Montana Mule Deer - First timer

[elkhunter505]

Native New Mexican here. Moved to MT for school. I spent basically 1 day scouting for deer this last year. That day was an archery hunt for elk where I just happened to find a solid mature buck with a group of does and other small bucks like the 2nd week of October. Went in there opening morning looking for the elk and ended up killing the buck about 2 hours after first lite when I ran into him in almost the exact same spot. Not a huge buck but definitely a mature deer. We were a considerable ways in an extremely popular spot where we were actually behind people when we got set up. Maybe my deer compass is off and maybe I just got stupid lucky but the amount of deer that I see almost anywhere I go is insane in comparison to almost any hunt I’ve been on in NM. I’ve also been told I’m hunting areas where the deer population is much lower than other parts of the state. I don’t have a reference point though so I would definitely defer. With the opportunity to shoot whitetail does, I won’t be pulling the trigger on a mule deer buck unless he’s mature since I can get meat in other ways. Similarly, if I kill an elk during archery season, that allows me to search for big bucks since my freezer is full. Particularly for residents, I don’t understand shooting a forky (if they’re invested in having bigger deer) when there are whitetail doe tags in surplus many places.