Last 2 mornings I was 7 miles from my truck. Desperate I guess. I'm tapping out until something changes. It's gotten pathetic. People need to stop killing every dumb dink they see.
Montana on the Upswing?
- Thread starter Blacktailbc
- Start date
This is like 95% of all hunters everywhere.
At the end of the day, you have to be the one happy with the decision to kill or to pass. I know guys who have hunted in MT for over 50 years that shoot a forkie mule deer buck and are ecstatic because it's not the antlers they were after but the meat. I know guys who haven't shot a buck in a few years because they haven't been excited about one they've seen during the season.
The drive for large antlers tends to make people do extra silly things to justify their kills. If that's the kind of culture we want, then I think that's a big loss. MT had it right when they focused on opportunity for all. That has changed with the influx of new folks moving to the state, changing climate, drought, exurban development, etc. It's changing how all hunters interact with deer across the country too.
Deer distribution is messed up, as is age-class in some districts. But the people of Montana have been crystal clear that they want 11 weeks of hunting opportunity regardless of the size of antlers. I think there's some egalitarian beauty in that, even if it creates headaches.
Bambistew
Well-known member
When I said it last year, "The season you just had will be the best you're ever going to have", couldn't have been more true. Next year will be even worse, hunters will just mop up what few bucks are left. Hard to imagine anything less when the deer management plans includes buck to doe ratios 10:100 post season.
You're easily 4-5 years out of getting any sort of management pushed through to change the season structure. 8-10 years for a turn around if something was done this year.
Live it up, its not going to get better. The one thing that thrived in spite of MT FWP management, whitetails, are quickly heading the same direction as everything else.
You're easily 4-5 years out of getting any sort of management pushed through to change the season structure. 8-10 years for a turn around if something was done this year.
Live it up, its not going to get better. The one thing that thrived in spite of MT FWP management, whitetails, are quickly heading the same direction as everything else.
I think that if someone wants to shoot a dink then so be it. What worries me more is I have hunted 5 days in SW Mt and have only seen 8 deer. 5 one day, which was a 14 mile day with horses, 3 another day and 3 days with no deer seen. I have been hunting them since the early 1970s and I have never seen anything like it. It is worse each year.
BenInMT
Well-known member
I believe that the proliferation of side by sides and their unfettered access is to blame for the decline in game across the state. We must work to close some roads so that there isn’t a buggy trail on every ridge and up every draw. It’s literally a giant hazing operation out there driving the game to private. If the ranchers really honestly wanted them off their property they’d be working to keep the motorized use out of the public land so the game would stay there.
EYJONAS!
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I mean wtf is this.
People would really pay almost 1k and drive 2k miles to take this slammer home.
#youseriousclark
People would really pay almost 1k and drive 2k miles to take this slammer home.
#youseriousclark
Probably more a justification to the wife. “Well honey at least I brought some meat home”
Nameless Range
Well-known member
There is a lot of variables that affect what we see, for example, this year one could blame the ridiculously dry and snowless season we will have had. That said, my experience is similar to yours, insofar as though I am seeing a lot more deer than you, I have never seen so few "older" bucks. I am hunting the same country in west-central MT that I have hunted for 25 years annually now. This is the most abysmal I have seen it. I have also never seen such hunting pressure here.
There will always be pockets of geography better than others, and those pockets will certainly shift from here to there. Most of the hunters in my community go east to hunt deer now. As has been said many times on here, this isn't sustainable, and I am hopeful though not holding my breath, for meaningful deer management changes.
huntin24/7
Well-known member
I agree that we don’t want the culture of being “horn porn” obsessed and that there is much more important things than that in deer hunting and our culture in general. However, I’ve mentioned on here several times that with reasonable changes in management, there is still opportunity for everyone while allowing more deer to grow to maturity. With the changes in population in this state and huge increase in resident hunters, if everyone wants the opportunity to hunt a buck every year, that opportunity is eventually going to have to be somehow lessened.
The most ironic thing I see in MT, generally by residents, is guys calling “trophy hunters” selfish but having the attitude that if they don’t have a 5 week November rifle season, they don’t have opportunity.
It's justification for spending that kind of money on a deer tag. NR's who get tag soup are great for funding the agency, not not for feeding the ego. The exact same thing can be said of anyone who shoots a small buck after spending an entire season chasing mature bucks.
BTW - I'm about done with my tag soup recipe book.
I don’t blame them one bit for filling it
Add in changing habitat conditions on public land as well as pressured deer staying on private to avoid hunters.
Address the base issues and you may keep those long seasons. Just reduce opportunity, and that may not do as much as you think.
Habitat is a big problem. After multiple fires there's no place to hide a 2 point anymore.... more people, less cover. It's going to get worse until trees come back and a guy in a side by side can't glass a 8 mile area from a hill.
I’m about damn tired of side by sides
Found an alright bull Friday morning. Got into the deep draw before I could make the 1.5 miles over to him Wind was swirling so I backed out. Went in there that night to wait him out. He showed up another 3/4 mile farther down in the blm. I get about half mile away and a side by side comes through the gate on the backside from the private and starts driving ridges. Last I seen of him was him running 3 ridges away. Said #*^@#* it and came home.
Security cover is a big part of it, absolutely. So is invasive plants like salt cedar, cheatgrass, etc. We allow the destruction of our public lands but never demand their restoration.
T
timmy
Guest
One of the biologist mentioned in the above post told me the mule deer rut is mainly over by November. That’s what we are up against. Funny how they always mention hunters are very satisfied with the experience.
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KB_
Well-known member
Maybe i'm just bad at this whole hunting thing. I've seen 12 deer the entire year, 4 of which were bucks. The mule deer herd is not looking great imo.
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