The first year of totally limited deer licenses was 1999. There were about 150,000 deer hunters in 1998 and 81,000 the following year. These numbers are from the CPW big game manager when I asked this question back in 2017 or so.
Deer hunting certainly improved after going limited, both from a quality standpoint and crowding. It has slipped considerably in the last 5 years, though, for a variety of reasons. Probably the two biggest factors in my mind are the ongoing drought and the new CWD management strategy to reduce the number of mature bucks. We continue to lose hunting opportunity as the desired population goalposts are moved each time a new herd management plan is approved by CPW.
As an example, CPW approved a new
herd management plan for the White River herd (units 11, 211, 12, 13, 131, 231, 22, 23, 24) a year ago. The old population objective for this herd was
67,500 deer. At the time of plan approval last year the population was estimated at
36,000. The new objective in the approved plan is
25,000-35,000. The modeled buck:doe ratio was 30:100 when the plan was approved, and the new objective is 18-25:100. In 2003, there were
1,386 2nd season buck tags and
1,264 3rd season buck tags
leftover after the first draw for units 12, 13, 23 and 24. In 2021 there were only 950 and 800 tags available respectively for those hunts.
I guess the moral of the CO story for you in MT is that going totally limited isn't necessarily going to fix all of your woes. As
@Ben Lamb would probably say, "it's the habitat, stupid."
*Edit: I just looked up the 2004 post-hunt population estimate for the White River herd (the oldest I could find) and it was estimated to be 93,670.
