Montana General Deer hunt

I'm going to Montana this November for the general deer hunt, I'm just wondering what it's like. I'm not sure where I'm going yet, I'll be coming from northern utah, so I'm thinking of probably hitting the closes general unit and giving that shot. Any advise would be great.

Thanks

As mentioned the deer hunting in MT is absolutely horrible unless you get east or find private to hunt white tails in the river bottoms. I hunted the area around Dillon MT for the entire week of thanks giving. In 9 days on the public we saw over 400 mule deer. Not a single buck bigger than a fork horn. It was horrible. We watched several times when little tiny spikes were mounting does(4 different occasions). We covered a ton of ground. Between archery season and rifle I spent 13 days hunting. In that time I saw one 3 point buck that 19 inches wide. He was the largest mule deer we found.

Seriously Montana has a horrible deer management system. They allow unlimited resident hunting permits in all general areas. The season structure allows for hunting for over 2 months with archery and they hunt right through the prime of the rut and into the early winter. In most cases I have no idea how they can expect any bucks to get mature. Even in town and the farmers fields we never saw a single shooter mule deer.

We hunted out of Dillon MT and hunted in several different units with great advice from locals that got us into deer, but the buck to doe ratio were horrible and the age class of bucks were horrible. I am not sure how any Montana hunter can be proud of the mule deer management, at least in the South West section of the state.

Narrow down where you want to hunt. Then pm me. elks96 chose poorly. mtmuley

"elks96 chose poorly."
I see this and I keep thinking of the Knight guarding the Grail in the Indiana Jones movie. Too funny and oh so true.

Were there any NR deer tags leftover after the draw? if so does anyone know when they sold out?

I hate to buy one until I know if I'll have time to go but I might have to.
















Stay Thirsty My Friends

LAST EDITED ON Mar-01-16 AT 09:14AM (MST)[p]They will go on sale on August 8th on a first come first served basis. I don't think there were any deer combo left over last year. I think only left over elk/deer combos.

Nemont

That's kind of what I thought.

I think I'll apply for one and if I don't make it I don't make it. I'm not interested in elk it's more of something to combine with bird hunting.


I'm sure it's gone downhill but 15 years ago we had deer good hunting on block management around Coalstrip. as I get older how fun the hunt is matters more than score.

















Stay Thirsty My Friends

LAST EDITED ON Mar-05-16 AT 10:25AM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Mar-05-16 AT 10:23?AM (MST)

Eastern Montana is some of the funnest mule deer hunting you can do in MT. I found some honey holes closer to my house so i dont travel that far anymore. I have a friend that hunts near Colestrip and does well consistently. Deer numbers were really good last year and this winter has been pretty mild.

And again Elks96 did chose poorly, he did not go to a good area and that area is not representative of how good other parts of the state can be.