Montana Deer: Love 'Em, Hate 'Em, Love 'Em!

I admit it. I have a love-hate relationship with deer. I ABSOLUTELY love seeing them in the wild! Whether hiking, canoeing, floating, hunting, camping, picking huckleberries or whatever...I just love watching them.

Whitetail doe walking across the back pasture

We have a spotting scope at work just around the corner from the door into my office. As the temperatures drop, the deer become more active and flock to the hillside. When they're out, I like to zoom in and watch their behavior. 

Antlers from Jace's buck

One time a couple of years ago while hunting for elk, I stood on a snowy hillside and looked down into a drainage some 400 yards away or so where I saw a handful of deer. I had already filled my deer tag that hunting season so I pulled out a deer call and started to grunt and doe call toward them. They seemed rather puzzled. They could hear me but they couldn't see me. Still, the calling didn't draw them any closer my way. After messing around for 10 minutes or so I had a feeling come over me that someone, or something in this case, was watching me. I slowly pivoted around only to see a 5x5 whitetail buck standing a mere 20 yards or so behind me. I slowly lifted my rifle to my shoulder, looked through its scope and verbally but rather nonchalantly said, "Bang." As I lowered my rifle, it hopped a barbwire fence and started to prance away. I pulled out the call and quickly stopped it in its tracks at about 35 yards. I again raised my rifle to my shoulder, looked through the scope and said, "Bang." It finally got the hint and trotted away. (Actually it didn't really get the hint because my son ended up shooting it about a mile from there a few weeks later.)

On a different hunt just last fall, an overnighter in the Bitterroot Valley, I saw a handful of dandy mule deer bucks. Unfortunately I didn't draw a tag so I couldn't take one home with me but they were more than impressive to see as was the bighorn sheep that crossed the road in front of us.

My experience with deer took on an a whole new, up-close perspective when we moved among the Ponderosa pine trees in the heart of Montana's deer country. Now we see them on a daily basis.

Rufus tries to keep deer at bay

Last year, we watched a whitetail doe raise triplet fawns on our property. This year she's back with twins. Of course there are other does, bucks and other critters as well. The deer like to bed down right next to our home. I even had to shoo a couple of them away from my target when I was on the side of my house practicing with my bow.

I still love them but my opinion tilted a wee bit after we purchased a trunk load of "deer proof" perennial flowers and plants for my daughter's recent wedding reception that took place in our front yard. They looked great that night but not so much the following morning after the local deer herd took a bite out of them. Or should I say ate the blooming flowers off of most all of them. That just goes to show deer will eat just about anything--even plants they supposedly don't like.

Munched!

I guess you could say we got a measure of revenge because we served barbecue venison sliders the night of the reception and they were delicious! Or maybe they were retaliating for that by getting revenge on us by wiping out our plants.

Still, given the choice, I'll most definitely take having deer close by compared to not. Plus, you can use them (like I did during last hunting season) to have a little fun with our young dog Rufus.