Montana mule deer

[Gerald Martin]

The price is two Busch lights for coordinates to that buck. He is on public!!

The land is public the info isn’t. We could put that on Craigslist and sell the coordinates to that slammer to a NR for enough money to buy two cases of Busch light and a six pack of IPA!

We could probably sell it multiple times. Got any more pics of slammers?

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

Let the bidding begin! I will accept payment bitcoin, buckcoin, elkcoin, lopecoin, and IPA.

 

[Oak]

Everyone knows about CO mule deer

 

[dexnrex]

Here’s proof that there are still a few toads in the Breaks. Just gotta be in the right place at the right time.
Now, mature, large antlered mulie bucks are going to be much more difficult to find.

 

[mtmuley]

Here’s proof that there are still a few toads in the Breaks. Just gotta be in the right place at the right time.
Now, mature, large antlered mulie bucks are going to be much more difficult to find.View attachment 191333

You find him on your sheep hunt? I know there were snakes still about that year after rifle season opened. mtmuley

 

[geetar]

Randy Newberg and his kick on southeast Montana. And he got paid for it. It can’t go unsaid. And now mtfwp will finally admit numbers aren’t “rosy”. It is self inflicted by all of us but some more than others.

I’m not an expert on the situation. I just know that the way it is described on the HF podcasts doesn’t line up with the pumpkin army disaster that some people I know and respect on the forum describe it as. I’m going with the guys here over Hanneman. No intention of bashing him. I am a HF member myself.

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

Imagine if Montana went to a season structure like Colorado with lower tag numbers in each progressive season as you got into the rut and then occasionally eliminated the late season when numbers were down?
Oh wait Montana would never cut tag $ales or keep the outfitters from making the income they're entitled to.

People figure out they've been bait and switched once they go to Montana a couple times, but there's always another mark.

 

[timmy]

I’m not an expert on the situation. I just know that the way it is described on the HF podcasts doesn’t line up with the pumpkin army disaster that some people I know and respect on the forum describe it as. I’m going with the guys here over Hanneman. No intention of bashing him. I am a HF member myself.

I’ve hunted Colorado with extreme amounts of hunters, orange head to toe for me. The quality of deer isn’t even close. You might not be able to drive up to them like people enjoy doing but they are there in Colorado. Montana kills their deer every year and with the season dates it’s almost criminal anybody would try to exploit it.

 

[timmy]

Week long season versus 5 weeks during the entire rut.

 

[Trap]

I’ve hunted Colorado with extreme amounts of hunters, orange head to toe for me. The quality of deer isn’t even close. You might not be able to drive up to them like people enjoy doing but they are there in Colorado. Montana kills their deer every year year and with the season dates it’s almost criminal anybody would try to exploit it.

Don’t you think genetics and minerals and nutrition etc play a role? I hunted mostly eastern Montana all through 80’s and early 90’s as a resident and felt like I was on An African safari with the numbers of deer and antelope ha ha. There were lots of reasonably mature bucks but I only saw one that would compare to what Colorado seems to have. Even when there was a lot less pressure and more mature mule deer I didn’t think Montana produced a lot. I always figured it was mineral availability and genetics but maybe I just missed most of them back then. I have also never hunted Colorado but my dad was raised in rifle and he kept a few horns . I have only seen one buck in Montana that was even close to those Colorado bucks. The article posted is bull$$$$ though.

 

[huntin24/7]

All those things count (genetics, nutrition, age) but I think age has more than anything. It’s the common denominator everywhere whenever big muleys are present. Spend some time near the Canadian border and the age and size comparison between bucks on the two sides of the border is crazy where it’s mostly public on our side.

 

[timmy]

Don’t you think genetics and minerals and nutrition etc play a role? I hunted mostly eastern Montana all through 80’s and early 90’s as a resident and felt like I was on An African safari with the numbers of deer and antelope ha ha. There were lots of reasonably mature bucks but I only saw one that would compare to what Colorado seems to have. Even when there was a lot less pressure and more mature mule deer I didn’t think Montana produced a lot. I always figured it was mineral availability and genetics but maybe I just missed most of them back then. I have also never hunted Colorado but my dad was raised in rifle and he kept a few horns . I have only seen one buck in Montana that was even close to those Colorado bucks. The article posted is bull$$$$ though.

I certainly won’t discount forage and genetics but shooting 5.5 to 8.5 year old deer is completely different than a 4.5 with good genetics which was the best you used to hope for in Montana without some protection.

 

[Trap]

I certainly won’t discount forage and genetics but shooting 5.5 to 8.5 year old deer is completely different than a 4.5 with good genetics which was the best you used to hope for in Montana without some protection.

Oh I agree with you on the lack of older age class bucks. Just throwing genetics and nutrition out there as a serious question. It just never seemed like Montana produced a lot of really big bucks like I see from Colorado etc. in fact I live in Idaho now and there is a lot less mule deer ,in my opinion ,but I see way more big bucks when I actually find one. I always assumed it was genetics and nutrition. I realize the best genetics and nutrition mean nothing when bucks get shot as 2.5 year olds.

 

[timmy]

If you can’t find a dinky ass deer to shoot in Montana in October maybe you need to take up a new hobby like fishing. No reason to hammer them when they are most vulnerable.

 

[antlerradar]

Don’t you think genetics and minerals and nutrition etc play a role? I hunted mostly eastern Montana all through 80’s and early 90’s as a resident and felt like I was on An African safari with the numbers of deer and antelope ha ha. There were lots of reasonably mature bucks but I only saw one that would compare to what Colorado seems to have. Even when there was a lot less pressure and more mature mule deer I didn’t think Montana produced a lot. I always figured it was mineral availability and genetics but maybe I just missed most of them back then. I have also never hunted Colorado but my dad was raised in rifle and he kept a few horns . I have only seen one buck in Montana that was even close to those Colorado bucks. The article posted is bull$$$$ though.

I hear the minerals/nutrition argument often and I don't buy it for a minute. If minerals and poor quality forage was an issue we would not be growing some of the biggest elk every recorded in recent years.

 

[Trap]

I hear the minerals/nutrition argument often and I don't buy it for a minute. If minerals and poor quality forage was an issue we would not be growing some of the biggest elk every recorded in recent years.

Good point. I won’t argue with that. We switched to hunting whitetail instead of Muleys last 5 or more years. We hunt more central Montana now. The mule deer buck quality and age went down a lot. Last time we went through a check station 2 years ago they aged them just by looking at the teeth. The 2 whitetail bucks and both of the bull elk he said were all 4.5 to 5.5 years old .that seemed really improbable to me but I don’t know how to accurately age animals. I still think genetics might play a role since I never personally experienced seeing a lot of really big mule deer bucks. The whitetail get pretty big but probably have a way better chance of getting a little older. Maybe it’s just that Montana mule deer have never had a chance to grow up with current and past season structure. Or I am not a very good mule deer hunter so I have seen very few really big Montana mule deer. Part genetics? I don’t know but I would be in favor of season changes for mule deer only and leave whitetail as is.

 

[8andcounting]

It’s not a genetic or a mineral/habitat issue .... in my opinion.... it’s a lead poisoning issue ,period ...

 

[Gerald Martin]

Genetics certainly play a role in determining how big a buck will be at the age of his greatest potential.

Reality is that most bucks in MT would never make 180 or more inches if they lived to be ten years old.

However, the other reality is that even fewer bucks will be 180 or more when the vast majority of them are killed by age 4 1/2.

I am just guessing at percentages here but I bet less than 5% of Montana bucks live past age 5.

Imagine what kind of quality hunting we would have if 20% of Montana bucks would be 5 years or older.

I had the privilege of archery hunting in Alberta nearly ten years ago. We were only ten miles from the MT border but the quality of bucks was amazing. Numbers of deer weren’t that much higher but quality was.

The unit we were hunting was OTC for archery and only 45 rifle tags.

Where in MT on public land can you expect to see bucks like this as representative of the mature deer? Not the all time once in a lifetime giants but the bucks you sort through on the search for a giant?

This is what age in a deer herd does for you.

 

[MTLabrador]

A quick trip into the lower Powder River in Wyoming, western North Dakota, or Saskatchewan confirms it’s not a habitat issue. Those places consistently grow big, old mule deer bucks in habitat identical to what is across the border in Montana.

 

[texwest44]

Question: What about draw units? I only have appreciable experience with 380 (living in Helena), and don't do much scouting in western or eastern MT, outside of driving around for work. Do the draw units in those places have more quality bucks than the OTC units around them?