Montana or Nebraska

[270whiz]

]The wife and i have plans to hunt Wyoming region A[, for 2014 private land, but as i told my wife as long as we spent the money to get out that way from Michigan we should try a 2 state hunt for 2015.

Now with that said,; looking at SW, Montana, because i have a place to stay reasonable price. This would be Beaverhead forest,

or we could swing into NW Nebraska,

Whats your thoughts on these to states and areas?

Thanks, Jim and Mary,

 

[Redwood]

Both report low deer numbers and the regs reflect this. MT will cost more but has a longer, more liberal season.

 

[270whiz]

Same all over seems to be. Are there any bright spots for mule-deer ? May be Colorado, but so I have been told hard to get tags.

 

[JohnCushman]

NW Nebraska has been hit pretty hard with EHD and tag numbers are being cut back

 

[belly-deep]

Beaverhead NF is probably one of the last places I would go to fill a deer tag in MT

 

[270whiz]

Crossed sw montana off the list. let Nebraska rebuild a few years, I guess walleye fishing is what we may do instead ,

thanks for your help

 

[Redwood]

I wouldn't give it up that easy. While deer numbers are down, if you put in some time and are realistic about your expectations you'll still have a good time. Just understand that you are likely to see less then 20 deer a day and a 120 buck might be your shooter. You've gotta really work for the big boys, or have private that has an age class. You can catch walleye anytime, how often do you get to chase mulies.

 

[sbhooper]

NW Nebraska has been hit pretty hard with EHD and tag numbers are being cut back

Right on, John. Disease has really hit Nebraska hard. An area that we hunted two years ago in the Sandhills, is virtually devoid of deer now. Some ranches called their paying clients and told them not to come last fall. The check station that normally sees 125+ deer on opening day, had 25.

The place that we hunted two years ago was my bil's old family ranch and surrounding area. We saw gobs of mulies and some white-tails, also. This last fall, his brother was there for a week before center-fire. He also hunts with a bow. In one whole week he saw 10 deer where he should have seen 150 at least. He knows every inch of the country.

A neighbor that flies a plane said that there are no deer left in that entire area and he flies virtually every day. Who knows how long it will take-if ever-to totally get the herds back.

Some of the white-tail areas in the river bottoms are not TOO bad, but compared to before, all have taken a big hit.

Even all of our damn muskrats died off, so the trapping tanked, too. Dogs and cats, living together..........

 

[Big Sky]

Montana deer hunting is pretty poor right now, make that really poor. One word: COLORADO!

 

[270whiz]

Good info guys . Hate not chasing deer, set our site in some different areas and just enjoy the time outdoors together. Whatever happens ..... happens,

thanks for your insight.

 

[Wyoming Sage]

Hey if your out here anyway, might get some left over tags for does anyway, just saying.

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

Montana's pretty big and it seems like you could hunt lots of places even on your way back home you could stop a few places and hunt lots of public ground.

 

[----]

I can't speak for the entire state, but to skip over hunting MT because of internet reports that there's no deer would be a big mistake, in my opinion.

There's an unbelievable amount of opportunity across the state, and most areas have the potential to kick out mature deer. I feel for the guys that live in the areas that have been hit by winterkill or EHD, but if you're at all ambitious or creative in finding new areas, there's lots of nice deer to be had. I'm not saying overall numbers aren't down, and that eliminating doe harvest isn't a good thing, just saying it isn't all bad everywhere.

If MT did like Idaho and sold leftover NR tags to residents, I'd buy a second tag every year in a heartbeat.