Montanans how long since your last mule deer

[elkhuntinfool78]

Just curious when the last time my fellow montanans have harvested a mule deer in our home state. For myself it's been 7 years. With the current state of our mule deer I personally don't have the desire to take one unless it would be a great buck which is like finding a needle in a haystack imo. Even the limited entry units aren't producing as in years gone by.

Absolutely no judgment here but I'm just curious

 

[HappyCamper]

I’m of the same mindset - I only shoot a buck that I can’t say no to. In 15 years of hunting I’ve harvested 3 mule deer bucks, last in 2021.

 

[longmire]

5 years for me…

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

2022 for me

 

[Lota lota]

2016 for me. He scored 172" and I've been trying to best him since to no avail.

 

[Art Vandeley]

2019 for me

 

[mthillrunner]

2015 for me.

 

[Raisin Bran]

2017 for me.

 

[antlerradar]

I shot mule deer in 78-81, 88, 94, 97, 99, 05, and 2010.

 

[Raisin Bran]

I shot mule deer in 78-81, 88, 94, 97, 99, 05, and 2010.

Those are the “Golden years”. Ah the memories!

 

[Raisin Bran]

Here’s one from that era.

 

[antlerradar]

Those are the “Golden years”. Ah the memories!

You can see the progression from a young kid that was not going home with an uncut tag, to a teenager/young man that wanted to shoot big deer but was clueless on how to find them to a guy in his prime that had it figured out to the crash of quality buck hunting in Eastern MT to an over the hill hunter that is highly disappointed in what MT mule deer has evolved into so almost refuses to fill a tag.

 

[Southern Elk]

Shot my personal best last year. I won’t shoot another one unless it’s bigger.

 

[Straight Arrow]

IIRC, it's been since 2010 and I've "eaten" a number of doe tags since, with concern about population decline.
However, my grandsons have taken some nice ones that I might have taken otherwise.

 

[huntin24/7]

2023, 2020. I see a lot of posts on hunting forums and social media from non residents referring to residents complaining about not seeing deer numbers and good bucks followed by how they did well with accompanying pictures of 20-24” muleys.

Although non residents on average probably hunt harder due to $ and vacation time, etc invested in the hunt, I think it’s a bit of a misconception that residents aren’t finding these deer. I know lots of residents, self included, that put a lot of miles in and time that find these same deer but just opt not to shoot them. To a person who hasn’t hunted out west a lot, going for a long walk and seeing 15-20 deer and a 140 class muley probably seems like damn good hunting. To the person who’s hunted that same country for 10+ years, that seems like nothing when they used to see 50-100 with a couple good bucks in the same country not that many years ago. I don’t fault someone for getting excited and shooting one of those, but it’s all perspective.

 

[ismith]

2018

 

[MThuntr]

2020 with a special tag that I burned on a meh deer...weather messed up a lot of my season that year and I think I didn't see a lot of animals due to poor visibility and snowfall. I don't specifically hunt mule deer. I see a few every once in awhile that gets my heart pumping but it's never during the season and they're usually on big blocks of private land. One day I may hunt them again just for the fun of it.

 

[tystash]

2022, although could have shot one last year too, just missed. If it’s not what I would consider a respectable buck, I will let it walk.

 

[Nameless Range]

The last mule deer I shot was in 2019, so 5 years ago - in eastern Montana. Been hunting Whitetails since.

 

[D4570]

Two weeks ago My D-I-L and I got two.