this week the eastman's hunting tv crew is headed to south central
montana for a general season public land hunt for rutting mule deer bucks
we got this buck up here he's quite a long ways away he's on clear up on the top there so we're
gonna have a pretty good hike but he's a good buck though big back forks good fronts really nice buck
they don't really get much better than that oh here they come here they come here they come
all signs indicate that the mule deer rut is just about to hit full swing and adam
has high hopes for finding a trophy class buck
well we just got up here got camp set up this afternoon
it's about three o'clock now being in here but maybe a mile or two and we already found
our first buck he's up at the head of that drainage um he's not very big maybe 150 but
you can definitely tell that um the rut is coming because he's got does on the mind
he's walking around down leaving does and walking up towards does and
but not a bad buck we're just going to kind of sit here and watch and and see what happens
we got up here on the side of this bench that buck is bedded up there about 800 yards
he's uh he's only got three on one side decently old buck but uh we're only a couple hours in so
we'll keep glassing him over and then we'll uh push on before dark
although they continued searching the small three point was the only
buck that showed himself before dark but with a few inches of snow in the
overnight forecast the guys are hoping that things will pick up in the morning
after a fairly uneventful first evening of hunting the guys made it back into camp
with the temperature dropping and some snowy weather headed their way they waste no time
firing up the wood stove and heating up a warm meal before settling in for the night
got some good old home cooking going
the following morning they unzipped the tent to find a few inches of fresh snow
ideal conditions for spotting a rutting buck
holy smokes i got a giant
giant no joke come here
we got this buck up here he's quite a long ways away he's on clear up on the top there
so we're gonna have a pretty good hike if we uh if we go after him we're kind of waiting
to see what he um what he's gonna do we think he kind of sees us already
so um we're just gonna kind of hang tight here and wait for him to make his move
but he's a good buck though big back forks good fronts really nice buck for a you know
public land general season buck they don't really get much better than that
after a few minutes the buck eventually disappeared over
the top and adam decided to make his move
well we're about halfway up and uh
we got one more knob between us we think he's going to the west but we're not sure so we're
going to go down in this last one and go up and over one more and hopefully he's on the other side
he's right there he just saw you guys i've never seen him what's on that hillside
yeah right next to those two trees 270 yards
oh there they go up top cresting right now it's all does
there's another doe he saw you guys i saw him whip his head around and just do this and take off
dude he's got that big of back forks
i think we got the ridge picked out that they're on it's gonna be probably a little
bit more than a mile to them and we're gonna have to cross this big knife ridge and uh when
we get up to the top we're going to follow the finger down and hopefully watch them come out
hopefully this works otherwise we'll have got a good uh workout today
no
okay see here this is where we are we're spotting them from over here so they've got to be out that
where those bucks went not that way that way
which is technically could be a good thing because
doe right there coming at us coming at us right there
no she's going away she's going away yeah
are they closest to us or farther away
closest to us but they're kid of on the crest of it
okay
knowing they weren't far from where they expected to find the
buck adam decided to get set up just in case he was the next to show
oh here they come here they come here they come
there's a buff
okay wait 360
get ready get ready
trailing a hot doe this buck never stopped long enough for adam to get a shot off
and they were forced to watch the buck trot off for the second time that day
i wasn't steady
fortunately the buck was so focused on his doe he never spooked so they were hoping
that if they hustle they'll be able to catch up with the buck for a third and final time
where's he at
he's just sitting on that ridge
get on this rock up here get on this rock
where's he at
he's on that ridge
all right he just ducked he's gonna come out right by that tree there he is
you did it
hoorah that's a big dude dude
that's a huge that's a huge deer
how hard did we have to work for that buck good lord he just tried to evade us and evade us and
i thought it was over for a couple of minutes there and then it came back together again and
montana white out general season came up here it's towards the end of season um it's the week
before thanksgiving and uh we chased this buck all day we started this this morning with a good hike
in here all the way up actually just right over here and we ended up killing him not you know
a couple hundred yards away from where he we uh first saw him first saw him so he stuck to this
area but we had to hike a extremely long ways to get to him he where he worked us he was he didn't
get that big for no reason yeah that's for sure that's good good job man that's a smoking buck
although it was dark by the time adam finally walked up on his buck
there was no trouble seeing that he killed a tremendous trophy
especially considering that was on public land during a general season hunt
what a buck
holy cow
what a giant look at those forks got a couple stickers beautiful holy cow yeah we knew this
buck had great forks but man they really don't get much better than that he's got real deforest long
beams good eye guards definitely just a great public land buck i mean on a general season tag
i could not be happier it's supposed to uh get cold tonight down probably uh we've heard to
negative three we're definitely gonna get the stove going when we get back we'll probably
have to take turns tonight keeping it warm again thanks to my good buddy our montana field editor
jordan breshears for coming on over and helping us out on this hunt uh definitely wouldn't have
had a as much luck as we did i think it had it not been for him so we hope you enjoyed this
week's show until next time remember fair chase is the only way to hunt and take trophy big game