380 Tag Reduction

[Stone_Ice_1]

Montana FWP proposes dropping HD 380 Elkhorn bull permits by 30% for the 2027 hunting season

A rash of trophy bull elk poaching, decreasing harvested age class and general lack of observed elk in the highly sought-after hunting unit led to the proposal to the Fish

helenair.com

After having the tag two years ago I would be a big supporter of this. Most people get this tag once if they are lucky and my experience was that it mostly wasn't worth the 20 year wait to get the tag for the quality of bulls I saw.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

Can't get past the paywall but can read the snippet.

This is pretty disheartening. As someone that lives in Townsend and I have countless friends that have never drawn. Everyone I talk to that has drawn, and seeing the tooth envelopes come through, it's still a much better unit for bulls than any general unit in the state. Compared to a true trophy unit in likely any other state I'm sure it comes well short. 350" bull there is probably about getting a 300" bull in a general unit in Montana, doable but no where near a "good chance" for most hunters. Realistically most of the "big" bulls I've seen come out of there are in the 320" range but I don't think that is the median or average, probably closer to 300" but a general unit is probably 260-270" median/average?

It's probably easier for you to support this, but for those that haven't drawn it may create more distrust in FWP as the statewide trend seems to be lower trophy size animals and lower hunter satisfaction across the state.

I'm glad to see FWP make an active management decision based on the herd and age data and hope this move corrects the issue, but question how we got to this point and if poaching is truly causing the herd to decline I would like to see more done to mitigate that and increase the penalty for such actions. I don't think our trophy restitution has been updated to 2026 $US values.

 

[cgasner1]

The comments on the 2 articles I read are great. As per usual it’s all the nr fault. Maybe stop shooting spikes idk I’m sure they can breed the cows just fine

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

I do agree with the spikes. Probably the only state that has one of their premier elk tags districts allow over the counter shooting of spikes. If they didn't shoot the spikes they could probably keep the tag numbers the same or even increase them after a few years.

Another issue is, last I looked there were 100 tags given out. But it is actually closer to 115. I discovered when I had the tag that many landowners were double dipping to get additional tags. They of course apply for the tag through the landowner program. These tags count toward the 100 for the district. However they also have the program (I can't remember the name of it) where the landowner allows a hunter access to their property to hunt in exchange for a bull or sometimes cow tags. At least one of these landowners is also using that same land in the Block Management Program. I was excited that I had "won" the lottery to one of these areas that are exchanged for tags and then found out the area I "Won" was in block management and anybody could hunt it already. Anyway, my point is there are about 12 or so of these tags given out that are on top of the 100 done by the draw.

 

[Matthew57]

I do agree with the spikes. Probably the only state that has one of their premier elk tags districts allow over the counter shooting of spikes. If they didn't shoot the spikes they could probably keep the tag numbers the same or even increase them after a few years.

We certainly do it here in WA.

 

[TheTone]

We shoot the heck out of spikes in some good draw areas in Idaho also

 

[Forkyfinder]

But it is actually closer to 115. I discovered when I had the tag that many landowners were double dipping to get additional tags.

Oh - the paid advocates aka lobbyists - love those gamey dumpy systems.

Go look at the "thousands of elk" lines that get peddled in the legislature by the sponsored liars.

They are a complete and total joke, and most working landowners that are actually busy working their land dont have the time or energy to look into the best way to manipulate the system.