Eastern Montana Deer Hunts

On with the next hunt story. This one is not a long drawn out hunt so I will give a little insight about the hunter. Tom Simpson has hunted with us several times. He comes out with a group from the great state of New Mexico. Tom is an expert gun guy! He shoots long distance with rifle and muzzleloaders. Tom is the real deal! He has a 1600 yard range on his property. Tom is also a mentor to many people, young and old.

Tom always lets the guys in his group shoot deer before he does. This year the fellows were all filled out and they hit the road to beat a storm. It would be myself and another guide Caleb who guided Tom this day. It was the afternoon of an extremely windy day, gusts up to fifty.

My hopes were not to high with the wind situation. We were hitting little spots that were protected from the wind. We found a good bunch of deer up and on their feet in a secluded valley. Does and small bucks were around, we now had hope! We continued up the valley directly into the wind.

Off to our right was a mature buck on his feet staring in our direction. It was strange that he let us get so close. He was a good deer and we could tell he had an extra in-line. Tom decided that this was a nice deer. You boys cover your ears! The deer dropped stone dead after the shot. A doe jumped up and bound away. This explains  the bucks behavior.

No long distance shooting for Tom this year! The buck was shot under 70 yards. Tom quickly said he needed to do some close rang bullet testing anyhow! Back to town with a big buck we go.