NR Upland Seasons (LC3901)

[OzWildlife]

I'm not a Montanan but I spend some time there each fall. I follow our own legislative activities in my own state, but don't fully understand the process in Montana. LC3901 pushes the NR opening day back 10-days for all upland species with the exception of mountain grouse. What is an LC bill? Is it a bill at all or something else? I don't know that I'm necessarily opposed to waiting 10-days. I'm just curious how the process works.

 

[OzWildlife]

Ok. Now this is Senate Bill 514. It has passed the Senate and now moves to the House for consideration. It essentially directs FWP to allow residents to hunt 10-days sooner than non-residents on publicly accessible lands.

 

[Muleyassassin406]

Ok. Now this is Senate Bill 514. It has passed the Senate and now moves to the House for consideration. It essentially directs FWP to allow residents to hunt 10-days sooner than non-residents on publicly accessible lands.

Finally a small step in the right direction!

 

[cgasner1]

Ok. Now this is Senate Bill 514. It has passed the Senate and now moves to the House for consideration. It essentially directs FWP to allow residents to hunt 10-days sooner than non-residents on publicly accessible lands.

As per normal a few people ruined it for everyone.

 

[OzWildlife]

I'm torn whether this is good or bad. I do get it. Crummy NRs like me bringing 5-6 dogs and stomping around pushing out residents with no dog or maybe one dog, basically ruining opportunity for residents during what many consider the best part of the season. On the other hand there are 30 million acres of public land and 6-7 million acres of block management in MT with about 10,000 NR upland hunters (as estimated by FWP). The data is janky at best but in Kansas KDWP issues about 50,000 NR licenses and there are about 1.5 million acres of publicly accessible land. I say janky because it's difficult to ascertain how many of those are upland hunters. I'll just assume the same 10,000 NRs are coming to KS that are going to MT and if that's the case the density is 150 acres per hunter in KS and 3,600 acres per hunter in MT. Even if it's just 1,000 NRs coming to KS it's still more than double the density. Now we all know not all of that land is good upland land in either state, so take my numbers with a grain of salt. I just don't like the thought vilifying NRs. It's crowded everywhere right now. We all need to be working on access to quality hunting, regardless of where we live or where we hunt.