Montana District 300 Mule deer

This is my first time on this sight so bear with me. However, I did see your quetion & I am very familiar with the 300-50 area I've killed elk ther two times. I've been huntin Lima area for 7-8 years, you have a very hard to get tag, you should have no problem finding 30" they are there I've seen them. When are you going up? My partners will be there this weekend. Feel free to call 512-402-4136
Gary Knudson

NO PROBLEM FINDING A 30" BUCK?I wouldnt pass up a nice 24" buck down there,if you hold out for 30" your going to find out how to cook tag soup.If you hunt the last week your odds of a great buck will go way up.

The last 2 years I have noticed that if you can get permission on private property you might be alright. But if you plan on hunting state lands or anything public, Its going to look like a pumpkin patch. Orange everywhere.
Good luck and keep your head down.

The price of Kevlar has gone way down,it might be a good investment. :thumb

I spend alot of time in the peaks bowhunting every year, its about 30-45 min from my house. There are some very nice deer in there, But the statements that 30" deer are common and that "you will have no problem finding a 30" buck" are false.Yup there are some, a few are killed every year. Last year a 32" came out of there. You may find one dont get me wrong but I wouldnt count on it. However, Deer in the 24-26" range are common and deer 26-28 are in there. Plan on hunting hard for a deer over 27". Out of the 40 tags maybe 8-10 are over 26". This years post season sex ratio was 20:100 so there are plenty of bucks.

If it had been me with the tag, I would have spent Aug/Sept patterning a big deer up on garfield mountain and shot him the first few days. This year will be a zoo with the elk regs also there is a bunch of snow in the high country already, so things are going to be a little different.

So where are you cominng from? Local or out of state?
When is the hunt planned for?

If your in state Id hunt opening 2-3 days and let the hunter numbers push the deer around. With the snow we have already I doubt they will be way up high like they normally are.

If your comming from out of state Id wait till the last two weeks for the rut to kick in.get high and glass glass glass. and be patient. Look in the mahogany hillsides up Little sheep creek late season. Dont bother asking permission on the Lima Peaks Ranch, Hearsh will not let you hunt. Too bad as there are 400+ head of elk between the hwy and the ranch house just off the hwy right now.

Dont get hung up on spread. There are some high 170-180 deer in there that will not break the 28" mark. This areas deer tend to have very nice forks and good mass also this area also has some strong Non typ genes.

Good luck and post some pics.
Also give Craig Fager a call (hes the area bio) at 406-683-9310.

"NONYA" wrote:The price of Kevlar has gone way down,it might be a good investment. :thumb

If I ever go back there, I'm taking mine. :thumb :thumb

Ah, I said bear with me here, anyways they are there and comin from Texas I aint comin home with no 24" buck from the 300. I don't care what he scores I'll go with the spread this year. By the way who said they are common? Ok, my bad I guess the "no problem" was a little much, I'm just use to hard core huntin when I draw a tag like that, it's a given.

You seem to have it all figured out,make sure to post pics of your 30" deer!

So you would pass up a 24" buck that scores 190-195 for a 30" buck that doesnt make it into the 170"s? Oh well have fun.

Well, I guess you have a point, I suppose I would come home with a 24" in that case. Don't get me wrong I don't think I have everything figured out by no means. However, I have seen them there & yes I am on a width trip lately, I just figure if I did get lucky enough to get that tag I feel I would be able to get the buck of my dreams from there. Are you a bow hunter?

If I had area 300 I to would go after a 30 incher, but I wouldn't pass up a heavy, high 25. Mass is important.
Heck, go after a big guy.

well how did it work out........I HEARD the white ranch had a slaghter on 200 elk...by the time that it was over the elk where too tired to even jump a fence...The land owner asked the fish and game to haze the elk out of his alfalpha fields, they said that it is illegal to haze the elk. So he took 2 people out and they flock shot into the elk, then he went and got 2 more and so on. I don't condone this type of hunting but this went on for over 7 hours. some elk where shot 5 times. I just think that this is wrong and want to here all your point of views.

I found a calf hung up in a fence yesterday(gutshot) after a outfitter set up 3 different partys on a herd,they tagged a decent bull and when I came back later the calf was gone,bet it ended up in a hole somewhere.

WTF?! northern, is that true?!

Not only is that wrong, it's illegal to boot. Has anyone tried to find out if this is true? Was the Game Department called? I find it pretty hard to believe that you'd be able to hide something like that and all it would take is for someone to investigate it to find out if it is indeed true.

It's wrong in just about EVERY single way IMO. But the saddest part is it may not be illegal. We had a rancher near Enterprise Utah a few years ago that went out and slaughtered a bunch of deer also. According to the law he warned the DWR and nothing was done so he could legally shoot them. I think they may have changed the law since then.

:>/ :>/

"AGCHAWK" wrote:WTF?! northern, is that true?!

Not only is that wrong, it's illegal to boot. Has anyone tried to find out if this is true? Was the Game Department called? I find it pretty hard to believe that you'd be able to hide something like that and all it would take is for someone to investigate it to find out if it is indeed true.

When I heard about this, the friend (more like a brother to me) was standing there talking to the owner of the ranch, The fish and game were standing there checking each elk that came out of the gates. The word got around Lima and there was a line of hunters that were on national forest that bordered the private property. And a line at the gate to the ranch, of people that were waiting to go in with the owner. The hired hands were using horse trailers to remove the elk from the pastures for the hunters. The hunters may have been after a different animal but what ever fell they had to tag. He said that some people did'nt even shoot, just went out and tagged a elk that was already dead and just laying there. He also said that the pastures that they were in were covered red with gut piles and blood. I need to find out from someone in Lima of what actually happened. But this buddy of mine is a straight arrow And I have never known him to pull my leg. The biggest thing that started all of this is that during the first week of rifle it is legal to shoot a cow, or calf, or bull with a over the counter BULL tag in that hunting disterct.

What a mess!

Brett brought up a good point. I'll have to do a little reading up on the Montana regs about the legality of it. I know that here in WA it is illegal...as it is in a number of other states. However, I am not SURE whether or not it's legal in Montana.

Either way I think it's rather disgusting. Just my opinion.

Not my bag of tea for sure. I enjoyed packing out the cow and 5x5 we shot on the opener. I would have enjoyed packing out the 330+ bull my buddy missed more but oh well. What did the rancher do that was illegal. Nothing. There is nothing in the regs that says a private landowner can not take someone onto thier property to shoot an elk. I would never be a part of something like this, but some "hunters" dont care they just want to brag about the elk the got.

phutch, I agree....but multiple elk? As far as I know, party hunting in illegal in Montana, is it not?

Sounds to me like a lot more elk were shot than were hunters present.

Party hunting is illegal. I wasnt there and dont know the details but I am sure if they were doing that tickets were issued. Its a fine line between party hunting and tagging and elk that drops out of a herd even if the hunter doesnt think he shot at that one. Not sure about the legalities of tagging an elk you "find" already dead. It still wasnt the ranchers doing. The slobs he took out there were the ones breaking the law. The rancher was basically just giving access. I am amazed that any self respeckting hunter would want to be involved with this in any shape or form.

There obviously not to self respecting, this has been going on for years in the big hole. The ranchers complain about not getting enough depredation tags. Well, looks like this is how some of them make up for it.

You can get 2 elk tags in some areas,the second is always a cow tag.This kind of slauhter happens often here,every year in several places,the F&G dont care as long as every elk gets tagged.There arnt enough ranchers that give the public access and the ones that doe want a BUNCh of elk killed to keep them off their feed all winter.

"NONYA" wrote:You can get 2 elk tags in some areas,the second is always a cow tag.This kind of slauhter happens often here,every year in several places,the F&G dont care as long as every elk gets tagged.There arnt enough ranchers that give the public access and the ones that doe want a BUNCh of elk killed to keep them off their feed all winter.

Your right NONYA, the Owner of the ranch doesn't live there. The hired hand does and he wasn't allowing hunting.(he was after a 7x7 with archery). He did say that he would allow hunting on the 2nd week for archery hunters only. The owner showed up and seen the elk in the alphalfa and wasn't happy that the hired hand decided to not allow hunting. The owner was hoping that the elk might stay out of the pastures and fields after being shot at. ( I don't think that will work) For every elk that was seen die, there was a hunter waiting for it. Who knows how many got out to only dies some place else.? I can under stand how the owner felt. The FWP here don't want to help out with the cost of fencing, feed lost to wild game. All most every fence around there is missing the top 2 wires from elk.

Its his land,he can let in as many hunters as he wants,its up to each hunter to obey the law.Ill bet there were a buttload of young hunters who got their first elk and many empty freezers filled.As long as all the elk got recovered Im all for it.At least he owns land in an area with general tags,many ranchers dont and they have no outlet to control the elk numbers due to lack of tags,the F&G says they dont want to do damage hunts anymore but the elk numbers are exploding.