Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire No Hunting Again

Wow! I just saw the price increases in MT for nonresidents! $912.00 for the combo now makes it unaffordable for an average guy. Hunting is increasingly for the wealthy out west.

It looks like I will bird hunt only again this next season. I own a home in MT and pay some pretty hefty taxes there, but I'm still a NV resident. It doesn't make it easy to go deer or elk hunting for sure.

I've not been drawn for a Resident big game tag in NV since 2007, and now MT has priced me out.

I'm curious as to how many here have to pass on hunting due to the cost these days?

And I hear they've eliminated the outfitter tags.

They're starting to close in on us, aren't they? The Good Lord willing, and one more contract on the side, and I will go ahead and do my last Montana hunt next year.

Idaho did that last year, and sold a fraction of the tags. I suppose it will work better than that in Montana?

Makes you wonder if anyone around that table ever said "are you drunk?" when that proposal came up. JMO, Dutch.

Yep...

With the opportunities pretty much gone now, I'll probably be selling about a dozen or so guns and keep the bare bones and necessary 35-40 ones.

Seriously, I'm going to list a bunch soon. I can't see ever using them again.

I have bitched about the price increase more than most. I have hunted Montana every year I could get a tag for the last 5 or 6 years. Matter of fact I said I was done with Montana over the price increase and had set up a muledeer hunt in Wyoming this year. Well the ranch I hunt lowered the trespass fee because everyone had called and told them they were not coming to hunt this year. So I guess I am going to try and draw a muledeer tag this year but as soon as the ranch raises the trespass fee back to the original price I am out. [bleep] deer is just not worth that kind of money.

Dink

Look at the upside more expensive tags equals less hunters equals more "opportunities".

Montana will see the same or slightly increased tag revenue due to the price increases, but I predict less hunters will apply and buy licenses, so the motels, cafes, gas stations, sporting goods stores, and pay-to-trespass ranches will suffer.

Maybe they'll figure out they are killing a golden goose.

I somehow doubt it.

Its not getting any cheaper for us residents to buy tags either.

if you were planning on hunting the eastern end of the state might want to stay home anyway......record setting snow fall and lots of dead deer and speed goats

It cost me $160.00 just to apply for resident tags last year in "fees". That money is lost. The DOW public employees are sucking our tit pretty hard these days and my be in for BIG surprises soon.

Hunters here are tired of buying them choppers to fly and new trucks. They can get off their collective azzes for a change and get out to enforce game laws and stop poaching by the flood of out-of-state mine workers, who have no connection with the State and pass through in a few years, only to be replaced by their counterparts. Our resident tag fees are almost as high as some States' non-resident fees.

I have been reading everyones comments on the snow this year. How far west has the bad snow been this year? Is it bad around Round up?

Dink

not sure, farther west got more warm weather than we did but other than flying into and out of Billings the first part of January i havent headed any farther west than Glasgow.....know Billings and Helena got down to alot of bare ground in January.....not sure how far east the warm weather got...know Wolf Point only got warm enough for some bare ground in the last week and then we got blowing snow last night and covered stuff back up.....

A good source for weather records is the Weather Underground...Google them and surf their site. They have weather history for about everywhere in the country.

I've never payed to hunt - just as a matter of principal. Liscense fees were never really a hindrance.

At 912 smackers, it would become a consideration.

Hunting in Florida is a rich man's game as well. License fees are not all that high, but access to land is. The only successful hunters here are either members of a lease, own a lot of land themselves, or are politically connected, and can hunt limited access public lands.
The number of licenses sold each year is heading down. Several prime WMAs that used to be under quota limits for the first two weeks of general gun, , now have no quotas.

You live in texs and never payed to hunt?! You and/or family must have a bunch of land. The lease fees are getting very high around my part of TX. Mine has gone up to $2800 this year. As a retired old fart with no COLAs for a couple of years, that is getting a bit out of my league.

Getting squeezed off of federal land hunting in Western states because of high state fees really POs me. My grandkids, unless they turn nout to be rock stars or actors will never get the chance.

A few years back Congress got wind of the trend but backed down to a solid phaanx of lobbyists -- including the elitist Safari Club -- before doing anything about it.

Paying taxes for mint53nance of land you often can't axcess and or use. Whatacountry!

1B

they backed down because the supreme court has ruled that though the land is federally owned the game belongs to the state.....trust me you dont want a bunch of federal land in your state, its how they forced the [bleep] wolves down our throats.....you can come out and use federal land as you wish but the game is managed by the state......do you really want Montana's wildlife controlled by the dumb [bleep] in DC? how much hunting do you think would be open then if bunny huggers from NYC get a say in Montana wildlife?

I've been considering an eastern Montana deer hunt with my son but many of this year's forecasts do not look too promising.
I've heard deer & antelope numbers were already down in the eastern breaks and with the heavy snows of this winter things are not looking too bright.
It's been a lot of years since I've hunted there & hope to do it sometime soon.

Maybe a western Montana wolf hunt?