BKC

I have my elk deer combo tag for Montana and I'm leaving Nov 15 for 8 days. Never hunted whitetail before both Mule and whitetailwill be in the rut. Any great advise for a newbiewhitetail hunter would love a monster WT mount.............................

unbridled

What part of NW Montana? It doesn't matter because you'll want to hunt the does. Camp out on the does and look for bucks cruising to breed does. Decide before hand what size buck you want and don't shoot anything that doesn't meet your requirements. Rattling can work OK in Montana but mostly to bring in something that you've already seen. 8 days sounds like a lot but it's not if you are planning on getting quality representations of both species. You could treat it like 2 four day hunts and focus on deer the first four and rely on scouting reports from other folks in camp when it comes time to hunt elk for four days.

Are you hunting with an outfitter?

Good luck and have fun!

BKC

Well I'm hunting private property Elk and Deer the owner(no outfitter)has had the land for ever around 20k acres south of Libby 70 miles.We are from California that is why the eight days first timehunting inMontanathe owner says we are here to hunt Elk and the deer are just a bonusI like the way he thinks. I have never been able to hunt deer in the rut sinceI don't bow huntand hunted Idaho, Oregon, and California but never in the rut so I'm really looking forward to this hunt[8D]
Thanks for the advice