LCH 2019 Montana Deer Hunt
Nov 18, 2019 14:43:22 GMT -5
Woody Williams, greghopper, and 11 more like this
Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Nov 18, 2019 14:43:22 GMT -5
I spent last week hunting in Montana with a brother-in-law.
Our tags were for antlered deer, either whitetail or mule deer. He wanted a mule deer specifically, I was going to be happy with either. As it turned out we did see a few whitetails, but probably 100 mulies for every one whitetail.
The Montana rifle season runs for approximately five weeks. We chose the week we did due to timing of the rut, and also because it enabled us to be home for Indiana's firearms opener.
I had done a lot of online research, map work, cyber scouting, etc., but it all turned out to be for naught. Upon arrival, every area I had looked at was inaccessible due to the road conditions. Even the primary county roads were mud, and about the only thing that could get in or out would have been something on tracks. The roads would freeze intermittently and become passable, but when they thawed you could be 50 miles from gravel or pavement and stuck until the next freeze.
We spent the first day in Montana driving around and looking at all of these roads, slinging a lot of mud, and seemed like we spent more time sliding sideways than tracking straight. That night we called an audible and decided to relocate to a totally new area a few hours away. I had driven through the Custer National Forest a time or two before, and knew that at least some of the roads were gravel. This would at least give us safe access to a spot to throw the tent. It also meant we'd be going in totally blind, and need to make plans on the fly. I reviewed the GPS land ownership data as we drove south, and found a pretty big block of BLM near Miles City. We decided to get a hotel room in town and hunt that chunk the next morning.
Day 1
So Day 2 in Montana, which was Hunting Day 1, we were hiking into the BLM as the sun came up. Our first couple of glassing spots yielded no deer sightings, but several other hunters around. After we got in about a mile, we saw two small mule deer bucks and a whitetail doe. We watched as one of the muley bucks approached the doe, did the stiff-legged walk, and thrashed some sage brush with his antlers. She stood her ground, and he eventually bounded off, never coming closer than 10 yards or so of her. I'm not sure if he was posturing for a fight or feeling her out for potential breeding, but it was kind of fun to watch regardless.
After a couple of hours we decided to head back to the truck and drive around to a different access point. We put in about a 3-4 mile loop, hiking from glassing point to glassing point. About 3/4 of the way around our loop, I spotted a couple of deer about a mile from our location, skylined on a ridge. One deer looked to be about double the size of the other, so we decided to go in and take a closer look. The rolling topography had us hidden for most of the approach, and as we crept closer the deer had moved out of sight. We weren't sure if they had come our way or went off the opposite side of the ridge, when we spotted a coyote standing exactly where the deer had been. We were about 200 yards away at this point and considered shooting the coyote, but since he was skylined, and also because we weren't sure where the deer might be, we decided to hold off. As we started moving forward again, the buck and doe we saw popped up out of a depression between us and the coyote. The buck looked like a pretty nice 3x3, wide and tall. Adam was going to shoot it as it stopped and gave us that classic mule-deer look back, but then it started moving again just before he was ready to shoot. They bounded about a half-mile, across the next ridge and out of sight.
We decided to give chase to these deer. After crossing over that next ridge, we did relocate the deer, but not before they saw us and started bounding away again. This time they stopped and looked back for a longer period, but were about 400 yards out, further than we wanted to shoot. As they started bounding away again, I watched through my binoculars as they topped a rise, and saw the doe do a wild juke move. A couple of seconds later a shot rang out as they went down out of sight. We headed over to the spot and found the hunter who had fired, who was wild-eyed and exclaimed that he was almost ran over by the buck! He had missed the deer, and said they had kept moving far out of sight. We parted ways with the other hunter and headed back to the truck, glassing as we went, but a few does and small bucks were the only other deer we saw on that parcel.
From there we headed down to the Custer N.F. and set up camp. We hunted out of camp that evening and saw a few elk and one group of mule deer, several does and a spike.
Day 2
Some weather really set in on the second day of hunting. We again hunted around camp, and found quite a few elk but only kicked up one mule deer doe in a full day of hunting. It snowed all day, temperatures stayed in the 5-12* range, and was pretty windy. We made plans to head out to some private land the next day that is open to public access, hopefully to find higher numbers of deer.
Day 3
We started on one private parcel, and found four small to medium bucks by mid-morning. We put on a stalk and got within about 300 yards, but ultimately left them. From there we went a few miles to the next private parcel with public access. We split up for a while as Adam drove around checking out the ranch, and I hiked a couple of canyons. Almost immediately out of the truck I found about a half-dozen does and a nice 3x3 about 400 yards away. As they moseyed out of sight I hustled forward, and when I peaked over the rise they were 150 yards away. They saw me, but gave me plenty of time to look the buck over through my rifle scope. Being so early in the hunt I decided to let him go, while mentally wrestling with the idea that I might not get another opportunity like that. I finished the hike and spotted several more groups of deer, but nothing bigger than that buck.
When I met Adam back at the truck he decided he wanted to go after the buck I had seen. We strategized about the best approach, and moved the truck to a different spot to hide our movements better. As we approached the area I had last seen the deer, we spotted two bucks and three or four does 300 yards away, halfway up the side of a canyon. Adam got settled prone and shot the larger buck, which went down immediately. At the shot, deer just exploded up out of that canyon. There were probably at least 30 deer that came up out of there, with five or six being bucks. I quickly scanned from buck to buck to see if there were any more shooters in the group, and while there were a couple pretty nice ones in there, they bounded off before I could seriously consider a shot.
We recovered Adam's buck and got it skinned and quartered for the pack out. It was about a mile from the truck, but relatively flat, and with temperatures in the single digits the ground was good and hard for easy walking.
Day 4
The morning of day four was mostly uneventful. We saw plenty of deer, but nothing bigger than those we had been seeing already.
That evening we headed back in and settled down in the spot Adam had shot his buck the night prior. Before long deer started popping up here and there, where some had been bedded in the canyon and others coming in from other areas. We started seeing some bucks, and one was quite a bit larger than the others. We couldn't make out his antler formation from our spot, but each time he approached another buck he was noticeably larger.
In order to get to him, we had to back out and circle way around to come in the canyon from the opposite end. In doing so, we bumped a big group of does, which thundered right through the canyon the buck was in. We continued anyway, and as I crawled over the rim of the canyon and glassed in I could find no deer anywhere. After a few minutes though, the big buck, along with another buck, came walking up out of a fold 350 yards away. I really didn't want to shoot past 300, so I wriggled back out of sight and we looped around further. This time though, we couldn't relocate them when we came back into the canyon. I don't know if they spooked out or were just out of sight, but we lost daylight and had to give it up.
Day 5
We went back to the same spot on the morning of the fifth day. Almost immediately we spotted about a half-dozen does with a buck about 400 yards away, walking away from us. As soon as they got out of sight we moved forward, dropping down to the bottom of the canyon so as to be out of sight. We closed some distance before slowing down, and began peaking cautiously around each bend we encountered. When we spotted them again they were 270 yards away. I got set up to shoot off of my pack, but the buck disappeared down out of sight. When he reappeared broadside a couple of minutes later I took the shot; miss. They ran towards us a few yards before stopping to stare at us head-on. This shot entered one front quarter and stopped in the hindquarter. He plunged down to the bottom of the canyon and hit the ground. Some frantic follow-up shots later and it was done.
This day was warm, which made for pleasant conditions except for the mud. We had about the same pack out as with Adam's buck, but slipped and slid the whole way out with mud caked everywhere. We headed back to the Custer and packed up camp and started home, getting home that next evening.
In summary it was a really fun hunt with a few challenges thrown in. Some days we saw more than 50 deer with several bucks, the one day in the Custer we only saw a single doe. It's a hunt I'll definitely want to repeat sometime soon.
Our tags were for antlered deer, either whitetail or mule deer. He wanted a mule deer specifically, I was going to be happy with either. As it turned out we did see a few whitetails, but probably 100 mulies for every one whitetail.
The Montana rifle season runs for approximately five weeks. We chose the week we did due to timing of the rut, and also because it enabled us to be home for Indiana's firearms opener.
I had done a lot of online research, map work, cyber scouting, etc., but it all turned out to be for naught. Upon arrival, every area I had looked at was inaccessible due to the road conditions. Even the primary county roads were mud, and about the only thing that could get in or out would have been something on tracks. The roads would freeze intermittently and become passable, but when they thawed you could be 50 miles from gravel or pavement and stuck until the next freeze.
We spent the first day in Montana driving around and looking at all of these roads, slinging a lot of mud, and seemed like we spent more time sliding sideways than tracking straight. That night we called an audible and decided to relocate to a totally new area a few hours away. I had driven through the Custer National Forest a time or two before, and knew that at least some of the roads were gravel. This would at least give us safe access to a spot to throw the tent. It also meant we'd be going in totally blind, and need to make plans on the fly. I reviewed the GPS land ownership data as we drove south, and found a pretty big block of BLM near Miles City. We decided to get a hotel room in town and hunt that chunk the next morning.
Day 1
So Day 2 in Montana, which was Hunting Day 1, we were hiking into the BLM as the sun came up. Our first couple of glassing spots yielded no deer sightings, but several other hunters around. After we got in about a mile, we saw two small mule deer bucks and a whitetail doe. We watched as one of the muley bucks approached the doe, did the stiff-legged walk, and thrashed some sage brush with his antlers. She stood her ground, and he eventually bounded off, never coming closer than 10 yards or so of her. I'm not sure if he was posturing for a fight or feeling her out for potential breeding, but it was kind of fun to watch regardless.
After a couple of hours we decided to head back to the truck and drive around to a different access point. We put in about a 3-4 mile loop, hiking from glassing point to glassing point. About 3/4 of the way around our loop, I spotted a couple of deer about a mile from our location, skylined on a ridge. One deer looked to be about double the size of the other, so we decided to go in and take a closer look. The rolling topography had us hidden for most of the approach, and as we crept closer the deer had moved out of sight. We weren't sure if they had come our way or went off the opposite side of the ridge, when we spotted a coyote standing exactly where the deer had been. We were about 200 yards away at this point and considered shooting the coyote, but since he was skylined, and also because we weren't sure where the deer might be, we decided to hold off. As we started moving forward again, the buck and doe we saw popped up out of a depression between us and the coyote. The buck looked like a pretty nice 3x3, wide and tall. Adam was going to shoot it as it stopped and gave us that classic mule-deer look back, but then it started moving again just before he was ready to shoot. They bounded about a half-mile, across the next ridge and out of sight.
We decided to give chase to these deer. After crossing over that next ridge, we did relocate the deer, but not before they saw us and started bounding away again. This time they stopped and looked back for a longer period, but were about 400 yards out, further than we wanted to shoot. As they started bounding away again, I watched through my binoculars as they topped a rise, and saw the doe do a wild juke move. A couple of seconds later a shot rang out as they went down out of sight. We headed over to the spot and found the hunter who had fired, who was wild-eyed and exclaimed that he was almost ran over by the buck! He had missed the deer, and said they had kept moving far out of sight. We parted ways with the other hunter and headed back to the truck, glassing as we went, but a few does and small bucks were the only other deer we saw on that parcel.
From there we headed down to the Custer N.F. and set up camp. We hunted out of camp that evening and saw a few elk and one group of mule deer, several does and a spike.
Day 2
Some weather really set in on the second day of hunting. We again hunted around camp, and found quite a few elk but only kicked up one mule deer doe in a full day of hunting. It snowed all day, temperatures stayed in the 5-12* range, and was pretty windy. We made plans to head out to some private land the next day that is open to public access, hopefully to find higher numbers of deer.
Day 3
We started on one private parcel, and found four small to medium bucks by mid-morning. We put on a stalk and got within about 300 yards, but ultimately left them. From there we went a few miles to the next private parcel with public access. We split up for a while as Adam drove around checking out the ranch, and I hiked a couple of canyons. Almost immediately out of the truck I found about a half-dozen does and a nice 3x3 about 400 yards away. As they moseyed out of sight I hustled forward, and when I peaked over the rise they were 150 yards away. They saw me, but gave me plenty of time to look the buck over through my rifle scope. Being so early in the hunt I decided to let him go, while mentally wrestling with the idea that I might not get another opportunity like that. I finished the hike and spotted several more groups of deer, but nothing bigger than that buck.
When I met Adam back at the truck he decided he wanted to go after the buck I had seen. We strategized about the best approach, and moved the truck to a different spot to hide our movements better. As we approached the area I had last seen the deer, we spotted two bucks and three or four does 300 yards away, halfway up the side of a canyon. Adam got settled prone and shot the larger buck, which went down immediately. At the shot, deer just exploded up out of that canyon. There were probably at least 30 deer that came up out of there, with five or six being bucks. I quickly scanned from buck to buck to see if there were any more shooters in the group, and while there were a couple pretty nice ones in there, they bounded off before I could seriously consider a shot.
We recovered Adam's buck and got it skinned and quartered for the pack out. It was about a mile from the truck, but relatively flat, and with temperatures in the single digits the ground was good and hard for easy walking.
Day 4
The morning of day four was mostly uneventful. We saw plenty of deer, but nothing bigger than those we had been seeing already.
That evening we headed back in and settled down in the spot Adam had shot his buck the night prior. Before long deer started popping up here and there, where some had been bedded in the canyon and others coming in from other areas. We started seeing some bucks, and one was quite a bit larger than the others. We couldn't make out his antler formation from our spot, but each time he approached another buck he was noticeably larger.
In order to get to him, we had to back out and circle way around to come in the canyon from the opposite end. In doing so, we bumped a big group of does, which thundered right through the canyon the buck was in. We continued anyway, and as I crawled over the rim of the canyon and glassed in I could find no deer anywhere. After a few minutes though, the big buck, along with another buck, came walking up out of a fold 350 yards away. I really didn't want to shoot past 300, so I wriggled back out of sight and we looped around further. This time though, we couldn't relocate them when we came back into the canyon. I don't know if they spooked out or were just out of sight, but we lost daylight and had to give it up.
Day 5
We went back to the same spot on the morning of the fifth day. Almost immediately we spotted about a half-dozen does with a buck about 400 yards away, walking away from us. As soon as they got out of sight we moved forward, dropping down to the bottom of the canyon so as to be out of sight. We closed some distance before slowing down, and began peaking cautiously around each bend we encountered. When we spotted them again they were 270 yards away. I got set up to shoot off of my pack, but the buck disappeared down out of sight. When he reappeared broadside a couple of minutes later I took the shot; miss. They ran towards us a few yards before stopping to stare at us head-on. This shot entered one front quarter and stopped in the hindquarter. He plunged down to the bottom of the canyon and hit the ground. Some frantic follow-up shots later and it was done.
This day was warm, which made for pleasant conditions except for the mud. We had about the same pack out as with Adam's buck, but slipped and slid the whole way out with mud caked everywhere. We headed back to the Custer and packed up camp and started home, getting home that next evening.
In summary it was a really fun hunt with a few challenges thrown in. Some days we saw more than 50 deer with several bucks, the one day in the Custer we only saw a single doe. It's a hunt I'll definitely want to repeat sometime soon.
