Montana backcountry: ✅
Rifle season: ✅
2 deer tags in our pocket: ✅
2 mature mule deer bucks: ✅
If you could guarantee a checklist like this every year, there’s not a western hunter in the country that wouldn’t plan their year around it.
Unfortunately, opportunities like these are few in one’s life. It’s not that we planned better, worked harder or got luckier than others. Sometimes everything just aligns and you’re blessed with an epic adventure. It’s these experiences that I crave. Those that once experienced, you get to relive and share the story of for the rest of your life.
Zack and I have made a bit of a tradition the past few years chasing mule deer during Montana’s rifle season. Usually in November. Often including big storms, cold temps and long miles. The one variable not always featured are mature bucks that we’d like to punch our tags on. It’s not that we don’t find deer, it’s just that mule deer are our favorite species to chase and it takes a special critter or circumstance for us to end our season early.
Speaking for myself here, I try to fill the freezer early each hunting season with an antelope and an elk with my bow. Once the stress of supplying meat for the family is gone, I can be free to chase mule deer throughout the season, more often than not, riding out the year without filling my tag. In fact years often go by without an opportunity on an animal I’d been willing to end my deer season early on.
This hunt was one of those special occasions that did just that, not once, but twice.
Zack and I had put dates on the calendar for the middle of November months in advance. As happens in life, a last minute engagement required a shift in our plans by a few days. As it turned out this would be a blessing as it meant we’d be hunting the back of a big storm that laid a solid white blanket of snow over Montana.
If you’ve hunted deer in standing dead timber, you know how difficult they are to spot. However, with a solid white backdrop, their gray-brown bodies offer a stark contrast to the white snow and are much easier to pickout. Combine this with some solid rut activity and the usual higher movement of critters following a big storm and we were set up to capitalize on perfect timing that came about simply by chance.
By this point in the season, Zack had 2 elk in the freezer and I had an antelope and an elk in mine. We had 9 days set aside and with full freezers, we intended on using all of them to cover lots of miles and look over as many deer as we could find.
We are certainly blessed for opportunity in Montana with some 30 million acres of public land which sometimes makes the decision of where to hunt a difficult one. From national forest, blm, state ground and wilderness, the options sometimes seem endless. In 2023 we did a big mountain mule deer hunt right through the middle of the biggest (and coldest) storm of the season. After enduring a thorough beating in the mountains, we decided to change things up and head out on the prairie where Zack arrowed a nice mule deer buck during the late rifle season bow in hand, blaze orange and all.
This year (2024) we were jonesing for another mountain mule deer rip. A spot Zack had scouted in years past kept coming back as our first choice. In fact Zack had spent a quick 2 days there the year before and had turned up an interesting young buck that was very distinct. Lots of mass, kickers off both sides and a dropper off his right side.
The decision was made. We’d head back to that spot in hopes of turning up what we referred to as the “Sticker Buck”.
On our drive to the trailhead we were beaming with excitement. I had talked Zack into sleeping in and getting a mellow start to the trip as opposed to driving/hiking through the night to be set up for the morning’s glass at sunrise. Yes we gave up a prime glassing opportunity but knowing the amount of physical effort we were about to expend, the idea of good coffee from home on the drive and a mellowish midday hike to be set up for the evening glass was too appealing.
It was a bluebird day. White snow blanketed everything we could see including the high country several miles away where we were headed. Absolutely optimal glassing conditions. A day after the storm, if you couldn’t glass a deer directly, any tracks you could see were likely so fresh that they’d lead you straight to a deer. We even crossed paths with a very fresh grizzly track halfway in.
On the hike in I made a mistake on my food choice. I’m a pretty big ramen guy and pack two a day no matter the season. I like the variety packs of the cheap Maruchan brand that you see everywhere. My mistake came when I chose a chili flavored pack just before the trail got steep and we had to start putting some elevation under us. Let’s just say I struggled to keep my stomach contents where they belong that afternoon.
Nevertheless we reached camp 1 with plenty of time to set our tents and were ready to glass till dark that evening. Halfway between what I’d describe as those front country and backcountry zones, we didn’t pick up many deer that evening but there was a feeling that the following morning would be prime.
The air was still that night which is a rare occasion in the mountains. I don’t recall a cloud in the sky which also meant cold temps. I relish these opportunities to actually use the gear we obsess about all year round. Zack and I were both using Durston X-Mid Pro 1’s on this hunt, which are incredible Dyneema trekking pole tents. The usable living space to weight ratio is unmatched in my mind. Combine that with a Thermarest X-Therm sleeping pad and 0* Stone Glacier Chilkoot sleeping bag and I was as comfortable as can be. Well, minus the slow leak I’ve had in my sleeping pad going on 3 years now. I’ve tried patching it but for some reason it doesn’t bother me to wake up every 3-4 hours and blow it back up when I get cold once my body gets too close to the snow underneath me.
The following morning was everything we’d hoped. We weren’t quite into the good mule deer habitat where we were headed but we didn’t want to bypass the in-between country in case it was holding deer. Zack and I each moved around the glassing knob we were camped on picking apart the country. It wasn’t long before Zack glassed up a clearly mature buck bedded above a cliff band nearly 2 miles away.
Several other deer were spotted that morning but after the prime glassing time had passed we knew we had to get a closer look at the buck in the distance. We packed camp and headed deeper into the basin.
Every bit of elevation gained or twist and turn in the trail offered a new spectacular view. Now’s a good time to mention that I had recently picked up a camera and dove head first into the photography world. I purchased a Sony A6700 with a couple Sigma lenses and had committed to actually carrying and using it, this being only the 2nd hunt since purchasing the camera. I don’t know that I have ever hunted with Zack when he didn’t have his camera. So with 2 cameras in hand we decided (almost randomly on the drive to the trailhead) to document this hunt both with photos and video in the hopes of making it a Montana Wild film.
As we neared the head of the basin, the buck we had come to get a closer look at had moved from his bed above the cliff band. We dropped a bit of elevation to set up on a glassing knob that gave us views of as much country as possible. Before long, Zack had glassed up the buck we were looking for (a common theme of the hunt) bedded in the timber with a handful of does. It was around this time that Zack had a feeling this may be the “sticker buck” we had come to find.
From 1200 yards away, we must have watched him for a couple hours. Due to the nature of the terrain, it would have taken us no more than 20 minutes to put ourselves inside of 400 yards without him knowing. During that time we each tried to talk each other into shooting the buck. He was clearly a beautiful, mature mule deer buck living in amazing country but for some reason we each passed. I can’t speak for Zack but for me it almost felt too easy, like we hadn’t yet earned such a specimen of a deer. We had plans of heading over the ridge to explore the next basin and I think I felt there were more dues to be paid before having a chance at such a special mountain buck.
We packed up our glassing setup and headed into the next basin.
We’d found more deer that evening but nothing that got our hearts racing like the “sticker buck” we left in the basin behind us. At some point during the evening after setting up camp 2 and building a fire to eat dinner beside, Zack had got some cell service and sent Phone Skope footage to his fiance Samantha. I believe her response was along the lines of, “and why didn’t you guys shoot that deer?” That’s when it hit me. We may have blown an opportunity on a truly exceptional Montana mountain mule deer. However…this feeling didn’t stop us from pressing forward with our plan of further exploring the next basin.
We woke up early the next morning to climb a peak that would give us a vantage point over another part of the next basin we hadn’t looked over yet. It felt like we were being punished for our boneheaded decision making as we trudged along towards the top. We’re no strangers to breaking trail in deep snow but this was that particularly unbearable snow condition that would almost hold your weight and just before you trusted your next step, it would break through somewhere between 12-18” making each step feel like two.
We topped out and puffied up. As sunrise approached we were greeted with one of the most spectacular sunrises either of us had ever witnessed. To the west, the sky was still a deep purple as the eastern sky lit up in every tropical color you can imagine and the tips of the peaks popped in their alpenglow all around us. We were truly thankful for this gift of a sunrise, especially since we didn’t glass up any deer that morning. A single mountain goat some 10 miles away and what I believe was an ermine or stoat were the only critters we saw that morning.
Our stubbornness defeated, we were ready to head back to relocate the “sticker buck”.
Once down from the peak we quickly packed camp and headed back into the basin the “sticker buck” was living in. We were careful to glass our way back in case he had moved or another deer showed up we might be interested in. We dropped a good amount of elevation to a flat spot on the ridge that offered a great camp spot as well as good glassing and sat about 1000 yards from where we had last seen the buck.
This is where a good lesson was learned. While I have a Swaro STX 95 spotter at home, I had elected to take my Swaro ATC in the interest of saving weight. An excellent piece of glass for its size and weight but simply not up to the task of picking apart deer antlers from long distances. We were backlit which seems ideal but the glare of the day and my small spotter made things difficult. About an hour before sunset, I had glassed up what I thought was just a 4 point buck. Zack was on the opposite side of the ridge glassing the backside when I spotted this deer. When he had made his way back to me, that buck had moved out of sight behind a group of large trees.
Sure enough, that buck came back out about 20 minutes before dark when Zack spotted him again in his Leica 82 Televid. He was instantly able to tell that it was the “sticker buck” all along. With the short amount of daylight left, there was now no time to get in range of him that evening. It wasn’t till laying in my tent that night that I realized my mistake. If I would have identified him as the “sticker buck” when I first spotted him we would have had plenty of time to make a play on him. Lesson learned, carry the bigger glass.
We were confident we’d immediately find him the next morning and it would just come down to where he was located which would decide our approach. Well, that didn’t happen…
The wind had come on strong the night before signalling the approach of another storm. So much so that we each built a snow wall on the windward side of our tents to alleviate some of the spin drift that was whipping under the edges of our shelters. The wind continued into the morning and battered the cliffy face the buck had been living on.
We diligently glassed into the afternoon when we decided we’d do a big move to put ourselves on the face we’d been seeing the “sticker buck” in the hopes that he had moved out of the wind and into the timber below our camp. As we still hunted our way across the face, we actually turned up a couple of does and another small buck but no sign of the “sticker buck.”
With no sign of him, we decided to loop over the top and peak into a micro basin that we hadn’t looked at yet. On the map this drainage didn’t look like much but boy were we surprised when we topped out and got our first look in. Zack immediately spotted a doe and I saw a buck just above her in the timber. I only saw this bucks right antler but almost immediately I knew I’d be proud to shoot this deer.
Looking across the micro basin, there were actually 2 bucks and a handful of doe’s on their feet working through some dense standing dead timber. It was clear that if we were going to have a shot at this buck, it would be a very narrow window both the shooting lane and time to get the shot off. We hustled down the ridge and set up a shooting position across from the group of deer that would give me a shot between 500-550 yards. The buck had bedded but as is common during the mule deer rut, the bucks will not let their doe’s get too far away so we knew it wouldn’t be long till he was back on his feet. Zack got the spotter and Phone Skope ready to roll while I set my rifle up in a prone position.
While the buck was still bedded, I double checked all the parameters on my Kestrel ballistic solver and opened the Range Card and set it to 10 yard increments. Knowing how quick this was likely to happen, I dialed for 550 and memorized the dope down to 500. We had blowing snow and extremely flat light making the deer extremely hard to see through my scope. I didn’t want to take my eye out of the scope so I asked Zack to run the rangefinder for me. Sure enough the buck got up and quickly worked his way up to his does. He was headed for an opening above a rock outcropping that would be a perfect shooting window. As he approached, Zack got the range and called out 530. Keeping my eye in the scope, I reached up with my trigger hand and counted 2 clicks down from what I had dialed for 550. The buck stopped perfectly quartering away in the opening, Zack gave me the okay that the Phone Skope was rolling and I executed my shot.
The blowing snow made visibility difficult but was a perfect wind indicator. Wind is rarely ever consistent, usually pulsing, either building or dropping. At the shot, the snow was falling straight down meaning the wind had either dropped completely off or was directly behind us. Either way, I held for zero wind and hit directly behind my crosshairs.
I watched the bullet impact and the buck dropped. It was a touch high but had directly impacted a rib and sent shrapnel into the spine making it look like a direct spine shot. He rolled off the rock outcropping before getting hung up on the steep mountainside in a mess of bushes and trees. I distinctly remember the sound of the bucks antlers clicking off the rocks as he rolled.
As we finished cutting up my deer, I asked Zack what he wanted to do tomorrow. With no hesitation, he excitedly stated he wanted to shoot the sticker buck!
We packed my buck to the base of the ridge where our camp was set and cached my rifle and the meat from my buck. In a moment of pure vanity, I decided to pack the head some 1600 vert up the ridge to our camp so I could get pics of him by the tents and the fire.
We slogged our way up the ridge in what started as rain, eventually turning to snow. It had been dark for hours now. When we reached camp we built a fire and fried some mule deer tenderloin in coconut oil with salt and pepper. I got the pics I wanted of my buck by the fire and we crashed hard that night hoping we’d be able to turn the “sticker buck” up the next day.
Similar to the day before, we glassed hard all morning. Somehow the “sticker buck” had vanished. As noon approached I began to question our sanity a few days before when we had both walked away from a prime opportunity on him.
As the day drug on, Zack felt we should give it one more good glassing and if we couldn’t find him we’d move down the ridge and look for him lower in the basin. Just moments later Zack spotted him, bedded on a cliff at the very head end of the basin. It was a remarkable spot with binos and our hopes immediately soared.
We made the smart decision to climb all the way back to the top of the ridge and circle around the basin which would allow us to stay mostly out of sight of the buck and give us the best chance of the swirly winds not giving us away.
About an hour later, we were set up in reverse of the day before at 430 yards of the buck. Zack in the prone on his rifle and me running the spotter and Phone Skope. We patiently waited for the buck to stand out of his bed, discussing the current wind condition anytime either of us noticed a change.
Soon enough, the buck stood. After a stretch and a turn to face uphill, the buck was completely broadside to us. Zack executed his shot with one perfectly placed bullet from his 28 Nosler right behind the shoulder and he died in his bed.
While self induced, the added difficulty and effort to get the “sticker buck” killed made the moment all the more special. We sat on that cliff at the very head of the basin and admired these two bucks and the inhospitable country in which they live. It’s a moment that can’t be bought, planned for or earned but simply given to us by our Creator and I’ll be thankful for it for the rest of my life.
