Gritty Podcast 527: The future of hunting
- Thread starter bushman13
- Start date
The disgust happened because the systems failed. I've got the inside skinny on what happened the last 2 years with that.
Obviously a phased approach would help that matter greatly.
Obviously a phased approach would help that matter greatly.
westbranch
Well-known member
Wait, you're a corporate IT consultant? It is starting to make sense why this thread doesn't make sense at all.
Even worse, cyber security architect. I get paid to poke holes and rebuild, all day.
D
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Dude, no. It's been a cluster for 15+ years, and it has nothing to do with the software. It sucked when it was all in person, it sucked when it was online, it just sucks to have that volume of people vying for a limited resources.
Though I'm sure my buddies with license machines would love for a first come first serve moose system, they would draw every year.
Mudranger1
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this is EXACTLY what I thought when I read that post
Gerald Martin
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I'm fairly suspicious that the people in charge of game management and season setting structure at Montana's FWP have been following bushman13's "opportunity" approach for years. I suggest you move out and take a job within FWP. You would fit right in.
Having lived in MT for seventeen years and watched the changes that have happened in that short amount of time I have a lot of sympathy for BuzzH's (and others) disgust when they talk about the diminished (devasted) quality of hunting opportunities in the western part of the state from thirty years ago.
It's awesome being able to take my bow for a walk for five weeks and then take my rifle for a walk for another six weeks. It would be even more awesome if I could consistently find elk on public land in the amount of time I can justify taking off work. I've always ridden hard to the line of being irresponsible with work and family time in order to satisfy my hunting desire and have been consistently more successful than the vast majority of resident hunters. That success usually comes in the form of 15-20 days of hunting per elk harvested. With current management strategies in the areas I hunt, it's getting harder to find elk, not easier. Constant pressure on available public lands has conditioned the elk to find sanctuary on private land where hunting is not allowed by someone without connections with a few remnant elk scattered in isolated pockets trying to avoid being picked off by hunters or wolves.
Consequently, I find that the lack of quality is killing my desire to continue to invest the required amount of time it takes to consistently kill an elk. Like my twelve year old son said last year, "If the needle isn't in the haystack, what's the point of looking for it?"
Last year, I found that sitting in a duck blind during the middle of the rut was just as enjoyable as taking my rifle for a walk.....
Having lived in MT for seventeen years and watched the changes that have happened in that short amount of time I have a lot of sympathy for BuzzH's (and others) disgust when they talk about the diminished (devasted) quality of hunting opportunities in the western part of the state from thirty years ago.
It's awesome being able to take my bow for a walk for five weeks and then take my rifle for a walk for another six weeks. It would be even more awesome if I could consistently find elk on public land in the amount of time I can justify taking off work. I've always ridden hard to the line of being irresponsible with work and family time in order to satisfy my hunting desire and have been consistently more successful than the vast majority of resident hunters. That success usually comes in the form of 15-20 days of hunting per elk harvested. With current management strategies in the areas I hunt, it's getting harder to find elk, not easier. Constant pressure on available public lands has conditioned the elk to find sanctuary on private land where hunting is not allowed by someone without connections with a few remnant elk scattered in isolated pockets trying to avoid being picked off by hunters or wolves.
Consequently, I find that the lack of quality is killing my desire to continue to invest the required amount of time it takes to consistently kill an elk. Like my twelve year old son said last year, "If the needle isn't in the haystack, what's the point of looking for it?"
Last year, I found that sitting in a duck blind during the middle of the rut was just as enjoyable as taking my rifle for a walk.....
D
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I will never be the hunter Gerald is, I started too late and haven't put in the time to develop his level of skill. My point, he is an expert, I'm maybe an intermediate hunter.
Including days scouting I've averaged 3 days per elk killed in CO. I've got on elk/spotted them literally ever single day I've spent hunting or scouting in CO.
Gerald Martin
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Bah. Expert, mexpspert. I'm pretty sure that the only thing I have going for me over anyone else is time in the woods and what used to be a 365 obsession with thinking about where I could find a bull and kill him the next time I hunted.
Waking up a few days last season, and realizing I didn't have a solid idea on where to go that I thought I had a reasonable chance to see an elk was really demoralizing. That speaks to the quality of my hunting area. Realizing that I didn't have the gumption to walk back into the only area I thought I might be able to find a pocket of bulls, speaks of my declining motivation.
The clincher is when my hunting pards clearly prefer burning powder to burning boot leather and walking the guns.
That is the state not being accurate with species numbers or an over allocation of tags. With my limited understanding, this mismanagement should not bleed over into allocation schemes or season lengths. I could be wrong.
Maybe they wanted the "mismanagement"
Maybe they wanted the "mismanagement"
D
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Brian Call, Gritty bowmen podcast
Gerald Martin
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Maybe they wanted the "mismanagement"
Yep. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Problem is in MT, the average hunter doesn’t understand the either the biological dynamics of elk and deer populations or the effects of hunting pressure on moving game around.
Most hunters are only concerned about notching their tag this year, not on whether it’s sustainable long term.
“Opportunity at any cost,” is their mantra and they willingly play along with the “solutions” forced on FWP by anti-elk legislators who are responding to the ranching/ag lobby.
Rising population, continued habitat fragmentation, increasingly liberal tags, lengthened seasons, and higher hunting pressure on open areas is achieving the predictable results of destroying good quality elk hunting.
If you are a hunter with the means to access quality private land you will be experiencing the best elk hunting MT has ever offered. If you prefer to hunt public or can’t get access to private, it’s never been worse.
The sad thing about it is that only a couple decades ago the BEST elk hunting in the western part of the state was primarily found on our public land.
Yep. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Problem is in MT, the average hunter doesn’t understand the either the biological dynamics of elk and deer populations or the effects of hunting pressure on moving game around.
Most hunters are only concerned about notching their tag this year, not on whether it’s sustainable long term.
“Opportunity at any cost,” is their mantra and they willingly play along with the “solutions” forced on FWP by anti-elk legislators who are responding to the ranching/ag lobby.
Rising population, continued habitat fragmentation, increasingly liberal tags, lengthened seasons, and higher hunting pressure on open areas is achieving the predictable results of destroying good quality elk hunting.
If you are a hunter with the means to access quality private land you will be experiencing the best elk hunting MT has ever offered. If you prefer to hunt public or can’t get access to private, it’s never been worse.
The sad thing about it is that only a couple decades ago the BEST elk hunting in the western part of the state was primarily found on our public land.
westbranch
Well-known member
Just saw this and it reminded me of this thread.
Answering in my best Jeopardy voice,Who is a self-important douche bag?
huronmtns
Well-known member
Then on the other side of things around here lately there are people complaining that there are declining number of hunters. Gritty is hunting!
