Montana Deer hunters

[300 ultra]

Curious on the topic of Deer populations and reports from multiple sources that mention if you are looking for trophy quality deer to avoid Montana. I would rather here from members that actually live there or hunt Montana often. I'm debating on putting in for my tags in Montana this year. Or better yet if your a resident and want to prove this wrong and let me hunt with you I will take one for the team as your guinea pig.

 

[Broz]

You will have to hunt hard or maybe get a special area tag for a 200" muley. But there are some good bucks here. Not the ultra wides like you see in NM but good deer in the 160 ~180's.

My son and I too these two last season the same day. We were happy. I would hunt the last week of season if you want bigger horns.

Jeff

 

[huntin_fool]

Some people might not consider these "trophies" but they are above average for this area. Also, the would have been state record typical mulie was shot about 25 miles from where Im sitting right now. I say "would have been" because it was poached and is now property of FWP.

 

[C.O. Shooter]

Awesome brutes!

 

[Bravo 4]

Awesome brutes!

+1...and then some!
To stick with the original subject, I was in Missoula last September. The locals I spoke with were saying how the wolves have the elk numbers way down in the area. Is it the same for deer?

Broz,
A 160-180" deer would be a deer of a lifetime to a lot of us. Those are some dandies.

 

[MTBULLET]

i can speak to the areas of south central and north east.
very tough winter, LOT'S of snow, and way to many "over the counter" doe tags have depleted the Mule deer, and "blue tounge" wiped out the white tail along the hi-line.

 

[Big Sky]

I would avoid the whole entire Northeast quadrant of the state. Two severe winters combined with a horrible EHD outbreak this past summer/early fall really put a hurt on the deer. I expect it will take 5 years or more for the deer to bounce back in that region. That is if they get some mild winters and no more EHD, which might be asking too much. I just drove between Havre and Chinook last Sunday morning at first light and didn't see a single deer. A month ago I drove all the way between Havre and Malta at first light and saw a grand total of 5 whitetail deer. Normally one would see deer in the hundreds this time of year. It's terrible!

 

[gonewest]

Thanks guys for posting the info. I have the option of hunting in th south eastern part near Baker MT. Are the deer in this area as bad as the other regions to the North?

 

[Buano]

Thanks guys for posting the info. I have the option of hunting in th south eastern part near Baker MT. Are the deer in this area as bad as the other regions to the North?

Pull up the state department of natural resources pages. They have reported the deer die-off was especially bad in the traditional eastern Montana whitetail areas. For that reason I nixed my plans for an eastern Montana whitetail hunt this year. Looks like I'm headed to Idaho.

 

[cowboy]

Thanks guys for posting the info. I have the option of hunting in th south eastern part near Baker MT. Are the deer in this area as bad as the other regions to the North?

I don't mean to put any water on your fire - but YES the area around Baker is as bad or worse than farther North. I've hunted 20 miles out of Baker on a couple of ranches for the last 30 years and it's pretty bad. The deer, antelope and turkeys really took a bad hit. About the only thing that I saw positive last fall was that the grouse seemed to be better than I have ever seen it.

When I say things are bad - it wasn't uncommon to see many many antelope in a day. Now if you see 10 a day your lucky. In talking to the local school bus driver he says that he's never seen it this bad in his life time.

The good news is that we have had as nice of winter up here as I've seen the last 30 years and mother nature has a way of replenishing the wildlife - now if our G&F will wise up and cut back on the number of tags and shut down the anterless tags on deer and antelope maybe in a few years we'll have some game again, weather permitting.

 

[szeitner]

From what I have learned from many of the ranchers I talk to, and to others, the majority of eastern Montana was hard hit with a few bad winters and EHD. There are better numbers of deer to the south along the Wyoming line, and to the west of Miles City. There is some block management in the Broadus area, however most of the really productive land is leased out by outfitters. They are in the process of doing antelope surveys now, so I'll know more in a few weeks.

Scott

 

[threejones]

From what I have learned from many of the ranchers I talk to, and to others, the majority of eastern Montana was hard hit with a few bad winters and EHD. There are better numbers of deer to the south along the Wyoming line, and to the west of Miles City. There is some block management in the Broadus area, however most of the really productive land is leased out by outfitters. They are in the process of doing antelope surveys now, so I'll know more in a few weeks.

Scott

+1 on that. If you can get real close to the WY boarder the mulies are as plentiful as usual, but the farther north you go, the worse it gets. The western half of the state is pretty spotty. The areas that haven't been pounded by wolves are still good, but the wolf infested areas aren't what they once were.

 

[JWP25]

when threejones said close to wyoming he meant it. Twenty miles north the wildlife population dwindles fast- now if the F&G could figure that out there might be something to hunt in 3 or 4 years