Montana

[Jmort1754]

Saw 300-350 deer during our trip.

Majority doe probably 95 plus percent of them were doe or fawns
A few fork horns
One large 4x5 couldn't get a shot pushing uninterested doe.
A 3x2 that was bedded with doe but couldn't get close enough
Maybe 20 whitetail with a few small bucks mixed in. They all looked very healthy.
I shot a 3x3. 300 wsm 205 Berger
200 plus antelope
A moose
And countless coyotes and prairie dogs.

Covered lots of ground BMA and BLM

Overall fun trip. Making memories with my dad.

 

[Kroezer95]

Awesome! My Son(17) and I just came back from MT. we probably saw 100+ Muley’s while out looking for Elk…no Elk, but we both ended up snagging our first ever Muley’s 2x3’s and making memories of a lifetime!

 

[TradLife406]

Hush, Montana sucks...

 

[richl025]

Saw 300-350 deer during our trip.

Majority doe probably 95 plus percent of them were doe or fawns
A few fork horns
One large 4x5 couldn't get a shot pushing uninterested doe.
A 3x2 that was bedded with doe but couldn't get close enough
Maybe 20 whitetail with a few small bucks mixed in. They all looked very healthy.
I shot a 3x3. 300 wsm 205 Berger
200 plus antelope
A moose
And countless coyotes and prairie dogs.

Covered lots of ground BMA and BLM

Overall fun trip. Making memories with my dad.

Congrats!

What part of Montana did you hunt? Not asking for your spot - just the general region...

 

[AHayes111]

Hush, Montana sucks...

It is all about prescriptive, for a guy that has lived in SE MT for nearly 60 years, these testimonials don't sound all that great.

 

[mt terry d]

Glad you had a good time and making memories with dad


I was an O/O (trucker) in the 80's living in Wisconsin
Ran mostly from there to Wash/Or. Was the highlight of
the trip passing through Montana, watching for deer
It was common to see over 500 deer just from Columbus to
Livingston on an autumn afternoon.

But Montana never had bad winters then or millions spent on deer research

 

[Jmort1754]

It is all about prescriptive, for a guy that has lived in SE MT for nearly 60 years, these testimonials don't sound all that great.

I can agree with that. I didn't say how many days we hunted, or what our expectations were.

I also can see the point everyone is making about deer and mismanagement. We talked about that frequently while we were out there.

 

[mpb21]

Ahayes I could not agree more.

The entire east side of the state is pretty bleak.

 

[cacklercrazy]

Saw 300-350 deer during our trip.

Majority doe probably 95 plus percent of them were doe or fawns
A few fork horns
One large 4x5 couldn't get a shot pushing uninterested doe.
A 3x2 that was bedded with doe but couldn't get close enough
Maybe 20 whitetail with a few small bucks mixed in. They all looked very healthy.
I shot a 3x3. 300 wsm 205 Berger
200 plus antelope
A moose
And countless coyotes and prairie dogs.

Covered lots of ground BMA and BLM

Overall fun trip. Making memories with my dad.

I also spent time in Montana hunting and deer numbers were extremely low from past years. Didn't see any bucks that were over 3 years old. We saw groups of does with yearling bucks. Not sure if those does are going to get bred by those little bucks. Montana needs to do something drastic to help deer numbers.

 

[ctfxd3]

I also spent time in Montana hunting and deer numbers were extremely low from past years. Didn't see any bucks that were over 3 years old. We saw groups of does with yearling bucks. Not sure if those does are going to get bred by those little bucks. Montana needs to do something drastic to help deer numbers.

Also just spent 8 days hunting in NW Montana. My experience was the same, large doe groups with yearlings and forkys but nothing that stood out as really mature.

 

[Buglebrush]

We hunted hard for a week in Eastern Montana, and didn't see a buck I wanted to shoot. Forkys chasing does everywhere! Watched a Forky running a hot doe in a group of 19 does.

People driving absolutely everywhere, even in non motorized zones we had walked for 2 hours in the dark to access. There's so many issues with how Montana is managing that herd, but if they would clamp down on people driving absolutely everywhere it would make a real difference! Put out a road access map, and seize every atv that violates it. Could pay for doubling their wardens. It's not just non-residents either. The driving everywhere was even worse from the Montana plates. There's tire tracks along every edge of every coulee on BLM or State Land. I don't think there was a single day that we hadn't walked into an area, only to have a truck come bouncing by. Absolutely disgusting.