What'd you take deer hunting this year?

[aht_six]

I used my Browning A-bolt, .300 WSM, with a Kahles 3 X 9. My load was a 150 grain Hornady Interbond over H4350.

The weather in Montana last week was less than ideal, it was either very windy, snowing or cold. The deer were hunkered down, but I did manage to harvest a mulie buck.

[northernbird]

Sat in a tree with my Ruger M77 .280. Snowed Friday night before the opener and there were a few tracks in the snow in the am. My sister saw a doe that morning but didnt have a shot. The rest of us saw and heard nothing. One fresh track on Sunday, then between Sunday and the following Saturday there were Zero fresh tracks in the snow. I went for a few walks and covered quite a bit of ground and was pretty bummed about the pristine snow. This was the first year I didn't see a single scrape or rub. Poured rain on Saturday afternoon of the second weekend which erased the snow and after seeing nothing for tracks Sunday felt pretty pointless.

The amount of shooting heard this year was way down compared to years past. I think I heard 5 shots on Saturday afternoon and maybe 5 all day on Sunday. Granted the wind was crazy, but we usually hear alot of banging up wind from where my stand was at. No idea what happened to the deer this year... There were alot of wolves last year, and the winter was pretty tough up there. So they likely got pretty thinned out. Didnt see any wolf tracks this year and didnt hear them like in years past either. But my guess is they probably had to go find someplace else with deer too.

Not real sure what I'm going to do next year yet.

[gearguy10]

Sako 85 Finnlight in .30-06. Leopold VX3 3.5-10x50 scope. Hornady Superformance 180 gn SST bullets.

I took an 8 pt buck at about 50 yds opening weekend near Little Falls, a doe at about 60 yds 2nd weekend north of Duluth, and 2 does at 250+ yds for the WI opener.

A buddy of mine offered to buy my rifle after witnessing the 2 does go down on the spot with 2 shots about 3 seconds apart. I told him he could have my wife before I ever let him put his grubby mitts on my baby.