Ballot Initiative to End NR Big Game Hunting?

[BlazerBeam]

I would sign something like this in a heart beat. No more NR resident hunting in MT. I am tired of the gross overestimation of NR hunter money to our economy as a whole. Yes FWP gets a boost from NR tag sales. But there is a significant amount from residents too. It would not take much at all to make up for lost NR funds. Raise cost of fishing, conservation, bow stamp, etc. a couple bucks and we'd be there. Why does everyone think that residents would shit their pants over that? Present it as this: "Hunting in MT will be reserved only for the residents of MT. But in order to accomplish that, we need to raise the cost of every residents hunting and fishing experience for the year by $40." NR hunter money is an easy target for funds. Eliminating it may force us residents to step up and play a bigger role in management of our own state's game. That would not be a bad thing.

 

[BlazerBeam]

And for me, its not so much that NR hunters are causing the issues we see in MT. Its that MT hunting has been pimped out in so many different ways that its created this allure that has everyone looking to get their opportunity to hunt Elk in MT. The dream of a NR coming to MT to kill an elk is what keeps Gohunt, newberg, outfitters, etc in business. They keep spewing the dream to NR's and in my opinion are the ones to blame for the problems we face. 25-30 years ago. All that I had to do to hunt an elk or muley in the Bearpaw Mtns south of my cousin's in Havre was call up the rancher and ask and every single time I was allowed. Then it slowly went to: "Well I've decided to lease it to an outfitter this year, so No." Now today those types of properties have been bought by NR's and they are demanding that they get tags to hunt "their" elk. How did this transition happen? I only look to those who've tried to make money off of selling "the dream"

 

[rogerthat]

There are lots of other changes that would help a heck of lot more than banning NR hunting in Montana. At this current juncture this is a silly idea at best. The needling back and forth between Rs and NRs is slightly entertaining but useless. In all seriousness if your a MT resident and you blame NRs for the poor hunting and poor access to the critters this state offers than I suggest you take some time to think and ponder about how you arrived at your conclusions.

 

[JLS]

I’m sure if NR hunters were banned 30 years ago things would look much better for the resident guy.

 

[BenInMT]

I would sign something like this in a heart beat. No more NR resident hunting in MT. I am tired of the gross overestimation of NR hunter money to our economy as a whole.

It’s always the people with something to gain financially telling us how good the NRs are for us.

 

[BlazerBeam]

There are lots of other changes that would help a heck of lot more than banning NR hunting in Montana. At this current juncture this is a silly idea at best. The needling back and forth between Rs and NRs is slightly entertaining but useless. In all seriousness if your a MT resident and you blame NRs for the poor hunting and poor access to the critters this state offers than I suggest you take some time to think and ponder about how you arrived at your conclusions.

Like I said in previous post. I don't blame the NR's. I blame the pimps. Those who use the resource to make $. The NR's are just the suckers that keep them in business.

 

[Treeshark]

It’s always the people with something to gain financially telling us how good the NRs are for us.

Money talks, which is why transferable landowner tags are much more likely to ever happen than your idea

 

[brockel]

I honestly can’t believe non residents will pay what they do for our general deer tag. If our general deer tag went up to $50-$100 as a resident I doubt I’d buy one with the current quality of mule deer we have. If it wasn’t part of the sportsman’s combo I’d probably not buy one at all

 

[Gerald Martin]

I would sign something like this in a heart beat. No more NR resident hunting in MT. I am tired of the gross overestimation of NR hunter money to our economy as a whole. Yes FWP gets a boost from NR tag sales. But there is a significant amount from residents too. It would not take much at all to make up for lost NR funds. Raise cost of fishing, conservation, bow stamp, etc. a couple bucks and we'd be there. Why does everyone think that residents would shit their pants over that? Present it as this: "Hunting in MT will be reserved only for the residents of MT. But in order to accomplish that, we need to raise the cost of every residents hunting and fishing experience for the year by $40." NR hunter money is an easy target for funds. Eliminating it may force us residents to step up and play a bigger role in management of our own state's game. That would not be a bad thing.

NR tags prices are 30x resident tag prices. There are less than 10x as many residents as NR hunters. That $40 increase for residents is going to be way short of replacing NR money in FWP’s budget.

 

[RobertD]

Want you boys in this thread to know that you've changed my mind about one thing in particular: I'm going to start planning some hunts in Montana.

 

[Shangobango]

I am tired of the gross overestimation of NR hunter money to our economy as a whole. Yes FWP gets a boost from NR tag sales. But there is a significant amount from residents too. It would not take much at all to make up for lost NR funds.

I take it that math is not your strong suit.

 

[MTTW]

I honestly can’t believe non residents will pay what they do for our general deer tag. If our general deer tag went up to $50-$100 as a resident I doubt I’d buy one with the current quality of mule deer we have. If it wasn’t part of the sportsman’s combo I’d probably not buy one at all

I would pay a thousand dollars for a resident Montana mule deer tag and fully expect to eat it. I guess it all depends on how bad you want to hunt. I am not saying to get rid of non-resident hunters, I think that is the worst idea I have heard all day.

 

[brockel]

Want you boys in this thread to know that you've changed my mind about one thing in particular: I'm going to start planning some hunts in Montana.

Don’t forget to get a few mule deer doe tags

 

[Shangobango]

Want you boys in this thread to know that you've changed my mind about one thing in particular: I'm going to start planning some hunts in Montana.

They didn't change my mind. I am still going to plan on making a Montana hunt as often as the schedule allows. Too much beautiful country for me to explore for me to sit it out and I ain't getting any younger.

It may end up just being upland birds and turkey hunting, but I will be there as often as I can.

 

[brockel]

I would pay a thousand dollars for a resident Montana mule deer tag and fully expect to eat it. I guess it all depends on how bad you want to hunt. I am not saying to get rid of non-resident hunters, I think that is the worst idea I have heard all day.

I can keep that $1000 in my pocket and still take my rifle for a walk and accomplish the same thing as having a Montana deer tag in my pocket

 

[MTTW]

I can keep that $1000 in my pocket and still take my rifle for a walk and accomplish the same thing as having a Montana deer tag in my pocket

But one of these days I am going to cut that tag.

 

[JLS]

If I could, I’d sign the petition to add this to the ballot just to watch this train wreck unfold.

I’m still trying to figure out how it was social media pimps who did this, when all of the private land outfitting rage was 20+ years ago? Al Gore was still perfecting the internet.

 

[Shangobango]

Don’t forget to get a few mule deer doe tags

We had 5 total in my group when I was up there year before last. I know for a fact that 3 of them could have been filled multiple times.

Didn't fill one.

Don't paint us all with the same brush.

 

[brockel]

We had 5 total in my group when I was up there year before last. I know for a fact that 3 of them could have been filled multiple times.

Didn't fill one.

Don't paint us all with the same brush.

No please do fill them. Get us to the bottom a lot quicker so we can make some
meaningful changes to how we manage our mule deer

 

[brockel]

But one of these days I am going to cut that tag.

By grabbing it on accident out of the fwp baggy?