Three Months of Work Yields 180-Inch Montana Mule Deer

A long season ends with hard-earned success.

September 10, 2025 By Chuck Adams

Fat brown antlers appeared above a ridge 40 yards away. The rack glittered like a flame in the sunlight. I grabbed an arrow from my hip quiver and snapped it on the bowstring. My heart was in my throat.

This was my third trip for Montana mule deer in 2024. September had been a bust, with very few bucks sighted — and no big ones. I shot a huge bull elk late in the month but headed home to Wyoming with an unfilled deer tag in my pocket.

I tried again in mid-October, near the end of Montana’s archery season. Six days of glassing and hiking steep slopes turned up a dozen mature bucks, but nothing I wanted to shoot. I am a challenge-oriented guy, and I had set my sights on a deer scoring at least 170 inches. The best on that trip was a thin-horned 150-incher.

Now it was early November, just before Election Day, and everything had changed. During the past few days, I had seen more than 100 deer per day, including three bucks in the 160-inch class. Six inches of snow covered the ground, and the rut was beginning to crank.

There were gun hunters in the area — a checkerboard of public and private land — and I was wearing blaze orange, as required for all general-season hunters in the Treasure State. This helped keep me safe and also let me easily spot other sportsmen from a distance. But I quickly realized hiking away from roads left competition behind. I rarely encountered a rifleman, and never I never encountered one more than half a mile from well- traveled routes.

Now, a thick-tined buck was just beyond a ridge and inside archery range. Seconds later, the animal walked over the top.

I groaned as the deer popped into focus through my 10X binocular. He had decent main beams and four long tines on the left. Brow tines were also good, over three inches tall. But the right side was deformed, with three short and crooked points. This deer would not even touch the Pope and Young typical record-book minimum of 145 inches.

The animal trotted past me at less than 20 yards but never knew I was there. His neck was swollen, and his eyes were red — sure signs of a sex-crazed buck! He moseyed out of sight, clearly in search of females.

I glassed nearly two dozen more bucks before sundown, but nothing turned my head. Deer were appearing out of the woodwork in a mating frenzy, and I figured I might see a bruiser sooner or later.

Election Day came and went with the same measly results — unless you were a Republican sitting in front of the TV! I crawled in my travel trailer a bit after dark, listened to voting returns for a while on the radio, then drifted off to sleep.

For me, spot-and-stalk mule deer hunting is exceptional fun. Young muley bucks are sometimes easy to approach, especially during the mating season. Like teenage boys, they let females cloud what little good judgment they have.

But even in November, big, old bucks retain some of their innate caution. They often hide in heavy cover during midday, only appearing near dawn and dusk. Does in heat certainly capture their attention, and this gives hunters a chance. From past experience, I knew there were 170-class mule deer in this hard-hunted area. In September and October, these wise old boys had been tucked away and nearly impossible to find. Now, with the rut heating up, I had a reasonably good chance at success.

Unlike whitetail deer, most archery mule deer are taken beyond 30 yards. According to official, record-book statistics, nearly 50 percent of Pope and Young muleys are taken between 40 and 60 yards. A flat-shooting, accurate and quiet setup such as mine was just the ticket for dropping the deer of my dreams.

Nov. 6 dawned cold and clear. I drove to a switchback on an old logging track and hiked into rugged and roadless terrain where I had seen plenty of deer the past few days. A thin-antlered 5x5 sauntered past just after daylight, his neck stretched low as he bird-dogged for does. A smaller 3x3 followed a safe distance back, and behind him came a tiny 2x2. It was a perfect day to hunt; there was almost no wind, and the temperature was a reasonable 20 degrees.

I crossed a hollow through thick pines, climbed a ridge, planted my fanny and started glassing. The slope across from me glittered with fresh snow. A dozen does and fawns fed into a clearing 200 yards away, followed by a pencil-horned 5x5. His antlers were wider than his 22-inch ear tips. Forks were uniform and deep. But brow tines were barely an inch long. This buck had the potential to be something in another year or two. But not now.

The young stud dashed into the herd of females, lip-curling and scattering them in all directions. He stood for a couple of minutes like he owned the world.

Suddenly, the buck looked over its shoulder and fled like his tail was on fire. Almost instantly, a much larger buck swaggered into the clearing. I could see his rack without my binocular, and it looked huge against the snow!

One magnified view was all I needed. The buck had tall, massive and deeply forked antlers with extra “kicker” tines on both sides. Like many mature mule deer, his rack was a gorgeous chocolate brown. I trotted off the slope, crossed a draw and scrambled up a side ridge through shin-deep snow. The big boy should be just over the top.

I peeked beyond a bush and spotted large antlers. The deer was steeply below me, with his neck stretched to sniff a doe. I eased one step ahead and snapped a reading with my rangefinder: 38 yards.

My low hold on the chest was perfect for the severe downhill angle. The FMJ shaft and Magnus Stinger broadhead smashed through the spine and into the far lung. The deer dropped as though hit with a sledge hammer. He was mine.

Never mind the butchering and meat packing work that followed. After several weeks of searching over a span of three months, I had finally found a deer I wanted. In January of this year, P&Y measurer Ron Niziolek officially scored my 6x8 Montana mule deer at more than 180 gross inches and 1784⁄8 inches net. If possible, that put an even bigger grin on my face!

Hunting Tip: Judging Trophy Mule Deer

Evaluating mule deer bucks on the hoof is not an easy task, and one best learned through experience. A mature deer’s antlers usually appear massive compared to spindly racks on younger bucks. Eventually, you will develop a feel for what is big and what is not.

Certain antler traits are easy to judge. A record-book quality buck usually has four main tines per side, branching like double slingshots off the main beam. Average length of all eight tines should measure at least 7 or 8 inches beyond the fork. The back tine should rise at least 6 inches from the main beam before it forks into two. It is best if brow tines measure at least one or two inches, but sometimes a giant buck will not have brow tines. The rack should spread even with or beyond outstretched ears. Extra “kicker” points are common on big mule deer and often add to character and score.

The key to judging mule deer is taking your time, looking at specific antler traits and evaluating them calmly. It is easy to get excited in the moment, make a hasty decision and overestimate an animal’s size.