Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Deer Hunting => Topic started by: Dman on June 19, 2007, 02:39:35 PM

Title: Any Input?
Post by: Dman on June 19, 2007, 02:39:35 PM: I will be hunting in the Lewistown MT area this November, mod fire buck. Though we have plenty of option's to try, any info about the area would be appreciated.
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: Craig on June 19, 2007, 09:21:59 PM: I will be hunting to the east of Lewistown. It is a great area. Are you hunting private land? There is a lot of wide open land so bring your binos.
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: Dman on June 19, 2007, 10:31:27 PM: Private all the way. Ya, I picked up a good pair of Leupold Cascade bino's a few weeks ago, should do well over there. My uncle's calling the shot's for the most part because he has the connections, but we'll be hunting west and north of Lewistown. It will be different for me, I'm used to thick blacktail country.
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: Craig on June 19, 2007, 10:51:42 PM: You should have fun. Make sure you stop at Don's sporting good store and check out all the antlers. I hunt some friends ranches and just have a great time. The weather sure is crazy over there. On 2005 the day we showed up it was about 15 degrees. When we left I was in shorts and almost had a sun burn. I was just in lewistown last month. Sure in a nice little town.

I posted some pictures of some of the deer i got on a post called "going back to Montana".
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: boneaddict on June 20, 2007, 12:40:20 PM: Yeah, quite dropping your rifle in the rocks. :)
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: Fletch on June 20, 2007, 01:25:51 PM: Incredible horns in that sporting good store...WOW!!!
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: AutumnPulse on June 23, 2007, 09:46:59 AM: I used to live in Bozeman, MT and did all of my pheasant hunting up that way, so bring your shotgun with you. There are alot of birds and if you happen to tag out early, you could possibly take a mixed bag of game.

Muleys and whiteys are thick up there. Depending on the terrain of the private land that you are hunting, you could have a shot at a real bruiser from either species. I saw some incredible whitey bucks while sloggin through the the creek bottoms looking for roosters.

Most of the hunting that I have done in that area was southwest of Lewistown by about 6-7 miles. The terrain is also very mixed. You can literally be hunting a farmland drainage and a timbered mountainside within 2 miles of each other. The Judith Gap area just south of Lewistown is pretty well known for producing some monster muleys.

I would gear up for a muley hunt, complete with all the spotting gear, long range rifle and so on, but I would also bring short range brush gun like a lever action 30-30 if you have one. You might be poppin brush for whiteys as well, and some of those riverbottoms are awful thick even though, they can be very narrow. The whitey bucks will hold as tight as a cagey rooster, to wear you almost have to step on them, and when you do, you literally have only a second or two to shoot them before the ground cover swallows them up again. It's alot of fun.

If you don't have a brush rifle, take your shotgun and find out of you can shoot slugs through it. For a brush gun, all you need is something that will cover 50-75 yards max, in front of you.

As others have said, that is a really fun area and the genetics/minerals produce some monsters in either species. I am sure you will have a blast.

Best of luck.

Autumn Pulse
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: boneaddict on June 23, 2007, 07:46:52 PM: Man, that sounds fun...poppin whitetails with the 30-30. I know a guy in that area that was scooping up the sheds. Mostly whitetails.
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: Dman on June 25, 2007, 09:16:17 AM: Thanks! There's a story behind those rocks Bone, not a good one either, some good did come out of it though. I discovered I had some really cheap scope ring's that came with my new gun and replaced them afterwards. I just got back from Yellowstone and the Teton area last night and have 200+ pics to upload. My first time to Montana and Wyoming and it was better than I expected. Saw grizz, antelope and all the other critters except moose. Good to hear on the Judith Basin area, we will be hunting a ranch in that area, now I'm really stoked! ;D

Just can't get over how big a country it is over there. Bozeman was a really cool town, we also stayed in Missoula and saw a ton of whities around there. I've heard about the weather also, my cousin has told me the same thing, one year they arrived and it was too warm, around 70 degrees in November but by the end of the week it was snowing. I'll be bringing muckalucks and sun screen.
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: Muleyslyr on June 25, 2007, 12:47:10 PM: Dman.....are you going over in November for the rut?? And are you just hunting deer, no elk?? I'll be hunting fairly close to there in September, as you probably already know. It will be my first time in that particular area so I couldn't really give ya any pointers till' I'm actually there.
Title: Re: Any Input?
Post by: Dman on June 25, 2007, 01:10:07 PM: We're going Thanksgiving week for the combo, though elk opportunity is fairly poor where we'll be going due to the ranch owner reserving the better elk areas for family members. OK by me, I'm after a decent mature buck. I would take a whitetail, but would prefer a muley.