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pipelake

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Hunting a ranch about ten miles north of Hulett the first week of Sept. Have never shot a Muley with the bow so any decent buck is going to get spanked. We have five days to hunt so I don't want to hold out for a 140" if it doesn't exist. What can a guy expect for Muleys as far as age class or horn size? Whitetails aren't as numerous and it looks like about 125-130 is the max so I'm going to concentrate on a mule deer.
 
Hunting a ranch about ten miles north of Hulett the first week of Sept. Have never shot a Muley with the bow so any decent buck is going to get spanked. We have five days to hunt so I don't want to hold out for a 140" if it doesn't exist. What can a guy expect for Muleys as far as age class or horn size? Whitetails aren't as numerous and it looks like about 125-130 is the max so I'm going to concentrate on a mule deer.

I spent some time in that area last year and I can say the one thing I remember was a really out of wack doe to buck ratio. I think driving out of Hulette going north we probably saw 100+ deer in an afternoon and I only remember seeing 3 bucks the entire trip. They are definitely there, but it wasn't unusually to stop and have 20 mulie does run across the gravel road in the middle of the day.

Talking to some guys the deer are super patternable coming out into the fields in the evening that time of year and the ranch guys will have a pretty good handle on it.

That general area is very popular with the hunting show guys in September for Archery because its as simple as finding a trail into an irrigated field.
 
What about buck size? are they all 2 yr old forkies or will we see bigger deer? I know better than to expect a 160+, but if I'm going to have to shoot a dink I would rather get it done on the first day and go chasing something else.
 
Its hard to say given that the non-forkies we saw were generally brief further off views and we weren't hunting deer so I wasn't paying that close of attention.

Depending on where you are it is very different as you head north out of Hulett because you transition from the Black Hills into Eastern MT flat sage flats fairly quickly maybe 10 miles before the MT line.

We ran into another hunter who had killed a 130" Whitetail during the bow season while out there on a ranch. Generally speaking the deer numbers out there seemed phenomenal to me, but we were told it was down quite a bit over the last 10 years. The public land in the hills gets hit pretty hard, but the private is quite huntable during bow season because you can easily pattern the deer from a distance.

The odd thing to me is the 2 guys I knew who grew up in that area really value whitetails over mule deer which seemed odd to me as a Midwesterner. They both have also told me a 2 point mulie is the dumbest animal in the woods and a 4 point is the smartest.
 
I'd be asking the ranch owner.Most of us hunt diy on public ground which is a BIG difference.A140 muley really isn't that big so I'd say it wouldn't be hard to obtain.
 
I spent some time in that area last year and I can say the one thing I remember was a really out of wack doe to buck ratio. I think driving out of Hulette going north we probably saw 100+ deer in an afternoon and I only remember seeing 3 bucks the entire trip. They are definitely there, but it wasn't unusually to stop and have 20 mulie does run across the gravel road in the middle of the day.

Talking to some guys the deer are super patternable coming out into the fields in the evening that time of year and the ranch guys will have a pretty good handle on it.

That general area is very popular with the hunting show guys in September for Archery because its as simple as finding a trail into an irrigated field.

Agree: very patternable. I hunt in the Alladin area. Mostly whitetails.... not sure I even remember a mule deer. Deer feed in the hay fields.... learn the patterns... exits and entry points from the woods.

Disagree: with the ratio out of wack. What I have experienced is lots of doe in the fields during the day and just before dark. The LAST 15 - 30 minutes before dark all the bucks come out. Great if you can see to get a shot. Just my experience in the Black Hills.

good luck to all
the dog
 
I'd be asking the ranch owner.Most of us hunt diy on public ground which is a BIG difference.A140 muley really isn't that big so I'd say it wouldn't be hard to obtain.

The original ranch owner passed away a couple years ago and the kids are taking it over, and they aren't really keyed in on the deer. Other than paying a trespass fee, everything else is DIY, setting our own stands, etc. If there are 140's around I would be completely happy with that. Gonna grab a cow tag and try to fill the freezer on the same trip.
 
The original ranch owner passed away a couple years ago and the kids are taking it over, and they aren't really keyed in on the deer. Other than paying a trespass fee, everything else is DIY, setting our own stands, etc. If there are 140's around I would be completely happy with that. Gonna grab a cow tag and try to fill the freezer on the same trip.

How many people do they let on to hunt? That will affect what you see.
 
We will be the first group to hunt this year and there will be four of us on 1000+ acres. Plenty of room and should be plenty of deer.
 
Dont worry about rack size. Just enjoy the hunt. Worry about "racks"... only leads to dissapointment ! :D
 

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