Population Growth and Hunting in Rocky Mountain States

What has attracted so much NR attention to western states? Please tell me what you think the answer to that is? Like I said, I'm afraid too much of the cat may be out of the bag thanks to "the industry". So my theory of cutting off NR tags leading to decreased people flocking to western states to become residents may be fruitless at this point because they have already been fed a steady diet of youtube and instagram and have made up their mind that "when I retire..." or "I have a three year plan to move out west....". But I think that it would have been a very effective idea to implement about 10 years ago, but I truly believe it would still have an effect to slow the trajectory now.
But what about the names of the 75 wolf bios MT has?
 
What has attracted so much NR attention to western states? Please tell me what you think the answer to that is? Like I said, I'm afraid too much of the cat may be out of the bag thanks to "the industry". So my theory of cutting off NR tags leading to decreased people flocking to western states to become residents may be fruitless at this point because they have already been fed a steady diet of youtube and instagram and have made up their mind that "when I retire..." or "I have a three year plan to move out west....". But I think that it would have been a very effective idea to implement about 10 years ago, but I truly believe it would still have an effect to slow the trajectory now.

Jim Bridger, Norman MaClean, Teddy Roosevelt, George Grinnell, John Muir, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Larry McMurty... nothing new.
 
I was kid then and remember being with my dad on his 40th birthday when he arrowed his 40th bull over 300 inches.
Help me with the math here, your dad was 40 and had killed 40 bulls over 300. Assuming he killed bulls less that 300 inches also. All that in 28 years of hunting again assuming he started hunting when he was 12.

Not calling BS just struggling with the math.
 
Sincerely, you think NR have been the driving factor of herd changes in MT? Seriously?
Emphatically questioning something I say does not provide an answer as to what you think has caused hunting to be on the trajectory it is on. Its a multifactorial cause, but I am saying that the media pushed to the NR hunter or new hunter has influenced more people moving here that ARE NOW resident hunters for which there is no quota for tags. Being here from 2013-2016? Man you have missed out on the golden years of hunting in MT, and also have not seen what it has been like here the past 2 seasons or so. Not only are you running into snowshoers and cross country skiers in drainages that used to have tons of elk and no people, but I am running into people who have just moved here and are hunting for the first time as a resident.
 
Help me with the math here, your dad was 40 and had killed 40 bulls over 300. Assuming he killed bulls less that 300 inches also. All that in 28 years of hunting again assuming he started hunting when he was 12.

Not calling BS just struggling with the math.
He used to buy an ID and MT tag and hunt the border of ID and MT. And no my dad had never killed a bull under 300 inches until early 2000's when that's all he was seeing anymore
 
Jim Bridger, Norman MaClean, Teddy Roosevelt, George Grinnell, John Muir, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Larry McMurty... nothing new.
yeah all those guys are big time elk hunters who have attracted NR hunters in recent years.....
 
But what about the names of the 75 wolf bios MT has?
Obviously exaggerated my friend, but do you think that FWP does not have wolf biologists?? That "specialized" group of bear biologists who accomplished nothing that I mentioned before were 6 in number. The problem with these government agencies is that the employee's pay is in no way tied to results, or results in a timely manner. What if those biologists were told if the bears don't stay where you plant them, or if someone is attacked by those bears in the cabinet mountains, you all are fired? I promise that they would stop wasting time and operating on idealistic fantasies or trying to play God with our wildlife like they did in that instance, unless they new it was absolutely essential to do something like that. Like I said, lets start with a public and readily available accounting of where each and every dollar is used in these depts. I have not only worked for the forest service but also for the department of health and human services and the waste in that department was no different. You could have gotten rid of about 50 employees that I worked with and only kept the productive/motivated ones and told them to produce results or you don't get paid and the efficiency would have skyrocketed.
 
yeah all those guys are big time elk hunters who have attracted NR hunters in recent years.....

My point is you're not the first person to complain about someone influencing immigration to the Rockies. You're also not the first person to witness the decline in hunt quality in your home state. Plenty of us have lived through that. Many of us haven't killed a 300+ bull though. I'd be counting my blessings.
 
Maybe we should be asking who @BlazerBeam has voted for in the MT legislature for past two decades.

MT has its issues, but social media exposure ain’t the problem any more than the XC skier.
 
Emphatically questioning something I say does not provide an answer as to what you think has caused hunting to be on the trajectory it is on. Its a multifactorial cause, but I am saying that the media pushed to the NR hunter or new hunter has influenced more people moving here that ARE NOW resident hunters for which there is no quota for tags. Being here from 2013-2016? Man you have missed out on the golden years of hunting in MT, and also have not seen what it has been like here the past 2 seasons or so. Not only are you running into snowshoers and cross country skiers in drainages that used to have tons of elk and no people, but I am running into people who have just moved here and are hunting for the first time as a resident.
I wrote my thesis on how the extractive industry drove growth in the west, and how their is a statistically significant correlation between the discovery of mineral deposits and the formation of political boundaries. Example how the comstock load gave us, California and Nevada as we now no them.

I extractive industries caused growth in the west, secondary industries developed to support them and so on.. basically what happened in CA almost a century before. Remember, There will be Blood, it takes place in California.

So that’s growth. Hunting, well I don’t see a significant difference between hunting and any other outdoor industry. I’m sure someone out there is bitching about how the standup paddleboard world has gotten stupid.

I agree new resident hunters are the issue. Screwing with NR quotas you lose a ton of revenue for marginal improvements. 10-20% of hunters pay for 80-90% of the sport.

Resident quotas are necessary, there may be a time when residents don’t get to hunt elk every year. If that’s the case it will be the case even if you eliminate NR hunting.

You can’t limit Residents to 2 years or whatever, he’ll I can’t believe AKs rule hasn’t been challenged in court. I would argue it violates the 14th amendment. Further you get to vote when you move to a new place so newly minted voters could just vote out the law... and it still doesn’t address the issue.

Grow herds, improve access, learn to share. CO has enough elk that we can have a lot of hunters but if your all in the field at once it sucks, so we have 4 rifle seasons. Is what it is.

Yeah according to who you talk to we were all born to late or too early, I’m grateful for the opportunities I have had, and I hope others get to have opportunities as well.
 
My point is you're not the first person to complain about someone influencing immigration to the Rockies. You're also not the first person to witness the decline in hunt quality in your home state. Plenty of us have lived through that. Many of us haven't killed a 300+ bull though. I'd be counting my blessings.
I’ve never seen a bull over 300 and if I claimed I had some dick would ask for a picture and then say he was 281.
 
FI460 said:
Jim Bridger, Norman MaClean, Teddy Roosevelt, George Grinnell, John Muir, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Larry McMurty... nothing new.

yeah all those guys are big time elk hunters who have attracted NR hunters in recent years.....

You might be surprised. :D ( Moved from NY to CO in 2010 )

20210421_093916.jpg
 
The real root of the problem has to be Jeff Bridges. He started all this mess. But the dude abides so what can you say really...
Honestly, we're all complaining about elk tags, and Mark Reisner is rolling over in his grave saying, so what... does Denver need to build a pipeline to MT to start stealing water out of the Missouri for you jackasses to the realize the problem with building massive cities is the west.
 
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