2020 Montana deer recap

[timmy]

Excellent age structure as well. If you want to beat your head off a wall talk to a biologist at fwp. The older bucks are out there you aren’t finding them because you suck at hunting or you need to knock on doors to get access. There is a lot of kool-aid being drank at mtfwp.

 

[ID Hunter 22]

Pics or it didn't happen....... I've never fully understood why people measure mule bucks by a 24" and a 28" wide.... it doesn't take a wide buck to make a good buck. We're not walleye fishing....

Lol. I agree there’s a whole lot more to a buck than width (mass, length of tines, number of points, height, blah blah blah I know I’m preaching to the choir). Just trying to add some perspective to the quality of animals harvested for discussion. You’ll never be seeing me post a pic on a forum for a number of reasons but the two big ones for me are location and anonymity.

 

[EYJONAS!]

I guess I can't blame ya I haven't posted pics either...... don't want people to really know what I got

 

[EYJONAS!]

Mule deer numbers are high and the buck to doe ratio is excellent! Actually too high You can’t argue with the counts. Glory days!!

Are you a FWP biologist...... in region 6 or 7 just wondering?

 

[EYJONAS!]

I think a 900 archery deer tag would be freakin awesome. If that's what you choose that's it. You got general gun in October after that.

If you wanna go all in for late archery or rifle that's it. If you get it that's what you got.

Saskatchewan has a great mule deer plan....... let's go with that.

 

[Gerald Martin]

The problem is Montana continues to manage like the resident population isn’t growing and mule deer numbers aren’t declining

Well stated. FWP continues to act like things are fine because half of them aren't experienced enough as hunters or biologists to know what used to be and what could be and the other half are waiting for retirement and don't want to face the backlash of MT hunters who want "opportunity" and want to be told things are great.

Opening week of rifle only for mule deer on a general tag. Whitetails only for the rest of the season.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

and don't want to face the backlash of MT hunters who want "opportunity" and want to be told things are great.

The five week rifle season is a tired paradigm, but the cultural resistance to change is huge as you noted.

The term management could be used a lot more in good faith if there were actually management changes across districts instead of a one size fits all, let hunters manage themselves approach.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Are we to manage deer solely on trophy expectations? Many people will sacrifice hunting opportunities to get a better chance to get a big deer.

Others like to have long seasons with more weekend chances than other states that have shorter seasons and higher concentrations of hunters in those allotted times.

Not everyone can be satisfied by season vs trophies. Somebody has to get less, it can’t be both ways.

If you are looking to fill a tag there's more than ample enough time to get one. It's not rocket science to go out and take a deer.

The problem is when it comes to end how many get whacked because well...... it's the end and I got one so anything goes...

 

[antlerradar]

Excellent age structure as well. If you want to beat your head off a wall talk to a biologist at fwp. The older bucks are out there you aren’t finding them because you suck at hunting or you need to knock on doors to get access. There is a lot of kool-aid being drank at mtfwp.

I have heard the if you spent more time and hunted harder you would find the big bucks and understand how good things are response a few times. It really pisses me off.

 

[Bambistew]

What's sad is most people don't realize that the season they just had is the best season they will have for the rest of their life.

Good luck making any sort of meaningful change. Its a broken record. Be thankful for private land, without it there wouldn't be much left to hunt.

 

[antlerradar]

What's sad is most people don't realize that the season they just had is the best season they will have for the rest of their life.

Good luck making any sort of meaningful change. Its a broken record. Be thankful for private land, without it there wouldn't be much left to hunt.

I would like to think that getting doe hunting eliminated or restricted on public land is a change that can happen.

 

[bigsky2]

900 archery deer tag Aug 15 - Sept 15 (statewide)
General deer October 1-31
Archery special November 10-30 (region specific)
Rifle Special November 10-30 (50 permits tops per district)

Maybe a limited entry muzzy? Instead of special rifle permit?

Private land doe tags

Thoughts?

Would the general deer rifle season be going on during archery elk season or would the season dates for elk have to change as well?

I'd like to see the general rifle season get moved forward a week and shortened by a week. The season would only be a week shorter, but by moving it up a week you'd eliminate two weeks of rut hunting. You'd get rid of the dead week (similar to Wyoming), archery would run right into rifle. That's still plenty of time to kill a deer and I think getting rid of two weeks of hunting during the rut would help a lot. I'd be all for something more restrictive like the season structure that you mentioned, I just think a drastic change like that is a pipe dream in Montana. I don't see anything similar to my idea ever happening either, it's just not quite as drastic.

 

[Bambistew]

I would like to think that getting doe hunting eliminated or restricted on public land is a change that can happen.

You would think so, but good luck with that. Restricted, maybe, but doubtful that it could be eliminated. The amount of whining could be heard 3 states away. I would think it would just make the private/public issue that much worse. LO would complain about all the extra deer while cashing the checks from the bucks that get shot on their property.

 

[Ben Long]

2020 was odd for lots of reasons -- but mostly the pandemic and the Opening Day Blizzard. I can honestly now say I've hunted Opening Day in the 70s and 10 below. I had one deer hunt on the East Side, saw lots of bucks and four that were adult 5x5s but could not get close. I hunted only a few days here in NW MT before potting a nice 4X4 on Nov. 12. I could've kept hunting for a bigger one, but he did the trick. Life got in the way of elk hunting this year, which is too bad.

 

[antlerradar]

You would think so, but good luck with that. Restricted, maybe, but doubtful that it could be eliminated. The amount of whining could be heard 3 states away. I would think it would just make the private/public issue that much worse. LO would complain about all the extra deer while cashing the checks from the bucks that get shot on their property.

I have little sympathy for LO that complain abut deer numbers on there land and don't let people shoot does. You will not hear me complaining about deer numbers except for the lack there of on public land.

 

[Mallardsx2]

^^ I found there to be tons of deer on public land. Just no bucks bigger than Y bucks. lol

 

[Eric Albus]

FINALLY, some of you may be fed up enough to go to Regional tentative meetings, and or go to Helena. Email FWP with complaints!!

We have a Republican Gov, who will hopefully make some drastic changes within FWP. Hopefully we will see some actual management in Gen. Season(GS) deer/elk areas.
There are many things to try before going to the dreaded Limited Entry Permit(LEP) for deer/elk in GS areas. Whoever opined ending the rifle rut hunt is on the correct track. Here is the way things would work, were only I King....
Archery season Sept. 1-30, Muzzle loader(primitive only, no scopes/in-lines) Oct 1-8, Oct 10-30 GS(any weapon), Nov 1-9 muzzle loader, Nov 10-30 archery only(keep the poachers honest by having camo clad nimrods afield. The dates are all ambiguous, they can be tweaked as needed. This is a WIN/WIN/WIN, wildlife wins(no rifle rut hunting), FWP wins (more license to sell), sportsmen win(still have a ton of opportunity). After a year or two or 5 things will need adjusted, like pick weapon/Region/Area hunted, and eventually it will wind up being LEP's for some seasons.

We saw more people hunting in NE Mt, and SE Mt than ever in my lifetime, something needs to be done to curb the slaughter. In Glasgow Mt at the meat processor 20 NR hunters brought in 78 deer. They paid processing and donated the meat. I talked with a buddy of mine who had a couple guys at the processor in Broadus, they saw a handful of NR hunters bring in the max number of does/fawn that tags allowed for, all shot in the head(wonder how many are out there with jaws blown off) and paid the processor and donated the meat also nothing wrong with donating, but what is wrong with people that don't care about the game and only want to kill like a blood crazed weasel?

 

[MTLabrador]

Archery season Sept. 1-30, Muzzle loader(primitive only, no scopes/in-lines) Oct 1-8, Oct 10-30 GS(any weapon), Nov 1-9 muzzle loader, Nov 10-30 archery only(keep the poachers honest by having camo clad nimrods afield. The dates are all ambiguous, they can be tweaked as needed. This is a WIN/WIN/WIN, wildlife wins(no rifle rut hunting),

Why have a November hunt at all? Plenty of deer will still be killed with muzzleloaders and arrows.

 

[Eric Albus]

The reason for having archery hunters afield during the rut is to have a presence to discourage poaching.

 

[MTLabrador]

The reason for having archery hunters afield during the rut is to have a presence to discourage poaching.

I’ll have to disagree there.