We have some awesome hunt dates available for 2012...! Check out the openings below and take advantage of some fantastic combo hunts we can offer you throughout the 2012 Montana hunting season!

NOTE: 2012 Archery Whitetail Hunt Packages: These hunt's will be offered at $2,995.00. Including Meals, Lodging, Airport Shuttle, and a 7 day hunt...Saturday to Saturday! (Add Antelope combo $500.00, license by draw, roughly 90% draw success. Antelope license cost is $205.00).

NOTE: 2012 Archery Mule Deer Hunt Packages: These hunt's will be offered at $3,495.00. Including Meals, Lodging, Airport Shuttle, and a 7 day hunt...Saturday to Saturday! (Add Antelope combo $500.00, license by draw, roughly 90% draw success. Antelope license cost is $205.00).

NOTE: 2012 Archery Deer/Elk Combo Hunt Packages: These hunt's will be offered at $4,995.00 Including Meals, Lodging, Airport Shuttle, and a 7 day hunt...Saturday to Saturday! (Add Antelope combo $500.00, license by draw, roughly 90% draw success. Antelope license cost is $205.00).

NOTE: 2012 Rifle Elk/Deer Combo Hunt Packages: These hunt's will be offered at $5,495.00 Including Meals, Lodging, Airport Shuttle, and a 7 day hunt...Saturday to Saturday! (Add Antelope combo $1,000.00, license by draw, roughly 90% draw success. Antelope license cost is $205.00).

NOTE: 2012 Limited Rifle Mule Deer Packages: These hunt's will be offered at $3,995.00 Including Meals, Lodging, Airport Shuttle, and a 5 day hunt...Saturday to Thursday! (Add Antelope combo $1,000.00...Antelope license $205.00 by draw, roughly 90% draw success).

NOTE: 2012 Rifle Whitetail Hunt Packages: These hunt's will be offered at $3,495.00 Including Meals, Lodging, Airport Shuttle, and a 5 day hunt...Saturday to Thursday! (Add Antelope combo $1,000.00...Antelope license $205.00 by draw, roughly 90% draw success).

Please let me know if you have any questions, Thanks!

Keith 717-512-3582

MOGA Members

Here is the update from the Department of FWP.

Surplus Licenses

Big Game Combination (Deer/ Elk) 1,709 unsold fee = $939.00

Elk Combination (elk only) 2,158 unsold fee = $789.00

The Department plans on having an on-line sale of these licenses beginningMonday, April 23^rd as long as the computer system checks out okay in advance.

Contact me ASAP to lock in your 2012 Dream Hunt with us now! Keith 717-512-3582

"Montana Fly Fishing trips with more than 10 miles of private access on blue ribbon trout waters in Southwestern Montana! Beautiful location & acommodations right on the Shield's River with fantastic fishing out the back door! Close to Yellowstone River, meals & lodging included!". May-August, Contact Keith @ 717-512-3582 or 406-578-2383.

Deposits are now being recieved for the 2012 Montana hunting season. See the available dates on this page for openings in 2012, booking terms are as follows: a $1,500.00 deposit to hold your reservation. Once your deposit is received for the dates reserved, you will be sent a hunt contract and receipt of deposit.

We have excellent whitetail, elk, mule deer, and antelope hunting. Also available are black bear, and moose. Combo hunts are available for elk, deer, antelope, and black bear. Call for details on the best time of season to combine several animals during your hunt. Trout fishing is included when you draw your license. General licenses must be applied for by March 15th, 2012, cost is the responsibility of the hunter/client. All deposits can be applied to a future hunt if not receiving a license through the general draw.

Once the applicant acquires the dates they want by sending the required $1,500.00 deposit, the next procedure is the hunt contract. After the hunt contract is reviewed, signed and sent back to Montana Whitetails, Inc., the client waits for that years booked hunt license application process to begin, which normally starts in early February.

The client at that time will apply for the required licenses and tags through the application process. Deposits may be refunded if not drawing a license. Deposits are non-refundable after the licenses have been issued to the client. The final step is paying the hunt balance which is due by August 1 of that years hunt.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 717-512-3582.

Thanks,

Keith

Hello everyone, there has been some news circulating about a reduction of the deer herd here in the state of Montana. I wanted to reassure those who consider hunting Montana this year (2012), that we are located in Southwestern Montana where we have been blessed with a healthy deer herd and excellent numbers of deer leading into the 2012 season.

It is a fact that the Eastern part of the state, along the Milk River, as well as some Central locations and into North Dakota have experienced heavy loss in their deer numbers do to EHD, Blue Tonque, and or heavy snow accumulation over last Winter into Spring.

Rest assure our deer numbers have been very healthy! This past season we had one of our best years ever! Take a look at the photo album and feel free to contact me with references from the 2011 season if you want to ask questions about the state of our deer herd here on our private ranches along the Shields River.

We look forward to the 2012 season here at Montana Whitetails, and I can't wait to start shed hunting here in April...! Driving home from the airport on January 11th I saw over 100 deer on one of our leases! Please feel free to contact me with any questions. We look forward to serving you in 2012 which has been labeled as one of the best deer hunts anywhere in the Country by our clients!

Thanks for your time and understanding, have a great Spring!

Keith Miller

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I will be posting a season ending report soon! I also forgot all my photos I transferred onto a picture CD in Montana, I left them at the house and forgot to bring them home with me to post on the photo gallery. So I will be doing that when I return sometime in January. However, most or all of the success photos are in the season journal but I will be updating the photo gallery when I have all my pictures back!…oops. So now I wait and will try to figure out all the totals for the season, harvest records and other information that may be of interest to everyone.

I have to draw the doe hunt winner also, I think I will do that now! So I will be posting that in the season ending report hopefully within a few days! Been pretty busy after the season with my much needed vacation overseas and now getting back into the busy season for bookings for 2009 and preparing documents for the state, and also getting hunt contracts and starting in late January the license application process begins.

If you have any questions for now, please feel free to contact me. I am in Pennsylvania now but will return to Montana in January sometime. My phone is 717-512-3582, or send me an e-mail at info@montanawhitetails.com.

Oh…one more thing, I want to let everyone know the new Montana demo DVD is ready for order and can be ordered through the website at http://www.montanawhitetails.com/dvd.htm.

I also may be ordering a bunch of T-shirts and I will post a news report and photos when they become available!

Thanks and have a good Holidays!

Keith

Montana Whitetails will be attending several sport and outdoor shows on the East coast starting in early February. If you want to come and book a hunt, check out some video/photos/brochures, or just talk hunting, stop by one of the shows listed below and we'll be happy to answer all your questions and share some exciting hunting stories!

• Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show, Harrisburg PA (Farm Show Complex) February 4th - 12th, 2012 (Booth #7935)
• Springfield Sportsmans Show, W. Springfield, MA (Better Living Center) February 23rd-26th, 2012 (Booth #513)
• WNY Sport & Travel Expo, Buffalo/Hamburg, NY (Hamburg Fairgrounds) March 8th-11th, 2012 (Booth #93)

Hope to see you all there!...

Starting with the 2010 hunting season there will be a 115 inch minimum antler restriction strictly enforced to try and protect bucks that need to mature in order to continue providing a quality archery hunt for Pope & Young bucks well into the future! With a large buck population that will only benefit tremendously with a antler restriction, this step is an absolute must in order to protect the future generations and continue a well balanced whitetail herd through proper harvest of mature bucks and plenty of does. This past season we saw a very well balanced buck to doe ratio, and with the Summer rains that provided optimum antler growing conditions, a antler restriction set years ago would have provided a unprecedented year with a large Pope & Young buck harvest than we could have anticipated!...

This step has been tossed around and extremely supported by our repeat clients who know first hand the true potential of managing our bowhunting only operation on such prime whitetail habitat and archery hunting paradise! a 115 minimum is very liberal considering the potential of letting these bucks grow to 4 years old where they really start to get some character and reach there potential. A lot of 4 years old bucks and older here have the genetics to produce trophy quality antlers with very unique characteristics such as split G-2's, sticker points, forked browe tines, Canadian resemblenced dark antlered bucks with heavy mass, and where starting to see several bucks sporting drop tines!

The uniqueness of this bowhunting only operation is truly to provide a archery hunting paradise with a large, balanced whitetail deer population, as well as one of your best chances in the country to harvest a Pope & Young whitetail buck with archery equipment, right here in the state of Montana! This new antler restriction will be a critical component to the future success and growth of our business in providing one of the best bowhunting experiences in the country!

Thanks, Keith Miller

Montana Whitetails, Inc.

Hello Everyone, GREAT news here at Montana Whitetails. We just aquired 2 NEW excellent elk hunting leases for 2011! The new leases will help us continue to reach our goals and cover an additional 6,320 acres of private ground at the foothills of the Crazy Mountains! That's 6,320 MORE acres to hunt on top of our already close to 20,000 acres of private lands that offers you awesome whitetail deer hunting, antelope, mule deer, black bear, turkey, and elk!

These 2 NEW properties holds an excellent population of Elk, Antelope, & Mule Deer! One new lease covers a vast area with plenty of quality habitat stretching from open prairies and irrigated alfalfa, wheat, barley, and oats to rolling wooded foothills dotted with spruce, cold mountain creeks, and open parks for excellent ARCHERY ELK HUNTING!

The other NEW elk hunting lease is all timbered ridges dotted with fresh select timber harvests where the elk have been concentrating on the fresh growth flourishing around these areas opened up to the sunlight. We are looking forward to offering our clients an even better Western big game hunting experience. Book now to archery hunt these bugeling September bulls while combining awesome early season whitetail and trout fishing!

Call for more details as we will be offering some fantastic early season ARCHERY ELK & LATE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER RIFLE HUNTS!

Call 717-512-3582 and book your hunt before the March 15th license application deadline.

Thanks, Keith Miller

2012 Book Now - Save 10%

Help us prepare for the 2012 season and we'll save you 10% on any hunt booked now for the 2012 season! Come join us on some fantastic big game hunts here in Southwestern Montana!...Remember to apply by March 15th, 2012 for Elk and Deer!

Hello Again Everyone!

Welcome to the 2011 post season hunting report which highlights our 2011 season. Here in Montana we had excellent moisture going into the 2011 hunting season however the long Spring seemed to delay antler growth a bit. We had one of our best seasons for Pope & Young bucks taken this year but we lacked the traditional 145 - 150+ whitetail’s we typically see during the season. We saw a few bucks of that caliber but not as many however the Pope& Young caliber whitetail’s was pretty healthy! As always, we had a great year bowhunting these riverbottom whitetail deer! We’ll start with the season opener on September 3rd, and continued through the rut which takes us to the end of November. That first week in September we had our first 2 bucks harvested in velvet! With the season starting early in September this was a great opportunity for guys to try and harvest a velvet whitetail. The weather was comfortable with a few storms but overall the first week was great early season hunting conditions. Next year in 2012 the season opens on September 1^st so anyone wanting a shot at a velvet whitetail needs to call me as that week is starting to fill up!

The middle of September saw a few good bucks hitting the ground post full moon. Plus we had some exciting Elk rut action over some wallows and fence crossings from our archery elk hunters. The rut seemed to peak towards the end of that 3^rd week in September and stay for a good bit into that first week in October. We had Richard harvest a beautiful bull elk from a tree stand over an elk wallow and tag his Mule deer buck in the same week, also from a tree stand! Some golden opportunities for more elk slipped through the fingertips as bulls were chasing cows and some close calls for more shots where O so close! The Antelope rut was in full swing as well where Aaron and Gibo took the responsibilities to knock down some rutting Antelope bucks. We had one other archery Antelope hunter that had a big buck walk through his gate while at full draw, but the buck never stopped and he didn’t risk making a noise to try and stop him at close range.

Early October proved to be once again an excellent week to archery hunt these riverbottom whitetail’s!. In the last 7 seasons the biggest buck of the year was harvested 3 times during October! 2 times in September, and 2 times during the month of November. So you can see all 3 months can provide excellent opportunities at trophy whitetail’s!. This year it was Tommy Strickland who arrowed a heavy main frame 5 x 5 that gross scored 145-6/8". Congratulations Tommy!

Heading into November we had one full week in late October being the first week of firearm season where a group of guys gunned down all kinds of stuff in our gun hunting areas!...We had a plethera of big game animals on the ground as we wasted no time punching tags! We started off looking for elk, and then after a few hours let the business end take over! First on the list was Antelope, and plenty of them! We glassed, weaved, and belly crawled our way through 100+ Antelope smothering a few alfalfa fields. It didn’t take long to knock down some good bucks but it was also a challenge with so many to get within gun range of a few giants! We settled on some great bucks and everyone had a blast stalking these open plains Antelope which is always something I look forward too. I remember the 2 Art’s taking their first ever Antelope bucks and Mark making a perfect 331 yard shot on a wide buck like nobodies business.

The first 2 weeks of November we didn’t have any hunters scheduled which was a first in 7 seasons. The last 2 weeks of November is always the rut hunting weeks and we did have a few hunters take advantage of that. The winds where brutal during some of those rut hunting days which really hampered some of the deer movement. A lot of the guys stuck it out all day long which is paramount for rut hunting success here in these narrow riverbottoms where buck travel a lot during mid-day. The Heater Body Suit was working great for those guys so anyone looking to bowhunt the rut should consider one of those things as they truly work under such cold and windy conditions.

I'll give you a rundown of what was taken and the success rates for our 2011 season. We had 30 whitetail bowhunters harvest a total of 20 bucks which comes down to roughly 65% success, which is a great average considering a lot of smaller bucks where passed in regards to the 115" antler restriction. On top of the successful harvest record of 20 bucks we also recorded 15 bucks missed by archery equipment, and 8 bucks wounded and not recovered. Of course there where some smaller bucks harvested which brought the average whitetail buck harvested to right above 118". The bowhunters killed a whitetail buck that averaged quite a bit larger than the rifle hunters if you break it down between bow and gun. We limit the gun hunters but it’s really easy to harvest any buck you see and typically the gun hunters are shooting the first decent buck that walks out in the gun hunting areas while the bowhunters are more patient and observe more quality bucks over a set and know what to hold out for, generally speaking. Last season we averaged right at 120" overall so where still in the ballpark of that 120" buck we would like to reach as our typical bowkill. The antler restriction helps in our goal to protect some of these younger bucks in our bowhunting only private riverbottom properties. However, we are going to be enforcing this rule more thoroughly in the coming years to ensure an abundance of trophy quality bucks on our private riverbottoms. The future again looks bright as we continue to achieve our goal and try to provide everyone a chance to harvest a mature trophy Montana whitetail deer!.

So, lets break the season down a bit more. The overall count for our whitetail bucks harvested for the 2011 Montana hunting season where as follows, 12 points - ( 1 ), 10 points - ( 8 ), 9 points - ( 5 ), and 8 points - ( 11 ). Our whitetail rifle hunters harvested 4 of those bucks with one other rifle hunter getting some shooting, but not harvesting a buck which would have been another 100% successful season for our rifle hunters. So realistically, ever gun hunter shot a buck, one was not recovered.

Our 3 Mule Deer hunters harvested 2 bucks of ( 1 ) - 4 x 4 with archery, and ( 1 ) - 5 x 4 by rifle. We also had 3 Antelope gun hunters who harvested 3 Antelope bucks. Our 3 Antelope archery hunters harvested 2 Antelope bucks while the other was full draw but didn’t release an arrow. We had one hunter harvest a beautiful 6 x 5 archery bull elk during the rut. Several rifle Elk hunters harvested their bulls throughout the season with 2 bulls and a few cows being harvested. We had about 8 Elk hunters this year and we’re looking to expand into larger private grounds for Elk hunting during the 2012 season!

We also had 1 Moose hunter harvest his Shiras Moose and 1 Montana Black Bear taken during the season!

The shed hunting season will be upon us here early next year so check back in for photos from our shed hunting trips. Also, we plan to expand our treestand inventory and there will be lot of work over the Spring of 2012 to set, prepare, move, and replace stands on our archery hunting leases. We also are seeking out additional Elk hunting grounds so stay tuned for updates and photos.

The 2011 photo album has been completed, you can check that out and see all the bucks taken from the 2011 season on the website! Stay tuned for more news updates and hunter stories as I get them. Also, thanks for following the season journal again this year. I have fun posting photos and updates so glad everyone enjoys that thing!

For now I will work on updating the remaining spots for 2012. Spots are still open for most all the early season and rut hunting dates! I have those openings available on the news page now! Call to reserve a week for 2012 if you want to experience some awesome whitetail bowhunting! We saw some really nice bucks at the end of the season that never got harvested...!

Our 2011 doe hunt drawing contest was won by non other than Aaron Kitzman who successfully harvested a whitetail doe after tagging his Antelope buck, congratulations Aaron!...see you back in 2012!

Thanks for following and if anyone has any questions or wants to talk hunting, feel free to call or e-mail me at 717-512-3582 or info@montanawhitetails.com. Happy Holidays!

Thanks again!

Keith, Rob, and Betty!