teamhoyt
Well-known member
The Herds are really making a comeback, Fwp says so.... 4500 Muley doe tags In region 7??? Wth! I Guess we can't have anything nice.
Good news for eastern mt mule deer!
- Thread starter teamhoyt
- Start date
Poke 'Em
Well-known member
Up from 4350 last year. Not a big change.
Highwood
Active member
"Haystack" hunters 
antlerradar
Well-known member
That is 100 %. I am sure that all of region 7 has the does to handle 4500 doe tags. The problem is that deer are not distributed evenly. There are thousands of deer south of me on the Diamond Cross. Very few of the doe tags will be used there. On the Custer Forest the deer numbers are just starting to recover and now those deer will again get hammered.
And there is the problem. The majority of those tags get filled on public land where mule deer numbers are struggling. If they were private land only doe tags if might make sense. I miss the days where mule deer covered the public landscape in Montana. We have destroyed western Montana mule deer hunting. Time to ruin eastern MT too? I dont get it.
Ditto. I understand the distinction/difficulty between managing big deer vs opportunity, but I just don't understand the approach here. The mule deer permits in 380 are a good example--great habitat but FWP gives out so many permits on an annual basis that quality bucks are real hard to dig out. Partly as a result of the mule deer management in this part of the state, I'm taking my sons out to Eastern MT this fall.
HuntNRef
New member
Last year It seemed like the mule deer numbers were coming back in some of the harder hit areas of 700. Still not great, but better. I was hoping FWP would continue to keep doe tags low. I guess I can live with a slight increase. I definitely agree that the population is sporadic and some changes could be made to the regs per smaller districts. Some areas within 700 could use higher harvest numbers but most need to remain limited.
BuzzH
Well-known member
Maybe doe tags should cost residents $50 or even $100 a pop...if the FPW is going to wipe out the mule deer, may as well make some money doing it.
ShootsManyBullets
Well-known member
Doe shoulder seasons for everyone!
Walkathon
Well-known member
double post
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Walkathon
Well-known member
I'm a NR hunter so my opinion doesn't count, but I don't understand why Montana doesn't issue the majority of the mule deer doe tags for private land only. The only place I see anything that resembles an over population of deer is on private land on wheat fields, other agriculture, private river bottom etc...
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antlerradar
Well-known member
And the more we blast the does on public the the more the does move to the private. The good thing for the landowners selling hunts is that the does bring the bucks with them during the rut.
Lawnboy
Well-known member
I brought up the question here at the Region 3 meeting that every time the numbers just start to increase we jump the tags again? I said it's like having a cut and watching the scab form then ripping the scab off before it's healed. It's an absolute joke whats going on. The other option which got shot down here was to make a certain number of the doe tags only valid on private land. This is where the complaints are coming from but like was mentioned the majority of hunters don't have permission or access so the public land deer get hammered and the ranchers continue to complain.
If it social pressure from hunters to have an opportunity to kill a doe that is driving this then shame on us! Let the animals recover so that our kids and grand kids will have something to pursue.
If it social pressure from hunters to have an opportunity to kill a doe that is driving this then shame on us! Let the animals recover so that our kids and grand kids will have something to pursue.
TimeOnTarget
Well-known member
They do the same thing in SD. Chasing that revenue is the driving force behind everything. Afterall, who gives a shit about our resources.
BuzzH
Well-known member
They do the same thing in SD. Chasing that revenue is the driving force behind everything. Afterall, who gives a shit about our resources.
That's even tough for me to believe in the case of Montana...they don't charge Residents enough make it worth their while to even issue a doe tag.
I had a long discussion with a good friend of mine about what Montana causes with their ridiculously low fees. Why would a resident care about the resource when the MTFWP is telling them that all a doe mule deer is worth is $10?...or a buck deer $16...or a bull elk $20?
Its not a surprise to me that a vast majority of hunters in Montana place such little value on their wildlife resources, the MTFWP has made it clear what they're worth...not much.
