Montana Archery Mule Deer: A 141-Inch Forky | Huntin' Fool

September 2026
Huntin' Fool
5 min read

Montana Mega Forky: A 141-Inch Archery Mule Deer

Hunter: Jackson Jessop
Species: Mule Deer
Location: Montana, public land
Method: Archery, spot and stalk

After several days of calling in small bulls and not finding any big bulls to chase, I stayed up high and glassed for the morning. I ended up spotting a couple of deer bedded across a drainage from me, half a mile away.

Without a spotting scope, I could not tell if they were shooters, but, with no elk in play for the morning, I decided to stalk them just in case.

A Stalk on Bedded Deer

I worked my way over slow and steady, side-hilling to where I guessed them to be on the steep mountainside, playing the wind and hoping that the sun that was starting to reach them wouldn't get them on their feet and moving.

Compound bow leaning in sunlit grass among Montana timber during a mule deer stalk

The Biggest Two-Point I’ve Ever Seen

As I popped through the trees where I’d seen them, I saw a giant body feeding through the trees but could not see the antlers. I looked down, spotting a young four-point bedded below me at forty-five yards. Definitely not a shooter. I looked back up at the first deer and finally saw his antlers. Seventy yards away from me was the biggest two-point I've ever seen, his frame dwarfing the four-point and most other deer I've seen in my life.

This one was, no doubt, a shooter. I shifted my feet and prepared for a shot on this steep hill. The four-by-four stood up, stretched, and fed his way toward me until he was just twenty-five yards away. I waited patiently, watching them feed. They had no idea I was there. When the big buck finally turned broadside, I ranged him, dialed for fifty yards, drew back, and sent my arrow flying.

A Follow-Up Shot at Seventy-Three Yards

He ran thirty yards and was hurting bad. I reloaded for a follow-up, ranged him at seventy-three yards, and shot again, hitting him as he was quartering away. He ran five yards before, out of nowhere, the younger buck ran in for the finishing blow, hitting him in the side and sending him sprawling down the mountain.

Overhead view of a Montana mule deer buck's head and antlers with a compound bow

 

Close-up of mule deer antler bases with an arrow laid across the buck

A 141-Inch Public-Land Forky

I knew he was big, but there was no ground shrinkage on this seven-and-a-half-year-old public-land brute. His frame was every bit as big as a 180-inch deer, and he had a body the size of a young bull elk. He measured in at 141 inches as a two-by-two—a true deer of a lifetime.

Mule deer antlers strapped to a loaded backpack on a rocky Montana slope

 

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