Montana Mule Deer Mismanagement

That’s an excellent graphic. The FWP says the harvest success is very low with these doe tags I believe around 10% or so. Another thing to add is the general tag is either sex. The strictest harvest they could go to would be buck only and 1000 doe tags. This could be changed at the June commission meeting but could cause some problems as the regulations are already out. I don’t foresee them trying to make that change but I sure hope they do.
That's the wildcard, general tags. I'm 100% guessing but I presume the general tags that hunt region 7 eclipse 10k?
 
That's the wildcard, general tags. I'm 100% guessing but I presume the general tags that hunt region 7 eclipse 10k?
I don’t know that I asked that. I do know their data isn’t showing a substantial increase in hunters.
 
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I would argue that the Custer should be able to handle more deer now than in the 90's. After all 2/3 of the forest has burned since 2000. Production of deer food is way up.
My only counter would be that the fires were accompanied by drought and drought limits carrying capacity. I also wonder if some the changes over the last 40years in the eastern half, specifically more pivots and irrigation, benefited whitetails at the expense of mule deer. Experts will have to weight in on whether that has any validity.
 
My only counter would be that the fires were accompanied by drought and drought limits carrying capacity. I also wonder if some the changes over the last 40years in the eastern half, specifically more pivots and irrigation, benefited whitetails at the expense of mule deer. Experts will have to weight in on whether that has any validity.
The droughts of the recent past were ugly, no doubt about it. There was also ugly droughts in the 80's and 90's. Remember 88 and the big fires in Yellowstone, there was also big fires on the Custer that year. The only reason they were not forest wide is in most places there wasn't enough grass to carry a fire. I remember one year in the early 90's irrigation water was in real tight supply. Some were predicting it was going to be the new normal. Haven't had a year like that since.
Good point about agriculture, but not quite like you point out. In the 50's and 60's many of the smaller property's close to the forest had fields planted in dryland or sub irrigated alfalfa. This was a big help to deer on the near by forest. Now most of those field are in introduced grass. This is one of the reasons why it would be hard to duplicate the 60's.
As for irrigation on the river, that helps both mule deer and whitetails. One issue could be that mule deer that frequent the alfalfa go into winter in better shape than deer that stay out in the hills all summer and fall. In tough winters or drought the alfalfa deer out compete the forest deer on the same winter range. Whitetails do multiply like rabbits, but EDH does a good job of keeping the population in check.
 
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Sometimes there is no choice lol.

I haven't been following this thread closely until now. I have the 'vid or something similar so I have some time on my hands.

I hope you make the committee.
First time I read this I didn't see the i in "vid". Glad I caught it the second time, reading comprehension has never been strong with me.
 
How many people shoot a doe on a buck tag? Do they have the data?

"May result in lower buck:doe ratios" assuming you know the answer to question 1.

Once a population gets so far depressed, it take years/decades to recover.

I remember in SW MT when you could shoot a MD doe on a buck tag in a lot of units. How's those populations doing? :rolleyes:
 
I assume no mule deer doe tags either? Haven’t put in for cow or antelope yet so haven’t looked. I better get on that.
 
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I assume no mule deer doe tags either? Haven’t put in for cow or antelope yet so haven’t looked. I better get on that.
I would suspect at least 1000 probably more. Hopefully not. Makes me wonder just how bad the counts were this spring. I know we are well below 2012 numbers where I frequent and it took them several years to cut doe tags after those bad winters. I would like to keep some deer on the landscape and hope something will change with management. Private land only doe tags makes a lot of sense to me if they do issue them.
 
I would suspect at least 1000 probably more. Hopefully not. Makes me wonder just how bad the counts were this spring. I know we are well below 2012 numbers where I frequent and it took them several years to cut doe tags after those bad winters. I would like to keep some deer on the landscape and hope something will change with management. Private land only doe tags makes a lot of sense to me if they do issue them.
Such an easy fix. I could probably figure out how to edit the regs to read private land only if they handed me a computer.
 
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