) in Montana again, unless I move there and become a resident. No way am I paying $600 for a deer. And how much is it for an elk tag? $1000?   

Its actually just shy of $1000, but thats for a deer and elk combo.  Really not much different than Idaho for the non-resident buying both a deer and elk tag.

Where they stick you though, is if you just want to hunt one or the other, and not both.  An elk combo is just shy of $900, a whole lot more than the $575 that ID or WY charge you for elk only.  I'm seriously looking at WY for archery elk instead of MT (don't have the time to dedicate to both elk and deer), but the extra fuel costs might make it a moot point.

[engelwood]

It's looking like I won't ever hunt deer (or elk) in Montana again, unless I move there and become a resident. No way am I paying $600 for a deer. And how much is it for an elk tag? $1000?   

Its actually just shy of $1000, but thats for a deer and elk combo.  Really not much different than Idaho for the non-resident buying both a deer and elk tag.

Where they stick you though, is if you just want to hunt one or the other, and not both.  An elk combo is just shy of $900, a whole lot more than the $575 that ID or WY charge you for elk only.  I'm seriously looking at WY for archery elk instead of MT (don't have the time to dedicate to both elk and deer), but the extra fuel costs might make it a moot point.

WY has to be the worst state for giving archery hunters an advantage. Just my  but you really don't benefit from the type 9 tag, if that's what you are referring to.

[Fishmasterdan]

" plan on using the lake to get away from other hunters". Thats what all the other hunters do also. That place was a Zoo this year with all the Washington hunters. It used to be a good place to go but it has turned into winthrop. I for one will be looking for another place to hunt. I have never seen so many game violations than this last year from WA hunters. I even saw a person shoot out of there window.I was ashamed to be from washington. With the availablity of easy to get deer tags the public areas were overcroweded with people.

[Rufenit]

Thanks for all the advise. I appriciate it.

[carp slayer]

THOSE ARE SOME GOOD BUCKS