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Montana Deer I have spent many pleasant hours, sitting quietly, overlooking a hillside and glassing the shadows for the gleam of a horn, a twitch of an ear, or the turning of a head that gives a big buck away. On my first day in north central Montana, I spent the morning looking into a canyon with no luck. I was hunting the “Jim Place.” Mac Morgan, the owner of the ranch I was hunting, had told me that this canyon had produced many large bucks. Returning to the camp house for lunch, I was treated to a large bowl of steaming homemade soup and a chunk of freshly baked French bread. Over that regenerating lunch, Mac and I discussed our plans for the evening. Mac also asked me what I was looking for in a Montana mule deer. Wishfully, I told him I would like a wide 4X4 with eye guards. After a nap, Mac and I went back out on the ranch to the same canyon, Blade Coulee. While there were several nice deer, we saw none that I wanted to take on the first day of my first Montana hunt. The second day of the hunt was the same. On the morning of the third day, Mac wanted to try a new canyon. We walked the ridges above the Combine Coulee and spotted several deer that were bedded down or just starting to move around. While we did a lot of walking that morning, we did not see a deer that Mac or I felt was big enough. We plan on returning to this coulee in the afternoon. That afternoon, Mac suggested that I walk down the far side of Combine Coulee, about a quarter of a mile. He told me that I would find a flat area, with several large rocks, near the edge of the canyon wall. He wanted me to sit and watch the canyon and the far wall. I found the spot and settled into a concealed position in the rocks. Mac, after waiting a suitable amount of time, drove down to the end of the coulee, about one mile to a mile-and-a-half. He walked out on the ridge overlooking the canyon, yelled, and tossed some rocks into the canyon. After a few minutes, he drove two to three hundred yards toward to me and repeated the yelling and rock tossing. After nearly an hour, I looked to my right. I could see Mac on the edge of the canyon, several hundreds yards away. As I watched Mac, I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. There were two bucks, running across the canyon from me. Grabbing my binoculars, I could see that both bucks were shooters. They were moving away from Mac and getting closer to me. The bucks were at least three hundred yards to my right and were running through the trees. Earlier, I had ranged a clearing to my left at seventy-five yards. I hoped that the deer would move in front of me and into the clearing, where I could get a shot at the largest one. As the deer passed in front of me, they both turned to their left and ran down into the canyon. I was completely taken by surprise. The deer had disappeared in front of me. Jumping up, I ran to the edge of the canyon but could not see the deer. Looking to my left on my side of the canyon, they were there. No more than twenty yards away. They both stopped and looked at me. I knew that the deer would bolt in a second or two. My rifle moved to my shoulder, and the shot was almost without thought. To my surprise, after the shot, the deer showed no reaction. I chambered another round and shot again. The deer fell to the ground and slipped back into the coulee. The smaller buck just stood there, looking at the one on the ground. Realizing something was wrong, he was off in a flash. I walked up to my buck and saw the holes from my shots. They were one inch apart, right on the shoulder. Why the buck did not fall at my first shot is beyond me. He did not react at all. Mac drove up a few minuets later and said “Well, you got your wish, a 4X4 with eye guards.” I hunted the “Jim Ranch” for the next fifteen years and took many nice deer. But never one larger or more memorable than my first year in Montana. The ranch has new owners, and I am pleased that they are continuing to manage the land in a way that benefits the wildlife of the area. |
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© Copyright: Ronald Machado - 2002
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