Montana deer hunt

Jq23

Jq23

Active Member
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148
I decided next year I'm coming to Montana to hunt deer. I have been hunting Colorado the few years and want to try Montana. I've been looking at the Missouri breaks area, is that a good area to see many deer? I've heard the eastern part of the state has better deer numbers.
Any info would help. Thanks
 
I am not sure if I want to laugh, Cry or just crack a smile.
Montana has not been a place to find a quality buck in a long time, now with the recent bad winters, droughts and excessive tags deer numbers are also in the tank.
I would strongly suggest going over to Hunt Talk and looking at the numerous threads on Eastern Montana mule deer before you commit money to this hunt. Unless you have some quality private land lined up you are likely leaving a place that has going down hill and going to a place that is near rock bottom.
 
I hunt as close to the Wyoming boarder as possible.

Also heard there was a grizzly n the Breaks, first one seen in over 100 years.
 
Get some preference points. I’d go ahead and do that in every state you can afford as well. It always surprises me how many people just decide that all they need to chase western big game is a desire and a tank of gas. Unfortunately everyone and their dog that watch’s you tube over the last 15 years has started racking up points all over and the demand for tags has never been higher. Just so happens that the quality has never been lower. The breaks have bucks, if you can get a tag, and get out there and hunt hard you can kill a buck, it’ll likely be a small buck if you gotta have one, but a handful of decent bucks will come out of the CMR and surrounding public every year. Nothing like 10 years ago but you’ll be hunting. Look CLOSE at the draw system for general tags and you just might get a tag this year. Otherwise it’ll be about a 3-4 year wait. Also if considering a guide, do that and you’ll be guaranteed a deer tag your first year.
 
Jq23 said:
I decided next year I'm coming to Montana to hunt deer. I have been hunting Colorado the few years and want to try Montana. I've been looking at the Missouri breaks area, is that a good area to see many deer? I've heard the eastern part of the state has better deer numbers.
Any info would help. Thanks
Click to expand...
Eastern (north and south) also north central Montana is over hunted and flat out ruined! If you want to see a **** load of people and a few small deer by golly this is the place for you! Good luck you are going to need it.
 
I have 19 points I acquired trying to draw what used to be a premium unit. Not sure I want the tag now. Montana is in a tailspin. mtmuley
 
Rie bread said:
I hunt as close to the Wyoming boarder as possible.
Click to expand...
That was a really good strategy twenty years ago. I had a few outstanding hunts doing this but unfortunately the word is out and those public land places close to the boarder are now full of hunters.
 
I was joking about the Wyoming broader thing. I dunno all all those places you hear about hunting are where all the people are at. So maybe try a spot that you don’t hear about to often.

Also check the harvest reports lots of normal units have fairly good statistics.
 
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Rie bread said:
I was joking about the Wyoming broader thing. I dunno all all those places you hear about hunting are where all the people are at. So maybe try a spot that you don’t hear about to often.
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All of Montana is covered up with people anymore doesn’t matter where you go! More damn people than animals anymore!
 
Hunting406 said:
All of Montana is covered up with people anymore doesn’t matter where you go! More damn people than animals anymore!
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True. I find most like to road hunt where I go so most people are not a threat. We filled 4 tags no problem this year
 
nfh said:
True. I find most like to road hunt where I go so most people are not a threat. We filled 4 tags no problem this year
Click to expand...
Road hunting can be fairly effective during the rut. Just because the road hunters are not walking in to the spots you hunt does not mean that they are not shooting the bucks you are after. One of the biggest bucks I have ever seen in Montana lived most of the year in a big block of roadless and rough country. He chased a doe across a well traveled road right in front of a lucky hunter. End of story. He was five air miles and at least two road crossings from where I last saw him in Oct. Try to find a spot in eastern Montana where you can draw a circle with a five mile radius and not contain numerous roads. Just not happening. Just about every buck in Eastern Montana is going to be crossing roads when they are rutting.
 
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antlerradar said:
Road hunting can be fairly effective during the rut. Just because the road hunters are not walking in to the spots you hunt does not mean that they are not shooting the bucks you are after. One of the biggest bucks I have ever seen in Montana lived most of the year in a big block of roadless and rough country. He chased a doe across a well traveled road right in front of a lucky hunter. End of story. He was five air miles and at least two road crossings from where I last saw him in Oct. Try to find a spot in eastern Montana where you can draw a circle with a five mile radius and not contain numerous roads. Just not happening. Just about every buck in Eastern Montana is going to crossing roads when they are rutting.
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Not going to argue that point. What amazes me is where we hunt , hunters spot decent bucks from the road and most tend to pass cause they are not close enough to the road. If that's their style fine by me
 
mtmuley said:
Just want to see the mature bucks. Three out of four is impressive for NR. hunters. mtmuley
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I can literally throw a rock into montana i live so close to the border.

Not monster bucks just typical 5x5's. One guy shot a 3x3. he could of dont better but for being 62 cant push hike that extreme
 
I will post mine.

20231110_104015.jpg
 
I have hunted southeast Montana several times for bucks, the breaks once. Good deer numbers but also high tag and hunter numbers. I wouldn't count Montana as a place to seek mature bucks. They manage for opportunity.
 
marburg said:
I have hunted southeast Montana several times for bucks, the breaks once. Good deer numbers but also high tag and hunter numbers. I wouldn't count Montana as a place to seek mature bucks. They manage for opportunity.
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FWP really doesn’t manage anything at all! The only thing they do well is sell way to many tags to non residents to line those greedy pockets of theirs!
 
Well not much to add to this thread, I spent 6 days at the end of the season hunting, saw bucks every day, saw more people than I have ever seen. I walked into areas others weren't in, I have glass, and I have been successful before. It can be fun in November but the spots I used to have to mostly myself are overrun with people. I didn't punch my tag; I didn't drive there to shoot a 20" 4 point. Numbers are down, quality is down. Be a great place to take your kids for opportunities but I don't know if I will go back, I won't go back to where I have been that's for sure. The breaks are so full of roads and people you can't get away from anyone. On top of buck hunters, you have doe hunters, and elk hunters, even some bird hunters.
 
Let me say one word that describes the state of mule deer in eastern Montana, if not the entire state.

DISASTER!

I have some excellent points to make to the FWP of the State of Montana if they are awake. And the politicians who regulate the seasons.

One, absolutely NO mule deer buck harvest during the rut. Shut the mule deer season off the first week of November.
Two, NO mule deer antlerless tags for five years.
Three, eliminate the December muzzleloader season.
Four, the only deer left to rebuild the mule deer population are on private ground, owned by out-of-state landowners (like me), or on leased ground either by large ranches or controlled by outfitters. The public land deer are decimated like never before.
Five, go to a mule deer DRAW TAG. (lottery)
Six, landowners get one tag regardless of resident or nonresident status
Seven, when you apply for a hunting tag in March you must choose between archery or rifle. No either/or.
Eight, licenses are good for specific units in the state. Montana has 7 hunting districts. Pick one and hunt there.
Nine, shorten the season on elk and deer. Mule deer need a draw system. Elk don't need a shoulder season where cow elk are hammered into February growing fetus's in deep snow and herds get shot off of good feed and cover in the depth of winter.
Ten, the Montana FWP manages money and people. They do little to provide fawning areas, winter feed, coyote control, water, winter cover, etc. Landowners, outfitters, and non-resident ranches do that. Incentivize those who provide the cover to help the resource. Colorado does! Isn't it funny that Kansas, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming don't kill mule deer bucks in the rut when they get stupid? Montana does. Follow the money!

It is so ugly now it is disgusting. I have talked to many FWP personnel, wardens, and biologists, over the last couple of years. It is the same story. Believe me when I say a day late and a dollar short.

It is a tale of epic greed, politics, and a resource so far gone it may never recover. Believe me when I say the good old days are here and now for mule deer.

I can only hope hunters can get behind sound management practices in Montana and get them implemented. Across the world, it is the hunting community that keeps game populations alive and healthy. As usual, the government is a cluster of epic greed. Mark my words, it will get worse before it gets better. Ugly, butt ugly. I hate it.
 
Dean Parisian said:
Let me say one word that describes the state of mule deer in eastern Montana, if not the entire state.

DISASTER!

I have some excellent points to make to the FWP of the State of Montana if they are awake. And the politicians who regulate the seasons.

One, absolutely NO mule deer buck harvest during the rut. Shut the mule deer season off the first week of November.
Two, NO mule deer antlerless tags for five years.
Three, eliminate the December muzzleloader season.
Four, the only deer left to rebuild the mule deer population are on private ground, owned by out-of-state landowners (like me), or on leased ground either by large ranches or controlled by outfitters. The public land deer are decimated like never before.
Five, go to a mule deer DRAW TAG. (lottery)
Six, landowners get one tag regardless of resident or nonresident status
Seven, when you apply for a hunting tag in March you must choose between archery or rifle. No either/or.
Eight, licenses are good for specific units in the state. Montana has 7 hunting districts. Pick one and hunt there.
Nine, shorten the season on elk and deer. Mule deer need a draw system. Elk don't need a shoulder season where cow elk are hammered into February growing fetus's in deep snow and herds get shot off of good feed and cover in the depth of winter.
Ten, the Montana FWP manages money and people. They do little to provide fawning areas, winter feed, coyote control, water, winter cover, etc. Landowners, outfitters, and non-resident ranches do that. Incentivize those who provide the cover to help the resource. Colorado does! Isn't it funny that Kansas, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming don't kill mule deer bucks in the rut when they get stupid? Montana does. Follow the money!

It is so ugly now it is disgusting. I have talked to many FWP personnel, wardens, and biologists, over the last couple of years. It is the same story. Believe me when I say a day late and a dollar short.

It is a tale of epic greed, politics, and a resource so far gone it may never recover. Believe me when I say the good old days are here and now for mule deer.

I can only hope hunters can get behind sound management practices in Montana and get them implemented. Across the world, it is the hunting community that keeps game populations alive and healthy. As usual, the government is a cluster of epic greed. Mark my words, it will get worse before it gets better. Ugly, butt ugly. I hate it.
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Another out of state landowner wanting to be catered to! That’s funny… if anything the state should cut back severely on nr tags! Some of your other suggestions I could get behind…
 
Yeah good luck with pick your region…. I could see this back firing and redirecting pressure to the more populated regions.

Pick you weapon? A dream.

Two week rifle season not in the rut and
very limited draw for two week rut hunt, a good place to start.

mule deer as a draw permit? You would have to do every unit other wise everyone who doesn’t draw will swarm any unit that doesn’t have a draw.

Incentivize land owners? It’s already there but they want more state money and more Incentivize. Wana help manage? Join the block management programs or better yet be more receptive to public hunting… kinda laughable

I can see how hunting has gone down hill when only viewed from the road out of a window…but in my life time iv never seen the “good ol’day” and have had to hunt in the current poor managed state hunting is in. Of which I’d say Montana is doing ok compared to other states. A culture of killing off your breeding ages is the problem. Not everyone needs to shoot a “mature” 180-200” stud of a buck
 
Rie bread said:
Yeah good luck with pick your region…. I could see this back firing and redirecting pressure to the more populated regions.

Pick you weapon? A dream.

Two week rifle season not in the rut and
very limited draw for two week rut hunt, a good place to start.

mule deer as a draw permit? You would have to do every unit other wise everyone who doesn’t draw will swarm any unit that doesn’t have a draw.

Incentivize land owners? It’s already there but they want more state money and more Incentivize. Wana help manage? Join the block management programs or better yet be more receptive to public hunting… kinda laughable

I can see how hunting has gone down hill when only viewed from the road out of a window…but in my life time iv never seen the “good ol’day” and have had to hunt in the current poor managed state hunting is in. Of which I’d say Montana is doing ok compared to other states. A culture of killing off your breeding ages is the problem. Not everyone needs to shoot a “mature” 180-200” stud of a buck
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They should do it by hunting district and have it capped with a certain number of hunters, with preference to locals then residents then non residents be a good way to spread people out or do it by region and everyone that lives in that region gets a general tag for said region and everyone else that wants to hunt it has to draw for it and it’s a capped number! it should help to spread people all across the state instead of everyone crowding and shooting everything that moves in regions 6 and 7
 
Here is a link to the proposed changes

A clickable link to proposed changes to the regulations. Looks like some more draw mule deer buck tags but still mule deer doe hunting in some regions : /

This doe hunting seems also a way for no residents to get a tag and FWP to circumnavigate the 17,000 none resident tag limit
 
I grew up in Montana. Hunted Montana for 55 years so far. Am a landowner in eastern Montana as well as other states and countries. Fawn about 100 whitetails and winter about 250 head of deer on the Yellowstone River.

www.deanparisian.com

My voice is nonrecognizable as a nonresident ranch owner (taxpayer) in Montana. Having dropped close to $100,000 grand in lifetime license fees for friends and family ( I will be 70 years old and grew up there) the season should be shut off before the mule deer rut, the second week of November. Shut it down for good for the year. They can keep shooting cow elk year-round if they want but that is another ridiculous season that needs to be changed as well. Killing cow elk into February with all that stress on the entire herd getting shot at is lame at best.

That said, Block Management in eastern Montana is shot out. It's the outfitted ranches and landowners who control access where the breeding stock is still in place. What does FWP do to "manage" your deer and elk?
 
57% of the mule deer buck harvest in region 7 is happening by nonresidents. To say we have issues with our season dates and a state wide general tag is a huge understatement. Fish wildlife and parks should be ashamed of themselves. Things have gotten pathetic.
nfh said:
I will post mine.

View attachment 128313
Click to expand...
This is not a big mature buck by any stretch of the imagination.
 
nfh said:
Not going to argue that point. What amazes me is where we hunt , hunters spot decent bucks from the road and most tend to pass cause they are not close enough to the road. If that's their style fine by me
Click to expand...
Perhaps they keep driving because they haven’t seen anything that interests them.
 
timmy said:
57% of the mule deer buck harvest in region 7 is happening by nonresidents. To say we have issues with our season dates and a state wide general tag is a huge understatement. Fish wildlife and parks should be ashamed of themselves. Things have gotten pathetic.

This is not a big mature buck by any stretch of the imagination.
Click to expand...


big, well no. define mature. 200 inches? mature is what around 4 years old? harvest reports mature is they define by anything bigger than a freakin spike.
 
Jq23 said:
I decided next year I'm coming to Montana to hunt deer. I have been hunting Colorado the few years and want to try Montana. I've been looking at the Missouri breaks area, is that a good area to see many deer? I've heard the eastern part of the state has better deer numbers.
Any info would help. Thanks
Click to expand...
I’ve been a resident of both Colorado and Montana, and Colorado would win hands down for big mule deer, and the western parts of Montana for producing big whitetail. There was roughly around 600 hunters around Glasgow MT (Missouri Breaks) in mid November this year it’s highly over hunted.
I’ve seen one mule deer last fall (2022) in a highly hunted area that would have scored easily over 170-180 inches, he looked like a bull elk from our position from the road. He used this area for several days while me and my boy elk hunted further down the draw. In Colorado from the early 90’s to the mid 2000’s I seen probably 20-25 bucks of that caliber. It’s no comparison between Montana and Colorado, or what Colorado used to be.
I did get hunt Montana a few times from 2000-05 as a nonresident and only seen a few larger deer, but there was 1000’s of deer on the landscape back then. These out of state hunters nowadays couldn’t imagine seeing 400-500 deer in a pivot in about 2003. Best of luck, but I would not waste the time or money hunting Montana anytime soon.
 
leonard said:
I’ve been a resident of both Colorado and Montana, and Colorado would win hands down for big mule deer, and the western parts of Montana for producing big whitetail. There was roughly around 600 hunters around Glasgow MT (Missouri Breaks) in mid November this year it’s highly over hunted.
I’ve seen one mule deer last fall (2022) in a highly hunted area that would have scored easily over 170-180 inches, he looked like a bull elk from our position from the road. He used this area for several days while me and my boy elk hunted further down the draw. In Colorado from the early 90’s to the mid 2000’s I seen probably 20-25 bucks of that caliber. It’s no comparison between Montana and Colorado, or what Colorado used to be.
I did get hunt Montana a few times from 2000-05 as a nonresident and only seen a few larger deer, but there was 1000’s of deer on the landscape back then. These out of state hunters nowadays couldn’t imagine seeing 400-500 deer in a pivot in about 2003. Best of luck, but I would not waste the time or money hunting Montana anytime soon.
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Haha you said 600 I know a landowner that had almost 4000 people sign into his box! 600 is laughable at best region 6 is overcrowded and the deer population is in the shitter
 
Hunting406 said:
Haha you said 600 I know a landowner that had almost 4000 people sign into his box! 600 is laughable at best region 6 is overcrowded and the deer population is in the shitter
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No way I would hunt the Eastern part of the state for mule deer. Just not worth it. mtmuley
 
Hunting406 said:
Haha you said 600 I know a landowner that had almost 4000 people sign into his box! 600 is laughable at best region 6 is overcrowded and the deer population is in the shitter
Click to expand...

Just saying there are about 690-700 motel rooms in Glasgow and they were entirely booked for most of the riffs season. I’m in agreement with you. It’s crazy out there
 
Rie bread said:
Here is a link to the proposed changes

A clickable link to proposed changes to the regulations. Looks like some more draw mule deer buck tags but still mule deer doe hunting in some regions : /

This doe hunting seems also a way for no residents to get a tag and FWP to circumnavigate the 17,000 none resident tag limit
Click to expand...
Damn the FWP is dropping the hammer on mule deer in region 6 with “cwd” management hunts. No real changes to region 7 : (

Region 5 dropping much of the either sex mule deer on the general tag but still retain the the B tag mule deer : /
 

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