When I first started hunting big game in the 1960's, anybody who held a Montana hunting license could shoot a black bear or grizzly, though when a grizzly was taken you had to report the kill and pay a $25 fee not required for black bear. Can't remember when that changed, but the season was year-round for both kinds of bear.
By the time the Montana grizzly season was shut down in the early 1990's, the general season was two weeks in October, but there was a limit on the total numbers of bears that could be killed in the state. This included those killed because they were eating livestock, plus those killed by accident. Quite a few in those days were killed by trains and highway vehicles along the pass around the southern edge of Glacier Park, because many grain cars spilled wheat and corn along the railroad.
There were problems with bears along the Rocky Mountain Front killing livestock even then, and the director of the Montana game department decided to open a spring season, on a draw basis with 50 tags awarded. This was modeled on an Alberta season that opened very early in spring, when mature boars came out of their dens. Those were the bears that caused most of the livestock problems, and the Alberta season eliminated 3-4 problem bears each year.
The Montana season did the same thing. The 50 tags awarded resulted in four bears taken, as I recall, all big boars. (I put in but didn't draw.) But the season only lasted one spring due to lawsuits from various greenie organizations. A federal court ruled there hadn't been an environmental impact statement done before the season was held, and the ruling also shut down the fall season. Hopefully the homework being done now will allow another season to open, maybe both in fall and spring.
