For a deer gun good ol' 30-30 has the claim of taken more deer then any other gun. I'm beting the 3o-o6 is not far behind the 30-30. but since its your first rifle go with the 30-30 less recoil then the 3o-o6 and might get you forming good shooting habits instead of twitching because of worry of recoil with the 3o-o6.

I hunted north west washington out side a small town called welpanit I think thats how you spell it but anyays the locals told me theres no monster bucks in the area but boy was they wrong. I never seen no monster bucks but I did find one side of a whitetail shed if the other side matched it would of scored a little over 200 B&C points typical to tell you the truth one of the bigest whitetail typical sheds I ever found. I'm sure that blacktail are like other deer and change patterns when they hard racks I would say your best chance is in the rut when they let there guard down some. Tree stands work if you know where there are monster coming out at spot & stock will work better in open country as you probly all ready know & brush hunting well that is a hard way to go about hunting just practice on what they call snap shooting then your bush hunting will produce more harvest plus you will get a shot off in the thickness where most the time you only have about 1 or 2 seconds to decide what it is jumping up out the brush & if you want to try & shot it. Oh sorry your using a bow in that case cant beat the tree stand hunt. Thats the thing about being a trophey hunter your going to see lots and lots of young bucks you just going to keep passing on these deer untill you see the trophey you like. I know its hard to pass all those deer and spend hours and hours out in the woods only to come home with no deer but thats what it takes to be a trophey hunter. One thing I started doing is packing a camera to pass the time plus you get photos of the deer you pass it makes the time out there go a little faster. Hope you post your moster when you get him!

1.mistakes 2.father 3.uncles 4.extended famliy 5. grew up in a friendly small town where I learnd things from almost each hunter in my local area.;)

Not to offend you but ummmm...... Its mid october you better get a move on it befor this hunting season passes you on by. These few months go by in a heart beat it seems.

depends on the angles & elements i will be shoting at that day. but just for whitetail i would take a 270 bolt action with 4x-9x scope. Go out durnig this summer practice on getting the second shot of fast and pretty close to right on as you can. After the deer is hit with rifle bullet its in shock for a few split sec. before they can react if they live that long. But I seen deet do amazing things and some can take a bullet. Evrey time i got 2 rounds off quick in a good kill zone my success % went way up with 270!

I had many many run in with bears black and Grizlly! I can tell with a big gun i reacted way diffrent then when I had nothing.1st bad incounter was with a mama black bear and two cubs when I was horn hunting had no gun was only 14 years old. I was focused on the ground about a 20 yard ratios i would say looking for horns then out the left of my eye came poping out to little black furry butt's from under a tree. I froz still slowly turned my head I knew the mom had to be close. I turned just to my left about 10 yards above me I made eye contact & I seen the look of kill as fast as I can in her eye's! When I was 14 I was really athletic & high strung I herd many of times before this happend to not run to play dead! No way not me not with that look. I ran straight down hill threw brush and trees at the first 100 yeards I can hear her behinde me at 500 yards was my dad with the big gun pointed up hill yelling she turned around allready!!

Kody, it has been porven that loving dog owners add many years to there life. I think a dog should be recomended by dr.'s.

I dont know if I can even follow such a orignal comment like that BO.:] So I'll just put up a link of the gun BO was talkig about. & I say this all with a smile! http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/centerfire_rifles/Model_R-15_VTR.asp

I know hunting mature bucks is hard untill rut time because there really hard to pattren. If your talking lead doe then she is just as alert as any buck but easier to pattren. Hunting is easy to figure out be at the right place at the right time its just knowing the right place and what time to be there is the hard part because we all know it dont work out like we plan.

Like Bo I also have not been rushed by wolves. It would seem you know about it then us you made it home to tell us about it. Maybee we have something to learn from you how did it turn out for you and what did you do to avoid becoming dog food?

Good answer Yoda I belive only the allmighty knows that kind of detail. Us as humans can make a educated guess though!

Come north about 60 miles to the flathead reservation it is open to non-members bird hunting. Here is the phone number to the main office of the local N.R.D. is 883-2888 they can tell you evreything you need to know from price to what kind of birds and where to lots are you can hunt.I know most of the mission vally is open to bird hunting!! Good luck!! hope you get the chance to make the pellets rain.

If your talking savage...well your over looking a caliber if you limint yourself to 3o-o6 or 270 there is also the 7mm savage since your 28 I wouldnt try it if it was your first gun as a youngster but based on your age. The 3o-o6 & 270 are top of line calibers but you also can not leave out 7mm when it comes to the savage.

I 2nd that Kody! I hope that OL understands that we see that there standards are above all others. There is few magazines I read & there is only a few web sites that you can find me at OL I read your magazines and sometimes set up camp on your web site. OL is a true american magazine & also website..keep bringing hunters together thank you!!

I think you got to send all your photos to the editor with a storie and Its up to them if they want to run the photo storie. I'm not 100% sure about that so if someone really knows correct me I would like to know too.

Its not only your eyes there looking for its your face outline.

I started with the classic dasiy BB gun like most young boys I hunted diffrent birds and animals with it. Moved on to a 22 opend sighted with the 17 round tube clip. To tell the truth took a couple nice bucks with it 150 & 160 class when I was young. I know it wasent the best of guns to try and shoot a big buck but it was the only gun I had at that age. It built such good habit forming shooting style that carried on for the rest of my life. A educated man like yourself allready knows that when you first start shooting if you use a bigger caliber of gun a new shooter is more often going to form a bad shooting style or routine like the main thing is the twitch or pull when they shoot the gun again there worried about the sound and kick that will make them pull there shot off and so on. But kody my four boys probly will first start out with a 22 open sight. I cant wait to see how it works out!

Bo pretty much wraped it up again! I like how flat the 270 shoots myself.

What do you mean by road side hunting? Here where I hunt you got to be 50 feet from the road befor you can shoot.

If you know where he comes down to get water. Not advising to do this if there is lots of danger in where your hunting in the dark. But if there is a way you can sneak above him in the dark about a hour befor light set up a ambush point where you have been seeing him move up the hill. Not to close to his trail what he takes up because the other elk with him might see you also just close enuff with cover to take a good shot.Hope you get him & post us some photos!

Got to love it!

thats a perfect example of you should only take advice from certin people in life I'm with Bo not because of my med. backround but from my 30 years of common sense.

Good choice MONTANA! Yup 3o-o6 right shot placment is the the answer for a elk. Out here you might have to take a shot into a nice herd of elk. What I mean is sometimes they group up and move off like that or some times the lead cow leads the way for the whole herd in single file kind of form. So just be prepaird for that kind of thing. Thanks 6phunter I have the 30-30 pump thats been having same problem. I never tried the 150 grain out of it yet always been the higher grains.

I like first light myself but last light will get you some action too. Glass,Glass,Glass is the main thing becuse you dont want to start running around to much in the area you are hunting because I notice the deer will change patterns when pressure starts up towards fall. Happy hunting & post us the big boy you get this year.

Can you imagine that in a court baddle. "Your honor in my add I put If you want a guided hunt to have good chance to shot some good goose" Your honor in the small print you can plainly see that I put we keep evreything our clients shoot.

I agree with madmax on the 4-16 40mm. I also want to point out I would choose the one that can handle alot of shock before the cross hairs move of center. Because you might know if your hunting Montana you will be planning to put in alot of boot miles and some spots out here can be straight ruff on a man & what ever he has with him.

just click on the link but i wouldnent use in basement! http://www.taxidermy.com/instructions/krowtann.html

I have something in mind but I dont know how much truth is behind it & its not a recipe. I herd if you lay a bucks head where your camera can see it that will attract some deer to come take a look. I never tried it but my friend hit a buck like three years. Threw it by one of his sheds in his back yard. The last three years he has had deer always laying close by the deers head. He wont cut the grass there now because he dont want to run them off.

using your optics to look at something just like saying I scoped that draw up and down I glassed that draw didnt see much our I was glassing & seen a huge shed antler about 90 yards away

Good choice in Montana....whats good about the state you could close your eyes and point a place out there is a good chance there is some game there. If you where hunting whitetail I would say Seely lake or the Capital Helana has been known to have major deer problems.

hope this helps. http://www.michigandnr.com/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/deer_field-dressing.pdf

First off I want to thank you for your service. After hunters ed I would learn all about gutting and processing the meat of the animal I was hunting. What I mean is make sure you have a plan on what to do with the animal after you have it down. Like how to gut the animal skin or cape it what meat locker has room for the animal or cut the animal up your self but if your new I dont recommend doing that for some years down the road when you have more exeperience. After all that I would learn where the vitals are on the animal heart & lung.practice,practice,practice with what bow or firarm your going to use at diffrent angles and diffrent distances. I would get a call or 2 practice with those untill I felt good about it. Scouting is pretty much out the ? if your not going to be back untill August the hunting season with be pretty much started. So maybee someone else can help you out on where to hunt... your hunting in Colorado right? Oh yeah before I go hunting is like most things form good habits & you will be hunting many years form bad habits well you know.. safety first! Can you post a photo of you animal this fall on OL for all of use to see? have a good time this fall

If I was meet hunting what sometimes I do I would shot the younger one for it has a better taste less meat yes but the big one you dont shot lives on learns to adjust to humans.. breeds many times out of reach of humans befor he gives up the ghost. Or he gets hit on the highway but I would like to think he lives on.

I guess you could depends on what you call big deer 300lbs or 190 B&C either one depends on the area & what kind of deer your area has been producing.

220 grain wow! I guess it might be useful if you where trying to stop a armored vehicle.

I hope this kind of helps you out. http://home.comcast.net/~jesse99/exterior.html

depends on what your voting on let us know what your voting on then we can help a little more.

I let them tell me what they want out of me then I go from 9 times out of 10 there just happy your helping them out with there crop & animals. But if any of the ranchers who let me hunt on there land comes up and says hey if you want to keep huting on my land I need you to shovel out my barn full of horse dung! We'll I would be waste deep in it I honor friendship & love hard work & helping someone help me cant beat it. By the way any local ranchers who open there land to hunters I have four young boys I need to start teaching them some work ethics so just let me know!I cant put them to hard work yet but they can watch and learn from me. So give me a call!

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HB0045.html If this what you mean Big O?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg9Inrp0wio there is a video of a black bear bluff charge. I was chased by mother black bear once. Its a long storie she only chased me about 150 yards down hill I had no gun. I agree with Big O If your in bear country dont leave home without it & im not talking about pepper spray safty first!!!!! Of course if thats all you got its better then nothing thats for sure.

OL just made a place to submitt it.

I think it differs from what part of the country your in. Last year I seen buck's fully grown around the first week of august. I didnt see none rubed untill the end of august. There is the rare thing that happens to deer when they become stage from injury or birth defect. Where they dont lose there antlers no more and even more rare is the stage what dont lose his horn & and keeps growing them threw his life. So that gives us over 90 days to scout our areas Happy hunting!

lol

I love the 3o-o6 caliber. So did another out doors man & one of the greatest shooters that walked this rock of ours. This great mans name is Carlos Hathcock also knowen as White Feather. I once seen where he had a confirmed kill at 1,000 yard with 30-06 with a mounted 4x scope. Might not of been the same model as yours but when I hear 3o-o6 his name comes to mind. There is a ton of websites with this American hero on it. This is some history of 3o-o6 because this man took his same 3o-o6 that he used for hunting into battle most the time and came back the victor evreytime! Here is a link where you can read some more on this American Hero! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Hathcock

Nothing is worth losing you hunting rights!

I think you all forgot that the human race been using the bow for thousands of years! So i would say a traditional bow! Any kind of bow now days has sights and all that good stuff but only been around for less then hundred of years. So do the math and you realize that its not just the bow its the shooter.