Mtnhunter1
Well-known member
First things first!
Introductions are in order as this is my very first post on this forum. I have been a resident of “The Big Sky Country” from birth. I am an Outdoors-man that was raised in the NW part of this great state. I now reside, since the late 80’s, in SC Montana. I am not a hobbyist hunter. Hunting is part of who I am and I am one of those “LIVE-to-HUNT” kind of guys. Although I have been reading the posts on this forum for a long time now, I have never felt the need to post anything. I created an account here earlier this year to help out a HUNT-TALKER that posted an elk permit application question. That particular elk permit question was answered before I could write my response. So here I am, posting for the first time.
My wife loves to hunt the eastern part of the state, easier country to hike, plenty of critters with amazing sunsets. Deer and Antelope are usually what we are after with long hikes into our public lands as our means of hunting. We are not road hunters, our bows or rifles stay cased until our packs go on our backs and we head out. I will say that every critter taken in the last few decades or so, deer or antelope have come back to the truck in pieces on our backs. This is my type of hunting and has served us well over the years. This type of hunting is changing and changing very fast and that is the reason for this post.
My wife and I just returned from an eight day adventure in the SE part of the state and ran into hunters in every single, “far from the road”, spot that we usually hunt. Most the hunters that we talked to were very nice folks. All the hunters were very excited to be hunting this state’s “public back-country” lands. All these hunters were really getting after it, hunting hard and covering as much country as possible. The larger tracts of public had multiple groups hiking in and bi-vi camping deep in, not knowing that where they camped was the critters core living room area of that piece of ground. All these hunters, every single one, were from out-of-state! For some, this was their first trip to Montana or their very first hunt “Out-West”, others had hunted here over many years. Some of these hunters only had a week to hunt. Others were “ALL-IN” and planned to stay through to the end of the season or until they finally filled their tags with a trophy Montana buck. All of these hunters, every single one, mentioned this forum and Big Fin. Mystery Ranch packs, Kenetrec boots, hiking poles and Howa alpine rifles seemed to be the gear of choice for most. My how this forum, other internet forums, hunting mags, hunting channels, OnX maps and the hunting industry in general has changed the hunting of our public lands! The message of hunting our “Public Lands Ranch” has worked! The message of getting into the “Back-country”, away from the roads, has worked!
This, my first post here on Hunt-Talk, is not a rant against nonresident hunters. It’s not a rant against anyone willing to put boots on the ground and enjoy our public lands. I hope that the guy from southern Wyoming finds his Montana whitetail buck and his buddy from North Carolina finally tags his first mule deer buck. I hope that the two young-guns from Minnesota find their trophy bucks along with the hunters from Washington, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon and Wisconsin that we able to talk to. I’m sorry and apologize to the group of hunters from Vermont who I called the game warden on. I lost my cool and didn’t figure that you were legal with 23 mule deer laying on the ground whole and not skinned at your camp. The warden said that all your deer were legally tagged and that you would be taking them to a meat processor soon. This post is my views on what is happening to our public land hunting. Things will have to change here in Montana. Seasons will have to be adjusted. The tag numbers and the issuing of B-tags will have to be adjusted for private vs public lands. Otherwise our “Public Lands Ranch” may become devoid of wildlife after the first few weeks of the hunting season. I wonder just how long it will take for the generations of game animals to have the born instinct to migrate to the private, from the public, once the fall season closes in?
I should also note, in eight days of hunting, we saw zero resident Montana hunters, not a one! Seems like, as usual, the local resident hunters are waiting for “The Rut”. So here’s a heads up to all of the local resident Montana rut hunters out there, your personal, secret, back away from the road hunting area? Well it has already been hunted hard! The nonresident hunters have beaten you to the punch and have hit it hard!
Thanks for reading my LONG-WINDED first post! Good luck to ALL and I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable hunting season.
Mtnhunter
Introductions are in order as this is my very first post on this forum. I have been a resident of “The Big Sky Country” from birth. I am an Outdoors-man that was raised in the NW part of this great state. I now reside, since the late 80’s, in SC Montana. I am not a hobbyist hunter. Hunting is part of who I am and I am one of those “LIVE-to-HUNT” kind of guys. Although I have been reading the posts on this forum for a long time now, I have never felt the need to post anything. I created an account here earlier this year to help out a HUNT-TALKER that posted an elk permit application question. That particular elk permit question was answered before I could write my response. So here I am, posting for the first time.
My wife loves to hunt the eastern part of the state, easier country to hike, plenty of critters with amazing sunsets. Deer and Antelope are usually what we are after with long hikes into our public lands as our means of hunting. We are not road hunters, our bows or rifles stay cased until our packs go on our backs and we head out. I will say that every critter taken in the last few decades or so, deer or antelope have come back to the truck in pieces on our backs. This is my type of hunting and has served us well over the years. This type of hunting is changing and changing very fast and that is the reason for this post.
My wife and I just returned from an eight day adventure in the SE part of the state and ran into hunters in every single, “far from the road”, spot that we usually hunt. Most the hunters that we talked to were very nice folks. All the hunters were very excited to be hunting this state’s “public back-country” lands. All these hunters were really getting after it, hunting hard and covering as much country as possible. The larger tracts of public had multiple groups hiking in and bi-vi camping deep in, not knowing that where they camped was the critters core living room area of that piece of ground. All these hunters, every single one, were from out-of-state! For some, this was their first trip to Montana or their very first hunt “Out-West”, others had hunted here over many years. Some of these hunters only had a week to hunt. Others were “ALL-IN” and planned to stay through to the end of the season or until they finally filled their tags with a trophy Montana buck. All of these hunters, every single one, mentioned this forum and Big Fin. Mystery Ranch packs, Kenetrec boots, hiking poles and Howa alpine rifles seemed to be the gear of choice for most. My how this forum, other internet forums, hunting mags, hunting channels, OnX maps and the hunting industry in general has changed the hunting of our public lands! The message of hunting our “Public Lands Ranch” has worked! The message of getting into the “Back-country”, away from the roads, has worked!
This, my first post here on Hunt-Talk, is not a rant against nonresident hunters. It’s not a rant against anyone willing to put boots on the ground and enjoy our public lands. I hope that the guy from southern Wyoming finds his Montana whitetail buck and his buddy from North Carolina finally tags his first mule deer buck. I hope that the two young-guns from Minnesota find their trophy bucks along with the hunters from Washington, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon and Wisconsin that we able to talk to. I’m sorry and apologize to the group of hunters from Vermont who I called the game warden on. I lost my cool and didn’t figure that you were legal with 23 mule deer laying on the ground whole and not skinned at your camp. The warden said that all your deer were legally tagged and that you would be taking them to a meat processor soon. This post is my views on what is happening to our public land hunting. Things will have to change here in Montana. Seasons will have to be adjusted. The tag numbers and the issuing of B-tags will have to be adjusted for private vs public lands. Otherwise our “Public Lands Ranch” may become devoid of wildlife after the first few weeks of the hunting season. I wonder just how long it will take for the generations of game animals to have the born instinct to migrate to the private, from the public, once the fall season closes in?
I should also note, in eight days of hunting, we saw zero resident Montana hunters, not a one! Seems like, as usual, the local resident hunters are waiting for “The Rut”. So here’s a heads up to all of the local resident Montana rut hunters out there, your personal, secret, back away from the road hunting area? Well it has already been hunted hard! The nonresident hunters have beaten you to the punch and have hit it hard!
Thanks for reading my LONG-WINDED first post! Good luck to ALL and I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable hunting season.
Mtnhunter
