OpenCountry
Well-known member
I got a chance to take a week off work to hunt Montana mule deer with a good buddy who has come up to hunt the last two years. The week started off good with seeing a ton of deer on a daily basis. It seemed like most of the younger bucks were starting to push the does around pretty good. They were keeping them on their feet most of the day. It wasn’t until about the fourth day we started to see some of the better bucks getting pretty interested in the ladies. It’s always a struggle to catch the better bucks on the public since it’s a good mixture of public and private spread throughout.
The below buck was a perfect example of one of those bucks hanging right on the edge of public and private. We waited patiently most of the day to see if he would come and enjoy some public land grazing but he hung pretty tight. He was one of the big 3 by 3 mulies a lot of guys want to shoot for the character aspect. We were both itching to get a chance at him if the opportunity presented itself. His body was an absolute tank compared to the other deer he was with. We hunted him a couple days but he quickly disappeared after the first sighting.
Towards the end of the hunt we kept covering more and more land with a lot more bucks starting to cruise mid-day. The hunting pressure was really ramping up with the weekend coming closer and a lot of campers started moving into the area. We decided to try to move to a different area that had a huge bottom that we hunted last year. It was about a mile hike in off the closest road which surprisingly has kept a lot of hunters out of it over the last couple years. My buddy and I split up for the evening hunt and spaced ourselves about a mile apart to cover the bottom. The deer started getting up and moving around just after two but most were does and smaller bucks. I had a decent 5 by 5 come out and started running off the smaller bucks so he could check each doe that was left behind. I decided to pass on him and see if anything else would come out of the timber.
About thirty minutes before sunset I caught another buck come out of the timber and start pushing a doe around the bottom. I noticed he had good fronts and was decently tall for a public land buck. I decided to make a move down into the bottom and see if I could set up on him. I crossed the creek and made my way through the timber bottom to where I could see out the open sage brush flat on the other side. I picked the doe up in my binos and got set up sitting against a tree with my bipod extended. He kept pushing her and I had to continue to parallel them setting up for a shot every 20 yards or so. It took six times setting up on them before he paused from pushing her for a good clean shot. The 117 Sierra GameKing out of my new 25-06 put him down where he stood. My buddy and I met up at the pickup afterwards to regroup and get him packed out. It was a great week off work and fun making some more hunting memories with a good friend. Good luck to everybody else for the rest of the season! Crazy to think it's getting close to wrapping up another big game season.
The below buck was a perfect example of one of those bucks hanging right on the edge of public and private. We waited patiently most of the day to see if he would come and enjoy some public land grazing but he hung pretty tight. He was one of the big 3 by 3 mulies a lot of guys want to shoot for the character aspect. We were both itching to get a chance at him if the opportunity presented itself. His body was an absolute tank compared to the other deer he was with. We hunted him a couple days but he quickly disappeared after the first sighting.
Towards the end of the hunt we kept covering more and more land with a lot more bucks starting to cruise mid-day. The hunting pressure was really ramping up with the weekend coming closer and a lot of campers started moving into the area. We decided to try to move to a different area that had a huge bottom that we hunted last year. It was about a mile hike in off the closest road which surprisingly has kept a lot of hunters out of it over the last couple years. My buddy and I split up for the evening hunt and spaced ourselves about a mile apart to cover the bottom. The deer started getting up and moving around just after two but most were does and smaller bucks. I had a decent 5 by 5 come out and started running off the smaller bucks so he could check each doe that was left behind. I decided to pass on him and see if anything else would come out of the timber.
About thirty minutes before sunset I caught another buck come out of the timber and start pushing a doe around the bottom. I noticed he had good fronts and was decently tall for a public land buck. I decided to make a move down into the bottom and see if I could set up on him. I crossed the creek and made my way through the timber bottom to where I could see out the open sage brush flat on the other side. I picked the doe up in my binos and got set up sitting against a tree with my bipod extended. He kept pushing her and I had to continue to parallel them setting up for a shot every 20 yards or so. It took six times setting up on them before he paused from pushing her for a good clean shot. The 117 Sierra GameKing out of my new 25-06 put him down where he stood. My buddy and I met up at the pickup afterwards to regroup and get him packed out. It was a great week off work and fun making some more hunting memories with a good friend. Good luck to everybody else for the rest of the season! Crazy to think it's getting close to wrapping up another big game season.
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