Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Non-resident hunting in Montana

In Montana, hunters applying as a �party� generally increase their odds. Good luck.

Regarding the topic expansion related to available big-game...

Use of the cheap term �hysteria�, as an epithet for people with an opposing view, is nuts. Fortunately, Montana wolf management is not relegated to realms of personal opinions or hysteria; instead it is handled by state employees who are supposed to be working with set wildlife management goals.

I'm in the Bitterroot. I used to be a licensed Montana Outfitter (now 65 and retired). Area 270 in the Bitterroot is NOT doing well, actually it�s really bad. In fact, our County Commissioners have threatened to put the wolf matter into their hands. Last fall the FWP enlisted citizen help by instituted a wolf trapping season to remove as many wolves as possible, (hopefully 600) and the Montana wolf trapping & wolf hunting season is still open. I�ve had personal meetings with Mike Thompson, Region 2, Missoula's head biologist and he recognizes the ultimate outcome if wolves continue to expand unchecked.

The wolves have exterminated the deer and elk from areas I�ve hunted for the past 40 years. This is why I met with Mr. Thompson. He knows the devastating truth related to my favorite hunting areas and sympathized. Mr. Thompson is a wildlife biologist and I understand his stance supporting wolves and manageable numbers. In his seminars last fall, he pointed out that unfortunately the results of the fickle court rulings brought long management delays (of several years) interfering with implementation of interventions by the FWP, so now wolf numbers and pack dispersions have become exponential with negative results. Hence, the FWP hopes citizen assistance with wolf removal may bring the numbers down to a level the FWP can cope with via normal management tools. I think the wolf issue is irrational, because it opened Pandora�s Box. Also, people who allude to cheap epithets instead of the truth aren't helping at all as they are not interested in compromise or real outcomes anyway.

Just like Mr. Thompson, I would like to see wolf numbers at the original Federal management goals (around 400); the current number is around 1,000 wolves (maybe 1,100) as quoted by Mr. Thompson in his seminars, which is nearly three times the Federal goal. He said the FWP uses their census of 1,000 because it�s a defensible number when dealing with the Feds. I asked him about true wolf numbers vs. defensible numbers, which brought about some uneasy side-stepping, but he didn�t argue with just like taking a deer census the true number is beyond what you actually SEE. I offered the possibility that for every wolf FWP sees from the air there could be four they don�t see, and he didn�t argue against the assertion. I think the truth is more evident on the ground where deer & elk tracks or droppings are devoid for the last three years where these animals used to be overpopulated.

In Western Montana, Whitetail deer and Elk have been reduced significantly and the Mule deer might not have not suffered as much, at least not yet, but their day is coming when wolves empty the bottoms and are then forced to go higher. My sad local news is two years ago there was a large herd of Whitetail living in the huge meadows outside my door, but now they�ve all disappeared and we see only a rare Muley. A lot of Mule deer have moved out of the mountains and into the bottoms for safety, but the animals choosing to stay high are living on borrowed time. If the wolves don�t get them, then our over abundant Mountain Lion population will.

If you are a non-resident and have ever thought about wanting to hunt Montana I wouldn�t wait too long. I haven�t filled a tag for two years and I know how to hunt, but when there is no game to hunt the outcome is predictable. So, even with tags nothing is guaranteed. Complicating things, Montana has over past years been bought up by people who post their lands ...NO HUNTING, which has crippled a lot of access. A pack trip into the back-country is no guarantee, too. I have friends who are annually avid hardcore Montana hunters with decades of success under their belts (on foot or with pack horses) and they now attribute their success rate to luck and going �EAST, so it�s not just skill; you have to have access to hunt where there is game.

The 2013 deadline for Montana Deer & Elk Permits is March 15. The applications are out and available. I remember Montana the way it WAS ...before a lot of you were born or became Montana hunters. A Montana most of you will never know.

When will the "wolves ate all the game" hysteria stop? mtmuley

Not before all the game is gone.