Montana on the Upswing?

I spent the day in the north central part of the state. Things looked pretty bad for mule deer and I didn’t see any whitetails. I watched two little 4 points that were blissfully unaware that they’ll both be dead by this weekend.
That's the thing that sucks. I looked over a quite a few small 3x3 bucks on public land. Each time I thought to myself, "That deer is gonna get shot this year unfortunately".
 
That's the thing that sucks. I looked over a quite a few small 3x3 bucks on public land. Each time I thought to myself, "That deer is gonna get shot this year unfortunately".
That's a big statement in today's world in Montana there is a huge population that does not harvest a buck That would be willing to harvest all the bucks many of us pass up
 
Montana is not on the upswing . I just got home from 8 days . Talked to lots of folks from all over not just ranchers where I was in central Montana . It’s not in desperation mode either . It’s more like what Timmy , Jonas and Brockel and many others have been saying ... it’s over . It’s too late . Happy thanksgiving to all
 
Montana is not on the upswing . I just got home from 8 days . Talked to lots of folks from all over not just ranchers where I was in central Montana . It’s not in desperation mode either . It’s more like what Timmy , Jonas and Brockel and many others have been saying ... it’s over . It’s too late . Happy thanksgiving to all
I agree
 
Just got back from helping my son with his deer hunt. We covered 5 times the amount of ground we did last season. We saw lots of deer last season as in the past 3 years. This year we saw only about 20% of the number of deer we did years past. It was shocking to say the least.
 
Just got back from helping my son with his deer hunt. We covered 5 times the amount of ground we did last season. We saw lots of deer last season as in the past 3 years. This year we saw only about 20% of the number of deer we did years past. It was shocking to say the least.
Did you see a lot of bones and skeletons of deer?
 
Are you guys saying that we might have a hard time filling the 17 mule deer doe tags our family has over the Thanksgiving weekend?

It’s just the bucks that are scarce this year, right?

Anyone have a good spot on public in Eastern MT that isn’t too far from a road they would like to share?
 
Are you guys saying that we might have a hard time filling the 17 mule deer doe tags our family has over the Thanksgiving weekend?

It’s just the bucks that are scarce this year, right?

Anyone have a good spot on public in Eastern MT that isn’t too far from a road they would like to share?


Might have to sneak in but this place is usually pretty good.
 
Are you guys saying that we might have a hard time filling the 17 mule deer doe tags our family has over the Thanksgiving weekend?

It’s just the bucks that are scarce this year, right?

Anyone have a good spot on public in Eastern MT that isn’t too far from a road they would like to share?
You only got 17? FWP really reduced the tags this year.
 
For the guys on here thinking, “my county or my area still has good numbers of deer and good bucks”, just wait. With the large areas of poor hunting in the state right now, word will get out and in the next few years, those spots are going to get pounded.
 
Are you guys saying that we might have a hard time filling the 17 mule deer doe tags our family has over the Thanksgiving weekend?

It’s just the bucks that are scarce this year, right?

Anyone have a good spot on public in Eastern MT that isn’t too far from a road they would like to share?
Runnings parking lot in Baker. Good chance it has cwd though
 
i was talking with a game warden and a biologist , last week about deer numbers, seasons, ect,,,,

biggest thing i heard was, there is no way were giving up hunting at thanksgiving, thats a family tradition, i only get couple weekends a year to hunt with my kids, shorter seasons arent happening,,,,,

and i have heard that hundreds of times last couple years,,,, i assume we have seen the best its gonna be for a while,
i know i travel 3 counties over 200 days a year, i typically see lots of deer, onyx is full of marks for good to great deer,
this year, i only added 6 or 7 marks and 4 of those deer were taken, in the last 2 weeks the number of whitetail deer has been almost non existent,,

i see a time coming,soon, that most people are gonna be happy to shoot a forked horn,,,,
17 doe tags, thats a big family or fish and game is mighty greedy,,,,,
 
biggest thing i heard was, there is no way were giving up hunting at thanksgiving, thats a family tradition, i only get couple weekends a year to hunt with my kids, shorter seasons arent happening,
I have heard the same song, but that assumes leadership is listening to people (broadly speaking). Lots of evidence presented lately that they don't, or at least are only listening to a narrow group. For example, the view on shoulder seasons is broadly negative, but they expand them. I have seen a quite a few ideas on HT regarding restructuring seasons and tags to allow of Turkey-Day hunting tradition to continue and not have the same ridiculous pressure on the resource. Again, they aren't listening because they don't want to hear it.
 
Best part is since yalls FWP doesn't actually do population studies no one can prove the deer have decreased

Im not sure about all the bios but our region 4 bio flies every year and documents numbers of deer, elk, and antelope
 

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