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Several folks have mentioned that there hasn't been much in the way of trip reports on this forum of late, soooo... though I'd share my mule deer hunt this last fall.


I scouted this area prior to the season and hunted it early in the season. Found a healthy population of deer with plenty of smaller bucks, but wasn't finding mature bucks. With the numbers of deer and the ruggedness (and remoteness) of the area, I knew there were older bucks I just had to find them.

I packed up enough food four days and headed in early Sunday morning. Pack was about as light as I could manage with food/water and full sized tripod/spotter- right at 35 lbs.

I hiked in the dark for two hours to get to glassing spot at shooting light. Pretty quickly I found a herd of elk, if there was a legal bull in the bunch it would have changed my priorities, but cows/calves and spikes is all I could see.






My plan was to hike a long, high ridge until it's terminus near a Forest Service trail. I was able to glass a good deal of the lower portion and didn't see any deer. I had to drop over a 1000' of hard earned climbing to get to the end of the ridge, but the real work was just about to begin. It was a steep bear getting up. Well so much for my glassing the lower portion. I had only been climbing a 1/4 mile and bumped a two does and a young buck .





I climbed to a saddle and was able to glass the small elk herd better, still no legal bull in the bunch.





I saw a few more does/fawns/smaller bucks below me as I continued to climb. I got into some pretty crappy rocky sections, some of them covered with grass that made footing tricky and wasn't doing much for my stealth either.





I caught a glimpse of movement above me and saw a doe moving slowly and then a bigger bodied deer behind. The bigger deer finally revealed himself- a nice buck. Safety off. I decided to pass on the buck. They eventually got wind of me and dropped over the ridge into an abyss of blowdown and new generation fir. Well that ended that. Of course now I started to doubt my choice of not shooting. A pretty nice buck and a lot closer to the trailhead than where I was headed.

I continued up the ridge soaking in the views as I went.






There was a meadow I saw on the map that I had seen from a distance and had wanted to check out. Nice looking with a really good spring right below it. But late afternoon and no activity.





The spring had a lot of use and you can see where deer were slip-sliding in the ice



I started angling off of the ridge to meet up with a FS trail. I bumped several deer on the way down including several smaller bucks.

From the traiI was heading for a named spring on the map, I hadn't been to the actual spring, but by it and there was a couple of good glassing spots for evening and thought I would camp near the spring and maybe just hunt out of this camp. I found the spring, it was almost a quarter mile further off the trail than the map showed but was there.

I set up my shelter and unloaded a bunch of gear and then headed off for one of the glassing spots.



[img]https://imgur.com/XNVf41c.jpg[/img]

Saw a few more elk off in the distance (no legal bull), but no deer moving. I headed back to the spring in my headlamp eager for supper. I covered a little over 10 miles and over 5000' of gain over some pretty rough country.

I was in for my first surprise that evening. The spring I casually glanced at was actually frozen solid to the bottom. 45 minutes off breaking ice netted me some wet mud. I had a liter and a half of water left, so had to scrimp with it to make a supper and breakfast. The good news was the next spring (which I knew had water) was only 2.5 miles away and I could camp there tomorrow.

My second surprise came shortly after I went to bed. I woke up with my hip touching the floor of my shelter- my air mattress had gone flat. I thought maybe I just had mucked up the closing of the valve. Blew it up firm and back to sleep. 45 minutes later I woke to a flat mattress again. This was not overly good for getting a good night sleep. I put my closed cell foam sitpad underneath my hips and extended the time between waking to close to an hour

part 2 next

part 2

That was a pretty long night with lots of interrupted sleep. The good news was my new shelter did really well in some high winds- probably gusting at times to near 40 mph. The alarm went off at 5:00 AM- I set for an hour earlier as I now had to pack up the entire camp and move. I had one meager cup of coffee with my breakfast cookie, leaving me 16 oz of water for the hike/hunt over to the next spring.

Pretty morning.





The trail I was using went to crap after about a half mile, hadn't been cleared in years (decades???) and was strewn with blowdown- around, over and occasionally under I went. About a half hour into shooting light I saw some movement ahead. I slowly sat down with a handy blowdown as a back rest. One doe, two does, eventually three does and then a buck. A smaller buck though. I could make out part of another deer and was 99% certain it was another doe, but stayed seated just in case. Not a doe, body too big. With all the blowdown I only caught small glances of this deer, but eventually could see it was a mature buck, but had to wait to see if he was I wanted. Eventually he stepped into a small opening- yup he looked pretty good. I heard the bullet hit and he made a small jump which I thought was a heart shot. I thought he'd tip over and was shocked to see him start running full tilt, steep down hill, across the trail into square miles of blowdown.

The other deer went the opposite direction, so I got up to see if I could find where he crossed the trail. No snow on the ground which it made it really tough to sort anything out. I decided to go up where I hit and follow from that spot. Half an hour later I couldn't find the spot in the blowdown mess.

I did what I think most guys would do. I prayed. After a prayer I surveyed the country below, not sure if he dropped dead somewhere in the abyss or if I was dealing with a wounded deer. I saw small flat spot that held a bunch of dense new growth lodgepole- a good spot for a wounded buck to bed. I started downhill, slowly- very slowly. Walking a few steps and then glassing what was visible to me. After ten minutes of slowly moving downhill, I caught a glimpse that looked like it could be a deer. Is it a wounded deer bedded or a dead one, couldn't tell, so I went even slower yet. I finally got an angle that I could see it was an expired deer- prayer answered!

I can't tell you how overjoyed I was seeing that deer laying there.



The overjoyed feeling was eventually replaced with the reality of the task ahead. I had to break this deer down and I was close to 8 miles from the trailhead. So I got to work.





I took a celebratory drink of water, but not a very big one.

I fully deboned the deer and started doing some math in my head. 35 lb pack, around 70 lbs of boned out meat, a 8-10 lb head and a 6 lb rifle that has to go the pack as two trekking poles are going to be mandatory. That's too much weight for this terrain and 7-8 miles. I took roughly 20 lbs of meat, the head and attached the rifle- put it in the 65-70 lb range.





I put the rest of the meat in another bag and hung it in a tree to retrieve later.





It was now near noon and I had a long ways to go. I was also parched and drank the last of my water. It was hell getting out of that blowdown mess, but eventually hit the trail. The trail was giving up though and throw a bunch more blowdown my way. It eventually petered out and the next spring was in sight- hallelujah!

I dumped my pack and filled my Nalgene. I was carrying Aquatabs for treating water which normally works really well. One Nalgene at hand to drink from, another in reserve. Drain one, fill it with the other, get to water, fill the empty one, tab it and 45 minutes later you have treated water. I wasn't going to wait 45 minutes as I was really parched. Through a tab in it and shook it violently for a couple of minutes and drank. One more time for good measure Ate my lunch and headed for the trailhead.





I'm happy on the inside



I had to don my headlamp about 1/2 mile from the trailhead, but it was all downhill. Got home, kissed the wife, put the meat on ice, ate a giant supper, set the alarm, took a handful of ibuprofen and promptly went to bed.

I slept like the dead, but when the alarm went off I knew I had a crushing day ahead 15 miles round trip with a lot of climbing and half of it with a ~ 70 lb pack.. I stripped my pack down to a bare bones affair, but had to pack enough stuff in case it turned into an bivy overnighter.

I hit the trailhead at first light. The good thing about lugging a 70 lb pack is that it makes a 20 lb pack feel light as a feather I was making pretty decent time with the light pack and no need to be stealthy. So I soaked in the views and hit the gas pedal.






I made it to the kill site at 11:00 AM and was relieved to find no bear on it. I didn't pack my rifle, but I did pack my .44 just in case a cranky boar found it.



Just a note on that pic- an all Montana pic- FHF harness, Razco Gear holster and a Stone Glacier pack- nice to support the home state!

I was loaded up in 15 minutes or so.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/nTqoXxc.jpg?1[/img]



The trip back was tough, but uneventful- thankfully! I neared the trailhead with still some light.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ZAetQ3y.jpg?1[/img]

Got home, kissed the wife, put the rest of the meat on ice, ate a giant supper, took a handful of ibuprofen and promptly went to bed

Thanks for reading

Enjoyed this on the Rockslide and again here! You are living the good life!

Outstanding, sir! I'm impressed with the 35 lb. pack weight. Keeping my fingers crossed for a Barbary sheep hunt this year, but I'll be upping my backpacking game regardless.

Great story! Beautiful hunting area.

Great job. Sounds like a blast!

Great story. Thanks for your work to write. Pictures are great. Beautiful setting. Congratulations on a great experience.

Great photos, thanks for posting those. I cracked up when I read "I took a celebratory drink of water, but not a big one."

Man, you really know how to party!

Thanks Gents!

^ nothing sucks worse than being very low on water!

This is what this site needs more of. Thanks for the recap and pics!

mtwarden tell me about your rifle scope set up please

It's a Leupold VX-R 2-7x33 with the ballistic firedot; sadly not made anymore- lightweight (under 13 oz) and the firedot is nice and bright in dimmer light, the three dot ballistic system is easy (and quick) to use

Very nice hunt and buck. Well told.

thanks for the write up . I enjoyed the story MTWarden

Great hunt, great buck, great story. Thanks for taking the time to tell it!

Outstanding pics & story! Excellent post!

Cheered me right up this off season.

Thanks guys- much appreciated!

Cool story and outstanding scenery pics,

Thanks for your time writing this.

mtwarden what is your rifle and chambering

Great write up. Congrats and thanks for sharing!