I asked several ranchers for permission to hunt and the
response was “If you’ve....
 SCI
relationships have been good to me. My son and I attended
a fund raising banquet at SCI Maine several years ago and
we sat a table with others who were total strangers at the
time. Talk turned to hunting mule deer and I was to find
out that the fellow sitting next to me had owned 87,000
acres of land in the “Missouri Breaks” of Montana. He had
since sold much of it, but retained exclusive hunting rights
to his former property. When I heard this, I got all excited
as hunting “The Breaks” had become a dream of mine years
before when I was working as a guide in Alaska. Jack Atcheson,
the booking agent from Montana, was a client of mine on
a caribou hunt and I asked him where his favorite place
was to hunt mule deer. Without hesitation his answer was-
“The Breaks”.
My new acquaintance, who has since become one of my best
friends, was looking for a place in Alabama for him and
his son to hunt deer in January. A was able to set them
up with a friend of mine and they came and Will, his son,
was able to take a very nice Alabama whitetail. It was at
this time my son, John, and I began applying for Montana
mule deer tags. In 2003 on our third try and with enough
bonus points we were successful.
John met me in Jackson, Wyoming where I had just finished
a great Shiras moose hunt and we drove my truck to Billings,
Montana and did the grocery shopping before heading four
hours north to the remote ranch. We opened the ranch house
and had made our selves comfortable when the three others
arrived just after dark. They had flown in that day from
New Hampshire. We all kicked in $200 for expenses and that
was to be the total cost for a two week mule deer adventure.
We drove the vast area to good spots and saw plenty of deer
and elk. We were seeing up to five “shooter bucks” per day.
On day # 2 we took a 30” 4 x 4 and each day thereafter we
took a 4 x 4, 5 x 7 and I was able to harvest a symetrical
5 x 5 on day #4. Will had seen a heavy 34” buck early in
the hunt and held out for a week before taking a pretty
4 x4.
I now have several great new friends and a dream has been
fulfilled. An open invite to return has been offered to
me whenever I can draw another tag. One of these hunters
will accompany me to the Arctic in 2005 for Peary Caribou
and musk ox and another will go to Africa with me this coming
June. Isn’t it great how this trading of hunts works out?
By the way, my friend wants to hunt Alabama for a week in
January with his son and trade for a mule deer hunt in Montana.
Contact me if you have a hunting area in Alabama and would
like to duplicate this great hunt.
While there I was able to see some whitetails down along
the river that would knock your socks off. Not being ashamed
to talk hunting, I asked several ranchers for permission
to hunt and the response was “If you’ve got a tag, come
on over as there are too many of those damn things and they’re
eating all my hay”! If I’m ever lucky enough to draw another
Montana deer tag I will have to decide whether to help one
of these ranchers out and go kill one of his big whitetails
or put my raft into the Missouri River and float some of
the best remote whitetail habitats in this country for a
week.
Decisions decisions!
nybody interested?
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