OYOA films Eastern Montana Mule Deer

Sorry for the delay in this post, but it has been a disaster since getting home on Friday night. Had to re-set camp in my shop, as it was raining/sleeting when we left eastern Montana on Friday morning, so to keep the wall tents from molding, I had to set them up in my shop to get them dried out. And, wife needed the dead bolt on the front door fixed, at least a dozen light bulbs changed, a new toilet seat installed, and two dinner dates and a breakfast date. So, I really haven't had time to write about how this one unfolded.

But, here it goes.

As you know, we were over filming an elk episode last week. We had hoped that with some good scouting, we could get the elk hunt done early and use the final four days for deer hunting. So, while I was elk scouting/hunting, we were also deer scouting/hunting.

Lawnboy was the appointed trigger man. I told him he could have first shot, but if he passed on something that would make good footage, I would muscle him out of the way and he could hold the legs as I gut and gilled.

In the days of elk scouting, I saw lots of muleys. 30 to 40 a day. No big bucks, but some nice ones. But, given how far I was from the trailhead, there was no way I was going back this far for a 24" 3X3 that I would (or Lawnboy would) have to pack out on our backs.

I really didn't expect to see to much in this area, as the biologist told me the genetics sucked in the area I would be hunting. He should know. I had found tons of sheds on this area while turkey hunting last spring. Found a bunch while scouting these days also. Never did find a whopper, but some nice ones that when attached, with 24" of spread, would have been in the 160ish range. That is a shooter for me.

After spending the entire first day elk hunting, I was surprised that in the many miles covered in fresh snow, I only saw about a dozen deer, and none were bucks. Not good. Wasn't sure what I would tell Lawnboy, as he arrived that afternoon.

When Lawnboy showed up, there was about an hour of daylight. He was roaring to go scouting, so given how soaked and tired I was, I offered to let him head out on his own. In the process, he struck up conversation with most anyone on the forest, and came back with a lot of info. And, in his stroll, he saw a 22" 4X4 whitetail, which he should have shot, but since he doesn't hunt on Sundays, that was not an option. He also found a nice mule deer buck and a lot does.

I was not with him, so I am suspicious he was making these up, as that report was by far better than anything I had seen in my three days of stomping the hills. In spite of his findings, we had to get an elk on the ground, so those bucks would have to wait a few days.

Fortunately for the deer hunting aspect, we got the elk on Monday. That took the entire day and all our energy, so we were quite wore out the following morning, causing us to sleep in Tuesday, and not get to the hills until about a half our after sunrise.

Not sure it made much difference to get a late start that morning. It was raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock, so I was in no big hurry to go out in the torrent, get soaked again, possibly get the rigs stuck, and ruin the camera equipment. Yet, we only have so many days to get an episode, so regardless of weather, we hunt and film. There are no mid-day pictures for this hunt, as it was raining or snowing every day, and the camera stayed on my pocket.

Anyhow, when we got to the trail Lawnboy wanted to take, the rain had lightened some. We had not gone but a few hundred yards to the first ridge, when he spotted a group of deer feeding a couple coulees west. We snuck over and checked them out, only to find the bucks in the group to be forkies. Normal doe group still holding the year and a half old bucks.

We moved on and in our three mile loop, found many other groups of deer in similar spots, with the same composition of animals. Lots of does, fawns, and young bucks. Nothing Lawnboy or I would shoot with three days left to hunt.

By noon, we had exhausted this piece of country and decided to head back to camp and grab a quick bite of food. We would dry gear and cameras, and do some map work in hopes that a new location would provide bigger bucks.

My mind was drifting back to that group of three nice muley bucks we saw the morning before, while stalking the elk. The biggest was a decent 4X4. Not long tines, but good mass. And, at night, I almost creamed a really good one with my ATV, while driving back to our parking spot on the county road. But that spot required we reload the ATVs and trailer them 40 miles. I was just too lazy for the logistics of that, if it would be only an afternoon hunt.

Lawnboy thought the bucks might be starting to get closer to the does, even though the rut is a couple weeks off. His idea was to hunt the ridges above the doe groups, in hopes we find some getting an early smell of what they were looking for. It turned out to be a good idea.

By mid-afternoon, we were hiking the ridges, looking for doe groups below. We found a group of seven, as soon as we were a half mile from the parking spot. No bucks to be found.

We circled the basin and by moving along the high ridge. From that next point, we saw nothing. It looked like another patented Lawnboy shortcut to go down the ridge and back up, rather than circling the ridge of this basin. Shorter in time, but always a lot more work.

Two does were waiting for us as we hiked up the ridge. No bucks to be found. We went to where the private property fence line scaled this ridge, as brush was cleared on both sides, making the trek easier. As we crested the ridge, we glassed west and saw nothing.

Lawnboy lead us southwest, along a finger of the ridge where we could glass. About a dozen does were bedded straight out from us. A small buck was with them. More glassing located a nice 3X3 bedded about couple hundred yards from the doe group. A potential shooter, if he came on the public and the camera guys told me it was good footage.

I spotted a cool looking shed antler down in the bottom. I told Lawnboy I was going down to get it, and he offered to stay high and continue glassing.

It was now getting late and the coyotes were howling. They stayed across the ridge from us and howled like they were paid to perform. As I picked up the shed, I looked back up the ridge to show it to Lawnboy. By this time, he had hustled the camera guys down into a crevice and was pointing frantically across the basin. He gave me the "Stay down and stay out of sight" motions, so I just sat still. I waited for him to shoulder his rifle, not being able to see the cause of his commotion.

Finally, Lawnboy led the camera guys off the ridge, through a small gully to the south. He motioned for me to stay in the wash that would take me up the ridge, but keep me out of sight from whatever had garnered his interest. I hustled to them to see what had happened.

Lawnboy indicated that just before dark, three bucks dropped from the opposing ridge, down in to the basin where the does were bedded. It was so dark, he couldn't tell for sure, but he thought one was worth our time for a follow up in the morning, and that the second biggest one was also a pretty good one.

This was far better news than I had expected to hear. Lawnboy is usually a pretty upbeat guy, but he was talking almost too fast for me to follow along. I had a feeling he was sandbagging me with the size of the buck he had seen, not wanting to overstate anything until he got a much better look.

With that, we headed back to camp with headlamps on, quite excited by our possibilities of the next morning. The wind was picking up and clouds were rolling in pretty low and heavy. Probably would be another day of bad weather, but there is no such thing as weather bad enough to ruin a good day of hunting.

Day two to follow shortly.

Day Two - Morning

It was pretty easy to get up in the morning. Breakfast was good, the coffee was hot, and there was three inches of fresh snow on the ground. Doesn't get any better than that.

We were to the trailhead well before daylight. It was our best guess that the bucks has fed down the basin to where the private land fields connected to the public grazing ground. Our hope was to get to the points of the ridges, glass them on their way to their beds, and cut them off once they got to the public.

Great in theory.

By daylight, it was snowing so hard, visibility was less than five hundred yards. We walked the first point and saw nothing. But given the visibility, that was not a surprise.

We circled back south around the basin by staying on this ridge, and looped west and back north, to the end of the next point. At this time, we saw a few does, but no bucks. It was now snowing very hard.

Not seeing any bucks, we backtracked south, retracing out steps to the main ridge, then taking that further west, until we could head north again, to where Lawnboy had seen the bucks drop off the ridge the evening before.

This was a very long loop. It took almost an hour to get to the first saddle in that ridge. We were not seeing any tracks in this fresh snow. And, we were not seeing any deer coming from the lower country. Very depressing, given the excitement we had when leaving the truck two hours earlier.

Lawnboy and I huddled to draw a plan. We determined we would walk this ridge all the way north, until we hit the private fenceline. That would give us comfort that we had covered all but the last few hundred yards of timbered ridge, and could rest assured that the the bucks were somewhere else.

We continued north, peeking into every pocket, fully expecting deer to be nearby. We spotted one very little forkie, working his way west. Not anything close to what we hoped for.

As we saw the private fence below, running from southeast to northwest, we decided we would drop over this next rise and try to glass the lower country below.

Lawnboy was leading, and dropped to a knee, while pointing down below. There was a pair of does looking right at us, at about 80 yards. They pretty much had us pegged. We stood motionless, hoping they would settle down.

While we watched these two deer, a pair of bucks came over the ridge to out west, down into this little pocket. In the snow, it was hard to tell how big they were. They stopped in the middle of this small sage basin and started wrasslin'. Within a minute, one buck darted away, with the other standing tall as if to say, "Get your wimping butt out of here."

I glassed the winner and almost fell over. He looked huge. But, the snow was messing up my vision. Shortly, he turned and ran down the basin to the does below us.

Holy crap! This was the biggest buck I have ever seen while hunting in Montana. He was probably 28" outside, very heavy, very deep forks both front and back, and had a five inch cheater coming straight out from where the G2/G3 split on the driver's side.

I didn't have to tell Lawnboy to get ready. He was locked and loaded, and using the Mystery Ranch for a steady rest. The buck was horning some sage just 150 yards below. Unfortunately, he was 30 yards on the wrong side of the fence.

This boy was getting with the rutting action. He was horning, rubbing, urinating on his hocks, and just being a a bad acting dude. He displayed to us for a long time.

The footage of his actions will be world class. Not only was he close, but I he was huge and beautiful. I did not see a buck this size in my ten days of hunting the Arizona Strip in 2007. I wish I could post a clip here, but for the obvious reasons, we have to save that stuff for the TV show.

We watched the does head off to a small notch to our west, which would take them over the fence to the public. We could not move. The big guy was too close and he was in the wide open.

After about twenty minutes, he moved off and followed the does. He disappeared. It was amazing to be this close to such a large buck and not be able to shoot. Such is the dangers of hunting in an area where private and public land meet.

We whispered back and forth of what our strategy would be. As we plotted, the loser of the earlier tussle came in and did the same exact thing the big guy did. This buck was no slouch. I would have shot him without hesitation, had he crossed the fence. But, it was easy to see how he lost the fight.

This lesser buck decided to bed down right below us, in the sage. We watched him through the snow, as he seemed content to sit around all day and try to rest up before the rigors of the rut.

It was decided that Lawnboy and one camera would circle way south, the way we had come in, and then drop off the ridge to the west, in hopes he could crest the little basin from where the bucks had come, and have a shot right down in to the little pocket where the big boy had bedded with the does. Seemed somewhat risky, but if he came in north of the deer and they did spook, hopefully they would spook south, toward me and the other camera.

I sat and watched the lesser buck for the hour it took Lawnboy to make the loop. As the snow started to slow down, I could here the thumping of mule deer stotting across the basin. Seems that in his stalk, a group of deer had been bedded and busted Lawnboy as he crossed an open finger of the west face. Not much he could do.

The bad part is that the spooked group could have went west, north, south, or east, and would not have interrupted the bedded buck and his does. But, where did these deer spook? Exacty southeast, the one direction that would take them right through the bedding area of the big boy.

I watched as deer came bounding past me, using the crest of the ridge. These does were moving out. As they ran, the big guy's does rose from their beds and hopped back over the fence. They stood and watched this spooked group continue running. Without further inquiry, the big buck's does took off northeast, taking them into the private, and the big buck wasn't about to let them go, so he stood up and raced off with them. As the big guy left, the other nice buck bedded below us followed suit.

I stood in disbelief. I could not believe that such bad fortune could fall upon us. What were the odds that a stray group of deer, not even involved in this stalk, would spook right through the bedded deer we hoped to take?

I raced south and east, hoping to catch a glimpse. I did. They crossed one small ridge, then walked up another ridge. The big guy stood skylined for sometime at six hundred yards, looking at his back trail. There was no mistaking him. His does went straight south, downwind.

Lawnboy came around the crest of the ridge fully ready to shoot the buck. He eased up, but found nothing. All he saw was me standing at my original location, frantically waving him back to this spot.

When he got there, I told him what had transpired. He told me he was afraid that doe group would come this way. He had tried to move them north, or west, but for some reason, they were determined to come southeast, much to our detriment.

It was decided we could not chase them this quickly, as they had been spooked. And the ridge they went to afforded us little cover and the wind was exactly wrong to follow them.

We made a big circle to the south, avoiding the place these deer had went to. We then moved east, back to the trucks. At that time, we loaded up and drove back to camp for some lunch and dry clothes. It was a long and quiet ride.

If you had asked me what odds we had that either Lawnboy or I would get a shot at the big guy that morning, I would have bet 10 to 1 that we would have got a shot. Good thing no one was there to take my money.

Getting real late, so I will have to continue this one tomorrow.

well dang it---but still lookin forward to the "rest of the story"

Nothing like leaving a guy hanging Fin.

Yes, the master "leave you on the edge of your seat" author needs to finish this fantastic tale!

Day Two - Afternoon

Oops. Sorry guys. Guess I better wrap this one up.

Anyhow, after the close call of the morning, we snuck out to the south, went back to camp and gathered a new plan. After the bad luck of the morning, we had to take a break and get out minds back to what might change our luck that afternoon.

It was snowing like crazy as we ate our lunch. This would be good. Our plan was to loop to the southeast of the bench where we thought these deer had bedded, then come at them, with the northwest wind in our face.

We left the truck and the snow was actually almost noisy, it was so sticky. Not real wet, but the kind of snow that when you step on it, it makes a loud sound of being compressed. I really wasn't that worried about it, as I thought we would still find them in this little basin just over the ridge where I had glassed them during their exit.

Lawnboy and I discussed which finger ridge would take us to where they might be bedded. We agreed to go down the easternmost ridge that runs north and south. There is a small finger ridge that parallels our chosen ridge, but it gets close to a road and would probably make these deer uncomfortable to be near that commotion.

Well, you know what I am going to type next, before you even read it. The small parallel ridge has a little bench where it joins the ridge we would travel. As we crossed that small bench, we notice four deer get up and stand in the trees.

The biggest deer's head was completely obscured by the thick pines, but he walked toward us, pawed out a scrape, squated and unrinated down his hocks. The then crapped on the ground, and walked off.

While he was doing this rutting stuff, I asked the camera guy if we had any shot for film, given the bucks vitals were exposed at 180 yards. His behavior told me it was the big guy, as he was the only buck rutting real hard. If we could have made footage of that shooting lane, I would have shot this buck. I would have taken the chance that it was the smaller of the bucks, and been happy with him. You know that feeling when a buck's head is obscured, but you know it is him. Well, that was one of those feelings.

Knowing they had spotted us, I told Lawnboy to trot out the end of the ridge and I would follow these deer. Most likely, they would stop and look at their back trail, and be looking at me, and if lucky enough, Lawnboy would have a shot from the ridge above.

I followed the tracks in the fresh snow. They dropped off the bench between these two parallel ridges. I could tell where the tracks had all bunched together. I suspect the deer were watching the back trail, exactly as we had hoped.

The deer continued down the basin, going exactly where I had hoped. They ran through a herd of cows, who's track and activities had mostly melted/stomped the snow to where it was tough to make out any deer tracks. I looked up at the ridge crest, and two does were watching me. No bucks were with them.

I could make out faint tracks going through the tall grass where the cows had stomped down the snow. It looked like the deer would take the trail around the north end of the ridge, which would make it impossible for Lawnboy to get a shot, as that was into some private.

I continued to follow the trail, until I reached the private boundary fence at the very point of the ridge. Now seeing no tracks, I hung a left and went up the face of this ridge and followed it south along the crest, until I reached Lawnboy.

He relayed what had happened. The deer had come around the end of the ridge, across the private, and exactly into the basin where we had watched them bed this morning.

That was a long hike. To take the short cut across the basin would be futile, as we would be crossing a big sage flat, right below them. A sure way to scare them further.

We hustled south, hoping to make a big loop around this basin, then come north. Even if we couldn't cover the ground in the remaining filming light, if we could get a spot on them, it would give us the starting place come morning.

As we hiked, Lawnboy confirmed these were our bucks. The big guy was in the lead, and dwarfed the other really good buck. But, they were not hanging around to be messed with, so we had to develop a strategy that allow us to get on those deer while they were on public.

We had closed the gap to about six hundred yards, as darkness took our filming light. That is always about a half hour before the end of legal shooting light, but not much you can do about that. No sense in making a set up, if you cannot film it.

We glassed up two groups of does. One had a small buck, but knowing the big guy was in the basin, we let him go and just watched as the does continued to feed down the basin, toward the private fields.

Walking out that evening, we agreed we would be back there before daylight, even if it meant we had to hang tight until the sun rose high enough for good filming. It was our belief that the bucks would be in the same little pockets come morning.

So, with that, we retreated to the parking lot, headlamps shining, and fully confident that the last day of this hunt would allow us to give the big guy his proper ceremonies.

It was another day of long hikes and wet weather. We would sleep well again tonight.

Day Three - Our last day to film (and hunt)

We were up and at 'em very early. The skies had cleared some and the rain and snow had mostly stopped. It had warmed significantly, making the snow very slushy.

After a breakfast of cold cereal and some coffee with the camera guy (Lawnboy doesn't do coffee), we loaded up and headed to the parking lot. Our enthusiasm made the hike pretty short. Lawnboy has a pretty good wheelbase, and with his excitement, he was just hitting the high spots as he steamed across the ridges.

We arrived at our far west ridge about twenty minute before legal shooting light. We had not spooked any cows, and the wind was perfect. Ah, today would be the day.

While the sun crept to a point where we could see a little better, we plotted strategy. We decided to go further down the ridge, and wait there until filming light arrived.

Upon getting to this small saddle, we saw nothing. We glassed continuously, off both sides of the ridge, sneaking forward slowly as the sun came up enough to give us filming light.

A nice buck was spotted about a thousand yards out, working his way from the private to the small pocket at the end of the ridge where the bucks had headed late yesterday. He wasn't our big guy, but a good one. We suspected the big guy had already made it to the spot.

With that, we headed north, knowing we would find this buck again. Many does started to feed out below us, to the opposite ridge to our east. Small bucks were with them, but not the one we were looking for.

Again, we reached a situation where we had to split up. We knew deer would be in the pocket of timber to our north, but needed to keep one hunter to the east, in the event deer came out that way.

Lawnboy decided he would travel west and make the same loop he had made when he bumped the stray doe group yesterday morning. I would stay east and south a little bit, affording me a shot, if the bucks came to a point where I might shoot. At this time, one camera guy had headed home for the closing on his new house, so I was left to try film my own kill shot, if such shot was afforded. This could get interesting.

Lawnboy had been gone about a half hour, when deer started trickling out of the pocket. A dozen does, two forkies, a wide 3X3, and a 3X4 came out across the basing below me. By the time they stopped, they were over 300 yards away and moving through some trees. I would have shot the 3X3 or the 3X4, as this was getting late in the hunt, and it is always nice to have a kill shot for the show. But, with no good shot provided, I didn't have to worry about it.

I noticed another very heavy 4X4 come off the ridge, but he headed straight across, taking him to some private. He was not our big guy, but his mass and good width made up for his short tines. A shooter for most guys.

Shortly after that, Lawnboy and Loren emerged from the trees and came down the ridge to my location. We talked about what had happened, and where the big bucks could have went to. Not sure, but I had my theories.

It was now 11:30, and we had half the day left to get a buck on the ground. Given how both our schedules were such that getting back here was unlikely, we decided we would try to find a decent buck, and work as hard as possible to try make the big buck be the buck we might take.

To our south and west is the higher rim of this basin. It was my idea that these bigger bucks were somewhere in those rims, and if I were to take the 3+ mile hike up and down those ridges, I might bump them back to this ridge. If so, they would be crossing some openings, and Lawnboy would be able to use the cover of the ridge to cut them off.

Lawnboy argued that he should make the trek. I told him to shut up, and get the spotting scope set up. Within a half hour, I would have a veritable stampede coming his way. Off I went.

I climbed the steep ridge to the south and immediately bumped five does and fawns. Good sign. Once I gained the highest ridge, I wormed back and forth, investigating every pocket and opening I could find. This was a much longer and exhausting hike than it had looked from below. Almost three hours passed before I saw my next deer - a doe and a fawn.

Completely dejected, I crossed the big basin back to where Lawnboy had been glassing. What a waste. Thankfully, he had started a small fire. I sat down and tried to take a quick nap, but my mind would not rest.

It was now 3:00 pm and we were down to our last chance. Lawnboy broke out his playbook and drew diagrams in the mud. He was getting serious now.

He decided he would cross the basin to our east. I would circle south and then east, hopefully finding the doe group with the nice 3X3 and 3X4. Or, if I didn't find them, hopefully moving them his direction.

With that, I started south. I watched as Lawnboy worked his way up the next ridge and got into a position. I looped further south than planned, and bumped a large group of deer. The trees were thick, and I couldn't make out what was in the group.

I continued along, comforted that the group I had bumped was headed toward Lawnboy, or if not, at least down the open draw that would make them visible to him.

Those were the last deer I saw for some time. I walked toward Lawnboy's location, as we had decided we would meet up, then make the big loop over the next basin and ridges to our east.

My mind was convinced that we had let too many bucks go unharmed, and now we would pay for our extreme trophy standards. Given the huge buck we had chased, I wouldn't change that plan, if I had it to do over again. But, I had resolved that our greed had gotten the best of us.

Then, I heard a grunt that is often used to stop a moving deer. I ran up the ridge to get a better look. I could see Lawnboy resting on his pack, readying the rifle, with Loren given frantic instructions to shoot. I backed away, not wanting to be in the way, if the deer were coming my way.

I heard the shot, followed by the immediate crack of bullet hitting bones. Either Lawnboy made a great shot, or he hit a tree/rock when he missed. I trotted forward to let Lawnboy know I was there. He pointed down and around to my left. I ran around that ridge and saw nothing. I came back and asked him what had happened. He shouted across the gap that he had shot a buck and it had darted down below where I was standing.

I headed to a rock outcrop and glassed below, as Lawnboy worked toward me. The first thing I glassed was the white rump of a deer and the antlers tangled in the sage. He had made a great shot.

The buck was not the big guy. But, he was a nice buck, and given the fact we would not get a chance to come back, it was a great buck to take at the last minute. And when I saw where Lawnboy had shot from and where the deer had been standing, it was one hell of a shot. Especially with the split seconds of time he was given to get on him and make the shot while the camera as rolling.

Lawnboy is a great hunter. For a guy producing a TV show, it is great to have a likable guy such as him to tag along with us, always smiling, and willing to do whatever the plan calls for. I know he hoped to shoot the big one, and I dearly wish he would have. But, knowing that the show is much better with a kill shot, and being the modest guy he is, he shot the next decent buck he had a chance on. He acts pretty humble in his posts, but he is a great hunter who is always adding more to my hunting knowledge.

Thanks Bart. I always enjoy our hunts together.

Bad Bart gets the skunk out of deer camp.



Two happy guys, showing the kind of smiles that come with a hard hunt.


P.S. I think I have found a way to post some footage of the big one that got away, without messing up any issues with the network. Will take me a few days, but I hope to get it posted.

Woohoo! Congrats on a great buck! Loved the story too; you guys hunted hard and pulled it off in the end.

Congrats guys on another nice muley. You guys worked for that one.

Great job Lawnboy. Without a doubt, these will be two more great episodes to watch. Congrats on an very nice muley!

Once again, great story. Very interesting to read. Sounds like a lot of work was put into this hunt and should result in an absolutely great show. Can't wait to see it. Congrats on a nice buck also.

Congrats!!!

Sounds like an awesome hunt, really looking forward to seeing the episode and getting a look at Mr. Big.

Congrats on a great muley, thanks for sharing the story!

Well done Randy and Bart! Thanks for the story Fin! Can't wait to see footage of the one that got away.

Sounds like a great time chasing some good deer around. Looking forward to getting to see it as it happened.

We've all realized by now that a trophy is in the effort required to harvest it, not in the size of the critter that falls.

you guys have quality that is for sure. wonder how many guys would have shot that buck "30 yards over the fence".

RockyDog said:

you guys have quality that is for sure. wonder how many guys would have shot that buck "30 yards over the fence".

Click to expand...

Leaving that the buck after that encounter Randy asked me the same question. I'm about 100% sure that we would of just been fine and not caught. The footage shows me looking down at him at 125 yds on the fenceline. Nobody around to say boo too us. Randy said something to the effect that "ethics are measured by what you do when nobody is around" What good would that buck be to me if everytime I looked at him I thought " I cheated"

I'm sleeping fine and have great memories of being so close to such an awesome looking buck. It's the kill at all costs guys that end up poaching and then ruin it for the rest of us.

Yep... What he said...