2017 MT Whitetail

2017 was an incredible year of hunting for me, I was able to draw a couple tags in MT & WY, hunting with family and friends on each trip. I was really excited for my deer hunt in Montana, because I would get to hunt with my brother, ID_deerslayer. He moved to MT a few years ago and has been learning areas to hunt each year. I had it in my head that I would shoot the first deer that excited me when I saw it, which I assumed would be a nice representative mule deer for Montana. With limited time off, due to saving vacation for a 2018 hunting trip, I hunted weekends only and flew back to ID at the end of each weekend.

Our first weekend we headed out for Central Montana on Friday afternoon and checked out possibilities for Saturday morning. We dead ended in some deep snow on public that evening and decided to go to a BMA and glass before dark. We ended up seeing quite a few whitetail deer, including a pretty nice buck. Darkness pushed us back to our hotel and we ate dinner, got ready for the morning and I passed out about 730 (I work nights and didn't sleep during my travel day Friday).

Saturday morning we headed back to the BMA and eventually found the sign in box. We were the first ones there right before daylight and took off before shooting light. After about 30 mins of hiking we spotted some whitetails out in the middle of the property feeding. They were about a mile away and we thought we could circle in that direction after we checked some draws. Well the snow in early November was a little deeper than I thought it would be. After post hole hiking and not spotting any fresh tracks or deer, we looked back across and watched two hunters making there way over to the whitetails. After watching the show unfold and the other hunters take one of the bucks we made our way back to the truck to go check out some other BMA's. That afternoon, we went to a BMA my brother had the most success in finding animals and getting away from other hunters. The day was getting away from us and with a handful of vehicles at the sign in, we decided to come back the next morning and hike into his spot. On the way back to the motel, we probably spotted 400-500 deer, albeit they were on private property, but it was good to see so many deer after not seeing very many during Idaho's hunting season.

First thing Sunday morning we showed up early and headed out. After spotting quite a few Pronghorn and a couple groups of mule deer doe with young forky bucks at first light, we continued our hike and made it to one of his sitting trees about 8 in the morning. After getting settled in we watched a few different groups of both mule deer and whitetail deer feeding and moving to bedding areas as the sun hit the hillsides. We watched a few younger mule deer bucks try and posture for the ladies and follow them into different draws and coulees. After watching a group feeding about 600 yards away in a draw and no buck with them, I decided to go check out a draw on the other side of the hill and make sure we could verify nothing was feeding in it since it was still shaded. I was gone about 10-15 minutes before making my way back to where we set up our overlook. As I sit down, ID_deerslayer says "hey there is a doe coming up from the bottom of the draw you just checked out", so find her and start scanning behind her in the draw and a little young buck is following her about 40 yards or so. I scan behind the little buck and out of the brush comes a NICE buck, I tell my brother " there is a NICE buck" after a few seconds I say "I'm going to shoot that buck". He finds the buck in his binoculars and says he will watch from the sitting tree. The buck was about 500 yards away, working towards us slowly, but would disappear due to topography in about 200 yards following the draw. After I dropped down the hill and was working my way to where I thought the buck would be, I look up and ID_deerslayer is waving me back up the hill, so back up I go. He tells me the buck picked up his pace to keep up with the doe and we can go above us see from where I was glassing earlier. We moved over to the edge and set up. The doe was barely feeding, moving more then she was feeding, but the small buck and big buck were feeding and staying in the brush. Lagging behind the doe by about 50 yards, I waited for the buck to walk out and present me with a good shot. A short minute or two later and I ended up shooting my second Whitetail buck. We took in the amazement of how the morning unfolded and made our way down to check out the deer. I was thinking it was a good deer, comparable to one he shot a few years ago. Walking up to it I was pleasantly surprised when it was bigger than I thought. After high fives and photos, we noticed that the buck had escaped hunters at least once before earlier in the season. There was a good sized neck wound across the front of his throat. So we proceeded to quarter it out and started the pack back to the truck.

Thanks to ID_deerslayer for taking me out hunting. Hopefully we will be able to do it again soon. I'll leave it up to ID_deerslayer for the second weekend of the hunting story.

Congrats, awesome harvest!!!

Congrats
Matt

Nice one!

Awesome!

Congrats!

Beautiful buck!

Nice buck!

Very nice. Congrats!

nice work, and thanks for the story

Amazing how many animals are previously wounded. Nice job!

Thanks for posting. I really enjoy reading stories like this and seeing the pics!

Congrats!

Congratulations!

congrats

Cool buck!

Nice buck,congrats!!

Thats what its all about! Congrats

Congrats on a great buck!

Well, since SagebrushSlayer wrote up part one of his Montana hunting adventure, I will add part two in this thread. The first weekend he was in Montana to hunt was great with cold temps and snow on the ground. The second weekend he came out was a bit different with the chinooks blowing through the area and melting a lot of snow along with significantly warmer temps. We also went to a different area of the state as I had a mule deer doe tag for a unit that butts up against the breaks and wanted to fill two tage in one trip. On Friday SBS flew into town and I worked a half day so we could head out early and maybe get an evening of scouting in and possibly fill a tag. We headed out around 1 PM and had gotten permission to hunt some private property that bordered a large section of BLM so hopes were high that we would find a nice deer to hang my A tag on.

When we arrived to the property I showed SBS around and we did some glassing, but with wind speeds in the 20's we didn't see much beyond a few doe's until the last 20 minutes of light. We found a large group of deer with a few bucks in it and decided to sneak in and do some further inspection. We ended finding a deer I wanted to put my tag on and with wind speeds higher than desired, light fading fast, and a distanced shot needed we decided to wait until the next morning to pursue a shot. As we drove back to town to meet up with my buddy who was letting hunt the property we continued seeing many deer, most of them doe's and a few small bucks. A quick dinner at the local watering hole and we headed off to get a nights rest, hoping the wind would die down.

Well the wind finally died down, around 6 AM when we woke up and got ready to head back out to the area we had last seen the buck I was going to hang my tag on. At first light we were in position to glass the deer with the only cover we had, an old wooden outhouse. With SBS behind the spotting scope to confirm on whether or not the buck we were after was still in the group, we found him chasing a few of the doe's. after taking multiple ranges of the different areas of the field the buck was circling through I got into position to take a shot as soon as the buck stopped in an area with a clear backdrop behind him.

Five minutes later, he was finally broadside and 290 yards away, no other does behind him, BANG!, the 25-06 rang out. SBS informed me I had cleanly missed and to get another round in the chamber. I settled in to my rifle, found the buck in my scope, BANG! I saw the buck donkey kick and take off directly away from us. I knew he was hit and watched him through my binos to watch him fall down. I watched and watched and he never once slowed his bounding pace and crested over the the bench line out of sight. we grabbed our packs and headed off towards the area I had first shot the buck. We scoured and scoured the area not finding any blood, so we continued to head in the direction the buck and other deer had gone so we could find him and finalize my commitment to the harvest.

Right as we got to the edge of the bench that went down into a deep coulee we spotted the buck and tried to get set up to make a final shot. unfortunately tunnel vision had set in for me on getting the buck, I had neglected to see the doe's off to my left which spooked and took the buck with them deeper into the coulee. It was time to slow down and make a game plan. we elected to stay up on the bench and walk along it as it skirted the coulee and tried to get out in front of the path the deer would take. From there we dropped down a finger of the coulee to get into position to intercept the deer, identify the buck I had hit and finish what I started. Our plan worked, minus one small thing. The buck that had followed the group of doe's into the ravine had ended up leading them by the time we saw them again and had such a lead ahead of them we didn't see him come out with the doe's. We glassed and glassed, finally finding him now heading up to some cliffs, away from the group of doe's. He must have finally realized that being involved with too many ladies was not a bright idea! We watched him go up to a bench that was at the bottom of the cliffs and never could see any blood, which told me that my first shot had merely been a flesh wound and he didn't move around with any limp or wierd gait to his walk. At this point we had a good feeling he was going to calm down and not move around since he was looking down hill for danger while we were off to the side on the finger coming off the top off the bench.

SagebrushSlayer and I decided the best option was for me to back out and climb out of the coulee so I could continue to skirt the top of the bench out of sight and he would keep an eye on the buck. About 30 minutes later, I was in position above the cliffs and the small bench the buck was on which was exactly 200 yards below me. I put a round in the chamber, finalized my pack position as my rest, found the buck in my crosshairs and squeezed the trigger, BANG! the 25-06 echoed down into the coulee and the buck went about 25 yards and tipped over. The intense pursuit was over, the buck was down, and I sat watching him through my binos as SBS made his way over to where I was. Once he arrived, I told him we had work to do. It was a steep, sandy drop down to the bench to get to the buck. After a few pictures, we got to work quartering up the buck and loading the packs for the steep climb out.