SE Montana winter kill

[MTGomer]

It'll be fine folks take a blood pressure pill good god

Nobody really thinks opportunity will be cut. Caravans of ooftas can still come collect their 6 roadside rutters.

Your opportunity will always come before conservation and that won’t change anytime soon.

 

[HalfAce]

Should just let Eastern Montana take a year off

+2

Bad drought, followed up with a tough winter isn't a good combo. Probably not as bad as the the winters in 2010 and 2011, but I don't believe there was any drought leading up to those winters. Looking like just a points year for me.

 

[Slick]

“It’s somewhat counterintuitive, but by harvesting heavier in the fall, you can actually end up with more deer on the landscape the following year,” Foster explained. “You split those critical and limited winter resources between fewer deer. The result is higher overwinter survival."

I am not sure I am willing to buy in on this. I can see where this may be the case in the mountains of western Montana where good winter range is limited but here on the Custer we are not lacking is high quality winter range. Even on years like this when deer are pushed into the best of the best winter range there is still plenty to go around.

This isn't the first time something has come out of her mouth that I've disagreed with. How about "some of our most productive herds are the ones that are shot the most" asked her how so? "we don't want a bunch of old codgers running around taking up resources for more productive individuals" -well maybe that would be the case if only shot dry does, but thats not the case so I call BS.

Back on track, I'm hoping for an early spring over there.

 

[timmy]

It'll be fine folks take a blood pressure pill good god

It’s already been established that you think 2 points are good bucks. So yes everything will be fine.

 

[antlerradar]

It'll be fine folks take a blood pressure pill good god

Deer hunting on public land in SE Mt hasn't been fine in quite a few years. Just ok and sometimes you can get lucky in my opinion.

 

[schmalts]

I'd be more worried about the amount of doe tags they give out

 

[520 Road Sow]

Deer hunting on public land in SE Mt hasn't been fine in quite a few years. Just ok and sometimes you can get lucky in my opinion.

Yeah in my opinion there's lots of ways too "Make Eastern Montana Great Again"

 

[8andcounting]

I'd be more worried about the amount of doe tags they give out

Agree with this . Over 11,000 last year in R7

 

[520 Road Sow]

Agree with this . Over 11,000 last year in R7

Did you pickup 8 of those or more

 

[8andcounting]

Did you pickup 8 of those or more

I've bought 3 last 3 years haven't filled a one . I've shot 1 mike deer doe in my life

 

[8andcounting]

Mule deer

 

[520 Road Sow]

Just poking a little fun at ya 8. All kidding aside I'm hoping that things shape up out east or it'll be ugly. And with the extended forecast it's not gonna go away fast. Hopefully noaa weather is wrong.

 

[antlerradar]

The last few days have been nice. The snow has settled down quit a bit and there is even a few bare spots showing up on the most extreme south facing slopes. I did however need to walk about a 100 yards across undisturbed snow yesterday and it was not much fun. Knee deep in most places and starting to get a heavy crust. I am hoping for some more good weather but it looks like the national weather service is predicting another 6 to 8 inches of snow this weekend

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

We went through a killer winter last year. Terrible thing to observe first hand. We had over 50 head winter on our place. The range was in terrible shape from the drought. The orphaned fawns went first, quite a bit earlier than any others. There were two distinct sizes of fawns, I guess from poor buck/doe ratio leading to late breeding. The tiny fawns went next along with a few bucks in poor shape from the rut. Towards the end just before winter broke it was a mix of the whole herd. When the ground opened up some of the yearlings wouldn't leave the new green grass with no nutrition and eventually died. Out of 50+ about 15 died that I know of. This winter has been mild until lately, deer are in great shape. I sure hope it breaks for Montana soon.

 

[8andcounting]

Do you guys oppose the taking of does? I do think taking multiple does may be excessive, but IMO I'd rather see a doe taken than a 1YO fork horned buck. I've driven by many "oofta" camps with dead forkies hanging in a tree and I always ask myself why not just shoot a doe?

I'm not against does on your A tag . I thought it was bad idea 5-6 years ago when lots of hd's went to mule buck only on the gen A tag . Now most are back to either sex . I don't think region 7 needs 11,000 b tags

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Not looking good for this weekend out there:

Winter Storm - Watch from 3/3/2018 6:00:00 PM to 3/5/2018 12:00:00 PM
Winter Storm Watch issued March 02 at 3:18AM MST until March 05 at 12:00PM MST by NWS Billings
Northeast Big Horn Mountains; Sheridan Foothills
...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY EVENING THROUGH
MONDAY MORNING...
* WHAT...Heavy snow possible. Plan on difficult travel conditions.
Total snow accumulations of 4 to 8 inches, with locally heavier
accumulations possible.
* WHERE...Portions of North Central Wyoming and Central, South
Central and Southeast Montana.
* WHEN...From Saturday evening through Monday morning.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Winds gusting as high as 30 mph may cause
areas of blowing and drifting snow.

 

[mtmiller]

Not looking good in NC Montana.

This one probably doesn't have long.

These two were together. Probably more in this area, but there were still some live ones, so I stayed out.

 

[Schaaf]

Damn.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Saw this in my inbox and thought some folks here might be interested. Here’s a brief article about a new publication regarding antelope mortality following hard winters. I was surprised to learn doe mortality is so high the following summer, though I suppose the logic makes sense. I can’t help but wonder if Eastern Montana will see something similar after a double whammy of extreme drought and the hard winter.

http://wildlife.org/jwm-winter-conditions-stress-pronghorn-the-next-summer/

I hope spring gets here soon.

 

[Highlands Hunter]

I think the antelope are going to take a hit this year; the snow is just to deep in SE Montana.