MT Regs - Game cameras during seasons?

[antlerradar]

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that the rule is not a law passed by the legislature and singed by the Gov. but regulations adopted by the commission to try clarify the use of game cameras and the law banning the use of electronics in hunting. I think they failed. How could the commission ban the use of a camera by a nonhunter even during the hunting season using the law to banning the use of electronics for hunting? The reason a game warden will not issue a ticket if you use camera in a non hunting situation during a season is it is unlikely to hold up if challenged.

Antlerradar

 

[drahthaar]

MT's trail cam law is purely assinine. It was pushed through by a grey bearded goober that has admitted he has never even used one. I'm surprised he hasn't pushed some law to ban compound bows, rangefinders, scopes on rifles and sitka gear. Loin cloths only folks!

Even to have one out after general season because I have a wolf tag? An animal that has an average 200 square mile range. You check your camera and you have a wolf on it 6 or 7 days prior. What good is that really, in regards to making you think you really have a chance at killing that wolf? Now I have some unfair advantage? I can call them with electronic calls, bait them in with rotting flesh, and even trap them, but God forbid I get a picture of one 6 days ago on a camera that I have to go manually check! Freaking assinine!

How about a lion? Even worse odds! It's laughable.

Some of the absolute best trail cam pics can be had in the winter after hunting season. See who made it through the season, see what is wintering where, etc.

 

[shoots-straight]

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that the rule is not a law passed by the legislature and singed by the Gov. but regulations adopted by the commission to try clarify the use of game cameras and the law banning the use of electronics in hunting. I think they failed. How could the commission ban the use of a camera by a nonhunter even during the hunting season using the law to banning the use of electronics for hunting? The reason a game warden will not issue a ticket if you use camera in a non hunting situation during a season is it is unlikely to hold up if challenged.

Antlerradar

Your correct! It's a commission ruling. If you don't have a license to hunt then your not participating in a commissioned licensed season. You should be good to go. The intent was to combat real time pictures. Like the capability that a drone possesses.

 

[mtmander]

I would be careful in that one warden's opinion may differ from another warden's opinion. It is a law that can get you in trouble. I had a trail camera out to see if anyone came up to my camp , so would this be against the law ?

 

[shoots-straight]

I would be careful in that one warden's opinion may differ from another warden's opinion. It is a law that can get you in trouble. I had a trail camera out to see if anyone came up to my camp , so would this be against the law ?

That is why I said for those in a given area to ask the game wardens that work there.

Is your tail cam being used " to scout the location of game animals or relay
the information on a game animal’s location or
movement during any Commission-adopted
hunting season."?

 

[MontanaWild]

A drone, can hunt down the game, find where they are bedded, feeding, or traveling at that particular time, and the person operating the drone can go right to where the animal is, or figure a good ambush spot. Just like our army does.

You can sit on one side of a mountain, and send the drone over the other side and hunt the whole thing. If game is spotted you just wonder over and kill your game.

A trail camera is stationary, and does nothing to help you kill the animal. It does help you to know what might be living in the area you've chosen.

Ease of use means nothing. I really don't see how a drone is tougher to use. You just sit and steer it around until you find what you want to kill.

I'm with you on not being able to use drones to actively scout and hunt animals, but to say you can send the drone over to the other side and then just wander over there and kill it is a bit off in my opinion. That's like saying I can use my spotter to glass a massive bull elk two ridges over and just walk over and kill him.

And a trail camera can and does help you kill an animal. It can tell you a lot about an animal or animals habits especially if you sit water. It also gives you that extra confidence when hunting an area that you know quality game exists here and that you need to just be patient. I use and will continue to use trail cameras and yes in most cases it really doesn't help during the hunt but in some cases it does aid the hunter.

Finally I would have zero hesitation to have a trail camera up at 6500 feet in western mt during archery antelope in August. Even if a warden had a bad day that case would get tossed when you talk to the prosecutor. There is absolutely zero intent to target the species that currently is in season. Maybe you'd lose that one in Missoula though haha

 

[shoots-straight]

I'm with you on not being able to use drones to actively scout and hunt animals, but to say you can send the drone over to the other side and then just wander over there and kill it is a bit off in my opinion. That's like saying I can use my spotter to glass a massive bull elk two ridges over and just walk over and kill him. You can be walking along with the drone in the air overhead. if game is spotted close by or elsewhere you can continue to pursue that animal until you get it. If jumped you follow with the drone to where the animal stops and then continue. It's really not the same at all. With a spotter there's no guarnatee that once you start stalking you will still find tha animal. They might just get up during the stalk and walk off. Leaving you wondering where they went. With the drone, just throw him back in the air, and find your quarry.

And a trail camera can and does help you kill an animal. It can tell you a lot about an animal or animals habits especially if you sit water. It also gives you that extra confidence when hunting an area that you know quality game exists here and that you need to just be patient. I use and will continue to use trail cameras and yes in most cases it really doesn't help during the hunt but in some cases it does aid the hunter. Never said it didn't. Just in killing the animal. You still have to scout the area by physically hiking in, and out to check the cams. Hunting is a luck driven sport. Sometimes a large mature animal might still come to a certain spot even if only for the first time. If you not there I know the outcome.

Finally I would have zero hesitation to have a trail camera up at 6500 feet in western mt during archery antelope in August. Even if a warden had a bad day that case would get tossed when you talk to the prosecutor. There is absolutely zero intent to target the species that currently is in season. Maybe you'd lose that one in Missoula though haha

See above note:

 

[drahthaar]

When did having confidence in an area become adverse to fair chase and being ethical? That is part of the horse#$%^ argument they used to push through the rewritten reg. If someone tells me they saw a huge bull in area, or there is a history of B&C bucks from an area, or if you see a big buck while driving down a road, would it not give you confidence in an area as well, while putting in no work? Then my god, that must be against the rules of fair chase too.

Before this BS came out, I had several wallows and trails I had cams up on year round. Never once did I see anything resembling a "pattern" that I could use to kill a buck or a bull. And certainly not during season, in fact, any whitetails I saw in velvet absolutely disappeared until December. Bulls, I would get them maybe two or three times max, in velvet, then gone forever. This could be where I live and hunt too. Big woods, Water everywhere. You can sit on some wallow you had a cam on until you rot. They have 100 of them to go to.

Matter of fact, to those that get all butt hurt over some guy camming because you think it's gonna give an unfair advantage, maybe you should go pitch a fit about FWP allowing Montanans to drive around with a loaded rifle next to his leg and blasting your big buck out the window of his truck! Why don't we go to the rule where guns need to be locked away separate from bullets? Guy filling tags road hunting would piss me off far worse than some guy that got a big buck on cam and then kept hunting it till he got it. And big bucks being killed out of truck windows happens almost commonly compared to a guy killing a buck he got on cam. I guarantee it.

 

[LopeHunter]

There are people beating up their kids. Poachers shooting animals. Bank robbers. Etc.

Does any of the above have something to do with whether cams are part of fair chase?