Thinking about doing a hunt in the area around Terry, Mt. Just wondering how the condition of the herd is at this time and am hoping for some feedback, Up? Down? Stabile? Last season were there decent numbers of upcoming 3.5 year olds, etc. How's the winter going so far? Thanks
Montana deer herd condition?
- Thread starter stevevan
- Start date
LCH
Very Active Member
I'm interested in that area as well. So did you hunt it last year?
Looks like pretty neat country from just passing through there, I've never struck out into the hills around there though.
Looks like pretty neat country from just passing through there, I've never struck out into the hills around there though.
deserthunter2016
New Member
- Jan 18, 2017
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Tim: Of the bucks you did see last season were their any/noticeably few or many bucks that you thought were maybe at least 3.5 years old. The up and comers for this year should they survive this winter
Fewer numbers, but found bucks the same size as past years, had to work harder to find them. Some of the issue may have been weather at the time of our hunt. We just heard from two ranchers that they found more winter kill than normal, due to a spring storm iirc. It would not dissuade me from hunting, going back if I draw.
We hunt just south of there and one place we hunt was WAY down. A 8+ mile walk that would yield 6-8 bucks with a probable shooter and 12+ does in the past turned up 1-2 deer total. This is mule deer 90% at this place. Rancher said the same thing, massive winterkill and also some EHD. Another place we usually see 4:1 whitetails to mule deer at one sitting area we saw zero whitetails but about the normal mule deer. That rancher said EHD hit the WT hard but mulies seemed to do ok. We are strongly considering taking a year or two off from the area we go. On the plus side this winter seems to be going well.
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Having went thru the disastrous winter of 2010-11 and then the flooding that came that spring and summer up here on the Milk river, decimating our deer herd with EHD, yet having Montana biologist suggest opening the doe season just a couple seasons later, I would be hard pressed to ask a biologist for advice. In my opinion, biologist have a direct reason to make people think that deer numbers and quality are good. I believe much more in people who live in the area, i.e., ranchers, farmers, sheriff deputy's, county roads workers, then I would any biologist. Employee's of state FWP have a great interest in making sure those dollars keep rolling in, especially non resident dollars. Our deer numbers near Glasgow have never rebounded to even close to what it was before the winter of 2010-11, no matter what the FWP says. Yet, they keep selling the B tags and trying to convince folks things are bliss.
Now to OP, southern Montana had a bad winter, I have ranch near Big Timber I hunt, it is a long way's from Terry, but even there, the deer herd took a BIG hit. Friends in Miles City, close to Terry, say they to took a hit to there deer and antelope herds with record or near record snow fall.
Now to OP, southern Montana had a bad winter, I have ranch near Big Timber I hunt, it is a long way's from Terry, but even there, the deer herd took a BIG hit. Friends in Miles City, close to Terry, say they to took a hit to there deer and antelope herds with record or near record snow fall.
We went for a 5 day hunt east of terry, but we tagged out on 2 n bucks in 2 days (1 mature buck, 1 younger) and headed home. Saw over 50+ does while hunting and 6-8 bucks, two of which were the bucks we shot.. Before i went out there in November people kept saying they had a big winter kill. However, that didn't line up with what the biologist told me, or what i saw. Unless they have an extremely rough winter this year, the population will be fine. As someone else mentioned, look up the biologist and call them, they will be a good resource and are very friendly from my experience.