Montana draw 2026

[MTGunner]

^^

I agree. As a resident I am unwilling to give up nothing seeing the overcrowded mobs ascending upon MT. Mobs that would shoot any mule deer regardless of age or size only to pound themselves on the chest and proclaim it’s a monster. Antelope are in decline. MD are in decline. Elk are not a given for all hunters resident or nonresident alike. You have to hunt for them. Walking away without harvesting an animal is difficult. But, if this continues it will be nothing more than a rich man’s sport. My rant! MTG

 

[Big Fin]

The change nobody wants is "any change."

Let's face it, Montana hunters enjoy some pretty damn good options compared to other states. And they will oppose anything that deviates from the status quo.

1. Our resident fees are hardly enough to cover gas in the vehicles and warden salaries, let alone an entire department from whom we demand more science. The ratio of non-resident to resident fees is over 50:1. That is far beyond every other state. $20 for an elk tag and $16 for a deer tag shows how much we "value" the opportunity.

2. Combined archery, rifle, and muzzleloader seasons are over 14 weeks, through some of the most vulnerable periods of the year. When I travel to other states, I often get this questions, "I was reading the Montana regulations. There must be a misprint, or I'm reading it wrong. It says I can hunt the archery, rifle, and muzzy seasons if I draw general tag. How can that be?"

Nope, you're not reading it wrong. We have the longest seasons in the Rockies. Any effort to change that is going to be met with a lot of resistance. "I want mine inertia" is hard to overcome.

3. We get to hunt most of the state under General season structure for deer and elk. That is hardly the norm in the Rockies. It makes for some hard-to-explain management when one considers that mule deer in the prairies of Eastern Montana get managed under the same structure as mule deer in the mountains of Northwest Montana.


Attached are the 1998 deer regulations for Region 3. You had to "validate" for one of the zones in Region 3 to hunt mule deer. If you validated, that was the only place you could hunt mule deer. If you didn't validate, you couldn't hunt mule deer in Region 3. It was hard to get that change implemented, even just in Region 3.

We were naive enough to think we'd get "validation" for deer implemented state-wide. Nope. We were told to stick to our own Region.

We asked for something similar for General Elk, as Region 3 hunters were complaining about being inundated by elk hunters from other Regions. May as well ask for the keys to Fort Knox as too try change Montana's general elk season. So, we bailed on that idea and hoped we could at least get deer for Region 3. Which is what we got.

Seeing how hard that small change was, and how legislators pressured the Department to drop it a few years later, it has served as a reality check for how much resistance resident hunters have to any changes. Barring some cataclysmic event, I see little likelihood of change in Montana. I'd rather fish than invest my time trying to change resident hunting; an effort history has taught me as borderline impossible. My hunting path is closing, so I've come to accept what is desired by those who have a lot more hunting years ahead of them than what I have ahead of me.

Here is what it looked like in the deer regs for 1998. Changes can be made, but only if the majority of hunters place the resource above their own interests. Most MT residents on Hunt Talk are willing to do that. Unfortunately, that's hardly the prevalent feeling among most resident hunters.