Just got back to my war room (office) from the gym and watching the Trump effect on my portfolio so will fire away.
At 71, life is good and getting better.
Deer across the West are like deer in TN, GA, NC, FL............they are eating machines, think rats, that in adulthood, prefer less commotion and don't like getting shot at. I can speak for SD, ND, NE, MT, CO and WY, (places i have hunted, grew up in, trapped in, and cowboyed in) muleys. In these places you often see mature bucks near public roads, can be crossing areas from bedding to feed, from bedding to water, to great fields of feed, to concentrations of doe groups during pre-rut and rut. Private ground, where deer tend to congregate, is usually controlled by ranchers that control access very tight. I haven't told you anything you don't already know. What you need to understand that even on my ranch in eastern Montana that has a couple of miles of riverbank on what is called the Yellowstone River, that a large number of whitetails will travel, usually every day, all summer and winter from the security of cover and bedding areas on my property to feed that is one, two, three or four MILES away, daily. Corn, barley, alfalfa, sugar beets are predominant field crops, Mule deer are no different, Bucks will be on the best feed late in summer. You can look this up on the internet, telemetry studies that have been conducted on mule deer during the rut and find that bucks traveling 10 or 15 miles per NIGHT is common. The bucks know where all the doe groups are at and will be scent-checking to their dicks delight, often. I believe that the numbers of mature bucks are the same across both species of deer, that only perhaps 3% to 8% of the population are mature and what you, (I anyway) want to shoot and have mounted. Hunting the big boys is a different game after a big mule deer gets 4.5 years old they know the drill. It's not their first rodeo. They can spell the word Nocturnal except of course during the heat of the rut when so many big deer are killed in Montana which unfortunately still allows rut hunting. I am of the opinion and everyone is entitled to one, that Montana should change their seasons as follows. Eliminate rut hunting of mule deer. Archery elk/deer to begin 9/1, October should be mule deer rifle/archery only and November only rifle/archery elk and whitetails. The "shoulder season" that they have in place now is ridiculous for cow elk and that season should be shut down on 12/15. Chasing and shooting pregnant cow elk in deep snow and cold with 5 month old fetuses is nuts, they are killing elk now up to 2/15!!!! Elk are nomadic and when they are shot off of good feed they won't be back anytime soon, hence the large concentrations of elk on private that doesn't allow hunting and of course they have a major problem with hay operations and fencing come spring. It is getting tougher and tougher to find huge muley bucks in MT. The instagram/facebook crowd has them getting shot at long distance and funny thing you never hear about the wounded bucks that often get away after being crippled at 600,700,800 yards out. For me, if I don't think I can get the deer killed I won't shoot. I don't take shots I am not comfortable with. The majority of big muley bucks I have killed have been with a .243 but I now prefer a 6.5 Creedmoor. Not sure why. I have five rifles that are topped with suppressors. I don't allow any hunting on my ranch without a suppressor. We are now at the point where the deer on my ranch have not heard loud gunfire without a shot being fully supressed. I know, sounds corny, We just don't shoot them off the ranch to run over to a neighbors and get hammered and there are plenty of hunters who surround my ranch, some coming in from the Yellowstone River via boat to try and kill a slammer buck chasing a hot doe. I don't OWN any deer, they don't have my name on them, they can travel on and off my ranch and do, and we know several are killed every year. I don't bait like the majority of eastern states. That is life. When you own a world-class whitetail property that is what you attract. Can't blame them. Lots of guys are hung up on big deer and good for them. It has made my ranch that I bought in 2014 double or triple in value. Good on me, luck happens. it was sheer luck that I was able to find it and buy it. I had a motivated seller, a pull-back in ranch prices, some illness with the seller and pricing that was way out of line for what was for sale. Luck happens. It can and will happen to you in life as well. Yes, we have a doe problem. We have too many does but non-residents are prohibited from buying multiple doe tags and yes, we have the cover, security and feed that attracts a large number of deer. I try to keep the coyotes cut back every fall but that is frankly futile. The aerial hunting can't get coyotes killed on the riverbottom timber and with fur prices so low and access so controlled its a never-ending issue. Snaring is difficult on my place because of the large number of deer on every trail and snares are equal-opportunity killers. They don't differentiate between small fawns and big song dogs. So to answer your question let me reframe it. I take it you travel some roads where you see bigger deer. You see mature deer living on private ground and your goal is to get the opportunity to shoot one. That ground is probably controlled by the outfitter who pays the rancher a hefty price but probably not because that big mature buck would have been killed early on in the season by a paying hunter. Perhaps the rancher doesn't allow hunting. Lots of ranches turning over in Montana where the younger crowd doesn't want any hunters coming on the property that are not family. That is life. I still believe in door knocking. Door knocking with a few $20's in your wallet. It doesn't hurt to ask. People in Montana are friendly, hard working and see those deer 365. They see the coyotes killing fawns, They see eagles feeding on fawns, they see deer left dead by scumbag road hunters. A few years ago I got a letter from Spencer Neuhaurth. An unsolicited letter, maybe you know him? He send a wonderful letter asking permission to hunt my ranch. Great letter for sure but i declined permission. I don't need any publicity, my ranch is not for sale. My dad's ashes are spread across my ranch. Mine will be too. Solitude and the cycle of life are good for the soul. Spencer Neuharth is the director of web content at MeatEater, producer of Wired to Hunt, and founder of Rut Fresh. His writing has been featured in over a dozen magazines, including Field & Stream, Petersen's Hunting, and Men's Journal. He was doing the work the old-fashioned way. One letter at a time and not afraid of being told 'NO". Life is a numbers game. Don't believe it? Look at the divorce rate. All you should want is the opportunity to put yourself in country that can hold big deer. Big bucks don't like hanging with other big bucks. They hang with bachelor groups of guppies. Your job is to gain access and to hunt hard and spend time in the glass and HUNT. Hunt the slammers, make some connections, send off a Christmas card, a thank you note with a business card, learn the birthdays, it all adds up over time. Get on OnX, get on the Montana Cadastral map, figure out access, where those deer might be in Late october versus mid-november, ask questions, talk to outfitters, (they will all talk your leg off until they get a deposit about the 180 incher they had killed a few years before).
The opportunity to HUNT a huge buck is there, most people want to shoot and post on FB. You will never kill a big buck if you shoot dinker bucks. The limit in Montana is ONE BUCK DEER, and always will be. My ranch has raised 204-inch and 196-inch whitetails. They were not killed by me. In 2014 I had the single largest whitetail buck I have ever seen in my life grow up on my place. It had 3 droppers, about 23 points and was last seen and photgraphed on 8/28/2014. Not certain if coyotes, blue-tongue, EHD, or poachers got it killed. It is a deer i dream about to this day. It was truly magnificent. Maybe someday we will have the right genetic code to see another one like it.
I can only do what i do best, hope and pray. I wish you well Sir. Dreams, hard work and some luck never go out of style.
