High Country Montana Mule Deer

[robby denning]

I wouldn't worry too much about them bedding in timber that time of year. They do, but they still venture out. Besides, bucks living in timbered areas can be older as people gravitate towards the open country.
Just go scout it. Those bucks won't be far from where you found them in July/August clear up to the time the snow/rut unless hunting pressure is bad.

 

[mtnkid85]

Where Ive been struggling with the last few years is Ive located a few bucks in there summer ground way up high, ive been able to locate them several times but I always loose them before rifle season opens. Either snow pushes them down or they seem to come down on there own. I really need to start bow hunting I suppose.

This has also lead me to start looking into our early "wilderness" rifle hunts. But I just haven't put in the time to figure those areas out yet.

 

[robby denning]

Scouting and bowhunting will take your understanding of mule deer behavior to a whole new level. Best of luck.

 

[Jared Lampton]

Here"s a few pics of some high country early season Montana bucks I've taken while bowhunting them. I'm no mule deer expert but Ive noticed that the areas I've had the best luck finding and getting stalks on them in this part of the state are the biggest most wide open basins I can find (often times these are associated with old burns). These basins might look wide open on google earth but often have quite a bit of cover in the form of alder patches while still providing enough visibility to actually find the deer with glass. I've also noticed that most of the time the deer are moving feeding up in the mornings to bed at some higher elevation, often in semi-open areas on tiny benches formed by small cliffs or groups of small trees. I think bow season is an awesome time to hunt these deer because they are still in areas where you can actually glass them and their movements seem to be more predictable than they are during the rut. In this area, by the time the rut hits most of the deer have been driven to slightly lower elevations where there's more timber and they become much harder to find... in my experience. Good luck out there!

 

[Rizzy]

Robby,
Would you hunt the September rifle season in the Frank Church/Selway/Bitterroot Wildernesses any different than a September rifle season in Colorado or Wyoming Wilderness?

After watching your November Idaho hunt and in talking to the local Biologists I kind of suspect that the Bucks don't migrate until December most years. It's hard to backpack hunt in the deep snow, and I can see where Horses open up some good opportunity for those November hunts. If the Bucks are basically in the same place all summer and fall then the September hunts make more sense for a rifle hunter backpacking into those deep wildernesses.

 

[robby denning]

Rizzy,
I'd hunt the Bob and those other wilderness areas just like any other high country in the West- wind in my favor, careful camp, never skylining myself, and preferably prescouted. Typically, the bucks are easier to find in September anywhere than later in the fall.

As far as when they migrate, it depends on the herd. There are herds in Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado that start their migration before Halloween, snow or no snow. So you just need to hunt it and learn the deer there, which is the fun part.

Great pics 1epichunt!

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Robby. When you start scouting an area do you start by looking for any deer, then hone in on the big bucks? Or do you find the early season has big bucks fairly isolated? I ask because one area I hunt always has small bucks and lots of does, but about once every four years I see a buck or two that is MUCH bigger. I know they don't just magically appear. I just don't know how to find them in the early season, and it is swarmed with guys by the time the rut starts.

 

[Kody]

Scout and glass. And then glass some more, and then when you get ready to move glass some more. And if you don't spot anything, remember Montana doesn't have any big mule deer.

 

[kad11]

I know this is an old thread, but thought I'd ask this question anyway...

What do you guys consider "isolated" or "remote?" I need to narrow down a list of spots I'd like to check out this summer and one of my criteria will be level of difficulty to access. I'm wondering how you guys define remote in terms of bushwacking distance, elevation gain, distance to a trailhead, etc.

This might be an unanswerable question considering all the different factors that come in to play, but I'd still love to hear what you experienced guys have to say about how you gauge an areas "remoteness."

Thanks

 

[Rizzy]

I gauge it by the access like your doing. The vertical distance is more important than the horizontal distance usually. Some of the Wilderness areas mentioned in this thread are huge and rugged. You can't hunt your way through them in just a couple of days like other Wilderness areas.

 

[kad11]

Thanks for the reply Rizzy; I really enjoyed reading the scouting summaries on your website. I also really liked what you said about enjoying the scouting process and viewing that as a larger part than the actual hunt. I am pretty new to hunting (2 seasons under my belt) and am trying to find/ establish my "own" areas. Do you have a systematic approach to finding new areas? If you had a week to scout during early August, would you spend that whole week in one mountain range or would you instead hit up three or four different ranges? I'm trying to figure out whether it is better to stick to one general area and try to get to know it as well as possible, or if it is better to spread out a little more and explore lots of areas within 2-3 hours of home. I'm leaning towards picking one general area (Madison Range or Gallatin Range in SW MT) and spending as much time in it as possible.

 

[mt100gr.]

Not to butt in, but I would say if you know there are deer that you would hang a tag on in an area spend as much time as you can learning where they are and how the use and move through the area. Look carefully for signs of other hunters, though, too. It's hard to tell sometimes if you may have competition come fall.

And it never hurts to have a plan B. Knowing a second area could pay off if someone else is in the first spot or someone blows the deer out of there...don't put all the eggs in one basket I guess.

 

[mt hunter22]

really wish montana had more big basin country like colorado. would be a excellent hunt.

 

[kad11]

Hey mt100gr, not butting in at all and I appreciate the advice. I don't know where the deer are... hopefully I'll be able to figure that out a bit this summer.

 

[Jared Lampton]

If you have the time to scout take advantage of it. I've found that there's a lot of habitat that seems good but just doesn't hold many deer. As was mentioned earlier the deer densities in these areas are generally low and the distribution is patchy. It takes some homework to find the best areas. These areas may or may not be the most "remote" but I've found that they are generally somewhat out of the way of where most of the hunters go. They are places that take just a little extra effort to get to.

 

[robby denning]

"remote is relative." It gets down to finding places hunters don't go- might be distance, elevation, or just overlooked country. I've seen big bucks on public land living with 500 yards of a busy road, but no one was hunting them. Backcountry can be "remote" but still have lots of hunters (much of Wyoming's H and G are that way). Just have to scout and hunt a lot, you'll find those places...

 

[Rizzy]

Thanks for reading, glad you got something out of it!
Keep in mind that my goal and skill level at this point is finding mature animals not trophies.
All spots will have a learning curve and it takes a certain amount of field time in a particular area to learn the animals and terrain. To be honest, It comes down to time in the field; for example you can spend 40 days in one season or 10 days across 4 seasons depending on what time you have. Doing research will help with efficiency, but you will still have a certain amount of bogus trips when your scouting new areas. At least I still do and it's usually a case where the route I planned on using to hike in sucks and I have to spend another trip to find the better access. There is always the chance of getting lucky by walking right off the road into an animal, and it will happen to everyone at least once maybe more, but I wouldn't count on it.

If you spent a week in one area you would start to get real intimate with it, which will speed up the learning curve a little. The downside is that you have no back up plan or area to fall back on if there is too much pressure, no animals, or no access. Be mindful of the roads you take to get in and how snow will affect them.
I usually spot animals the first morning in most areas, the exceptions being some of the Wilderness areas mentioned in this thread. These Wilderness areas have tons more summer range than winter range, and the populations are dependent on the winter range, so the animals have lots of places to go for the summer. It takes a lot more time to learn these areas and find animals. These are the areas where a longer 4 day trip or so into one area will be more productive and maybe even necessary at first.

Taking more trips next to home will get you familiar with more areas and give you more options when the season arrives. There will probably be more animals in these spots, but there will also be more pressure and it can be more difficult finding areas that don't get hammered.

A systematic approach that I have had good results with is to take an area and scout each successive ridge. Hike up on a ridge to a good glassing point and spend the night. The next morning glass across the canyon on both sides if possible. Then do the same thing with the next ridge over (one of the ones you already glassed and didn't see anything) until you see something. This is a good way to scout the areas close to home that have higher densities. Also you can get your gear situation worked out a little bit easier by taking a lot of short trips.

So either way will work, I can't really recommend one approach over the other for all instances. Once you make a decision, study the topo maps and Google earth to the point that when you go out and look at a mountain you can visualize it on the map without looking.

Aside from Google earth, some useful links that I use to study with;

For topo maps: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/ifwis/huntplanner/mapcenter/

For snowpack: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/

For weather, you can pan and zoom on the map: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-110.40540&lat=45.39306#.U25cm6LQzpc

For Fire perimeter, toggle the "historic" fire perimeters to see what the burn history of the area is: http://www.geomac.gov/viewer/viewer.shtml

Thanks for the reply Rizzy; I really enjoyed reading the scouting summaries on your website. I also really liked what you said about enjoying the scouting process and viewing that as a larger part than the actual hunt. I am pretty new to hunting (2 seasons under my belt) and am trying to find/ establish my "own" areas. Do you have a systematic approach to finding new areas? If you had a week to scout during early August, would you spend that whole week in one mountain range or would you instead hit up three or four different ranges? I'm trying to figure out whether it is better to stick to one general area and try to get to know it as well as possible, or if it is better to spread out a little more and explore lots of areas within 2-3 hours of home. I'm leaning towards picking one general area (Madison Range or Gallatin Range in SW MT) and spending as much time in it as possible.

 

[kad11]

I really appreciate all the comments thus far regarding "remoteness" and scouting processes. I've learned a lot from just reading what you guys have to say...

 

[kad11]

I've been rethinking my high country mule deer dreams a little and am now considering spending this coming bow season in more of the sage country of eastern MT. My reasoning is that I will be able to accumulate a lot more stalks and experience in the low country where the deer are, I think, more plentiful. As a guy that has never even drawn my bow on an animal, would you all agree that it would make more sense in the long run to spend at least a few seasons developing stalking and shooting skills in the more densely populated areas before trying to arrow a big buck in the high country? I'm not concerned with trophy potential right now, just looking to develop and hone spot and stalk abilities...

Just to reiterate, my bowhunting experience thus far has been two seasons of bumbling through the mountains of SW MT listening for and then trying to catch up to bugling bulls. Spot and stalk is completely new to me so I put in for the 900 antelope tag with the intention of gaining some experience there as well.

Thanks for any advice you might be able to provide!

 

[robby denning]

The math works in your low-country scenario if you're in a deer dense area. High country is harder to get around in so typically less stalks. If you're leaning toward the low sage country, I wouldn't talk you out of it. If getting over live animal target panic is your goal, don't be too picky and even practice stalking in the off season. Whatever you decide, keep us posted!