Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Montana shoulder season ,poorly run

Some people still don't understand that lower elevations, which are usually privately owned , feed those elk all winter long.The elk move lower,not because all the grass has been grazed, but because most of it is covered with snow too deep to paw thru.This has been going on for a few hundred years at least. The elk feeding on private land eat a lot more forage than they do on public land during the winter.

Another reason they move to private land is too much hunter pressure on public land.They aren't dummies and know where they are safe.

I hunt where mostly sheep are grazed. I find ell very year.

California is great example of cutting out grazing and timber on public land . The old saying "graze, log it or let it burn" holds true.

You can bit*h to your congressman all you want,but when it comes down to it,the ag community carries much more weight.Also the federal government does not control wildlife,each state does. The feds can pass all the laws they want about use of federal lands ,but they can't control wildlife unless it is a protected species. All those mean nasty ranchers have the right to kill all those elk that are eating their forage,but mostly they feed them.

Colorado has such hunts.I disagree on how CPW manages them.Mostly because vouchers are given out to ranchers when crop damage occurs and the rancher decides who hunts,sometimes selling those tags.The general public has no way of finding out who gets those tags.
There are units in Colorado where a person can get two elk tags for public land "A" and "B" tags. Crop damage or cull hunts are "C" tags and you can buy as many as you want.

" don`t forget federal land belongs to all the people of America not just ranchers" You can do anything within legal means to use any federal land,but you have to go to the states to hunt on that land.Something too many people can't get thru their thick skulls.