Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Montana Deer/Elk Hunters - Good News?

There have been several studies in various states since the general rise in elk populations indicating more elk tend to repress mule deer populations.

I started hunting big game in the 1960s, during the peak of the post-WWII mule deer boom--which was due to several factors, including habitat recovering from droughts during the 1930s. But there were other factors, including many landowners refusing to let anybody shoot does, despite vastly imbalanced populations.

In my second season I hunted a ranch south of Big Timber, and saw over 200 does in one day--and two bucks, both forkhorns. (In 1969 I also worked as a ranch-hand in southeastern Montana, and the father-son owners told me they illegally "culled" hundreds of mule deer during 50s to save their hay crops for their cattle. Yet the son was then an outfitter and didn't allow does to be killed by hunters, the reason very few bucks survived to be 4x4s--and if they did were immediately killed. (He was a typical rancher, who didn't see any sense in killing "mommies".)

The other factor was that mule deer populations tend to follow about an 11-year population cycle, linked in some studies to sun-spot activity, which influences winter weather. When we moved here in 1990, mule deer were almost as abundant as in the 60s, but that was partly due to recent "modern" smaller clear-cuts. One area we frequently hunted was a series of 100-200 acres cuts along about a mile of closed logging road. It was common to see 10-15 mule deer on every cut on cold mornings. Since then all those cuts have grown up into small timber....

Mule deer also reproduce far quicker than elk, due to usually having two fawns a year instead of one calf. All of which is why mule deer were far more abundant EVERYWHERE back then than elk, and why elk on public and were typically found in thicker timber on lower Forest Service land, though there were some at higher elevations. Resident elk tags were always available OTC, so there was plenty of hunting pressure--the reason most pubic elk hid in thicker timber.

Today elk tend be found more often at lower elevations, especially on valley ranches that don't allow or limit hunting. I realize this seems like like "boomer" observations (was born at the peak of the baby boom), but it's also been substantiated by a number of studies--including where most Montana elk are taken these days. Which is why this fall I hunted elk not in my local area, where Eileen and I did well during the 1990s, but in central Montana--where elk populations are far above "desired" levels by the game department, and there were very few elk 50 years ago.

It was in an area I guided in during the late 1980s, when it was great mule deer country. There were some elk back then, but far more mule deer. Saw several hundred elk--and very few mule deer.