Montana Late Season

[huntfishtrap247]

I know this is super general, but how can the late season hunting be in central Montana on public land? Are the deer too pressured and scattered onto private land by thanksgiving week, or can it still be good hunting, and how much of a role does the weather play this time of the year?

Do the deer migrate to certain areas and make some units more void of decent deer the last week of the season than the beginning of the season?
Could you expect similar success the last week of the season versus the first week?
I have no experience with how mule deer behave, their habits, or even the weather in central montana, so I am just looking for any advice.
Thanks for any input

 

[sneakypete]

Montana's general season usually goes thru the last weekend in November, in 2014 I think it went thru the first weekend in December. Check there website FWP.MT.GOV.

 

[30Hart]

Yes you can still find big bucks on public land in Montana during the last half of November.

 

[Tim McCoy]

You can get a feel about the migratory habits of deer in your chosen area from biologists, wardens, locals, hunters... Central MT covers a bunch of ground. If you narrow it a bit, someone here may be able to offer an opinion. Generally, but not always, the higher mountain area herds are likely to migrate lower to winter range areas. The lower elevation herds not so much. But that said, the rut will often create a localized migration for the mature bucks as they seek does. I've taken nice mature mulies at 9,000' in MT in late Nov, dry year, so it can depend. Were there 2- 3' of snow, he'd probably have followed his ladies down the valley to private land. Where I hunt on the eastern side of the state, there is not a migration we have noticed. We find bucks in the same area all season, and that does not make it necessarily easier to find a good buck.

 

[AT Hiker]

I hunted SE MT around the 15th of Nov last year on a private ranch. They were rutting pretty hard. The weather was in the single digits and wind was blowing very hard, the next week it was in the 40's....go figure.


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[huntfishtrap247]

Thanks for the responses guys. How do you guys go about targeting the bucks later in the season (whether its in mountain woods or open prairie) compared to targeting them in the first part of the season?

If you're not seeing deer do you pack up and move to another region (lower possibly) where the deer might congregate?

Do they congregate only on private AG fields once snow comes, or is it still decent hunting on public?

I'm just trying to figure out how to narrow it down to what to look for to hunt the week of november to have a decent shot at a buck.

 

[Tim McCoy]

Generally, starting in early Nov., you find the girls, you will find boys. Mid-Nov is when things are almost always very rutty in the areas I've hunted in MT. Bucks, if not in the herd with does, are often bedded near by, glass downwind of bedded does before giving up on bucks. If there is not a buck with them, there will soon be. I will rarely leave a region I have selected/scouted, but possibly travel a bit more to locate game if needed. But if it is void of life, yes, a relo of camp my be the way to go.

Regarding the snow, depends on the area and how much snow. You can almost always find deer on or near ag fields. You can
almost always find deer on public land in snow too, so it can still be good there. In some areas, if you get a bunch of snow, game will end up on private land. You can determine the risk of that with some research. Most years, snow has not been an issue for us.

 

[akennedy]

I have never hunted Central Montana. I hunted SE Montana DIY public land in the middle of November in 2014 with my eight year old boy using an OTC tag. My boy had to get back to school so we could only hunt two days. With the exception of one large whitetail that we couldn't get a shot on, we didn't see any large deer on public land. We did, however, see a lot of bucks. My boy had a blast. The weather was cold and the deer were rutting. We saw, as I recall, 37 bucks on public land in two days, before harvesting a small three by four. Most bucks were three points or below, and about 1/3 were whitetail. I think if you hunted hard for 5-7 days (and didn't have a young child with you) you might shoot a deer in the 160" plus range, but that's just speculation on my part. I thought it was a great hunt for children, or just to see a lot of small to average bucks, or just to fill the freezer. It was also great to actually rifle hunt in the rut. You definitely need a GPS with a landowner chip. Thanks to Eastmans MRS for the great advice on the area.