Maybe I am doing the hunting wrong in Montana, but I have, in all my years hunting there as a nonresident, seen three other hunters in the field except for guys I know. And that is on public land. And I hunt for a three week period during rifle season every year, whether I have a deer, elk, or B tag for those. So I do not really understand the overcrowding issue. I do not hunt from the road, I walk in to areas and spend a day hunting. Perhaps I am hunting in areas not considered prime, but the solitude and wild experience is about 75% or more of why I go-and I get that experience every trip as much as I want. And I have filled every tag I wanted to fill over the years-some I let go unfilled just because I did not want to fill them. Is there a component to this issue that hunters are not changing how they operate in response to changes in habitat, human, and animal behaviour? I have seen that in other states over the years, guys in Pennsylvania want to hunt deer the same way and location that they did 25 years ago, but the woods, hunting pressure, and deer themselves have changed dramatically in that time.
Just my thoughts, as I value the opportunity aspect of Montana far more than anything else, which might not be popular in this discussion. But as everything else gets regulated to death having freedom and opportunity like Montana provides is a heck of a thing....
Just my thoughts, as I value the opportunity aspect of Montana far more than anything else, which might not be popular in this discussion. But as everything else gets regulated to death having freedom and opportunity like Montana provides is a heck of a thing....