Sorry I didn't post the write-up sooner, such is life.
Thanks everyone who has provided great information throughout this thread. The information was beneficial and helped me get some realistic expectations for the hunt. The most useful thing this thread provided was the motivation and excitement to go out and try to give this tag some justice and hunt hard. I got lucky drawing this tag and although the hay day of bitterroot mule deer feels well in the past I knew the opportunity for a big buck and maybe even a giant buck was still there, and certainly better odds than in a general unit.
As many of us discussed and debated - the 261 Mule Deer tag is certainly no lay-up trophy buck tag. Deer numbers have been in decline and poaching, both intentional and unintentional (not understanding regs) is a constant problem in these units according to the biologist. Also, everyone I talked to who knew the unit all held the same consensus, that the unit was in decline on numbers and quality of deer.
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I was excited to get out! One big issue with my fall this year was that I was wrapping up Paramedic school. I did my best to knock out as many clinical hours and school work as possible this summer but unfortunately, my availability during archery season was limited. The one full week I had scheduled off in September I utilized to hunt elk in a different unit that I am more familiar with. Well as luck would have it I shot my biggest bull yet on the first day of that trip! It was a long couple of days getting the bull out but I had some great friends come to help. Once my bull was taken care of I certainly felt a sense of relief knowing I could focus solely on my buck tag come rifle season and not be distracted by the allure of tastee elk meat. It also afforded me a few days to poke around in 261 with my bow mid September, getting my bull on the first day out.
The few days I had after I shot my bull I spent up Willow Creek. I hunted around Skalkaho mountain and the roadless area towards the center of the unit. I hiked through some great looking mule deer country but only turned up does and small bucks in the day and a half I was up there. I was able to put up 2 trail cameras while I was out and was excited to check them come rifle.
On the opening day of rifle unfortunately the Daly fire had Skalkaho Highway and Gird Point Road closed. I had gone up the Gird road in the summer and stayed at the lookout for a night (that's the trip I found the dead bighorn ram) and I had liked the looks of the area and figured I would be spending most of the season accessing spots off that road system. But with it closed down I decided to head back up Willow Creek.
With the road closures and it being opening day I decided to attempt to avoid the elk hunters and hiked in from a different less utilized access point up Willow Creek. There was fresh snow and alot of the day was spent hiking through thick timber, and although there was lots of deer tracks we only saw a handful of does and one small bucks. I did manage to avoid the elk hunters though and was able to check one of the trail cameras I had set out in September. The camera had probably 10 different bucks on it but none were very big, maybe 2-3 in the 130s range. About what you'd expect in a general unit honestly.
After an uneventful and somewhat disappointing opening day, I had to work Saturday night. I rested up Sunday and then headed out Monday morning for a 3-day hunt with my good friend Brady who used his military leave to come out and hunt in Montana.
Our plan for the hunt was to pack in from the Willow Creek Road into the upper portions of the closed Gird Point Road. Our thought was that with the Gird Point Road shut down and the first days of opener to push animals around, the elk and deer would have pushed into this area because of the restricted access and low pressure. We packed in 6 miles and made camp right off the road a few miles west of the lookout. We had the whole area to ourselves for 3 full days and spent a lot of time behind the glass yet turned up very little, less than 10 does a day and only few small bucks the first 2 days. On our last evening before we had to pack out we glassed north across Gird Creek and finally located a good buck that was worth investigating. A good looking 4x4 with deep forks and what looked like a heavy frame. It was still late October but he was rutting hard and chasing does across a distant hillside. The deer were almost a mile away and with no way to make a move to get any closer, we watched them until dark. The next morning we glassed the same area and turned up a different buck, another decent 4x4. Having to leave that afternoon we knew there was no time to hike over there but I felt glad that we had found where some bigger bucks were hanging out.
The next week the Gird Point Road opened making hunting access much easier and giving us the ability to get a lot closer to those big bucks we saw the past week. It was the first full week of November and we were expecting the rut to start picking up, based on seeing the bucks rutting the past week. Again we had 3 days to hunt during the week. The first day we ran into another tag holder who had seen some good bucks in the area as well, which was again reassuring news and a boost of confidence knowing we were in an area with a decent amount of deer and some bigger bucks. We glassed a heavy 4x4 the first night but he had small crab claw forks. The next day we glassed from the road in the morning and located a good buck bedded down with some does but not quite the buck I was looking for. The weather was cold and wet and it snowed on and off on us all day. We found a few more deer but the conditions made it difficult. Towards the end of the day, we glassed a really nice buck across a narrow canyon. He was nearly a shooter, another heavy 4x4, who was coursing through the timber only occasionally stopping to rake brush. It would have been a 550-yard shot and with no way to get closer due to the topography I decided to just watch him. Plus I had plenty of season left and felt like I had just gotten into the deer. The last day we were up there was more of the same, seeing more deer but nothing to get super excited about. I knew that it was only a matter of time though before a bigger buck I wanted to shoot showed up. We left the area feeling confident that the next week would be the perfect conditions and timing for this high-timbered canyon.
Well, the next week came and I eagerly drove up the night before our again 3 day hunt. I glassed all the next morning without turning up a single deer. Brady who had been hunting with me the past two trips arrived later that morning and we glassed and hiked across the ridge that had been covered with deer the week before with still not a single deer spotted. We spent all day in the area and while the sign seemed like they were recently there we only saw 2 deer that whole day, two dinky bucks and no does. The next day we did the same thing, glassing and hiking the ridge that had been productive the week before but this time turned up no deer at all. By halfway through the day I was feeling frustrated that the area we had found that reliably held decent bucks was suddenly devoid. It really only left us one option which was to go lower down hoping the bigger bucks just followed the does down to lower elevations. It seemed unusual though that the deer would be moving lower because the first 2 weeks of the season had been much colder/snowier and we had seen all the deer up high. This trip nearly all the snow was melted and the weather had warmed up substantially.
