MONTANA MULIES

[brockel]

Majority come from out east so instead of driving another 6+ hours and having to hump the mountains they stop here in eastern montana where you can kill 7 mule deer does along with your buck because our mule deer population is doing fantastic

 

[antlerradar]

I have spent most of my 50+ years in 704. If you are planning on hunting public land chances are good I have been there. Things have changes since the late 70's and not for the better. There is just a lot more hunters on public now than even 15 or 20 years ago and now we sell enough public land doe tags so that two guy can have a pickup over flowing if they cut all their tags. The result is fewer deer and all most no public land goes unhunted. That being said you can still have a fun hunt. Bucks like the ones posted by Elkwhisper can still be had but I wouldn't pass on that better mule deer unless you are willing to eat that tag.
Others have said to get out an walk and that is sound advice. It is even better if you combine walking with sitting on you butt and glassing. You don't have to walk for miles. There are plenty of hunters that are looking at Google Earth and finding those roadless areas. Also there are no roadless areas in 704 that are big enough that most of the rutting bucks will spend the the entire season with out crossing a road at some time during shooting light. Sometimes those places 2 miles form the road are hunted harder and by better hunters than the back side of the ridge only 1/4 mile from the road. The important thing is that you out of the truck and actually hunting.
Hunters from back east are often shocked by how few other hunters are in the field in the west. We Montana residents complain about the number of hunters but that number is going to be far fewer than you in Minnesota are use to seeing. Just remember that Montana's hunting pressure is spread out over a much longer season and that the deer densities on good western public land may only be a tenth of those in farm land back east. If you run into one or two other hunters in Montana it is like running into 15 to 30 other hunters back in eastern farm land.

 

[HuntingJudge]

^^^ that is some of the best advice I have read about eastern Montana^^^^ I don"t have much experience in 704 but 410 I can tell you that it is hunted hard by the archery hunters early and then again by elk hunters during rifle. What i can say is that many of the elk hunters wont pass up a chance at a small buck off the road to fill the freezers. I have killed one deer out of 410 that was over 160" they are tough to come by in that area. If you are there I would hunt the CMR for your best chance a a good buck. That country gets hit less because of how hard it can be to hunt. Dont pass up the small sections of state and blm either a lot of the time they are hunted less due to the size.

 

[Nameless Range]

Why does everybody concentrate on the East side of Montana for mule deer? mtmuley

It’s easier

 

[slim23]

having went to montana last fall for the first time it was not quite what i had in mind but turned out to be a great hunt. I am about as much of a walker and grass is always greener over the next ridge type of guy. but i found that hiking was a waste of time. the good bucks are too spread out and huge areas will only have a couple of average at best 110" bucks. from a good vantage point finding 5-10 bucks in a hour was normal. We just covered a ton of country and looked for big draws that were hidden from the road but had a vantage point within 1/2mi from the truck. We found 3 bucks above 150 in 4 days. but it takes a lot of glassing and covering country to find them

 

[antlerradar]

Three bucks better than 150 in four days is depressing but I think you have a good strategy for hunting the rut. Even if a good buck is more than a mile from the truck in a few days of rutting there is a good chance he will be closer to the road.

 

[Brow Tine]

Keep your tag and hunt Montana. It's much better than Idaho.