Breaks mule deer
- Thread starter Jdan9
- Start date
D4570
Well-known member
YES!
Hem
Well-known member
The following is my observation.
Just returned from hunting whitetails in the Eastern part of the state. I have hunted this same area off and on for 25 years. I have killed bucks in the 145-153 class here. I also have hunted every possible way, ...tree stands, still hunting, ground blinds, spot and stalk, sniper etc
Point is, by no means green.
Two of us didn't see ONE whitetail in four days of hunting. Very few muledeer.
Let's say I was in the Baker area on a BMA.
Drought,grasshoppers, and starving cattle have decimated everything that doesn't get water.
EHD creamed the whitetails.
My contacts from Broadus to Ft.Peck all confirm the same.
Its grim.
And yet, the doe hunters on the ranch were shooting every muledeer they could.
I also saw very few deer while driving...
ONE muledeer buck from Baker to Roundup via 12.
Good luck. Hope you have better hunting
Just returned from hunting whitetails in the Eastern part of the state. I have hunted this same area off and on for 25 years. I have killed bucks in the 145-153 class here. I also have hunted every possible way, ...tree stands, still hunting, ground blinds, spot and stalk, sniper etc
Point is, by no means green.
Two of us didn't see ONE whitetail in four days of hunting. Very few muledeer.
Let's say I was in the Baker area on a BMA.
Drought,grasshoppers, and starving cattle have decimated everything that doesn't get water.
EHD creamed the whitetails.
My contacts from Broadus to Ft.Peck all confirm the same.
Its grim.
And yet, the doe hunters on the ranch were shooting every muledeer they could.
I also saw very few deer while driving...
ONE muledeer buck from Baker to Roundup via 12.
Good luck. Hope you have better hunting
Just came back from breaks. 4 days of hard hunting and glassing. I saw 10 does, one forked horn. Hopefully just where we hunted, and not overall statement of conditions. I've hunted it for 30 years and never see lots,but this was poor.
Hem
Well-known member
We were discussing any number of scenarios that would make this situation even worse...hard to imagine worse.
My hunt was awful.
It’s going to get worse. Deer will be all over the hay stacks. Hay was way to expensive this year. Fwp will issue damage permits. Extreme cold and snow will get the stragglers with the little bit a feed that’s left out there
MTLabrador
Well-known member
Deer numbers where I’ve been hunting above about 5,000 feet have looked good. Lower elevations are terrible.
EYJONAS!
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Well this thread is quite depressing.....
Much like Montana’s mule deer management
TheJason
Well-known member
Well, when you’re still hunting them like it’s 1950…
EYJONAS!
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Touche
My area of WY isn't any better.
We hunted HARD every day for a month and could not turn up anything bigger than 130"!
Between over grazing of public lands and drought, it was dismal. Weird thing is that we did see quite a few does... just very few bucks, even in areas we generally tag out in 1-2 days.
We hunted HARD every day for a month and could not turn up anything bigger than 130"!
Between over grazing of public lands and drought, it was dismal. Weird thing is that we did see quite a few does... just very few bucks, even in areas we generally tag out in 1-2 days.
BenInMT
Well-known member
Turns out when everyone shoots a “meat buck” on the last day of their hunt so they don’t have to go back to WA empty handed there are consequences.
Most residents are no different
8andcounting
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- 3,407
Ugh .... not good
Spedray
Well-known member
We put in 53 miles in 3 day last week. Seen probably 250 deer. All on public land. Been hunting for awhile out there so tend to know some honey holes. After looking over about 40 bucks, I only saw one I would shoot. A nice 170" ish buck. However he never gave me a shot. A majority of the bucks were 2 1/2 year old 3x3's. My hunting partner took a respectable 150" 4x4 mule deer to finish his first Montana trifecta (Elk, deer, antelope). We did see one nice 5x6 whitetail, but I have already shot a nice whitetail before and didn't want to take one with how hard they have been hit with blue tounge this year. Talking to some of the ranchers. They said they were finding dead whitetail at every watering hole. We even picked up a nice dead head. The deer are out there if you hunt hard in the right terrain. However there is a lot of good land completely bare of any animals. Like everyone has been saying, numbers are down, so don't expect them to be everywhere. On the other hand, the weather has been improving lately, seen more green grass than I ever had for this time of the year with the recent moisture.
T
timmy
Guest
Funny how those nice 170’s don’t end up in the back of the truck…. Or maybe they shrink when they do. There is green up in the fall most years this year you can see it because there is literally bare ground when it is usually covered.
