best mule deer units in montana

The northeastern portion of Montana west of Scobey has copious amounts of state land open to public hunting. In Montana, 15% of all permits for elk and deer can go to landowners. Thanks to Toprut, I can better strategize my big game applications with access to detailed unit profile information, hunt quotas, draw odds, harvest info, and more. The winter was very mild on these deer and the buck to doe ratio is very, very good right now. With a mild winter and wet spring, I really think there could be some gems in these hills for those who hunt hard this fall. Colorado is widely regarded as the nation's top mule deer destination. Over the past years we have taken many trophy deer with both a gun and bow. With 80 tags on quota and an October season, with a little help from some weather, this hunt could create a great opportunity for a big staged up high-country deer during the final five days of the hunt. The most likely areas to produce a record-book pronghorn are GMUs 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 46, 47, and 48. We narrowed down 5-6 different type 2 BMAs to register for. Each party can sign up for, at most, 3 consecutive days of hunting on that property. Hunting these trophy bulls with a rifle requires a long-odds lottery permit, but those who do draw have the chance to take amazing animals. Dakota Walleye Classic Recap Lake Sakakawea is Stupid Healthy Right Now Best Cranks for Suspended Walleyes Still Loving the Scheels Tournament Bait Rod at 8.6, Sponsored by OutfitterLogic.com Hunting & Fishing Guide Website Design Winter Getting Long.first signs of spring Winnipeg walleyes Reverse Valentines Gifts for Men Are Custom Rods, The Prairie Skies of Bismarck, North Dakota (USA), Montana has 7 hunt districts that break down into smaller units in each district. Muleys can be spotted from roads (very early morning is the best time to glass) and stalked, offering a relatively easy hunt. The Eastern Montana prairie is open country with rolling hills of grass and sagebrush broken up by coulees and deep ravines; carved from thousands of years of flash floods. Most all of the nonresident hunting is occurring on Federal Lands, National Forests, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Wilderness Areas and National Grasslands. Kevin Steele, Publisher of Petersen's HUNTING talks with JJ Reich of HEVI-Shot about the new offerings for 2023. I think it might be time for a class action law suit against the State of Wyoming on tag allocation. Hopefully, some of what I have learned can help you if your itch to hunt out of state gets to the point where you need to try it. A very tough spot indeed. Our goal is to provide the best fair chase Colorado Elk Hunting and Trophy Mule Deer Hunting available. A lot of hunters only hunt or glass in the early mornings and evenings. Using this strategy . Montana Rivers and Ridges Outfitter offers a late season 4 Day trophy Mule Deer hunt on the beautiful prairie of Eastern Montana. In Montana, Region 3 in the southwest corner of the state covers nearly 12 million acres, more than half of which is public land managed by the BLM or Forest Service. By Bethany Grace September 17, 2022 Updated on February 14, 2023. We chose Montana for a few different reasons, none of which could be overshadowed by the convenience of having their lottery run by mid-April. Best States to Hunt Mule Deer June 9, 2022 onX Indigenous to western North America, mule deer are found west of the 100th meridian from 23 degrees to 60 degrees N. Much larger than whitetail deer, a buck mule deer can weigh between 130 and 280 pounds. Montana estimates its whitetail population to be at 212,814. Located outside of Laramie this hunt is a bit rough, but nothing like the rugged hunts in the northwest portion of the state. This hunt is very accessible and roaded with lots of open hillsides and meadows to glass up bucks feeding on the edges. 16 years worth of buying points all for 1.5% better odds than someone with zero points. Obviously these are the funds that are used to fund the States road system, educational system, law enforcement, health system and the like. From applying for tags early in the year, to buying, preparing, and organizing new gear through the summer, to the trip, long or short, to the hunting grounds, to the excitement that makes it almost impossible to sleep the night before opening day, the anticipation of the hunt can be almost as enjoyable as the hunt itself. The up-and-coming units in Arizona are 6A, 8, and 5BS.. DESIGNED BY. Abundant access to public land is one of the major attractions of elk hunting in Montana's Missouri River Country (there are more than a million acres of land open to public hunting in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge alone). I was able to download 10-mile by 10-mile maps of our hunt area knowing we would be out of cell coverage. You can easily spot them around in any season. Dan Pickar Unlike our other hunts, we dont provide lodging and meals. Hunters stay at a comfortable, nice, and clean hotel of our recommendation and are picked up and dropped off every day. 1. 15% of the 45 permits are guaranteed to resident and nonresident landowners alike. Although they evolved to live and thrive in broadly different environments, the two species are remarkably adaptive. Due to the fact that we are not providing lodging or meals, this is a lower budget hunt, but NOT a lower budget hunting experience! Western Hunt Company is a big game & upland hunting operation based in Montana & Idaho. My partner passed on a good deer the first day and we spent the majority of the rest of our hunt trying to find that deer. . The trophies are big. Alcazar recommended units 7 and 8 in the north-central part of the state, near the Wyoming border, for hunters looking for areas with lots of public land and good potential for trophies. Our area has a very impressive Mule Deer population, which leads to a very high success rate of 4 X 4 bucks. Region H, This general hunt region consists of a big, rugged region adjacent to the famed Region G area we spoke about above. 4. She said it currently takes six preference points to be guaranteed a pronghorn tag in the draw in Area 73 but added the state allots 25 percent of the total quota in each area to a random drawing of all applicants who chose the area as their first choice. Credit: Photo Courtesy Missouri River Country. Too many things in our world are going the wrong way. There are a handful of good limited-entry units, and most of them give a hunter a good hunt for an average buck. If I could recommend one vital piece of gear that greatly helped us out on our hunt it would be the use of OnX Hunt! amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; Be ready to glass all day. The Montana application deadline for deer is April 1, 2022. Subscriber Services. There needs to be some serious adjustments to the hunting seasons in this unit. I have applied for this tag almost every year for the 25 years I was a resident and a couple years as a nonresident. These guides are somewhat confusing, so read them and get to know the area you plan on hunting. The bowhunting here can be very lucrative. 2023 Outdoor Sportsman Group. It's pretty easy to figure out which units offer the best trophy potential and have limited tags (and corresponding tough draw odds). Thank you, Jason. Best Montana Mule Deer Hunts 2020 Galleries. Lodging, groceries and other services are found in towns such as Glasgow and Malta. PS I from Nevada. The landscape is big. 5. 2022 MONTANA RIVERS AND RIDGES OUTFITTER LLC. This is an extremely hard tag to draw with sheep like draw odds. Skip B: Let the Flower Children howl. (Shutterstock / Cornelius Doppes photo) Data can be deceiving. Bring your good quality optics and you stand a very good chance at a 150-170 class deer with the possibility of finding up to a 200 class deer. Any special permit that a non-resident landowner draws will count against the 10% non-resident quota for that unit. All Rights Reserved. The good news is many Western states have huge mule deer herds and produce phenomenal bucks. But then again the world is upside down these days. Our hunts take place from open country on the high plains east of the Rockies, to the steep, rugged mountains of the Greys River. This area is mountainous and does contain about 25% wilderness at the very top of the unit. Again, pay close attention to the regulations to make sure you are properly licensed to hunt mule deer. Montana Mule Deer Draw There are a handful of good limited-entry units, and most of them give a hunter a good hunt for an average buck. The Bitterroot Valley in Montana is known for and home to some of the State's Best Mule Deer Hunting! View more information on other big game hunts we have to offer, right here! The largest antelope the author has seen taken by a hunter was downed a couple miles north of Fort Peck Reservoir. The deep, contorted coulees of the breaks provide superb cover, allowing some bucks to achieve trophy status. He had two suggestions for hunters who approach drawing an elk tag in different ways in the state. My partner got through and signed us up for a 2nd one giving us only 1 day on that particular ranch. Harvest is generally limited to 180" bucks and larger, but our goal for each client is to get a 190 . Access is getting harder to come by as many landowners in the area have grown tired of being asked for permission to hunt their land. The 2021 state estimate was 293,950, which is down 34,363 from 2020. Kevin Steele of Petersen's HUNTING is at the Streamlight booth at SHOT Show 2023 to go over the Bear Trap light from Streamlight. This is done by a scorecard placed in a dropbox on the location of each BMA. Utah has four premium areas for deer. This hunt can be had with only about six or seven points. It takes some education but they got there and u see good deer in all those QDM areas. Elk hunting is a tradition shared by thousands of hunters each fall. This hunt is one of only two limited quota hunts inside the Region G zone where 15 lucky applicants will hunt for big rut staged high country deer during the final two weeks of the month of October. Eastmans Publishing, Inc. is a holding company engaged in publishing. Then you have the, Colorado Corner Crossing Here We Go Again, 10 Most Common Big Game Violations Part 8 Hunter Trespassing, To Feed Or Not To Feed. This is also a decent application choice for a lower point holder, as the 400-tag quota does put enough tags into the random portion of the draw to be worth a shot at about 5%. This hunt unit sits smack dab in the middle of the famed Carbon County, one of the best trophy producing buck counties in the entire country, and this area sits in the best big buck country in the second best big buck county in the state, what more could you ask for? Lets all try to make the best of it. The permit is known as 270-50. mtmuley Sep 25, 2013 #6 We took a short trip at the end of October to do some scouting of where we planned to hunt and got familiar with the area we planned to be. rifle hunting western hunting Wyoming, Hunt mule deer with Ike and Guy Eastman during an October snowstorm. Dream destinations include the Arizona Strip (units 13A and 13B) or Kaibab Plateau (units 12A East, 12A West, and 12B), but the drawing odds are long, sometimes in the low single digits, Ornoski said. Copyright 2023 Eastmans' Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved, The Most Coveted Deer Permit in Montana that You Will Never Draw, Statistically, the most coveted deer permit in, So youre probably wondering, how is it possible that zero nonresidents drew this tag in 2018? The Missouri Breaks also hold modest numbers of whitetails, particularly in creek bottoms containing deciduous cover.

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