Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Draw Odds For Montana

3 or 4 years ago I shot a buck down in the bottom of a steep little coulee. Dad dropped a loop around it's neck and proceeded to drag it out. Worked great until he hit the steep part of the pull, cinch was a little loose and the horse almost pulled the saddle right off!

Saddle was resting on the ass end of the brown horse by the time he whoa'd up. Brother and I were trying not to laugh.....(grin)


Packed another one out 2 years ago that was about 4 miles from the truck. Had another minor rodeo...
Bone 'em and backpack is way easier.....(grin)

Exactly and I will continue to hunt Montana every chance I get but I do believe there is a point at which the states can increase tag fees to much. 10 years ago as a college student, I never would have been able to afford a Montana hunt. I would prefer that hunting opportunities would increase rather than decrease for the health of our sport.


ddj

to true but harder on the knees...at the moment im stuck with short walks cause Skip cant do long ones and doesnt want to sit and wait for us to do them......also why i havent got an elk yet.....he cant hunt by himself so i cant disappear and head for the mountains given i havent been able to pull a bull tag for the Pines.....

most hunters dont get far from the vehicles anyway.....so i aint that far off in my figuring, run across far more driving the hills than walking and when we walk we almost never run into anyone, in 6 weekends of hunting can usually count on one hand the number of ppl i find more than a half mile off road.....ive gone way back on 6th and found only one set of tracks that was from a person other than my wife and i.....

Get that state owned game off of my federal land.

The game is not what I was really refering to. I was refering to all the paved roads that the feds pay for, bridges, overpasses, ect. that the people of montana could not afford to have done due to there population or lack there of. I don't mind paying for the roads but think its pretty chitty that they way they repay the non-residents is with $500 deer tag.

Dink

This is where it gets tricky.

And my federal money go's to your state so I guess were even

Deer tag here is $225.

There are probaly more people that live in st.louis county and city than in the entire state of montana. Like I said I don't mind paying extra for a deer tag but over $500 is wrong. I don't think montana could keep there roads, schools and other infrastructure if it was not for the help of federal money that we all pay into. Due to population alone more money has to come from non-residents than residents to keep that infrastructure.

If the game is stated owned get it off of federal land. I might want to come see some bushes or something and I don't want those valuable deer eating the chit.

I am really pissed about tags going up that much. There were five us going muledeer hunting next year (if we could get a tag) and now two of those guys are out and I am undecided. By the time we pay for fuel, hotel rooms and trespass fee each deer will cost about $2500. It just pisses me that the state thinks the need to make a extra $200 per person.

Dink

Dink, do any of the mule deer you might hunt drink from a stock dam?

And if you're hunting Federal land, why the hell are you paying a trepass fee?

Dink,

If its only a couple hundred each that is keeping your buddy's out skip the trespass fee and hunt block, BLM, state and other fed lands.

We have been hunting a private ranch that has federal ground around it. We have thought about skipping the trespass fee and just hunting public ground. It might be hard to find 5 bucks to shoot on public ground in 5 days of hunting.

Its not so much the $200 as it seems everytime we turn around there is a fee for this or that. It gets old paying $10 here and $20 there for stupid chit the state dreams up. I know everyone is right that someday that $200 won't matter but telling everyone about killing a muledeer will matter.

I don't think $328 was unreasonable for a deer tag but $527 just makes me fighting mad. Theres only two options pay it or don't go. I just have not made up mind if its worth it.

Dink

Anyone know how much non-res antelope tags will be next season? Monashee

I just got done lookign at the application deadline on the Montana home page..It says Jan 4 2010....Will that be about the same for 2011???

and the feds take the money for the timber, mineral and grazing rights to the federal land.......not to mention give us money for the reservation land the state cant collect taxes on......only right they send us back more than the citizens pay in.....dont like it? let us kick the feds out of the state and we wont take the money from them.....

unless we are talking whitetail, even with private ground five good mule deer bucks in 5 days is a rough thing to do.....even getting on private land i could prolly do a nice buck and a few dinks in 5 days but would require shooting what i saw and not being picky.....

the tags aint a trespass fee, anyone is free to use the federal lands when they please, you can come hike them in the summer aswell without paying anything....the tags are for state managed animals....in other words the ppl having to live with the animals all year round get to call the shots on how they get managed.....i honestly dont give a rip if the out of state tags are $50 and my tags go up to make up the difference.....your tags being $50 dont hurt my odds they hurt yours.....make nonresident tags the same price as resident, your the one thats only gonna be hunting mule deer here every 15 or 20 years, ill still be hunting them every year whatever the cost is.....

And now DINK has illustrated why many people dislike NR hunters. You can't go to someone else's home state with a feeling of entitlement and expect a warm reception. All the talk of federal lands and tax dollars won't make you any friends here or anywhere else. You're a guest in another state, have some manners. Most of us could make a great deal more money if we lived in another state but we choose to live in MT. Speaking for myself, I put up with the low wages because I get to enjoy living in the last best place in the lower 48. I can walk out my front door and be hunting in some of the best country on the planet. If you'd like to have the same nobody is stopping you from packing your kit and heading west - I hear Bozeman is the place to go.

the entire reason we didnt uproot and head east when the wife was offered a very lucrative job with a national paper was cause we like fishing and hunting northeast Montana for more than one or two weekends a year......money aint everything.....

I don't mind out of state hunters at all. However I do get tired of hearing the public land argument. We all got to pay to play. Considering that all game animals belong to their respective states I find it funny that if a western guy wanted to hunt back east that most of the public game is found on private ground. Not only would we have to buy tags but I'm willing to bet that our trespass fee would trump what most guys pay to hunt the western states on a DIY level of some quality.

I rarely hear anyone dogging on WY or MT much so I've taken an interest in this thread. I live here in CO where anybody and their dog has an opportunity to hunt and lower tag prices. IF CO so much as changes a tag fee by a few bucks we get hit hard with heavy criticism. Considering most hunters in this state get at most 5-9 days to hunt with a rifle or 1 month for archery per species per year while most that do the complaining have 3-4 months at home in their own state, its laughable to me to call us residents selfish. I know WY and MT have different regs.

I really agree with ranger1 and rattler when it comes to choosing to stay somewhere you like versus moving somewhere you don't to make more money. Its a sacrifice on our part to hunt and fish in these excellent places.

Kelk,
Thanks for chiming in. Montana's general season is 36 days long.
The elk tag comes with deer and upland game, and we are still cheaper than most states around us according to this opinion piece-http://www.mtstandard.com/news/opinion/columnists/article_ebf45746-52f8-11df-927d-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story

+1000