Montana Deer Management- If I were King for a day.

[Deleted member 48080]

I'd still like mule deer hunters to be able to shoot a WT (instead of a MD) if given the choice. Given the differences between WT and MD behavior, density on public v. private lands (at least west of the divide), and biological ability to recover after a heavy harvest or disease event or hard winter, offering more WT opportunity is generally more sustainable. So I would like if hunters who want and choose to have an opportunity for MD are able to harvest a WT in place of that MD.

How would you feel about the October 15-31 season being either species buck rather than mule deer specific? You wouldn't be able to hunt mule deer and then hunt whitetail during their rut, but you could kill a whitetail on Halloween if you weren't able to turn up the mule deer you want.

That is definitely one option I considered.

 

[TOGIE]

The pressure increase will happen in the nearest general unit.

i'm talking pressure on the resource itself.

sure, you'd probably see a demand increase on mule deer units. but purely from a species perspective if the agency is still allocating the new tag structure between the two species in alignment with what the resource has available for harvest, i don't see a pressure increase on the resource.

maybe demand pressure on tags or crowding in general units is all we were talking about, my mistake if so. even more reason to not have general tags.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Assuming the OP isn’t an archery hunter? The whitetail side of it is a big swing and miss IMO. 20 days in sept with a bow vs the entire month of Nov with a gun? That don’t make sense. I think could add a lot of opportunity and hunting season duration in the whitetail archery side of things without hurting the resource much.

 

[Straight Arrow]

The pressure increase will happen in the nearest general unit.

Your post looks as though I expressed something which was in Togie's post. Why???

 

[YukonGold]

How would you feel about the October 15-31 season being either species buck rather than mule deer specific? You wouldn't be able to hunt mule deer and then hunt whitetail during their rut, but you could kill a whitetail on Halloween if you weren't able to turn up the mule deer you want.

That is definitely one option I considered.

I like that option better.

And to be clear...my personal opinion is your initial proposal is good. I'm thinking of how you're going to sell it to everyone else.

 

[YukonGold]

Your post looks as though I expressed something which was in Togie's post. Why???

Oh shit. I was gonna reply to something you said too, but deleted it, and somehow still tagged you. My bad, I'll see if I can fix it.

 

[BRI]

I don't know of any hunting district where you may take two antlered deer. Correct me if I'm mistaken.

Maybe not relevant to the thread. In the archery only 290 district, you can apply for a second buck tag.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Maybe not relevant to the thread. In the archery only 290 district, you can apply for a second buck tag.

Thanks; I was not aware.

 

[Ought Six]

I think this is a good discussion starter. I agree that something has to change, and I like that you attempted to find middle ground for everyone with your proposal. Appealing to the opportunists that like having the long, general, rut season is going to be the key to better deer management.

 

[The Hedgehog]

The plan would result in some great MT deer hunting.

95% of MT hunters, outfitters, politicians, etc, would want to draw and quarter you for such a nonsense hideous trophy hunter based idea.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

So if they apply for an LE mule deer opportunity and don't get it, then they're also out of luck to hunt white-tails at all? That won't go over well.

Having your cake and eating it too has basically been what’s screwed up herds and draw systems in every single state.

Of course it won’t go over well if something is popular it probably means it’s a garbage idea, “the mob” is entirely driven by self interest and placating “the mob” is how we arrived at where we are today.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I like most aspects of the proposal. If I had any tweaks it would be to not eliminate the potential for buying a general tag if you elect to apply for a limited permit.

The potential to draw for a premium unit is and will continue to be so unlikely that IMO it akin to drawing a moose, sheep, and goat tag.
I think that allowing application for a special permit area and then buying a general tag for one of the remaining general options is the only process that has much potential to be implemented.

IMO, changing the season structure and limiting hunters to the season they choose would benefit the resource and improve the quality of the hunt.

 

[The Hedgehog]

For shit's sake, MT can't even separate deer seasons from elk seasons.

 

[Irrelevant]

I lean more toward baby steps. If you allowed a hunter to pick a region and then hunt any of those three seasons, it would still greatly improve the quality.

 

[Nick87]

Having your cake and eating it too has basically been what’s screwed up herds and draw systems in every single state.

 

[Schaaf]

I’m gonna spend some time thinking about Randy’s proposal but I do find it interesting that this meeting in Miles City has now taken on a description about Mule Deer Management.

 

[brocksw]

ANTLERLESS

September 20-30

All antlerless deer harvest will take place in this short September season. All antlerless permits will be independent of antlered permits, and will be for a specific HD only, no region wide antlerless permits. Permit numbers will be decided by regional bios, with an encouragement to designate these permits for private land only. There needs to be an understanding on these tags that we’re currently taking too many mule deer does off the public land, and this course needs changed.

Too early IMO. Unless you like shooting does with fawns that still have spots. ND get's this complaint with their youth tags which are very similar dates.

 

[brocksw]

I'd be very curious entertained to see this same poll on Montanica's FB page.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I'd be very curious to see this same poll on Montanica's FB page.

 

[Deleted member 48080]

I like most aspects of the proposal. If I had any tweaks it would be to not eliminate the potential for buying a general tag if you elect to apply for a limited permit.

The potential to draw for a premium unit is and will continue to be so unlikely that IMO it akin to drawing a moose, sheep, and goat tag.
I think that allowing application for a special permit area and then buying a general tag for one of the remaining general options is the only process that has much potential to be implemented.

IMO, changing the season structure and limiting hunters to the season they choose would benefit the resource and improve the quality of the hunt.

1- I absolutely agree that this part of the proposal would be the part that gets the most pushback.

2- I think this part of the proposal will go a long ways towards alleviating the issue in the bolded sentence of your post above.

Last year almost 9,000 applied for one of the 45 unit 270 buck permits. Anyone who's spent time in there knows how ridiculous that is for a tag of that quality. How many of those 9,000 applicants would still apply if they knew that was their only chance at a buck that year? I know I sure wouldn't. Having the either/or mechanism in there will both take pressure off of the general units, and decrease the amount of hunters apply for limited entry. Currently each hunter is doing both.

Personally, it's one of my favorite parts of the proposal. Having X amount of hunters willfully sit out in any given year would have a lot of advantages.