Montana 2026 Elk Proposal

[YukonGold]

Haven’t read this whole thing and don’t overly care much one way or another if this passes or not. Cows are easy enough to kill on public land in MT if you really want one.

Question…..and apologies if this has been answered. Say you drew a Gardiner cow tag. Shoot a bull on public in archery. Now you can’t use that 2nd cow tag in November?

Seems like this is a statewide blanket proposal if that’s the case. Some units you are hunting the same elk whether it’s public or private.

The idea is that that cow tag becomes an antlerless permit which only validates your general license. No more B-tag at all. One elk, unless you also get a PRIVATE LAND ONLY B-tag, which all B-tags would become. So yeah, in your scenario, if you were allowed to fill your general with a BTB during archery instead, that's your general license filled and you're done.

 

[Drake4]

Got it thanks.
Blanketing the whole state with that same rational seems really silly.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Got it thanks.
Blanketing the whole state with that same rational seems really silly.

Having an endless supply of NR OTC cow tags and residents continuing hunting after theyve already killed 2 elk seems.... more silly?

Happy thanksgiving.

 

[Drake4]

Having an endless supply of NR OTC cow tags and residents continuing hunting after theyve already killed 2 elk seems.... more silly?

Happy thanksgiving.

I agree. That is more silly.
Lots of other options to address that though. I honestly don’t care either way, was just curious. Some people make killing elk way harder than it is.

 

[Forkyfinder]

I agree. That is more silly.
Lots of other options to address that though. I honestly don’t care either way, was just curious. Some people make killing elk way harder than it is.

I'm all ears for a better idea.

I dont have one, especially one that the the commission would accept, much less proposed by one.

Im not too terribly interested in killing cows much anymore, unless im helping solve a real problem. Speaking of that - if youre looking for a good laugh, sign up for a damage roster hunt.

 

[El Jason]

Got it thanks.
Blanketing the whole state with that same rational seems really silly.

Running the majority of the state under the same framework for the last four decades seems really silly.

You would think at some point FWP could start to adopt a different approach to managing hunter distribution and targeted harvest.

At the bare minimum, it doesn’t seem like rocket science to allocate NR deer and elk licenses per region and/or hunt districts. That’s why I suggested separating the licenses at drawing to allow for distribution by region/HD.

I think the long term benefit would be quite evident.