Doublecluck
Well-known member
I will start out by saying I have no problem eating my montana deer tag. As a family we harvest plenty of antelope and elk. I see no need to go out and shoot a immature deer just so "the tag does not go to waste" as some would say. For the record this is a opinion that has developed with age and my beliefs are my own.what you do is between you and the deer gods. This season has been no different, with both my daughter and I getting lope and elk there was no need to fill the freezer..I still love deer hunting.
Yesterday I get a call from my brother in law who had hunted this section of state land in the morning and taken a buck. Somewhere between there the butcher and sportsmans warehouse bozeman he had lost his sidearm. He thought it may have fallen out of the truck where he parked so I told him I would stop by on my way out for the afternoon.
I pulled up to the state section around 3:30 and did a quick search but never found the sidearm. As I was heading out along the border of this extremely popular section I noticed 3 different groups of oranges heading in to the opposite side of the field. I stopped and glassed up what they were chasing. From 1130 yards I could tell it was a nice whitetail. The deer was directly between two of the groups and a waterfowl hunter who was pretty sure he was about to get a hail of gunfire coming his way. As they got closer the deer quickly pushed off the public with no shots fired surprisingly. As all of the oranges came back to their vehicles the first thought that crossed my mind was this is the rut and deer do stupid things. I asked the guys next to me if they were going to hunt the field and they declined. So I walked out to the spot that they cross to sit out the evening. I kept looking at the time as he was getting closer. The last 20 or so yards my heart started racing a little. With 28 mins of lst left he was now 60 yards on my side of the fence. I settled in on his vitals shooting from the knee at 228 yards.. And the 7 barked for the last time of the season.
Yesterday I get a call from my brother in law who had hunted this section of state land in the morning and taken a buck. Somewhere between there the butcher and sportsmans warehouse bozeman he had lost his sidearm. He thought it may have fallen out of the truck where he parked so I told him I would stop by on my way out for the afternoon.
I pulled up to the state section around 3:30 and did a quick search but never found the sidearm. As I was heading out along the border of this extremely popular section I noticed 3 different groups of oranges heading in to the opposite side of the field. I stopped and glassed up what they were chasing. From 1130 yards I could tell it was a nice whitetail. The deer was directly between two of the groups and a waterfowl hunter who was pretty sure he was about to get a hail of gunfire coming his way. As they got closer the deer quickly pushed off the public with no shots fired surprisingly. As all of the oranges came back to their vehicles the first thought that crossed my mind was this is the rut and deer do stupid things. I asked the guys next to me if they were going to hunt the field and they declined. So I walked out to the spot that they cross to sit out the evening. I kept looking at the time as he was getting closer. The last 20 or so yards my heart started racing a little. With 28 mins of lst left he was now 60 yards on my side of the fence. I settled in on his vitals shooting from the knee at 228 yards.. And the 7 barked for the last time of the season.
