Blackfoot-Clearwater Game Range, MT

[Randy11]

I was just curious to see if any of you guys have ever had the chance to hunt thae area or not. I drew the early season rifle deer tag on it and am having troubles finding muleys, I'm seeing a ton of 130-150 class whitetails, but not a single shooter mule deer yet.
Two years ago i drew my elk tag up there and ended up shooting a whitetail, but i was still seeing probably 10-15 muleys a day. Do you guys think That any muleys live there year around or do they all just winter there? if that is the case I'll just concentrate on the Whitetails.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Randy

 

[BuzzH]

Randy,

We used to own a cabin on the Blackfoot River (at Sperry Grade) right across the highway from BCGR (Boyd), and my Dad and Grandfather hunted it before you needed to draw a permit for elk and deer.

They killed both elk and mule deer there, but even in the 60's and 70's there werent many good mule deer in there at all.

I've spent a ton of time there myself looking around and I've never seen a good mule deer even on winter range. My advice is that you're pi$$ing in the wind even making an effort at mule deer there. I'd be absolutely shocked if you found a mule deer over 150.

However, that being said, there is some tremendous whitetail hunting to be had.

If I had that permit I'd be concentrating 100% on whitetail. I think an honest 150 net whitetail buck on there is a very, very, good buck for the area (but achieveable), but there are bigger.

Good luck.

 

[Randy11]

hey buzz, thanks for relplying.
I was able to run up to boyd both saturday and today and definately agree with your whitetail only assessment. saturday i saw one really nice 4x4 in the high 130's and 2 other small 4 points. Then today i saw 5 whitetails, all bucks, the biggest being a 120 class 5 point.
The last time i hunted Boyd was in 03' when i drew a cow tag and i was able to shoot a 4 point with awesome mass that grossed 148". Ill get you a picture of that guy once i get my desktop back up and going.
I wasnt ever really sure about muleys as ive heard there are some big ones up there but ive never seen anything nice on the hoof. The year i shot my whitetail up there a guy shot a 25" muley with deep forks but bad mass, i think he would have been 150"+ but im not good with muley scoring at all.
Also curious if you have any direction to point me up there? Ive been concentrating on the area where i shot my buck in '03 which is the southeast corner, (above cottonwood creek in the burn area and west to the road that comes in from 200.
I stay on Sperrygrade when i hunt up there with some friends of mine, neat area.