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Southeast Montana - We're baaaack!

With Dick's buck packed out, we decided to fill in some TV and YouTube production during the mid-day sun. With whitetail on the list, we headed to a place where Oak had shot a very good buck in the episode linked above. The fire has completely changed that area. We did not see a single whitetail that afternoon/evening. Lots of mule deer, but none tempting enough that I would deviate from the whitetail plan. I was a bit uneasy walking out that night, as my #1 whitetail spot had vaporized.

At dinner that night, I told the guys of the place where I had shot a whitetail buck on the same hunt Oak had shot his. The only problem was that it also had burned completely, so I was a bit hesitant that the situation could be a replica of the afternoon bust. Oh well, until you try, you don't know.

Pre-morning light found us shouldering our packs and starting the walk in. Before we got too far away from the truck another hunter came by and asked if we were going hunting down that drainage, to which I confirmed. He said he had a whitetail buck quartered and hung about a third the way down to the private and he didn't want to screw us up while hauling it out. I thanked him for being so considerate, assuring him we would be another three-quarter mile further down the drainage and not impacted by his retrieval activities.

With that, we were off. I had hoped the early morning light and coolness would aid our cause. By the time we got to our glassing knob where this drainage splits around it like a big rock parting a creek's flow, we had seen a lot of mule deer, including one buck that might be in trouble if he presented a good shot. Not a single whitetail was spotted. Seems the burn had changed this drainage also. For some reason I'm not smart enough to understand, it seems the whitetails have moved a bit further up the ridges to places the brush is growing thicker, forsaking the lower slopes that seem to be mostly grasses.

We sat for a few hours, glassing every ridge and patch of cover. With so many groups of mule deer does in the basin, it was not a big surprise that we were repeatedly distracted by mule bucks cruising their turf. Again, all we safe on this day. One was glassed a good ways off, but darted into a coulee that opened out into some private. He was safe.

A continual group of deer were seen on a burned ridge to our south. They would appear, then disappear. Reappear, then disappear. Looking at my GPS, I could see there was a huge drainage of private just over that ridge a half mile. What was on that private that attracted so many deer, I wasn't sure, but when a big 4x4 whitetail pushed his doe across the skyline from that same basin, I concluded we would find a way to circle around and above where the private corner hit the public and keep our eye on the back side of that ridge until dark. Tyler and Dick agreed, especially since the buck gave us a good look in spotter as he headed away from us and down the back side, revealing some cool webbing in the tines and a nice cheater on the back driver's side. That was enough for me.

The afternoon was spent doing more YouTube stuff. When you see these clips, I apologize for my sniffling. I have an allergy to deer fur/dander that is getting worse every year. When we did the YouTube clip of caping Dick's buck, I failed to have any Benedryl with me. I paid dearly in the form of puffy eyes and runny nose. We got through it with a few hours to spare. Rather than wait around for later afternoon, we decided to hike to the point on my GPS that would get us closest to this private land boundary. From that point we should be about .4 miles from the boundary.

Climbing over the crest, it became very obvious where we wanted to by. A big flat sandstone bench was just below the ridgeline, allow us to glass the funnel below without worry of skylining. And we could now see the basin and why the deer were so thick in there that morning. Lots of feed and a mosaic of bedding cover, with some burned and some not burned.

Immediately we found many groups of mule deer. Not a single good mule deer buck was spotted, with the exception of one I would have gladly shot had he not been a mile out into the private rutting his brains out. No whitetails were found, though it looked like the perfect place. We did watch one good whitetail out on the private cruising a brushline for any ladies needing his companionship. Unfortunately, he found one prior to reaching public and he decided to set up his shop right there.

With about an hour to go, two whitetail does emerged from some bedding cover and milled among the muleys. Neither seemed to be alarmed/interested in the others. The mule deer bucks ignored the whitetail does that were almost being pushy in their feeding binge. I was keeping an eye on the whitetail buck out on the private, hoping he would travel the remaining distance to private. My focus was distracted when Tyler announced he had seen some antlers emerging from the bedding area. As the buck walked out, straight away, I could see the kicker and knew this was our guy. He had bedded below us this entire time and if not for his renewed interest in those two does, we would have never known he was there.
 
My watch indicated we had a bit under an hour of legal shooting light, meaning we had maybe 40-45 minutes of filming light. I looked at Tyler and Dick. Dick seeing my enthusiasm suggested Tyler and I go it alone, saying we needed fewer people, not more, given the tight quarters that would result from the plan I had hatched. As much as I wished he was wrong, I acknowledged the truth of Dick's statement and turned to Tyler with a head nod that we both know means, "Let's kill that thing."

As we parted, Dick claimed he would carry our spotters and tripods back to the truck and meet us there at dark. We skied down a small cut to our right, out of sight and using a NW crosswind to our benefit. In less than ten minutes we were at the corner post where a survey marker agreed with the landowners fenceline and the onXmaps data showing on my GPS. The plan was we would follow this portion of the fence straight east, keeping the private to our right and trying to intercept the deer as they fed north-to-south toward the private.

A small ridge or green pines allowed us some cover to get what I was sure would be really close. By really close, I was thinking less than 100 yards. The wind was holding steady as we zigged among the burnt limbs that would surely give us away if we were to snap one of them. I chambered a round, set the CDS at 100 yards and confirmed the magnification was down at 6x, knowing this would happen fast, if it happened. Before reaching the ridge crest we could see muleys feeding out in the middle of this little park about 125 yards off. Both of us pushed our binos into our sockets in hopes we would find the whitetail among them. Nope.

We now had no choice. We had to go further east and would be cresting the ridgeline. With little cover, this would be the point of no retreat. Committing to this plan meant the deer would be immediately below us at not much beyond 50 yards. Or, they would have somehow disappeared without us seeing their exit.

Having worked together long enough, words are not needed with Tyler and I. Hand signals and body language work just fine. Tyler gave a hand gesture that by moving right, he could get a better filming lane. I nodded and in unison, we both scooted over about five yards. I was stopped by the horizontal line that gave evidence of a deer feeding in some downed trees below. Sensing my immediate stop, Tyler did the same and started glassing.

I followed the back of the deer until its head was hidden by one of the big Ponderosas that had survived the fire. I pointed the spot to Tyler and silently made the exaggerated mouth movements as though I was saying, "Whitetail doe." He nodded and move a foot to his right. The doe was now visible to both of us via different lanes. I ranged her at 36 yards and unfortunately feeding into our scent lane.

Now, where was the other whitetail doe and the buck? A small mule deer buck had caught us and was watching. Whether it was the lower light conditions, the fact we moved so cautiously, or just his love-impaired senses, he did not sound the alarm. I pointed him out to Tyler, to which he nodded in confirmation that he was aware of the buck.

I looked at my watch. We were now at the last half hour of shooting light. Deer were all around us, though unfortunately feeding south. Us being directly SW of them was OK for the time being, but this whitetail doe had now moved from behind the Ponderosa and was feeding even closer to us. I looked at Tyler, who was filming the doe at close range. He pulled from the viewfinder and gave the facial expression I know to mean, "We're screwed if this continues." I nodded in agreement.

I continued to scour ahead for this whitetail buck. The crown of the ridge held a thicket of small burned Ponderosas that prevented me from seeing the pocket immediately in front of us and slightly below. He had to be here. Either that, or he pushed his doe back over the ridge to where we located him earlier this morning.

In between glassing the small pockets in front of us, I watched to out the corner of my right eye, as this whitetail doe now had us pegged. Her curiosity was not to our benefit. She now high stepped her front legs with each step, alerting all deer that something was afoul. I had a doe tag and could have killed her at under 20 yards when she stopped and wheezed.

I looked to Tyler, wanting to give him a gesture that when she blows out, we would run up the crest of the ridge and inspect the small area ahead that was currently obscured. My head turn toward Tyler was all the doe was going to tolerate. With another nasal snort, she whirled and flashed her tail. Tyler looked at me. We simultaneously turned and started fast walking to the small opening ten yards ahead that would reveal the rest of this basin to us.

Ahead I see the antlers of a deer among some burned trees. I put up my binos, only to have it be a three point mule deer. Tyler announced the other whitetail doe had just bounded off from below and right of us, heading up the hill away from private. I caught her tail flash and presented the rifle toward my shoulder, keeping my eye out of the scope to allow more peripheral vision so badly needed in low light with deer bounding through shooting lanes.

Below us another whitetail flag appeared, heading directly to where I had spotted the three point mule deer. This whitey had antlers, I knew that much. He stopped with his head behind a tree, quartering hard away. Being a step to my right, Tyler could see the rack and confirmed it was the buck with the sticker. I estimated it to be about 120 yards. Having no rest, it would be an offhand shot, something I only resort to when all resting options are negated.

The crosshairs were pretty steady and I focused only on my breathing and trigger control. Tyler said he was on him. Two burned trees framed my shot angle such that I was either going to thread it in there and exit the off shoulder, or I was going to bury some lead into a burned Ponderosa. One more deep breath allowed the crosshairs to come to rest just in front the right back hip of the buck that was looking around in confusion as to what he did to scare off his hot date. Before he could process another bit of the scenario my mind's eye knew the crosshairs were steady on the desired offside exit, instinctively causing the trigger to break. The modest recoil was enough to take me off the buck. I started to work action at chest level, wanting full field of vision to see the buck's exit path.

I could see nothing of what happened. For a nano-second I wondered if I had shot the at the right buck. Knowing Tyler as I do, he can see it in the viewfinder at 18X better than I can see in the scope. We have done this long enough and are both experience hunters that I trust him completely. If he said the buck, with rack partially obscured to me, was our buck, I would trust his eyes 100 out of 100 times.

I turned to Tyler asking if he saw the buck. He smiled big and proclaimed, "You completely destroyed him. He didn't even wiggle." Relieved, I now smiled and gave him a big pat on the shoulder, though not completely convinced the bullet had stayed true on its narrow path my tight angle allowed.

Before I go any further, I cannot explain how challenging some of these situations get when trying to film them. You just have to experience it or observe it to see how remarkable it is that our camera guys can pull this off, all the while coordinating with hunters what they are doing and what they need the hunter to do. Once the rifle is raised, the camera guy owns the operations. No shooting until command is given. And shoot when command is given.

It is remarkably stressful for some guys when it is happening as fast as it sometimes happens with us. Tyler and Marcus have proven to be two of the best there are. In large part because they are very experienced hunters, in addition to being great camera operators. They also love what they do and embrace the challenge that we only get one crack at this. If we dump the deer and it is not captured in a high quality manner, we can't ask the deer to do another take. That is a lot of pressure on those guys.

I ranged the tree the buck had been standing behind; 109 yards. In the binos I could not see him anywhere. Tyler assured me that he dropped and was laying in a small depression behind the tree. As we walked forward fifty yards, the white belly of this buck confirmed what Tyler had assured me.

It was fifteen minutes before the end of legal shooting light when we got to the buck. Punched tag, some final filming, a few phone pics, and finishing with some mirrorless camera pics stole the last of the light, forcing us to quarter and bag the deer by headlamps. We wondered what Dick had been able to see from his position. We concluded that whatever he saw, he would be excited when we showed up at the truck with the buck we had.

An hour later we were cresting the final ridge near the trailhead where Dick had the headlights helping guide us through the burn. A lot of chatter, indicative of hunting excitement, gave each of us the opportunity to explain how it unfolded from our angle. Dick could not see the buck, only watch through the binos as we moved quickly of the ridge, where he saw me shoulder the rifle, hearing the report a couple seconds later.

I am thankful for so many things in this life. My family more than anything. I am thankful that I have so many friends that are such wonderful people; guys like Dick who is a unique pleasure to spend time with, and guys like Tyler and Marcus who make my job a lot easier. I am thankful for all of you who follow and support these platforms. I am thankful to live in the greatest country in the world, where some snotty-nosed kid from Big Falls could dream of hunting the west and have that dream come true, all owed to the public lands and public wildlife that are an American Hallmark.

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Thanks, Dick. Thanks, Tyler. And thanks to all of you for following along. I hope "someday" comes again real soon.
 
Great story, Randy. Congrats on a couple unforgettable days with a close friend. Makes me want to revisit the Custer sooner than later.
 
Outstanding Randy! Ya know those places that have no road access, I have a solution and i'm only 9 hrs or so away, I have 3 going on 6 goats that love to pack stuff, including camera equipment, water, food, clothing, and especially meat! Congrats too both of you on very nice respectable trophy's, can't wait to see the episode on TV. I'm sure it will be recorded since I most likely will be hunting when this episode comes out, hopefully the wife doesn't stop recording it for a chick flick...... Oh I made some deserts that I believe you would like, check out my FB page.....
Matt
 
Great hunt report and writing style, you really know how to write in such a way that the reader 'sees' it, but I'm still looking forward to watching this episode. Congrats to all three of you.
 
Good job guys, It's tough getting respectable deer in that area these days due to hunter numbers but you pulled it off!
 
Thank you SO much for allowing us to come along on this, and your other hunts Randy as well as letting both hunter and non-hunters alike see the challenge and the excitement that can only come from being out there and do it. Only those of us willing to pursue God's creatures in the wild are lucky enough to see the many wonderful sights there are to see in His great creation.

Congrats to you and your buddy on a couple of dandy critters.
 
Came back this evening from hunting Cleveland National Forest.....skunked by 50 head of free roaming Grade A beef. Then I read this fascinating missive you completed and am inspired to try again OMOA. It is inspiring to see the tenacity in your hunting approach mixed with the humility of reality. Thank you Randy for what you offer all hunters!
 
Congratulations to Randy, Dick and Tyler (who has the film in the can). Looking forward to seeing this next year. Thank you for posting the story. Two other fans and I were part of the crowd in the Custer this year. We took smaller bucks and a couple of does. We had a great time and hope to be back.
 
Congratulations Randy, Dick and Tyler! Thanks once again for a great write up! I love all the little details; great memory!
 
Sorry it's taken so long to post this but I've been busy telling this story to anyone who'll listen. Randy , I can't thank you enough for all you did to make this hunt so memorable. We each shot a good buck but my fondest memories will be of the reminiscing every day of years gone past. I sure hope we don't wait so long to hunt together again. It was awesome to spend time with an old friend and to make a new one in Tyler
 
Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

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