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

Thanks for taking us along.
So far this sounds like a fantastic family adventure.
Looking forward to the continuation.

...Continued

After a long day yesterday with a lot of elevation gains in rough ground we had a pow wow during breakfast and decided the plan of attack for day two would be to stay lower, hunt closer to camp in the morning, take a lunch break at camp and then decide on where to go in the evening depending on the wind. We decided to head to the same general area we saw the bucks yesterday in the hopes at least one of them was still around.

We left camp right at daybreak. A tad frosty on the ol' Wenonah.



We crossed the river to the south and began to slowly work our way upstream. We had not seen much water in any of the coulees and figured at least some deer would still be using the river to drink. We had gone about a 1/4 mile and I noticed a couple of dark spots in the distance. It was a muley doe and a fawn. We watched them and eventually a second fawn showed up. They got their drink and then headed back up in the same general direction of where yesterdays bucks were. Once we were confident they were out of sight we kept moving along the river. Our target was a small drainage that would hopefully take us undetected up to where we had first seen the two bucks yesterday morning.

We were close to the target drainage when a coyote started howling behind us, within a few hundred yards and close to where we had just come from. Carsten looked like a crack addict needing a hit and asked if we could call it. I told him to give him a howl back and see what happens. Carsten lets out a nice howl and the coyote goes quiet. In my experience that typically means one of two things...they know what up and are getting the hell out of there or they are on their way to check out the new guy. The wind was quartering from behind us at a sharp enough angle that the coyote would almost be swimming before it smelled us. It was cold, calm and clear. Perfect. We were spread out and laying down in sagebrush on the lip of a small coulee. If the coyote appeared it would likely be within 200 yards and someone would get a shot.

For about two minutes we scanned the sage brush in front of us with no coyotes spotted. Carsten was about to let out another series of sounds when Trevin yells (loudly) "Coyote!". I am not impressed and tell him to sshhh. I look over to give him the universal "be quiet scowl" and I realized he is not looking forward. He is looking directly behind us! I turn my head and there is a coyote at an honest 8 steps!

Holy crap!

I hop up, grab the rifle and proceed to miss the coyote gloriously at no more then 30 yards. A second coyote had been coming and I see its tail going over a rise 150 yards to the southwest. Carsten gets a clear shot through the sage and hits the first coyote with his .25-06. The coyote begins to spin and grab at his front left leg. I yell not to shoot again and the coyote spins a bit more then drops into a small coulee. I turn to Trevin and ask if he wants to take the rifle and finish of the coyote if needed.

He looks like he has seen a ghost and says firmly "No! That thing scared me". Poor kid. That coyote probably looked like a wolf closing in on him at less then rock chuckin' distance.

We spread out to look into the coulee and the coyote is more alive then I thought and he ran straight down the middle. Completely out of character I actually swung through the shot and rolled him as he was passing about 30 yards below me. Miss him standing at 30. Roll him on the run at the same distance. Makes sense.



We were all excited about the close encounter but Carsten was totally pumped. I told him he seemed more amped then any critter I had ever seen him shoot. He replied that he has called coyotes that I have shot and I have called coyotes that he has shot but this is the first coyote that he ever called and shot himself. The fact it was a double and the first coyote was in-your-lap close made it that much more exciting. I think he could stop hunting big game and be perfectly content to hunt coyotes. I can't say that I blame him. Good times and a nice coyote for this time of year.



Carsten had mentioned on some earlier hunts this year that he wanted to process all his own kills from now on. Works for me so he got a few tips on the finer points of field skinning coyotes for the fur trade. Something the son of a fur buyer should probably have figured out at some point











We made our way up the drainage towards where we figured the bucks from yesterday might still be. It was about a half mile from the coyote kill. And we were hopeful that it was far enough away that we didn't screw that up. When we got close I got Trevin set up on a knob with a little cover and Carsten helped Kenna get set up.



When everyone was in position we would do some calling and try to get something to stand up and present a shot.



The setup was pretty solid but no takers.

We made our way back to camp and on the way back were shocked by the amount of traffic on the river. Tomorrow was the opener for the general season and we always expect some traffic but this was out of control. Rafts, canoes, outboard skiffs, jet boats. You name it it was on the river. Camps were being set up and I am sure more then a few were discouraged when they found our gear and canoes on both sides of the island. We always keep one on both sides in case we spot game across the river and have to make a quick voyage across.

Everyone I know that hunts public ground in the west has been seeing more hunters since 2020 and our experience was no exception. I do not begrudge anyone from being there but it does change the dynamic of the trip and, in some instances, where we would even be able to go without molesting someone else's hunt. We still had the island to ourselves but we had neighbors up and downstream within a half mile either direction.

Back to camp for some rest and some discussion about where to hunt the evening.


To be continued....

...Continued

We were enjoying a relaxing break in camp with full bellies and the mid-day sun warming up the tent nicely. Kenna was messing with her binoculars and happened to look at the hill we had climbed the day before.

"Hey, I just saw a ram!" she blurted out.



I look up and sure enough there is about a dozen sheep with a nice ram working there way across the face of the hill. They are on the face of the far right hill in the pic below.



I am not a master of sheep judging by any means but this would likely score somewhere in the damn-decent to to better-then-damn-decent-range. We pull out the spotter to get a better look. The expert judging holds true at 60x



We were enjoying the show when two more rams come running just above the river directly across from camp. They stop in the wide open and let us look at them for at least five minutes in full view at 307 yards. One is close to a full curl but looks like he doesn't have a lot of mass and the curl is tight. The other ram is noticeably younger and just over 1/2 curl. We look upstream and there is a boat tied off upstream about 3/8 of a mile and the rams are focused in that direction. Why they couldn't care less about the four of us standing around in our jammies and long johns well within rifle range is a mystery to me. Eventually they decided to move off and we later saw them just below our old glassing knob we had used the last couple days. Probably wouldn't have had that experience letting the kids shoot a whitetail out of an alfalfa field like I have on other youth hunts

The decision was made to head to the north side of the river in the evening. We had not been seeing any game there when glassing from the south but we can't see all the drainages and we have an odd east wind which works perfect to attack a large coulee located northeast of our island. We head that way and notice one of the nearby camps is fully stocked with four Sitka models that appear to know what they are doing and are glassing the heck out of a series of breaks on the south side of the river to the east of where we had hunted on day 1. That area had been our plan for tomorrow morning and we had to think about what to do if those guys were hunting it. The way they were looking made me think they were likely going to give it a shot tomorrow for the opener.

They were so focused on the south side I don't think they noticed us pass within 400 yards to the north and enter the coulee behind their camp. I wanted to stay high with the wind in our faces, glass some deep draws and hope something would show up. If nothing showed we would try some coyote calling and at least turn it into a coyote hunt.

At this point I think the younger two were getting pretty sick of uphill climbs but Trevin still smiles on cue. His mother has trained him well...



The north side has very little vegetation and some of the slopes can be a little sketchy. Eventually Trevin let me know when we found his limit for steep sidehilling.



So we headed back down to a lower level.



No deer in sight so we hoped to add another coyote to story. It was blowing pretty hard so I had my doubts but we gave it a shot anyway.



No takers.

On the way back to camp we stopped to glass a draw we had already glassed on our way over from the canoe. I glassed it and made an official declaration that it was void of deer. Carsten kept glassing and said "I got a deer. Doe". Sure enough about 500 yards up the drainage was mule deer doe and eventually we spotted her fawn. Damn kids.

We had planned to hunt half a day on the general opener and then head out unless we saw something interesting enough to keep us hunting till dark. We have used pressure from other hunters successfully in the past, including on this same hunt in 2018. We figured the Sitka models would be hunting the south side of the river and likely working from the east side of the series of breaks to the west to take advantage of the prevailing southwest wind. We knew a spot we could set up and wait in the event they pushed something that wanted to escape into the large drainage below our old glassing knob from a couple days before.

That night it was oddly warm and I almost overheated watching "Starsky and Hutch" at the Deer Camp Cinema in my sleeping bag. Any movie that has Snoop Dogg as the most interesting character can not get above two stars. Three out of four of us fell asleep before it was over. Don't waste your time.


To be continued...

...Continued

We were up and across the river early and in position as planned. I think the almost 9 miles on day 1 of the hunt and 6 miles yesterday were starting to wear on Trevin



We probably should have consulted with the neighbors because they absolutely did not follow the plan and when there was enough light I glassed across the river and their canoes were still beached on the north side. Eventually I picked up one of them in my binos climbing a ridge on the north side. With them not hunting this side I was convinced they had not seen anything they thought was worth pursuing. We decided to slowly hunt this series of breaks anyway on foot, slowly approaching each crest and peeking over into the other side.

No deer.

We made a calling stand and split up with Carsten and Kenna just out of sight. After a lengthy calling session we got up and debriefed with the other two. We had seen nothing. Carsten had called in nine head of muley does to within 150 yards. No bucks, not even a spike or a forkie. Bummer.

We decided to call it and hiked back to camp to pack up.

Everyone pitched in and we were packed up in no time.



The weather was gorgeous and we had the wind at our backs so the ride out was literally and figuratively "smooth sailing".





We even lashed our canoes together and just enjoyed the float and rehashing stories and funny inside jokes.



A little over two hours later we rounded the corner and saw the finish line in the distance.



We loaded up and headed out with all four crammed in the old Ford





We had to drive through some State ground and ended up spotting a coyote hunting out in a field. It turned out to be a pair of coyotes. We stalked in, called and had both coming into the call. The closest coyote got to within 50 yards and stared at us straight on for several seconds. Trevin could not find him in the scope and Carsten missed as he ran off. No photos and a bummer for Trevin but a fun way to end the hunt.

I will most likely do this trip again (I still have an eight year old at home also) but probably not until the calendar lines up to where the youth hunt falls the week before the general. I can't say that the river traffic truly hurt our hunt but it did change the dynamic slightly and I prefer to give the kids an experience where we can feel a little more solitude. This is more of an experience hunt then a trophy hunt and I want the experience to be as "just right" as possible.

I am confident in saying that everyone had a great time. This was the poorest we have ever seen the deer hunting but there was still opportunity and the other experiences made it all worthwhile. We will all talk about that coyote scaring Trevin, the sheep, the hikes and the laughs for a long time.

On the float out Trevin leaned back and said "I think this is the best week of my life". I will take that over a canoe full of dead deer any day!

Thanks for coming along!

P.S. - If one of you was the guy that left me a nastygram at the boat ramp for my parking job I sincerely apologize. I didn't realize it would cause a problem. Also, your penmanship is crazy good. I am sure your 2nd grade teacher is pleased.

Bravo, Med River, bravo! Making memories with your kids, nothing better. Thanks for taking the time to share your families adventure with us!

Great times and fun stories for years to come.

Outstanding. Lucky kids and a great successful hunt all around.

Great write up! The drive through Judith Basin and that country is certainly enjoyable. The views are definitely exceptional. The pic I use in my avatar is from around the CM Russell WM area and the river. It is an area that has amazing scenery in just about any direction.





The kids will remember those hunts for the rest of their lives. Great memories in the making, and while siblings may be not getting along now, when they get older, they will definitely appreciate all your efforts and hard work.

Great job.

Great pic Mackay! I have not spent much time in the CMR. It is a cool place.

Hell ya Jud, great trip and write up. 👍

Thanks again!
Thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Very special hunting trip. Thanks for sharing it.

I have done a few float trips on the Missouri. Put in at the Judith Landing and pull out at the McClelland Ferry. Had some success on south side of the river then after a few years there became a lot of river traffic, so we began hunting off of Whiskey Ridge south of the river. Better.

MedRiver, thank you for that interesting story and pictures of your family's hunt. Awesome looking country. Thanks for taking us along.

L.W.

That’s an awesome adventure and one I’m sure the kids will never forget!

I am guessing the traffic probably goes in waves. Some years heavier then others. I have always hunted this area early due to the youth hunt. A November rut hunt could be a whole lot different.

Great write up and photos!!!

Great write-up and trip, I wish I was there!

+1


Lot different country than here in MS.


The kids will remember that trip for awhile.