Hey JD,
Yes, we have some nice bucks here but we can only kill one buck per year......fill your tag early and you're done, so I'm looking to get in more hunting. I recently retired and now have a lot more time to hunt.

There are some nice bucks here along the Milk River (the river is about
a 1/2 mile behind my house), but our top end bucks do not approach what you guys kill up there in your neck of the woods. Those hunting shows you might have seen on TV about hunting the Milk River make it look like it's "Whitetail Heaven"......... Ya, right. Those shows are filmed east of here in the Saco/Hinsdale area and are on a private ranch leased by an outfitter and a portion of the ranch is reserved specifically for Bill Jordan and his crew and a few other select TV personalities. I corresponded with a guy from North Carolina who booked a hunt with this guy and all they saw were a few mediocre bucks where he took them. They were driving back to the ranch house one afternoon and this guy spotted a field full of deer and several nice bucks. When he asked the outfitter why they weren't hunting there his reply was, "That area is reserved for Bill Jordan and his crew". Needless to say, the guy was not a happy camper!!!!

There are some nicebucks all along the Milk River, but not like you see on TV. Access can be a real problem also. A lot of it is being leased out to outfitters. I do have a few pretty good places I can bowhunt, but again, the top end bucks where I huntare probably somewhere in the 150's. Every few years someone will kill a buck that is over 160, but not very often. The average mature buck here probably scores 130 to 145. We also don't get the body size here that you get in Alberta. Very few bucks here will dress out over 225 pounds and I've never seen one that would approach 300 pounds.

So, why do I want to hunt Alberta? I guess because I want to hunt somewhere where a buck could walk out that would make me drop my drawers! I have no grand illusions of killing a190-200" buck.....I would be happy to just hunt an area where I know bucks like that exists....just to see one would make my whole season.

After all of that, I watched a very nice 6X6 bed down right across the road from my house right after daylight this morning. I have photos of him I took about 2 weeks ago also. I could have easily killed him with a rifle this morning, but I prefer hunting him with my bow. This buck is bedded down as I write in a 2 acre patch of weeds next to an old building less than 100 yards from the county road and the railroad tracks. Is today the day? I don't know, but I'll be seeing if I can intercept him latter this afternoon when he gets up to feed......