Trophy Mule Deer

Roger Campbell's trophy mule deer, 2012

Trophy mule deer hunting in HD 590 is great! The southern end of the area is a mixture of open country, Ponderosa pine forest, rim rock ridges, and cropland. In 1984, a huge forest fire swept through the southern end of the Bull Mountains and left thousands of acres devoid of trees. During the past 25 years, grasses have flourished and second growth pine has returned to create absolutely phenomenal mule deer habitat.

Today the deer herd is quite healthy in the areas that I hunt. Trophy bucks in this area are noted for tall racks with deep forks. As the bucks mature, kickers sometimes develop, and mass, of course, goes with age. We try to harvest 4.5 year old deer and older. A typical 4.5 year old in this area will score between 160 and 180B&C. Much larger bucks are available and we have taken bucks over 200B&C. 30 inch mule deer are rare in our hunting district but available on occasion. 22″ to 25″ mule deer make up the bulk of our harvest. Bucks over 25″ are difficult to find. One of our finest trophy mule deer bucks had 44″ of mass, a 6×6 frame, was 24″ wide and scored 205B&C green gross. Montana allows trophy mule deer hunters to hunt during the peak of the November rut. Whitetails are also available in our area.

The success rate on whitetail will be almost totally dependent upon the rut due to the open terrain that they inhabit in our area. Whitetail trophies average 140-150 B&C gross and 160 class bucks are available. The non-resident deer tag is good for either mule deer or whitetail but only one antlered buck may be taken in any year. The non-resident deer license is obtained through the Montana General Drawing. If a good trophy mule deer buck is on your wish list, give us a call for your next western hunt.