Montana mule deer Expectations.

[Lawnboy]

Grew up hunting the Bridgers in the late 80's. Still can remember the deer we used to have. Doubt it will ever get back to that. Montana has the worst mule deer hunting than any neighboring state IMO. It's sad

 

[Bambistew]

I don't have any expectation of shooting a mule deer in MT. The kind I want don't exist there or are unicorns. I've shot 3 MD in MT in 25 years of hunting there and haven't hunted it since 2014 and zero desire to do so, unless something changes.

I've seen way more big elk than big muledeer probably by a factor of 10 and deer out number elk supposedly 2:1. The elk hunting isn't much better, but at least seeing a mature bull every now and then is nice.

I don't care about inches, I would like to see some age on deer.

I

 

[brockel]

Grew up hunting the Bridgers in the late 80's. Still can remember the deer we used to have. Doubt it will ever get back to that. Montana has the worst mule deer hunting than any neighboring state IMO. It's sad

This one came from the Crazies. Bet it’s been quite a while since something like this has been pulled out of there. Probably never will again

 

[JEL]

I really don’t have any. Last buck I shot was in 2016 and that was only cause all three of my boys were with me that day. Before that it was a whitetail in 2010. I hunted deer a lot in the 80’s-90’s. Hard to get excited about deer hunting now

 

[ccc23454]

I live half hour from MT line and dont hunt it for deer, if i did it would be whitetails. I hunt minimum 3 states and as many as 5 every fall for deer and MT never makes the cut cause frankly unless you have good private access it sucks for muleys. Is there exceptions of course but not worth it for me. If i wanted to fill a pickup with does sure but why... i like a quality hunting experiance and thats a lot of factors that frankly MT doesnt provide. To me Montana deer is like CO otc elk, screw that nonsense!

 

[rogerthat]

I guess I don’t understand what’s got everybody so upset about not seeing giant bucks around every corner.

Should you be able to expect to see a 180 every time you go out? Giant bucks get killed in Montana every year on public land with over the counter tags. If your not seeing what you want, dare I say look harder? How often do you see 370” bulls when elk hunting?

I have never seen a giant buck in Montana. I have hunted Montana for 30 years. I have hunted Colorado for 3 years and saw a giant buck…just saying…your tape is stretched out

 

[BAKPAKR]

32” wide +/-, 5-6” matching inlines on each side, one inline slightly longer than the other, 17-18” backs, decent eye guards, etc.

Rumor is that you can find bucks like this just laying around in neighboring Idaho.

 

[Nameless Range]

Montana is a big damn place, and my expectations are lower in the western third of the state. I do not have particularly high standards, and this last year was the first in my life that I have eaten a deer tag.

If I am being honest about what would have gotten me to pull the trigger along the dead lodgepole of the Continental Divide a few months ago, it would have been a healthy 3.5 year old buck - hopefully a pretty 4 x 4 - but of the hundreds of deer I saw last year, I did not see one of those.

If speaking in inches very roughly, anything north of 140” gets me excited enough to typically pull the trigger. Sometimes it’s a 2-point. The deer I shot on this trip is one I’d be pumped to shoot every year, at least in this stage of my hunting life. Though I feel a change in my desires occurring.

The place I grew up is a shell of what it once was, but even back in the late 90s, when we would see numerous bucks exceeding 150” in a season, my teenage self would still get excited about the “dinks”.

Anything north of 160” has always been a unicorn of sorts in this neck of the woods.

I speak in inches above because we all understand it, but really I agree that age is what’s most important, and I would hope with better management a guy like me could spend 15+ days afield as I did last year, and look over well over 100 deer as I did last year, and see something older than a 2.5 year old 4 x 4.

 

[antlerradar]

Nineteen eighty seven was the best year I have ever seen on the Custer. I saw or found sheds from eight different 180+ bucks from that year and most of the best time to be looking I was in school in CO. In the last 10 years I have seen one that is for sure over 180 and one that might be and I have been living right next to the forest full time.

 

[mtmuley]

I'm with Gerald as far as mediocre muleys go. I don't hunt them because I like to eat them. And, I'm not going to cover the miles and work my ass off for a mediocre buck. Last one I killed was in 2004 I think, and was a permit. mtmuley

 

[Salmonchaser]

Oregon use to have great herds of mule deer, mid to late sixties was probably the peak. We would see double digit numbers of small bucks every day and the occasional good one. Now you can’t hardly draw a tag. Started hunting Montana about35 years ago, mostly out East. That was and is still fun. I’ll bet I averaged a tag every other year, draw one each of the last three. During the last three years I’ve seen close to twenty small bucks in a day sometimes, great fun. In the last three years I’ve seen one I wanted to shoot but didn’t make it happen.
My two cents: out law off road ATVs hunting and rut hunts or Montana’s mule deer will be gone just like Oregon’s.

 

[Buffs35]

Expensive tag, average deer, but I find Montana so beautiful that I'll use any excuse to get up there.

 

[OntarioHunter]

based on what I read from this forum, if I ever did get a Montana deer tag I know I wouldn't waste a minute looking for mule deer unless I was going to be happy shooting a forkie/3x3. I know for sure I would be focusing hard on river bottoms in search of some monster whitetails that I know you Montana residents look down on

Good luck finding river bottom property you can hunt. And if you do (and I have ... to hunt birds) the odds of seeing a buck of any sort in that thick stuff is a lot less than cruising the ridges glassing for mulies. If you want to see a lot of mule deer get out and walk up the bottoms of the coulees.

 

[NDGuy]

@NDGuy if you have a problem come out and say it.

Relax man lol shows how rough it is that people are dumping does to not come home empty handed.

I’d agree with most that seems to be lots of deer but all young dinks. Very few deer make it to be 5-6 year olds.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I can shoot a public land Montana muley buck every year, no problem. I'm often bound by time constraints because I have to hunt with my brother and even at age 71 he won't stop working. I'll hold out for a 4x4 if I can but have taken a forked horn on the last day. I had to wrap it up in just three hours this year because blood vessel ruptured in his diabetic eye and he had to get home. I saw a 4x4 in the herd of 15 but wound up shooting a 3x3 instead. It had a tall rack and looking at me so I was fooled. Only saw one buck in the herd originally but he was in the other half of the herd that moved out of sight. No regrets. Glad to get it overwith so my brother could go home. That buck eats just as well as the bigger one. I stayed and hunted birds for another month. Saw hundreds of deer including a couple of dandy muleys.

I really don't have any "expectations." We have a great time being together and see a ton of game. We now know a lot of folks in the area and seeing them is half the fun. Lots of birds to hunt with the dogs and that breaks it up. I have a couple of wall hangers, more than I have wall space, so that really isn't important. Can't say that it ever was. I just want to be out there. I have hunted many parts of the world but still enjoy eastern Montana the most. Rugged empty windy cold country where I can hunt all day without seeing anyone else or listen to cars drive by etc. And I don't have to ride horses twenty miles to find that kind of solitude. Ranch house almost always within sight (which can still be a LONG ways off) and cell coverage usually near at hand now. Warm snug 19' trailer with TV dinner is always waiting at the end of the day. So what if I don't see a 150" buck every year (though I usually do). That's just horns. Good memories don't have to have big horns. Neither does good meat.

 

[Shangobango]

I expect to beat my balls off the wall over and over and over…long hikes…eyeballs bleeding from glassing…my wife threatening divorce unless I come home until finally ….as if it was scripted…I shoot a whitetail

I am just going after whitetails. That way the only 170" mulie left in SE Montana is bound to walk within 100 yards...

 

[RobertD]

Muley I've got no dog in this fight, as I've said elsewhere, but I think any hunter should hope his state aspires to manage for a decent age class across the herd.

If 95-99% of mule bucks on public die by age 3.5, I think we can all say that's piss poor. I dislike being the NR that tells other states how to tend to their affairs but damn Montana ought to be able to recognize the mule deer is a sensitive species, probably moreso than elk and certainly moreso than whitetails and this game of rifle hunting them all through the rut is something that the herd just cannot tolerate.

 

[Art Vandeley]

I feel like this topic has been beaten to death here and rightly so, my simplified two cents is this… 15 years ago my expectation was to put a few miles on the boots every day I could, see some deer, and eventually see a bigger class buck that got me excited and I might get a shot at him. In those days I expected to see a few other hunters here and there. My current expectation is to find at least 3 vehicles at every sliver of public access, I expect to have to walk 5+ miles to find solitude, and to see a few young bucks, and to pass on those bucks knowing they will likely be dead by end of season anyway. Granted, when I was younger, bucks that would get a pass today got me excited. Full disclosure: Yes, I am interested in a trophy buck now for the wall (180”+), I’m not interested in killing a mule deer for meat.

I worked a 2 year job in Canada in the 2014-2015 range. The size and quality of bucks I would see daily was amazing. A local ranching family that I became friends with there had 4 190”+ jumbo bucks on the wall, and they didn’t really hunt the way guys on this forum do. Shockingly they were not given a tag every year! I don’t recall what the season structure was but I do not believe it was open for rifle hunting 6 weeks through the rut. That area is less than 250 miles from my house in Montana.

IMO MT could have some good to great deer hunting again if there was some minor changes made, and they could appease the meat hunters and the trophy hunters pretty easily. I don’t expect I will punch another tag on a mule deer until my kids are old enough to hunt. It’s sad what it has become.

 

[mtmuley]

Muley I've got no dog in this fight, as I've said elsewhere, but I think any hunter should hope his state aspires to manage for a decent age class across the herd.

If 95-99% of mule bucks on public die by age 3.5, I think we can all say that's piss poor. I dislike being the NR that tells other states how to tend to their affairs but damn Montana ought to be able to recognize the mule deer is a sensitive species, probably moreso than elk and certainly moreso than whitetails and this game of rifle hunting them all through the rut is something that the herd just cannot tolerate.

Maybe I'm selfish by not caring about the opportunity hunter. I have a different view of opportunity when it comes to mule deer. mtmuley

 

[Badlandcat]

An older age class of bucks. Not a pickup box full of mule deer does. Haven’t seen a buck that’s raised my heart rate in Montana going on 13 years now. Now if I go 10 miles East over the North Dakota border I get to see a few every year that make me need to roll my tongue back up.

Shhh, it's amazing what happens when you actively manage deer.