Montana Mule Deer Mismanagement

[Ought Six]

My “Montana Pheasant Survey” email came yesterday and the season isn’t even over yet. Short, 1 question surveymonkey survey about if I hunted pheasants anywhere FWP has released birds. Have never seen anything like that for our mule deer

 

[mtmiller]

My “Montana Pheasant Survey” email came yesterday and the season isn’t even over yet. Short, 1 question surveymonkey survey about if I hunted pheasants anywhere FWP has released birds. Have never seen anything like that for our mule deer

Chuckled when I opened that email yesterday as well.

I thought that Miles City meeting pointed out these surveys didn’t work? Maybe that is only for four-legged critters?

 

[JCS]

Am I intoxicated or is this sammich freak talking ? Or maybe heartbeatofamericafreak ?

Just me. No name change

 

[TheJason]

Chuckled when I opened that email yesterday as well.

I thought that Miles City meeting pointed out these surveys didn’t work? Maybe that is only for four-legged critters?

Well, are you hunting anywhere they released mule deer LOL?

 

[SAJ-99]

My “Montana Pheasant Survey” email came yesterday and the season isn’t even over yet. Short, 1 question surveymonkey survey about if I hunted pheasants anywhere FWP has released birds. Have never seen anything like that for our mule deer

Was the question "Do you hunt pheasants in any of our coyote-feeding areas?"?

 

[DFS]

I had a good conversation with the Director yesterday. Like him or not I have emailed him twice and promptly received calls both times. We don’t agree on everything but he understands we can’t continue on the same path we are currently going down with deer. We both agreed if you thought things were bad this year wait until next year. Next years season setting is going to be very important for the future of our mule deer herd. Big changes are needed. Mule deer doe harvest needs to stop on public. Eastern Montana can’t carry the weight of the whole state for deer hunting. He said the conversation is just getting started so at least it is on his radar. If we get meaningful change my hat will be off to him.

 

[brockel]

Daughter and I were out coyote calling all morning. 8 mule deer does and a small buck is all we seen. That snow is DEEP and starting to turn into a rock. Using a lot of energy pawing through that. This next week is going to rough on them

 

[Raisin Bran]

My “Montana Pheasant Survey” email came yesterday and the season isn’t even over yet. Short, 1 question surveymonkey survey about if I hunted pheasants anywhere FWP has released birds. Have never seen anything like that for our mule deer

Received one also! First one ever. Sure seems like there should be a way to do this for Deer instead of the lame $&@ way they do it now. When is the last time you have answered your phone with a number you don’t recognize!??Even texting a survey would be better than that!

 

[brockel]

 

[JCS]

View attachment 256052

Brr. And some of us live here

 

[brockel]

Brr. And some of us live here

And work outside in it

 

[antlerradar]

View attachment 256052

Is there any chance we can find a way to hack this chart into all the realestate flyers.

 

[DFS]

Daughter and I were out coyote calling all morning. 8 mule deer does and a small buck is all we seen. That snow is DEEP and starting to turn into a rock. Using a lot of energy pawing through that. This next week is going to rough on them

You likely missed a few or a lot. Boots weren’t laced up tight enough I suspect. In all honesty unless you are trying to put a positive spin on things (fwp staff) there is not much to be positive about. I just hope I can get some doe tags next year.

 

[brockel]

You likely missed a few or a lot. Boots weren’t laced up tight enough I suspect. In all honesty unless you are trying to put a positive spin on things (fwp staff) there is not much to be positive about. I just hope I can get some doe tags next year.

Must not have been in their winter areas.

 

[brockel]

Those deer are gonna be in the hurt bag. Frigid temps to follow blizzard.

Not a good look for deer in Eastern MT and ND.

View attachment 255790

It’s not getting better looking. It’s -15 outside right now so their -12 is a little off. Hope the rest don’t miss their mark

 

[Eric Albus]

For now, I think we just need to get a better idea of hunter pressure and demand throughout the state, and I think we’d learn some other trends as well. I know people in MT generally don’t like to hear about permits, but I think at some point, if we don’t start more strictly managing by unit and species, I think things are going to continue to get worse(primarily speaking on public/accessible land). And this is going to be true whether you’re trophy hunting or just out for meat or the experience.

This is where we start with “pick your region”…get a handle on numbers of ppl hunting mule deer in each FWP region.
This will give us an idea of where and how to begin. It may be simply re-structure the seasons times/dates/pick weapon/pick season. Ask FWP to sell species specific license, Wt or MD, have to choose which to hunt.

 

[sclancy27]

I think getting rid of public land MD doe tags and creating quotas for NR Deer licenses (ala ID elk) would be another way to help immediately. Damn near every NR deer hunter is headed to R6 or R7.

 

[brocksw]

It’s not getting better looking. It’s -15 outside right now so their -12 is a little off. Hope the rest don’t miss their mark
View attachment 256265

Those negatives might as well be subtractions to mule deer rifle tags next year. Spring counts are going to be interesting.

 

[brockel]

Those negatives might as well be subtractions to mule deer rifle tags next year. Spring counts are going to be interesting.

 

[brockel]

I think getting rid of public land MD doe tags and creating quotas for NR Deer licenses (ala ID elk) would be another way to help immediately. Damn near every NR deer hunter is headed to R6 or R7.

I think half of billings deer hunts 410