Montana Muley Mania!!!

Last week just before Turkey Day, my Father, Steve, Dave, Bob, and I were just North of Broadus, Montana in search of some Mule deer!  We left on Thursday evening at about 7:00.  We arrived in Broadus at about 5:00!  That makes 11 hours with the time change thrown in there!  Morning one found us hunting at about 9:00 after signing up at a public ranch to reserve the next 3 days to hunt it.  We started on some state land and soon realized that it was being pounded by hunters!!  We did spot one decent buck, a smaller buck and a few does, but we also saw just as many hunters!!  That evening we hunted along the Powder River in search of some Whitetails.  We all saw some smaller ones, but no shooters.  Early the next morning after a nice evenings sleep in a frigid tent, we were ready to hit the ranch we had reservations for!  My dad, Steve, and I headed to one end, while Dave and Bob went to the other end.  Upon arriving to our location, we realized that it was just flat, flat land for atleast 2 miles.  Then there were some deep ravines and dry creek beds.  We could drive no further due to the ranch rules, so we just decided to start walking.  The three of us headed in all different directions with the plans to meet back at noon.  Well I made it about a mile and a half and spotted 9 deer along a fence about 1000 yards ahead of me.  I glassed them a while and decided there was a nice enough buck in there to pursue!  Well, I played cat and mouse with these deer for about 2 and a half hours.  Finally I cut them off perfectly and the buck walked about 50 yard infront of me.  I shot him several times....with my camera.  He just was not big enough for me to take this early in the trip.  When I arrived back at the truck, Steve showed up shortly after and said he spotted a real nice one, but never got a shot off.  We waited and waited and finally my dad came up to the truck with blood all over his hands and a big smile on his face!!  Well he managed to spot a large high heavy racked 4x4 and stalked him for just short of 3 hours.  Finally, he got close enough and made a clean shot on him!  Well the only problem was that according to his GPS, we were 2.48 miles from his prize.  Remember that you could not drive any further than where we were!!  Well we had a cart, and my dad volunteered to take the rest of the day to get his monster out of the ranch, back to the truck.  Dave and Bob showed up, and picked Steve and I up and we headed to yet another private ranch that we had permission to hunt on. 

That evening, Dave shot 2 does to fill his doe tags and I had seen just a few deer.  Steve had spotted a few nice ones and a huge one!!  The next morning we were definitely heading back to this ranch to chase the bucks that Steve spotted.  Oh yeah, it took my dad over 4 hours to get the deer out and he ran out of daylight as he pulled the deer on the cart just a bit over 3 and a half miles to avoid fences and deep ravines!  But he managed and it was a beautiful deer!

The morning of day 3 found us at the private ranch and we hunted seperately until around noon.  Well I successfully tagged a doe, Bob downed a doe and a small fork horn, and Steve and Dave managed to take down beautiful bucks each.  Dave a huge 5x5 with a 24 inch spread, and Steve a nice 4x4 with about a 23 inch spread!!  Nice deer guys!! That evening we again hunted by the river and spotted some nice deer, no shooters.  Earlier that day, I managed to sneak up to 6 different bucks with some being pretty respectable, but still not big enough.  I took some sweet pics of a nice 4x4 bedded down by a doe, and then proceed to get up to challange a decent 5x5.  I didn't get any shots of the 5x5, but the aggressiveness portrayed in the shots of the 4x4 proves there was another buck below him!!

Morning 4 started with just 2 tags left, Steve had a doe tag, and I had my buck tag yet.  We headed back to the Pezzerassi Ranch, or something like that.  It was the one where my dad shot his.  We called it different names all week because we couldn't correctly pronounce the name.  It became The Pepperoni Ranch, The Pepperocini Ranch, The Paparazzi Ranch, and many more!  Well anyways, we dropped Steve off in an area, while I headed off to where my dad had walked to.  Well I put on about 8 miles and successfully stalked a small 2x3, and a 3x3.  Still not big enough!  While walking back to meet Steve, I was starting to think that I shouldn't have passed some of those other bucks, since there was just one more evening and the next morning to hunt and that was it!!  After meeting Steve, I found out he filled his doe tag, and also that I should have been with him because of the big buck that was with the doe!!  Ha!! Oh well!!  We got his deer to the truck and were heading back to hunt Whitetails for the evening when just before we were out of the ranch we spotted an entire herd of deer in a hay field just on this side of the fence!!  On our side!!  Well they were a bit to far away to see if there were any big bucks in there, so I decided to sacrifice my evening hunt along the river to gamble with these muleys!  I crept along a creek bed for almost a half hour and finally crawled up to a ridge and there they were less than a hundred yards away!!  They had no idea that I was there!  I shouldered my rifle and immediately spotted a buck bigger than all the ones I had passed earlier in the trip.  Then one just slightly larger walked into view!  Well I was following this buck back and forth, back and forth and he just wouldn't stop!!  He was constantly chasing all the does that were around him!!  There were 19 deer in this herd!!  15 does and 4 bucks!!  Everytime he would stop, there were does infront of him or behind him!!  Finally after what felt to be about 4 hours, I was presented a shot!  After the shot, the buck started running in a tight circle!  After about 4 circles, I was sure he was goin to go down!  But instead of falling over, he started chasing the does again!!  Well the deer obviously got nervous and I had to reposition as the herd was running away.  I managed to get along side of them and they stopped about 300 yards away.  I was presented another shot, I took it and he again started running away, but this time he stopped and as I was thinking I missed him again, he just tipped over!!!  I ran to him and found out that I grazed his back the first shot, which explains all the running in circles, and the second shot met its mark right in the vitals!  It was a nice 4x5 with about a 21 and a half inch spread!  Good enough for me!!! 

What a trip, the sights were amazing.  Gods sunrises and sunsets were absolutely incredible!!!  I saw hunderds of deer and was lucky enough to successfully stalk and pass on 13 bucks before I took the one I wanted!!  I cannot wait to go again!  Thanks guys for a great trip!!

Comments

[Ben Brettingen]

Wow it looked like an awesome trip!