Montana Mule Deer Mismanagement

[DFS]

Yep I believe they only use 10 years as the long term average. The antelope one is wild to me. They aren’t in the areas I’ve been to this year that’s for sure

I do enjoy the comment where they suggest with the amount of tags maybe avoid opening weekend. Solid advice might save a life.

 

[antlerradar]

This is why I don’t think cutting out rut hunting, now, by itself, is going to solve everything, because the ‘race to get him before someone else does’ (aided by technology and information sharing) is more prevalent today. This point also contradicts the idea of rut hunting allowing for so much selectivity. I thought the argument yesterday was that pre-rut hunting is by default, more random, and rut hunting is why there are fewer nice bucks than there should be.

Both things could happen to a varying degree, enough to make everything very nuanced and complex to solve, but neither is the direct cause of everything wrong with mule deer. Perhaps some of this was truer back then as opposed to today, and it’s collectively difficult to adapt to how fast things are changing, now, too.

I can agree with most of this. I think the buck I shot in 97 is a good example.
Fist found this buck in the fall of 95. He was a sold 170 buck with kickers. At the time he was living on some difficult terrain for Eastern Mt public land that overlooked some hay meadow. He was following standard practice for an older eastern Montana buck in early October. Spend nearly all of the daylight hours in a nasty hole and travel down to the meadows after dark. Of course when the rut started he was down on the meadows well after daylight, but luck was on his side as the ranch then was in between outfitters and didn't receive much hunting pressure that fall. I found him again five miles back into public that winter, so I knew he made the season. The next year I only saw him one time. It was just before dark and he was starting down out of the hills for the meadows. He was a dandy, solid 180 with large hooking kickers and some small inlines. I figured the new outfitter would have him for sure, but again luck was on his side, or I should say mother nature was. That was the winter of 96/97. We got 15 inches of snow opening day and for the most part it stuck around. By the November arrived most of the does had pulled off the meadow back up into the public winter range. The snow also made accessing that public difficult at best and most of the people that would have been hunting there simply could not get there. In 97 I decided to go after him and started scouting him in July. I found him fairly quickly. He was miles back on the public with three, sometimes four other nice 150 to 160 class bucks. He wasn't as big, as old man winter had taken its toll, but he was still a fine example of a mule deer. I saw him 10 to 15 times that summer and by the end of September I had him fairly well figured out. Sometimes he would head to the meadow as dark approached and sometimes I think he just stayed in the hills. Could be he only went down when he was in need of water as water of the public was in short supply. As hunting season approach, he parted ways with the other bucks and got real hard to find, but even so I was feeling fairly confident on opening day. I was over optimist on my chances. I hunting him every chance I could. Think I spent five days in the first two weeks of the season. Not sure I saw a dozen deer during those five days on the public. There was at least two days were I saw zero deer. If I looked down on the private, I could see dozens, maybe even hundreds of does and small bucks, but I knew he was not down there. On the Saturday of the second week I was once again making the hour and a half walk into look for the buck. It was just getting light and I spotted one of the other nice bucks down just on the edge of the public checking out a couple of the does By mid day those were the only deer I had seen I decided to start sill hunting. I was working my way along a bench when he stood up 200 yards below me. It was all over but the pack out.
I have often told people that the key to killing a big buck is scout hard and hunt him hard the first part of the season. If you do this you can be selective, but there is a catch. You need to spend countless hours of scouting time, It is best if you know the place you are hunting better than the back of your hand and even with all that advanced preparation you had better be prepared for a lot of slow days in the field. Most of the orange army simply does not have the time or discipline to be selective during Oct. The rut is the great equalizer. During the rut when bucks are with the does and much easier to find, even the most ill prepared in the orange army can afford to be selective with out much fear of eating their tag.
This hunt also illustrates the access reason we need to change the season. By the end of Nov the outfitter that leased the near by hay meadows had taken all of the other nice bucks down on the private. When those bucks were back on the public during Oct, the outfitter had zero shot at them. For starters, most of his clients were not physically capable of effectively hunting on the public. Second, it is likely that even the clients that could physically hunt the public, did not have the mental toughness to go for days with out seeing more than a handful of deer. Last but not least, the outfitter did not have the hunting lease on that public. Even if he did see a buck on the public he could not hunt him. (wouldn't have stopped that outfitter). By holding the season during Nov, we as the public transferred thousands of dollars in value from the public to the outfitter and landowner. We are not using economics to our advantage.