Bulls for Billionaires - MT EQC Meeting today 1:30 PM

Making landowner tags only valid for their private land and not unit wide I think needs to happen. I’ve seen landowner tags hunted 40 miles from their private.
 
Making landowner tags only valid for their private land and not unit wide I think needs to happen. I’ve seen landowner tags hunted 40 miles from their private.

454 permits and licenses are good only for the property. The 15% Landowner Preference is for the entire unit.

Block Management also has a free license component with it, but that's your general license and not a permit.
 
454 permits and licenses are good only for the property. The 15% Landowner Preference is for the entire unit.

Block Management also has a free license component with it, but that's your general license and not a permit.
Correct I understand that. I’m saying if you put in for landowner preference than you should be limited to your private land.
 
This is a honest question and not a bash. Do you feel the resident prices are where they should be?
Not one bit. Like I said- they could probably double them- I mean we're getting essentially a 13 week season plus shoulder hunts that make it damn near 6 months of hunting. Is the quality there? No. But the price for the opportunity is, and with an increase in price, perhaps the quality would increase slightly. Lots of mentions of 10x for Non-resident prices, which would mean that resident sportsman combos would be ~$130. That would be a fair price IMO, and could honestly be $150 for 6 months of shooting just about anything that walks with the way that FWP has our hunts structured.
 
Reading Wyoming hma site I think something similar may be what people are invisioning for type III


Many landowners are supportive of sportsman but don’t like the scorched earth approach of type 1 and the huge management commitment of type 2.

I also don’t think the criminal justice system does very well at addressing bad actors.
 
Correct I understand that. I’m saying if you put in for landowner preference than you should be limited to your private land.
I mostly agree, especially with the current season dates in Montana.

I think a caveat or argument, that holds water for me, is "but my property harbors lots of elk for 1/2 the year just not hunting season. If the tags are a reward I get them being open unit wide, if they are for hazing then yes they should be just your property.
 
Correct I understand that. I’m saying if you put in for landowner preference than you should be limited to your private land.

In order to change this, we'd need legislation to curtail the district wide allocation.

I'm less concerned with that, than I am what Randy said relative to not getting anything in return relative to wildlife management.

As of now, there are no caps relative to overall management conditions (bull/cow, etc) on 454 either, so beyond the 15%, that program has the ability to gain significant bull harvest in areas that aren't able to handle it, and that simply reinforce the idea a lot of folks want to sell that there's private elk and public elk.
 
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But but but, if we kill every buck, then they won’t die from cwd. Maybe we need to issue more bighorn tags too so we get them all before pneumonia does. 🤪
That's being recommended in Wyo already. Look at unit 7.
 
The unit 7 ram tag increase and ewe hunt actually has some science behind it and the folks proposing it are some of the best in the biz. But even they will tell you they are not certain it will work.

Derail over.
 
So…..reading all of this over the course of Lord knows how many days, and not chiming in (which is odd), I have some input. Some of you, including Buzz and Gerald….and especially DakotaKid……have some great ideas. But….here is my input…The MAIN reason that the DIY hunter runs into locked access is due to poor hunter behavior over the last x amount of years. The #1 reason that landowners lease to outfitters is…poor hunt behavior. Maybe it’s time to take a look at our punitive system and start to increase fines along with taking away hunting privileges to actually hold your DIY hunting community accountable and then MAYBE some access would open up. I would never throw any of you into this group….but there is plenty of the BS that goes on and the landowners are tired of it. It is the whole entitlement thought that ruins it for everyone. I feel that the increased fines should be first and foremost on the way to “coming together”. If I was a landowner that was partaking in 454 and read this thread…..I’d be out in a heartbeat!! Taking personal shots at the Director as well as the guy with cancer that had a chance to kill a big bull truly showed your colors! But…..I’m not shocked!
 
The Director didn’t act in good faith and never did. Commission should have had a vote of confidence. He put them in a horrible position. I am glad the Wilkes reached out to the kid and he got to shoot a good bull. Hope they have done this previously and continue to do it. Did they need to get elk tags to make that happen? And I agree with hunter behavior I dread the month of November every year. I’m also shocked at your comments that the public won’t stop until they have access to private. I have no interest in accessing your private or anything that you lease.
 
So…..reading all of this over the course of Lord knows how many days, and not chiming in (which is odd), I have some input. Some of you, including Buzz and Gerald….and especially DakotaKid……have some great ideas. But….here is my input…The MAIN reason that the DIY hunter runs into locked access is due to poor hunter behavior over the last x amount of years. The #1 reason that landowners lease to outfitters is…poor hunt behavior. Maybe it’s time to take a look at our punitive system and start to increase fines along with taking away hunting privileges to actually hold your DIY hunting community accountable and then MAYBE some access would open up. I would never throw any of you into this group….but there is plenty of the BS that goes on and the landowners are tired of it. It is the whole entitlement thought that ruins it for everyone. I feel that the increased fines should be first and foremost on the way to “coming together”. If I was a landowner that was partaking in 454 and read this thread…..I’d be out in a heartbeat!! Taking personal shots at the Director as well as the guy with cancer that had a chance to kill a big bull truly showed your colors! But…..I’m not shocked!
I can’t see that anybody pulling out the the magical 454 program would have jack shit of a difference to anything in the grande scheme of things. Shots at the director were well deserved in my opinion. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen a leader so hell bent on screwing things up for public land elk and sportsman. I musta missed the shots at guy with cancer. Where was that?
 
So…..reading all of this over the course of Lord knows how many days, and not chiming in (which is odd), I have some input. Some of you, including Buzz and Gerald….and especially DakotaKid……have some great ideas. But….here is my input…The MAIN reason that the DIY hunter runs into locked access is due to poor hunter behavior over the last x amount of years. The #1 reason that landowners lease to outfitters is…poor hunt behavior. Maybe it’s time to take a look at our punitive system and start to increase fines along with taking away hunting privileges to actually hold your DIY hunting community accountable and then MAYBE some access would open up. I would never throw any of you into this group….but there is plenty of the BS that goes on and the landowners are tired of it. It is the whole entitlement thought that ruins it for everyone. I feel that the increased fines should be first and foremost on the way to “coming together”. If I was a landowner that was partaking in 454 and read this thread…..I’d be out in a heartbeat!! Taking personal shots at the Director as well as the guy with cancer that had a chance to kill a big bull truly showed your colors! But…..I’m not shocked!
One more question, you're all over the bad DIY resident hunters and why landowners lease to outfitters.. What's the parallel of that to landowners getting trophy bull elk permits at all cost? This thread is about the hell bent need of that single goal, from the get go, from Hank Worsech and those he's snuggling up with.
 
I can’t see that anybody pulling out the the magical 454 program would have jack shit of a difference to anything in the grande scheme of things. Shots at the director were well deserved in my opinion. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen a leader so hell bent on screwing things up for public land elk and sportsman. I musta missed the shots at guy with cancer. Where was that?
That’d be the director
 
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