Montana mule deer rant

[Bambistew]

Sounds like awful populations out there. I guess one good thing is the predators will starve to death and maybe the deer will bounce back faster?

 

[brockel]

Is the population really crashing that bad from people shooting does? I feel like it has to be an exaggeration, but again, FNG perspective. Feel free to condescend if there's information I can sort out of it.

11,000 mule deer doe tags for the last decade or more, predators, and a couple years of drought added into extreme cold in the winter time. Tough on the deer when they go into winter without any fat on them from the tough summer. Seen some does shot last year that had zero fat on them end of October. Not a good combo

 

[brockel]

Sounds like awful populations out there. I guess one good thing is the predators will starve to death and maybe the deer will bounce back faster?

There’s actually a ton of jackrabbits around this year. Could fill a pickup box in a night of spotlighting.

 

[DFS]

Mule deer have been declining for a long time, poor fwp policies, years of over harvest. Top that with 2 years of record drought and that is why we are where we are. FWP’s response you can only shoot 3 does instead of 7 this year. The steady decline became quite abrupt this year. When I saw the die off in 2012 we never got back to deer numbers prior to that and I expect this to be no different. FWP counts don’t match my anecdotal evidence though.

 

[brockel]

Mule deer have been declining for a long time, poor fwp policies, years of over harvest. Top that with 2 years of record drought and that is why we are where we are. FWP’s response you can only shoot 3 does instead of 7 this year. The steady decline became quite abrupt this year. When I saw the die off in 2012 we never got back to deer numbers prior to that and I expect this to be no different. FWP counts don’t match my anecdotal evidence though.

We keep piss pounding them while they are down.

 

[MTGomer]

I wonder what they do in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Alberta, Saskatchewan. If we could crack this code, we might be getting some where.



* checks notes…. No otc rut rifle hunting.

Not much for doe harvest.


Oh those are minor things. Reduce doe tags to 3 per person. That’s a happy medium

 

[texwest44]

11,000 mule deer doe tags for the last decade or more, predators, and a couple years of drought added into extreme cold in the winter time. Tough on the deer when they go into winter without any fat on them from the tough summer. Seen some does shot last year that had zero fat on them end of October. Not a good combo

I'm looking at the regs now with the all the muley B tags for Region 7. Why are people out there still shooting so many public land does with such a dramatic decline occurring? Seems like it can't be news to anyone these days.

 

[huntin24/7]

I'm looking at the regs now with the all the muley B tags for Region 7. Why are people out there still shooting so many public land does with such a dramatic decline occurring? Seems like it can't be news to anyone these days.

I think your typical hunter who doesn’t pay a lot of attention to population trends among other management issues probably assumes that FWP wouldn’t issue these tags for huge areas on public or private if the resource couldn’t handle it. Not mocking your average joe, but I strongly believe that to be the case.

 

[BRI]

You guys must not be very good hunters. At a region 7 meeting earlier this year, the fwp employees said they were absolutely knocking it out of the park on their deer management. The deer are there boys. You guys just need to get off hunttalk and #godeeper #lacethembootstighter #keephammering #betterthanthehenrys #sarcasm

I was talking to a buddy from Miles City about this the other day. He said shortly after they made those statements at the meeting, they posted the counts and showed numbers at 40% of historical average. I believe that to be true as he tends to stay informed. Have you heard similar or seen the reported counts?

 

[brockel]

I'm looking at the regs now with the all the muley B tags for Region 7. Why are people out there still shooting so many public land does with such a dramatic decline occurring? Seems like it can't be news to anyone these days.

God given birth right. I heard someone last year complaining they could only get 6 mule deer doe tags last year.

And honestly the average person shouldn’t have to worry about “managing” the deer numbers. That is what fwp is paid for

 

[MTGomer]

I'm looking at the regs now with the all the muley B tags for Region 7. Why are people out there still shooting so many public land does with such a dramatic decline occurring? Seems like it can't be news to anyone these days.

Because FWP sold them a tag

I have some North Dakotan friends that are in MT right now to kill does.
He has remarked several times how many more deer he sees on the ND side on the border and wishes that ND would open up more hunting.
Real nice, well meaning guy, but I think it goes right past him what the reasons are for the differences in numbers.

 

[MTGomer]

I think your typical hunter who doesn’t pay a lot of attention to population trends among other management issues probably assumes that FWP wouldn’t issue these tags for huge areas on public or private if the resource couldn’t handle it. Not mocking your average joe, but I strongly believe that to be the case.

Exactly. Not to sound arrogant and elitist, but the “average” hunter isn’t on here.
Checkout “Montanica Extreme!” “Elk Addicts” or “Hunting Arizona” on Facebook for a sampling of “average” hunters.
Confused on simple regs, unit boundaries, blaming predators, hunting from the road, doesn’t own optics, zeros the 30-06 at 100 the day before season, “if it’s brown it’s down” “can’t eat the horns”. Etc.

 

[texwest44]

Jesus, well, I guess I won't be planning any eastern muley hunts. I did make a friend in Wolf Point who invited me to come out and shoot prairie dogs - how many tags can I get for those?

Also, it seems strange that there's such a massive variance in mule deer "management" across MT. I was talking with FWP last year and if you didn't know any better you'd swear they were trying to make it sound like they were fighting against muley extinction in regions 1, 2, and 3. Why are they simultaneously willing to let the population implode in R7 like that?

I have some North Dakotan friends that are in MT right now to kill does.

Your friends are not invited to my BBQs.

 

[brockel]

Why are they simultaneously willing to let the population implode in R7 like that?

CWD is their excuse. Kill them before they die. They found one cwd deer in town last year. Throughout this winter they eliminated the entire herd that was around town not finding another positive case. But hey at least we eliminated 50+ deer just incase.

 

[rogerthat]

I was talking to a buddy from Miles City about this the other day. He said shortly after they made those statements at the meeting, they posted the counts and showed numbers at 40% of historical average. I believe that to be true as he tends to stay informed. Have you heard similar or seen the reported counts?

Yes I have heard they were down in a lot of areas 60% or more. Those counts were prior to the 2 severe spring storms we got. These storms normally would have been nothing burgers but I’m wondering if the deer were just too depleted this time from the drought. I’m seeing 10% of normal except on the private ag fields. There are a few deer around those you see off the roads.

 

[texwest44]

 

[brockel]

View attachment 245899

Our biologist said she was implementing the scorched earth approach to the town deer.

 

[longbow51]

I'm far from a horn hunter; I'll shoot any mature 4 point I see. But this shooting of does just makes no common sense.

 

[brockel]

I'm far from a horn hunter; I'll shoot any mature 4 point I see. But this shooting of does just makes no common sense.

Yep this isn’t even about trophy quality. I get that there are probably places that need them thinned out. That’s what damage hunts are for. Currently 3 of those in region 7 going on

 

[DFS]

Yep this isn’t even about trophy quality. I get that there are probably places that need them thinned out. That’s what damage hunts are for. Currently 3 of those in region 7 going on

The trophy quality has been gone for a long time, now the deer are too.