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.

 

[sjl2012]

Genuinely curious how you hunt 7 units in 10 days.

@Frequently Banned Troll It wasn’t that hard, came in from the South on 15 and started in 323, that lasted all of one evening, a rude awakening to hunting in Montana, I think every NR should have to hunt 3 or 4 general units around Dillon.

We just did morning and evening hunts moving around probing places trying to find an area that wasn’t heavily occupied or find fresh sign. The goal was to get away from people. I’d rather not list the places those things actually happened but we hunted close to YS, castles, and LB’s. We didn’t drive to Montana to camp, I think we had 65-70 miles hiked over 10 days and actually had boots on the ground in 7 units not counting the ones we drove through and looked at trailhead congestion. Once we found what we were looking for we spent 4 days there and had a great 4 days of hunting, the hope is to draw the tag again in a couple of years and use what we figured out.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Is Helena FWD really the boogeyman? Someone on here has to know someone who works there and could explain the politics. If they really fear their own shadow, that is sad and disturbing, but I’d be curious if there was more to the story.

If you start at the end and move backwards, which group is wildly benefiting from the current tag allocations? Based on the comments here it seems the answer is no one.

 

[cgasner1]

Is Helena FWD really the boogeyman? Someone on here has to know someone who works there and could explain the politics. If they really fear their own shadow, that is sad and disturbing, but I’d be curious if there was more to the story.

If you start at the end and move backwards, which group is wildly benefiting from the current tag allocations? Based on the comments here it seems the answer is no one.

Also another problem is everyone is always worried about how it’s gonna benefit someone else instead of figuring out how to fill their own tag

 

[Rack Daniels]

Also another problem is everyone is always worried about how it’s gonna benefit someone else instead of figuring out how to fill their own tag

I believe that filling my tag would be simpler if the people really benefiting from all the seasons; no matter the structure, benefitted just a little less.

 

[Forkyfinder]

I believe that filling my tag would be simpler if the people really benefiting from all the seasons; no matter the structure, benefitted just a little less.

Seems to be the common agreement here - we all need to give some form of opportunity up to improve and preserve hunting.

I'd assume that was the basis of several proposals. Including this one.

 

[Drake4]

Also another problem is everyone is always worried about how it’s gonna benefit someone else instead of figuring out how to fill their own tag

This

 

[cgasner1]

I believe that filling my tag would be simpler if the people really benefiting from all the seasons; no matter the structure, benefitted just a little less.

So what are you willing to give up? Because until people are willing to give something up nothing changes. I’d happily give up killing me second elk. Most years I do kill a bull and a cow. Like I have said my issue isn’t that I’m giving up that it’s that we are taking power from the bios. At this point it feels like instead of having one for all 7 regions we only really need to have one