Packing up for five days of Eastern MT Whitetail hunting

[daltrix99]

My best friend and I are leaving from Bozeman on Tuesday to chase eastern MT Whitetails for five days. We are starting at a central MT spot we've both had success in, but we are eager for new country. We have never been east of Billings, out into the 700 districts. We were also both fortunate enough to harvest elk so far this year, so we have full freezers and will be picky with the deer. Well, I say that now, but we often find ourselves having a 'trophy-hunter mindset but a meat-hunter trigger finger'.

We'll be bouncing around public land including state, BLM, and FS land. We've done a lot of sitting above river bottoms, and slow stalking thick timber in western Montana, but we've never done true Whitetail spot and stalk in open country such as this. We've e-scouted country with water and timber, as close to river-bottom and ag as possible, trying to stay away from the typical Muley dry-sage habitat. Any advice?

Thanks all! Good luck out there as the season is cranking along! I'll post photos here if there is interest.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Good luck and posting pics is always good!

 

[johnrr65]

Good luck and posting pics is always good!

+1

 

[nidahunter]

Please do post pics for all of us whitetail junkies!

 

[WildWill]

'trophy-hunter mindset but a meat-hunter trigger finger'.

Story of my life. Following along.

 

[daltrix99]

Beautiful day out East! Lots of deer around, and rutting hard. I just passed on a young 4x5. Decent antler height, but that classic buck that always gets shot. Decided I’d have high standards, hope I don’t regret it later! Attached is a buck I shot a couple of years ago that is the exact same size.

 

[8andcounting]

Good luck

 

[802flyfish]

Good luck. I’ll be out there in two weeks.

 

[MITCHMO]

Same here, planning to be there thanksgiving!

 

[daltrix99]

Back to civilization today. We completely fell in love with eastern Montana...sorry locals! We’re coming for your deer! You can come west and hunt our elk in exchange.

We bounced to some high country ponderosa, and did find some good whitetail sign. However, there were mule deer everywhere, and hunters in kind. I’ve never seen so many outfitter and wall tent camps anywhere in Montana. I certainly don’t blame them - it’s outstanding country! We did a ton of hiking and glassing, and decided otherwise rest of our hunt was better spent on river bottoms.

Day 3, and my buddy shot a good buck first thing in the morning. It was lower than his pre-conceived standards, but the deer lust took over. No regrets of course, but he was kicking himself a little. He’s shot a dozen bucks the same size, and every year says he’s waiting for the wall hanger!


Day 4, and we had a real dandy buck come out. He was rutting hard and moving quick. I’ll take a slow walking shot, but he was moving at a good clip, and never gave me a shot I was comfortable with. Still no regrets about the day 1 buck, but this guy will haunt me!

Day 5, last day, and we needed to leave after the morning. 9am, and Mr Meat Buck made an appearance. Dropped him at 260yds, 6.5 creedmoor out of a Fierce Fury, Hornaday 143gr ELD-X. Ran ten yards and piled up.


What a time we had! I think I enjoy a relaxing deer overwatch hunt almost as much as I do chasing elk with the bow. These deer are going to be absolutely delicious, and we’re incredibly thankful. Hope everyone else is having a great season!

 

[fishing4sanity]

Congrats to both of you and I love the river bottom photo you posted earlier!

 

[0uTkAsT]

Meat buck or not, I'm jealous! Looks like a great trip!

 

[TC207]

Nice work. I'd love to get out east for a hunt at some point. This states so damn big!

 

[daltrix99]

Congrats to both of you and I love the river bottom photo you posted earlier!

We have more great river photos with amazing skies but they might give up our spot

 

[thusby]

It was lower than his pre-conceived standards, but the deer lust took over.

I'm not alone. The sight of antlers moving through brush gets me every time.

 

[WildWill]

Sounds like a amazing and successful trip. Congratulations to you and your buddy.

 

[LCH]

Congrats on those fine whitetails!

 

[elkrchr]

Two fine whitetails!

 

[daltrix99]

So the third member of our hunting trifecta joined us for this last weekend; we all work together and he couldn’t get the same weekdays off as us. He had this week off, however. He bounced around spots and stumbled on a GEM!

He’s an aggressive go getter, and found a very inconvenient spot that took him several hours in the dark to access, up and down coolies and across a couple of sloughs. He ended up seeing twelve bucks today, and shot an absolute bruiser! Yes, I know that lots of ag fields in a lot of states including Montana hold bigger bucks. This is public land, self-guided, DIY! But here’s the best part...he shot this buck standing, freehand, at 30 yards! The rut was absolutely off the chain today.





After he shot this awesome buck, he had *three* *bigger* bucks walk into him, while grunting, chasing does! He is absolutely not regretting this buck, and would shoot it every time, but the humor of the hunting gods is not lost on him with the bigger bucks. He has video of one of them grunting at does just a few yards away, while my buddy is standing over his dead deer!!

I hope those of you with a deer tag are out there getting after it! It’s on like donkey kong!

 

[daltrix99]

Forgot to add for those interested: he shoots a 6.5 creedmoor Christiansen, not sure which model. Carbon barrel. Hornaday 143gr ELD-X.