SE Montana, what kind of terrain to look for

[unchained]

Thinking about planning a SE Montana rut hunt for next year. What kind of terrain or cover should I be looking for on maps hold mule deer this time of year. Any help is appreciated.

 

[mlucashr]

Following


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Muleys32]

Following as well

 

[NDGuy]

Like my Old Pappy used to say:
"The first step to shooting a big mule deer is finding a spot with big mule deer."

 

[Muleys32]

Thinking about planning a SE Montana rut hunt for next year. What kind of terrain or cover should I be looking for on maps hold mule deer this time of year. Any help is appreciated.

I will say that I am hunting down there this fall. Have made two scouting trips and I stuck to what I knew, which was broken badlands and I had good luck finding bucks. We will see here in a couple of weeks when we make it down there.

 

[Ridge Ghost]

Start by looking for anything at least a mile from the nearest access, regardless of terrain type. Breaks, badlands, coulees, etc are more likely to hold deer than the flat stuff.

 

[johnsd16]

We have hunted the rut in SE MT twice and quickly came up with the saying that "mule deer are where you find them". Sometimes you'd swear they have burrows. They appear out of nowhere and can disappear when it looks like there is nowhere to go. We have found them in the pine hills, rolling open stuff, deep coulees in the flats and in the rough badlands stuff. The rugged badlands stuff had some of the biggest we've found probably since it is such a bitch to walk in. Up and down every 200 yds. You will see better quality on private by that time due to pressure. As far as what to look for e-scouting, well, they are where you find them. Be willing to go where others aren't or haven't.

 

[Fire_9]

We have hunted the rut in SE MT twice and quickly came up with the saying that "mule deer are where you find them". Sometimes you'd swear they have burrows. They appear out of nowhere and can disappear when it looks like there is nowhere to go. We have found them in the pine hills, rolling open stuff, deep coulees in the flats and in the rough badlands stuff. The rugged badlands stuff had some of the biggest we've found probably since it is such a bitch to walk in. Up and down every 200 yds. You will see better quality on private by that time due to pressure. As far as what to look for e-scouting, well, they are where you find them. Be willing to go where others aren't or haven't.

Winner winner. This pretty much sums it up. You'll find them on the wide open prairie, in the nastiest hell holes you can find, and everywhere in between...

 

[unchained]

Thanks for all of the input, and it actually makes me more excited. Ive been on hunts where 98% of the country doesn't hold what your after, so that was the reason for the question. Sounds like as long as I bust my boots I should run into some.

 

[HookUp]

Hunted Eastern Mt last year for the first time on a type 2 block ranch. My dad who has cancer couldn't walk more than 100 yards, probably more like 100 ft. We both shot 140 class 4x4's in 3 hours our first evening at the ranch. His cancer is more stable and we are headed back in a few weeks, we joke about hunting at least a day this year. Not sure what type of ground to look for but the block program worked well for us.

 

[Bearlodge10]

Many of the above posts are spot on, when they say the deer will be where you find them. It will be tough to judge just by using the satellite imagery or even topo maps. However, you are planning on hunting the rut and that can change all the rules... I would be thinking of areas that will appeal to deer in general especially does. I have had good luck in looking at areas that have fairly close access to hay fields (say within 1-1 1/2 Miles) but that also offer cover with heavy sagebrush and/or draws. Hunting pressure can and will move deer away from roads etc. but often times the does will be back and bring the bucks with them. Best of Luck!!!

 

[targetpanic]

Looking forward to what your experience this year is LoganH. My wife and I are headed to SE MT in 2018 for our first hunting trip out west. I've been looking at google earth and wondering the same questions!!

 

[weatherbow21]

I think you can do your home work online using all the various sources, but you'll have to narrow it down in person. We've got a spot in eastern montana that has decent deer numbers, but access there is too easy and although it doesn't get a ton of pressure from what I've seen, I'm pretty certain if we were to find harder to access areas we may see a few better bucks. I want to plan a trip in a couple years that will be two weeks so we have enough time to do the searching we need to do on the ground. Some of the obvious spots will undoubtedly have hunters. A lot of mule deer country over there would be really hard to scout from satelite images, it doesn't take a lot of cover for mule deer to hide fairly well, and in my opinion thats the main thing you're looking for over there as a lot of eastern montana is completely barren desert.