Looking for a new spot

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Any decent muleys Randy?

Nothing huge. Few off of maybe 160 type deer. For whatever reason it seems that area just doesn`t grow big bucks.

Matt, I had to fight off a few, but nothing out of the ordinary. Like always I had my wiffle ball bat for protection.

Pics?

 

[MN Public Hunter]

Maybe they should make it illegal to take antlers out just like MN does. On certain public land you can't take them out at all....

 

[MattK]

Two grizzly bears were shot and killed over the weekend in western Montana.

An antler hunter shot a sow grizzly bear in the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area on Sunday, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials.In a separate incident, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Wildlife Management Program said Monday a female grizzly was shot and killed by a Ronan-area landowner on Saturday.

In the first case, an unidentified Missoula man encountered the bear and two cubs near the Boyd Loop Road. About 300 people had gathered for Sunday's noon opening of the range to antler hunters.

"The call to 9-1-1 came at 12:40, so it happened right after the opener," FWP spokeswoman Vivica Crowser said on Monday. "There were other people in the vicinity, and they saw the bear come after the guy."

The man was able to shoot the bear twice, wounding it. FWP game wardens euthanized it and later captured both its cubs of the year. The carcass has been sent to the FWP research lab in Bozeman for autopsy. The cubs are being taken to a state bear rehabilitation facility and may eventually be taken to a zoo.

FWP game wardens determined the sow's death was a justifiable self-defense shooting and no charges will be filed. No people were injured in the incident.

Also during the antler hunt, FWP officials arrested one man on suspicion of trespassing into the game range before the opening. The wildlife management area is off limits to people from mid-winter until May 15 to reduce stress on pregnant elk as they congregate on their winter range.

FWP biologist Jay Kolbe said the crowd of 300 people at Sunday's noon opening was nearly as big as in past years, when the area was opened at midnight. Antler finds were expected to be tough this year because of two major poaching cases.

The Missoula County Attorney's Office is still investigating a group of men accused of taking at least 60 antler sheds while the area was closed. And another man has been accused of taking 20 antlers from the Blackfoot-Clearwater on April 28. That investigation is also pending, Kolbe said.

***

The second bear death involved a 2-year-old grizzly that had killed chickens earlier Saturday and returned to the same property three miles east of Ronan late in the afternoon. The bear was then shot by the landowner, said Germaine White, a CSKT information and education specialist.

The case remains under investigation, according to Pablo Espinoza, chief of Tribal Fish and Game.

Stacy Courville of the Tribal Wildlife Management Program said people with unprotected chicken coops must understand that grizzlies have figured out the Mission Valley is a prime spot to find a free chicken dinner.

"There is a huge increase in chicken production in the Mission Valley and the bears have keyed into unprotected chicken coops," Courville said.

White noted that grizzly bears are a threatened and endangered species protected by the Endangered Species Act.

It's the fourth bear lost from the Flathead Indian Reservation's grizzly population in the last 10 months due to grizzly-chicken encounters. An adult female and two cubs that developed a taste for chickens last year were captured and removed to the Louisville (Ky.) Zoo in August.

Local landowners can learn how to protect both their small livestock and wildlife on Wednesday, June 8, at a predator electric fence clinic from 5-8 p.m. at Cenex Mountain West Co-Op in Ronan.

Landowners can report bear problems to the tribes by calling 883-2888

That wasn't you with your wiffle bat was it?

 

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That wasn't you with your wiffle bat was it?

Nope, FWP has better things to do than finish what I start. I don`t wound with the wiffle ball bat, I kill.