Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Float Hunt for Montana Mule Deer 2021

A few years back I took my wife and my two oldest on a float hunt on the Missouri River in Central Montana to take advantage of Montana's two day "Youth Hunt" which gives youth from 10-15 years old a two day head start before the general season. Some of you may have read about it here...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...float-hunt-for-mt-mule-deer#Post13231619

That trip was actually the second time the older kids had been on that hunt, both times tagging out.





Bailey has since left home for college and Carsten has aged out of the Youth Hunt. My third oldest, Jacey, has special needs and hunting just isn't in the cards for her at this time. My fourth and fifth kids are now 10 and 12 and I felt they could both handle the physical challenges of a trip in the Missouri River Breaks. Kenna has hunted deer successfully the last two years as an "apprentice" hunter and Trevin is just barely old enough to get licensed under the same apprenticeship program that MT FWP started for younger hunters. Both have been on quite a few hunts and hikes with me which they sometimes lovingly refer to as "death marches" compliments of their mother.

Kenna has shot well at both targets and game and has taken a couple deer and antelope prior.



She made a great "one and done" heart shot on an antelope a couple weeks earlier so I felt good that she could make it happen on this trip.



To get Trevin ready we spent a bunch of time shooting a pair of youth .243 rifles we have with reduced loads.



A 55 to 70 grain bullet over Trail Boss kicks like a .22 Hornet and has a flat enough trajectory for 100-150 yard practice. It is nice to practice with the same gun they actually hunt with. He was good on targets and more important is very systematic with safety protocols. Inside 200 yards I had no doubt he could make it happen if he was set up properly.

He also went on a five day backpacking trip into the Bob Marshall wilderness with me this summer and carried his own pack so I figured he had the toughness to stick it out in rugged country.



My wife started teaching school this year and didn't think she could get away. Carsten said he would like to go to help out, call some coyotes and maybe hunt some on opening day if the younger two tagged out. Trevin and Carsten room together at home and have typical sibling issues. I am not sure Trevin was wild about the idea. Kenna on the other hand was super excited when she learned her big brother was coming along. They spend time together in a robotics club and get along well. I was excited to have another able body around to help with driving and provide an added level of safety in case something happened on the trip. He just got back from his first out of state hunting trip last month and has grown into a good hand in the field. I wrote about that trip in this thread...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt.../ak-black-bear-journal-2021#Post16457849

The logistics of this trip were a bit more complicated then normal because Carsten can't legally pull a trailer with his license and we didn't want to rely on another driver to drop us off or pick us up. I have two trucks and two trailers that would work but with the trailer off the table we had to do a trial run the Saturday before to make sure I could use the flatbed on my old Ford. We decided to use three canoes rather then our normal two after some stability issues on a previous trip when we ended up with three deer and had to work to make room for all the meat and gear. Everything got test loaded in the shop...



...and then loaded again on the flatbed.



Looks like it is time for new shoes on the old war pony...



Better...



I kept checking the weather and it looked like it was going to be beautiful camping weather and, most importantly, dry. Hunting in the rain is no fun for anyone but really sucks for kids. That country is a grease hole when wet that I prefer to avoid. With everything organized and the weather looking good all we had to do was wait a few days so we could head out the day before opening day.


To be continued...

We got up early and had everyone out the door in the dark. It is about 2.5 hours to the take out point where we would leave the old Ford and then another 45 minutes or so to drive around to the put-in spot. I wanted to be on the river fairly early so we had plenty of time to set up camp and do a little scouting.

A quick stop on our way through Great Falls for some ice and we were on our way...



There are worse ways to start a day then driving through the Judith Basin...



Unless you are this poor sucker that is probably looking for a new job and a clean pair of underwear...



A top off in Lewistown before heading to the river. I love fueling up two 3/4 ton pickups. Let's go Brandon!



Getting closer...



See you in a few days...



We made our way to the put-in spot with no issue and quickly had everything loaded and ready for launch. It was really nice having an older kid around that could see what needed to be done and just did it without needing to be asked. Kinda sucks that they leave the house so quick after you finally get them trained

Ready to push off...





To be continued...

Wow. Thank you for sharing this awesome trip with us!!

...Continued

I have to admit that at this point I was feeling pretty good about my planning and outfitting skills. The drive in was smooth, the gear fit nicely, everyone had plenty of space in the canoes, everything looked balanced and we were on the river right on schedule. #NailedIt

What I had not planned for was a stiff 15-20 mph headwind.

The river flows to the east and the prevailing wind in this area is from the west. The six mile trip to camp should have been a leisurely float with a little paddling to keep things straight and speed things up in the slow stretches. Instead it turned into a multi-hour grind of constant paddling and working to keep things headed in the right direction. My 17' Mad River was tethered to a heavily loaded 14' Coleman we were using as our pack mule. It tracked ok but sometimes we would get out of line and get firm resistance as everything righted itself.

Carsten and Kenna were in a lightweight 14' Wenonah royalex canoe and were paddling all around the river, back and forth. Sometimes in front of us, sometimes behind.



I figured they were just enjoying the paddling and having a good time. At one point they were quite a ways away and I was starting to get pissed as I couldn't communicate and wouldn't have the ability to get to them if something bad happened. When they finally caught up to us Carsten looked frustrated and just said..."ummm, how do you keep this thing straight"

A few pointers on paddling technique and a little encouragement to stay close and we were back to traveling as a convoy.

"Dad, I gotta pee!" thirty minutes into a trip seems to be a pretty universal thing no matter the vehicle...



We eventually made our way to where "our" island was in view and were a little disappointed to find a raft and tent on the north side of the river just upstream from the island. We picked a spot on the opposing side of the island out of sight of the other camp and yard saled everything onto the bank.



With four people pitching in we got camp set up in record time and decided to paddle to the south side of the river, climb a hill and do a little scouting before dark.





We glassed hard on both sides of the river in places that had always produced game and could not turn up a single deer. We did spot a nice bighorn ram a couple miles away and watched him work his way up a steep face, eventually meeting up with another ram. The kids got a kick out of watching them through the spotter.



I was disappointed with the lack of deer but not discouraged. This area has been in a major drought and we figured it might change some game patterns. My guess is the deer were just in "pockets" rather then evenly distributed throughout the area. We were just going to have to work a little harder to find them.

Back to camp for some dinner and a movie.



Crocodile Dundee 3 was playing at the "Deer Camp Cinema". 1 out of 5 stars. They should have stopped with #2.


Tomorrow the hunt begins...

Amazing adventure. Can’t wait to hear more.

When I was a kid I would start losing sleep weeks before opening day. I was probably in my 20s before I could sleep well the night before a big hunt. This does not appear to be a genetic trait that my kids inherited. I set my alarm 30 minutes earlier then we actually needed to get up to fire up the Mr. Buddy heater so they can get up in a toasty tent. It still takes a little encouragement to get them going at 5:30. Kids these days...



We actually made it out of the tent and across the river before light and worked our way slowly up to our glassing knob from the night before. Another glassing session revealed no deer so it was time to start climbing to get on top and find some new country to glass.



Being day #1 I figured I could push them pretty hard and back off later in the trip. Nobody seemed to complain when we decided to go straight up.



Almost there...



Once on top we stopped for a while to glass, catch our breath and have a few snacks. Not far to the south several coyotes lit up. The closest was probably within a few hundred yards and if we weren't deer hunting we would have set up immediately and tried to call him in. As it was we decided to work our way slowly their same direction and check every cut, pocket and drainage for deer. While doing that we had maybe gone 200 yards and jumped a coyote out of its bed. Carsten already knows this but my younger two soon learned that any hunt, at any time, can quickly turn into a coyote hunt regardless of the original prey.

I do not like to call to disturbed coyotes so left this one alone but I knew there were more close by so we worked along the ridge to a likely area where we had a good chance of seeing coyotes approach. Carsten and Kenna stayed on the main ridge and Trevin and I snuck over the edge to look into a large drainage. I can't tell you how many deer we have called in with coyote calls or at least got to stand up and show themselves so I don't mind squawking on a predator call at all during a "deer" hunt. Carsten would do the calling and Trev and I would guard the large coulee.



Carsten opens with some coyote vocalizations and then moves into some distress sounds. Within a few minutes he has a coyote answering back about 500 yards to the south. The coyote isn't moving and seems content to just have a shouting match with Carsten. While this is going on I notice movement in the bottom of the coulee and two bucks move into view about 420 yards away. One is a young three point. The other is facing away and appears to have a nice size frame. He turns sideways and I see he is essentially an oversized two point with little crabs on the end of each fork. He is technically a four point but looks like a freakishly large two point. He is exactly the kind of buck you do NOT want breeding does and a perfect first buck for a trigger happy ten year old. Actually, either would work just fine and I would not be surprised if Kenna would tag either also.

I was relieved to know that we now had some bucks to hunt on day 1 even if they were still a long ways away from being in the bag. They started drifting up hill and into heavier cover until I eventually lost sight of them. They had been moving slow and milling a lot so I figured they were looking for a place to bed. Once they were for sure out of sight we gathered ourselves and moved back to Kenna and Carsten and told them about the bucks. Carsten was still in a cursing contest with a coyote that refused to moved any closer. There was a good potential vantage point a half mile away but we needed to move quick as I was not certain the bucks were bedded and they may try to work into another drainage.

We beat feat as fast as we could and actually got to where I am sure we were within 200 yards of the still yapping coyote. If we would have taken a few minutes to glass we probably could have turned him up and killed him but at this point he got a pass and we moved towards the bucks. There was a specific gumbo knob that would have put us above the brush/timber and looking down into the suspected bedding area. If we didn't see them I was confident we could wait out the day and kill them when they got up to move around later in the day.

As we get closer I stopped to check OnX to make sure we had a good path to the knob and my heart sunk. In our haste we had managed to get ourselves into a chunk of private land. This is rough and rugged country and fences rarely follow property boundaries. There were no markings and it was an honest mistake but I hate finding myself in those situations. To make matters worse, the gumbo knob we were heading for and about half of the brush patch the bucks were in turned out to be on private. We found the quickest route to get back onto public ground and had to rethink our whole strategy.

While trying to decide what to do we look across a canyon and about a dozen bighorns with one nice ram decide to line out single file and give us a pretty good show.



While we were admiring the sheep I look below us and see a deer moving through a coulee about 250 yards away. He sees us and is moving with purpose but not fully spooked. I looked at him in my glasses and he looks like the three point we had seen earlier but I have no way to know for sure. I grab Trevin's rifle and we run to a small knob 50 yards closer to the buck but he is now more spooked and moving too quickly. We never have a good shot opportunity after we get set up.

I am now uncertain about where the big framed two point is. Did the 3-point leave? Is this a totally different buck? Did the big two already pass through and we missed him? Is he still bedded on private where we first thought? It seems silly to stress over the location of a two point deer (even a unique one) but the rules are different on the youth hunt, especially someone's first youth hunt.

While I was letting my brain process all of that gobbledygook Carsten calmy says, "I got a buck".

"Where?" I reply

"Right at the base of that big steep face, past that little tree".

It was a heckuva spot by Carsten and even with good instructions it took me a minute to find him. He looks just like the three point we had seen a couple minutes earlier but he is already bedded. I find it hard to believe a spooked buck would half-circle back and bed that quick but I guess anything is possible. I still don't know if we have now seen three identical three points or the same buck three times. It is probably how Asians feel when they get to America.... "you white guys all look the same".

Regardless, we now have a buck to hunt on public ground that is bedded within 400 yards.

We can't go straight to him on account of we can't fly. We can't go back the way we came as it would take hours to work around to make an approach from the bottom near the river. Our only options were to (A) stay on our ridge and work around to the top of a large sheer face that would put us directly above the buck and shoot almost straight down. Or (B) rather then get directly above him, work around to the back side of the face, try to find a way down without dying, then come up on a terrace at about the same level as the buck. Carsten wanted plan B. I wanted plan A. We compromised and went with Plan A.

It maybe took 20 minutes to pick our way through the rocks and gumbo and finally get within a few feet of the edge where we could potentially see the buck. We drop our packs and I tell everyone to hang back. I slowly peek over the edge and he is still there, still bedded and still looking the same direction he was when we left him. We are going to kill this buck.

It is too steep to shoot supported from where we were and I was not going to let Trevin shoot offhand. We move to the north, looking for some relief in the face that will permit Trevin to lay down and still see the buck. I think I find the best spot and peek over the edge and the buck is gone, or at least I think he is. What the heck? We had the wind, we had been quiet, the buck wasn't edgy. I start looking around and apparently moving to much and the buck stands up 15 yards aways from where I had expected to see him. My kids drew the short straw in the guide department today and I just blew this deal like a complete moron. I should have mentally marked his location better but didn't.

He moves off but not fast. There is a small knob (like fifth grader sized small) just over the lip of the face. We literally slide down to it and I grab Trevin and his rifle to help him get set up if this buck will stop. Trevin can't find him in the scope right away and he is never stopping for more then a second or two. After a few seconds I realize he is getting out of range and have mentally decided there is not going to be a shot. The terrain is steep, the rest is sketchy, the buck is not calm and Trevin had never shot that far. I probably should have communicated that to the trigger happy ten year old next to me.

The buck turned broadside at about 290 yards and stopped for half a second. Trevin's rifle cracked.

I am not sure who was more surprised, the buck or me. Luckily I had my glasses on the buck when it happened and saw no impact, Carsten was videoing on his GoPro and also saw no reaction. We were able to watch the buck for another 1-2 minutes as he worked his way down the drainage and out of our lives. The deer was unscathed.

Trevin was starting to get upset that he missed. I said "do you know how many bucks your brother missed his first year?". Carsten, almost as if on cue, pipes up with "ALL of them!". I started laughing and Trevin got a big smile. We decided we just needed to find a bigger one and he was good with that

We had a little discussion about waiting for Dad to green light any shooting from here on out and then made our way back to camp. We managed to find a nice consolation prize for Trevin on the trip back.



8.91 Miles later according to Kenna's fitbit we are back at the canoe for a trip on the USS Muley back to camp.





Home sweet home.



Ramen noodles and a Jack Black movie that was so stupid I can't even remember the name. Had a few good one liners that are still being tossed around though



To be continued..

Med River, making the 'fire great again! Keep it up, it's nice to see someone getting this place back to its roots.

Wow! Some really cool hunting pics! Cool looking family too! Made my morning covfefe before work!

Great adventure!! I can’t wait for more.

Very good read, as a father of 3 that are just coming of hunting age, I commend you! It ain’t easy these days.

Great story and great to see the young'ns enjoying the hunt. I always thought that coyote hunting the shores of Ft Peck by boat would be fun, I've hunted birds north of Winnett.

+1
Can’t wait for the next installment!

Outstanding!!!

Awesome, as always fella !

Can’t wait for the next part of the saga !

Great times and story

Great write-up!
Thanks

Very cool, thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

If you ever put your adventures into print, I would definitely buy a copy. Thanks for sharing

Great thread as usual. We’ll be out that way for Mulies in 3 weeks.