Live Hunts - Montana Archery Deer Hunt

September 9, 2002
Montana Archery Deer Hunt

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Monday

Today I loaned my camera to Justin Trail to take photos from his ground blind. He is sitting about 50 yards from where I saw the good bucks the very first morning of the hunt.

This morning he saw over 20 bucks from the blind, all coming back to bed after feeding all night on Alfalfa. There were a number of 130" and better bucks, with the best being a 160" class 10-point. It was a wide buck with good mass and symmetry. It crossed the fence about 100 yards from Justin. So, this afternoon we went in and moved a ladder stand to a different spot down there and took down the ground blind.

The 160" 10-point that Justin saw this morning....

Another shot of the same buck

Larry Davis hunted a different ladder stand this morning. He saw lots of deer and a number of bucks, but no shooter bucks walked within range this morning. He did see a very nice, wide 10-point that will make a nice trophy, but he walked by out of range.

This evening Justin watched a couple of nice Mulie bucks in the 25-27 inch spread range. They were bedded out in the sage and he planned to ambush them as they worked their way down to the Alfalfa. They didn't get to him before dark, though. That's not the first time we've seen lots of mule deer in that spot, though, so he's closing in on them. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Larry Davis this evening sat the ladder stand that I hunted the first morning, but we moved it this afternoon about 100 yards down the bottom to another trail. Larry saw a group of 5 bucks, all of which were shooters and one of which was huge, and he also saw a group of 11 smaller bucks, plus a bunch of does and fawns. The big bucks came to 50 yards but no closer as they went up the steep bank to start towards the Alfalfa. We think they are using the closer trails in the morning, though, so that is where Larry will be tomorrow morning.

I took this picture of a huge 8-point
at long range through my spotting scope

Check back for more action tomorrow!

Trip Notes
This hunt takes place in southeast Montana, near the Wyoming border. We are hunting with outfitter Tracy Weyer on an 18,000 acre private ranch in the Little Missouri River bottom. There are lots of Whitetail on the ranch, and good numbers of Mule Deer as well. Our Archery tags are good for either species. There is also an abundance of Pronghorn Antelope and Merriam Turkeys on the ranch.

For Whitetail we will be hunting the bottoms in the mornings and the Alfalfa fields in the evenings, from treestands and ground blinds. The Alfalfa fields are THE ticket for deer in this area. The evening before the hunt started, we saw probably close to 200 Whitetails while scouting. This area has some very good bucks, probably a few of which will still be in velvet right now. One of the neat things about hunting this time period is that the bucks are still in their summer routines and somewhat predictable in their patterns.

If interested in hunting with this outfitter, contact:

- Longleaf Hunting Adventures -
longleaf@huntinfo.com

Equipment
I'm shooting a Martin Jaguar bow, set at 67 lbs. Arrows are 29-inch Easton 3-60 ACC's, and I'm trying out Simmons LandShark 160 Grain 2-blade broadheads for the first time.

Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. He also arranges exciting hunts through his business Longleaf Hunting Adventures. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children.

e-mail Joshua Flournoy

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