What to expect?

bigmuley · Nov 18, 2004

I am hopefully coming to Montana to hunt muleys for the 2005 season with a buddy that grew up in wyoming and is now a resident of montana. I am typically only a trophy mule deer hunter with pretty strict minimums on my mule deer. however, being that this will be my first out of state hunt, i was wandering if i should expect more or less from a hunt in montana. not to say montana doesn't have good deer, i am just curious to know if because i am going to be hunting on a general tag if i draw, with approx. five to seven days to hunt. can i expect to see some good deer or just average deer. what is your guys thoughts. i don't have a problem holding off on deer and i am not an impatient person. is it reasonable to find a big deer or should i lower my standards somewhat. paying 350 dollars for a tag i really don't want to come back to wyoming empty handed but since i will hunt in both wyoming and montana i will not be upset at all if i don't get a deer but $350 is alot of money.

berto · Nov 18, 2004

can you give us more info?

info like time archery or rifle, timing within the season, area of the state (nearest town or mtn range is good enough), public land or private land, what you consider to be a big buck (180" gross?) etc. would help us answer your question.

btw, WY is the only other state i would consider hunting muleys at this point.

crextin · Nov 18, 2004

It all depends on where you hunt in MT for Muleys. There are areas where the pressure is high enough that the deer don't get real big. Too many people shooting the little bucks and not lettign them develop. There are also areas where I have personnaly seen some Monsters. In the right area and with a little luck you should be able to bag a nice buck. No tips her on honey holes though. I'm still looking for that big wall hanger myself.

huntercameron · Nov 18, 2004

Hey Berto why not Utah they got some good deer here . On public , private , and our le . I was just asking because you said you would only hunt wyoming . What state are you from Berto?

later , hunter cameron

bigmuley · Nov 18, 2004

I guess you are right, alittle more information would be nice, i went back and read my post and it was alittle bit general. i will be hunting about the second week in november and with a rifle. my buddy lives in billings and so it will be in that general area. he hunts up around dillon, but i don't know if that is where we will be. probably because of lack of vacation on his part, we will be in the general billings area. he says he knows some good country right around there. i am not looking for a record or anything, just a good representation of what montana has to offer. i don't want you guys to tell me exactly where you hunt, just some advice on what to expect. i have been around here almost a year, and to me there seems to be very few folks from montane. i personall think montana is one of the best places in the world, and there hunting is second to none. however, i just never see alot of big deer coming out of montana, now elk on the other hand i have seen some huge elk come out of montana.

bigmuley · Nov 18, 2004

p.s.,
to me a respectable deer would have to be over 175 for a first time out of stater. in wyoming i would be holding out for something over 185 or so. i am not in idiot though, if i see a good buck that makes me happy i will take him regardless of what he may score. it is all about the hunt, not the killing for me. i have never really had the urge to hunt any where else than wyoming, but the opportunity has presented itself and the only state i could think of that really does it for me would be montana, not that the other states don't offer alot, i just really like my hunting here in wyoming.

Randy11 · Nov 18, 2004

Dillon is more of a whitetail area than a mule deer area. I hunt speed goats down there and see more whitetails than muleys, but of course i stay low. My Girlfriend shot a 140" whitetail off her family ranch down there this year too.
Just north of Billings is some pretty good muley areas. my family used to hunt near circle (not real close to billings, but somewhat same area) and they had lots of encounters with big muleys.

Bambistew · Nov 19, 2004

Some good advice there... but you got to draw the tag first. I would bet that on average it takes about 4 years to draw a deer tag as a NR. That being said if you are extreamly lucky to get a tag. 175 is going to be a pretty good buck for most all of the state. A 160ish will probably be more realalistic representation for a "good" buck.

There is some decent deer hunting around Billings, but I wouldn't expect much in the way of big deer as everyone eles from Billings will be hunting around there too, meaning anything with antlers gets whacked... and lots of hunters. They just never get a chance to grow. If you stop and knock on doors make sure you tell them you're from someplace other than Billings... We used to get that all the time, the first thing out of the farmer/ranchers mouth was "where are you from?" And we would tell them. We asked a few of em, and they said that if we would have said we were from Billings they would have sent us down the road.

Best of luck to ya if you get drawn.

crextin · Nov 19, 2004

I have to agree w/ babmistew. The billings area is a high pressure area for hunting. However if you are looking for a good hunting experience. Think about taking a whitey too. The river bottoms on the Yellowstone and Musselshell reportedly have some decent whitetails too. They are fun to hunt here in MT as well. It is still surprising to me how a 24"-26" muley doesnt get me as excited as a 15" 4-5 point whitey will.

The possibility of a good muley over by dillon is there, but you need to get up into the mountains. My neighbor shot a good 26" Muley over there that has incredible mass all the way through.

Good luck and enjoy MT

berto · Nov 23, 2004

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dakotakid · Nov 23, 2004

Are you or someone you trust going to have the opportunity to scout the area you intend to hunt mid summer? If so you will at least have an idea of what to expect, if not you might just want to lower your standards. Five days is a short amount of time to work up a trophy class buck in a general area that you have never laid eyes on before.

Mike

bigmuley · Nov 23, 2004

i have a buddy that has been hunting and living in billings for about six years now, so i will have a somewhat good set of eyes doing some scouting for me, plus i hope to spend a few days looking around myself. in the later part of the summer, is it really that hard to draw, i can't remember exactly the number my buddy told me but they were pretty good odds, i thought, compared to some of the drawings odds we experience here in wyoming. i have been applying for a particular area in wyoming for 12 years and just finally drew out this past season.

dakotakid,

i consider 170 the benchmark, for here in wyoming, and i am willing and ready to drop that mark to 155-160 if i come to montana. i have seen what my buddy comes home with, and i am making all my assumptions on what i have seen him produce. not only that but i am also ready to go empty handed if a good buck does not materialize, i guess after all that being said, hopefully i draw the tag. we will see!