Non-Resident Western Hunters…No, I’m not wanting your OnX pins.

[Buglebrush]

I was hunting a few days ago. Ran into a nonres hunter who had just smoked a very small 3 point from his sxs. He proceeded to tell me that he had been hunting the area we were in for 8 years now. They had 10 tag holders in camp this year and 1 fork and 2 small 3 points had already been killed that trip. He expressed frustration to me about how when they first started hunting there, there were lots of big bucks around but now they were lucky to find anything bigger than a small 3 point.

He told me that all he had seen up until that moment were 2 points (a whole day into his trip) and he decided to shoot him when he saw him. He was downplaying the size of it and was trying to justify its size at the same time. A grown ass man that drove 3 states over to shoot a 2.5 yo deer from your sxs. Are you proud of that??

I left that conversation feeling very frustrated. Do these people not understand? If they roll in there and all 10 hunters (just in that camp, let alone all the other camps) shoot the very first young immature buck they see that there won’t be any bucks to grow up. He answered his own question but was too stupid to realize it.

Unbelievable. Don’t be that guy.

I'm a non-resident that is hunting Montana this year, but won't pull the trigger on anything less than 150", so it's not all nonresidents. Sadly I have seen the same issue though.

 

[AHayes111]

Seeing animals.
Being able to get away and “hunt” without being covered up with other hunters.
Observe animals behavior.
Eat questionable food, sleep in a tent, purify water and shat in hole.
Potentially take an animal.

Number one
You should be able to see some deer, Just remember most of the deer in eastern Mt are found near agriculture on the river and creek bottoms. When people talk of seeing hundreds of deer, they are probably not hunting roadless places. There is a reason there are not any roads, and often it is lack of good water sources. If there is good water, there is going to most likely be road. There will be some deer, but unless you have good snow, you may not have many. Friend of mine just finished an 11 mile loop in one of he bigger road less chunks of public in SE MT. Grand total of two deer. Even when numbers were high, a dozen deer day on that public was a good day. A few miles away on the agriculture fields you could see a hundred. With out snow there just isn't that may deer there.

Number two
Walking in will get you away from the majority of hunters, but I don't think there is any accessible public land that does not see hunters. You may not notice it as much as other states as Eastern MT can swallow people up and the long season spreads people out. Every place is getting hunted and even though there are fewer people a few miles from the road, the hunters that are there are more skilled, more dedicated and better equipped.
Even if you do find a place a few miles in that has not seen any other hunters, it is unlikely that any of the deer that live there will spend the entire season miles from the road. One of the best bucks I have ever seen on the Custer lived 11 months of the year in a large roadless area. I watched him for four years and then he vanished. Found out years latter that he chased a doe across a road in mid Nov. five miles as the crow flies from where I last seen him in Oct. To get to where he was shot, He had to cross several well traveled roads. You are not going to find many places in Eastern MT more than two miles from a road and that distance is nothing to a rutting buck. The truth is that during the rut your chances miles back in are not any different that the guy drinking beer in the truck. If you are with in five miles of a big population of does on agriculture, you might be better off in the truck.

Number three
Kind of the same as number one.

Number Four
You can can do that if you want, I am just not sure that it is the best strategy or that you are gaining anything. A good set of legs will get you to just about anyplace in SE MT in two hours. Unless you have livestock, you are going to have to camp close to water and with water being scarce in many roadless places. You might just be camping on top of the deer you want to hunt.
Quite a few years back now I was scouting after the season and found a backcounty camp. My first thought was, " I wounder who the fool was that camped here. There camp was right on top of the best buck hill in miles". There might have been a good buck on that hill but I bet he wasn't there long. You would be much better off to have walked the easy hour hike in the dark. I later found out that the campers were one of the most famous spot burrners and his now anti spot burnning brother. You can camp out if you want, I just do not see what you gain being worth the trouble and if you camp in the wrong spot, you could just be hurting your chances.

Number five
This just depend on how picky you are. Any buck, you are ether incompetent or very unlucky to not be able to fill your tag on any buck.
A four point, You should be able to find one or even several.
A nice buck in the 150's or 160's. It's a possibility, but your are starting to run into a good chance of tag soup.
A big old buck of say 180, some people win the lottery too.