2023 Montana deer

[nksmfamjp]

I went to North Western Montana 2021 for deer/elk and Ill never go back...at least to that part of the state. I was successful but that was some of the toughest land I have ever hunted. It was steep with blow downs everywhere. Oh I also got covid while I was there so that might have aided in my always feeling tired and wore out. But seriously that part of the state is pretty but just doesnt hold many animals. At least in my opinion

Up around Missoula or farther NW like Libby?

The deer are there around Missoulam but hard to hunt. The white tails are all over, but often live behind "no hunting" signs. There are a lot of mule deer too, but those are much more restrictive in terms of what is legal, if I remember right.

I'll be trying south central again. I've killed a couple small buck just to bring food back. Hopefully that gets better.

Dang wind farm crap pushes a bunch of people down the roads. The deer move back so far from the road that they are in another hunting area practically! Gotta love a good green initiative that destroys wildlife habitat in order to score some carbon credits for some big polluter!

 

[dogz]

I haven't bothered to hunt them the last couple years and I live here. FWP and the legislature won't stop until they are extinct.

Bills pertaining to deer this session?

 

[sp6x6]

They have done some limiting on the hunts up where Im at and closed some seasons earlier.But our mules have been hammered by predators for too long.The wolf was the last straw.2 seasons ago I archery elk and mule only after that.Up into last week I only saw one fork horn, for bucks.Had to go east just to get a eater that was smaller than deer I passed up my whole life

 

[171farm]

Up around Missoula or farther NW like Libby?

The deer are there around Missoulam but hard to hunt. The white tails are all over, but often live behind "no hunting" signs. There are a lot of mule deer too, but those are much more restrictive in terms of what is legal, if I remember right.

I'll be trying south central again. I've killed a couple small buck just to bring food back. Hopefully that gets better.

Dang wind farm crap pushes a bunch of people down the roads. The deer move back so far from the road that they are in another hunting area practically! Gotta love a good green initiative that destroys wildlife habitat in order to score some carbon credits for some big polluter!

Libby area. I think the area we hunted was way over hunted…especially by the guide we went with.

 

[buckbrush]

Winter wasn't any better in most of Montana and the way F&W run our resources by giving out more and more non resident tags we'll soon run out of said resources. It amazes me that they even want to return to Montana with the poor numbers of deer and the overcrowding going on here.

Yup. FWP's mule deer "management" is pathetic. The "everyone gets a deer" method of management is taking its toll. I haven't seen a good mule deer buck in years.

 

[Shootin4fun]

Well..MT winter has been severe....snow and wind....way worse than I've been in here about 2.5 hours from the border...
Just a bit closer than yourself....
I bet most MT people are hoping the Winterkill consist of people that have moved there recently vs the animals....

Americans should welcome other Americans, or at least ones with similar interests and values. Those MT and Id people who don't like other Americans moving there should be rethinking that, and be thankful the newbies are not here illegally from some lawless country with "anything you can get away with is ok" values, who mostly don't speak English and expect their host state to pay for all of their needs; food, housing, medical, educational, cel phones, etc. (While they stash away or send home the cash they make from local jobs.)

 

[Shootin4fun]

The Sierras got hit very hard with snow this winter after some years of drought. I'm not sure if that will hinder or help the deer population when it's like that. There will be lots of vegetation this year, but it seems to me that would take a couple of years to have a positive effect on the number of legal bucks.

 

[doug2080]

Americans should welcome other Americans, or at least ones with similar interests and values. Those MT and Id people who don't like other Americans moving there should be rethinking that, and be thankful the newbies are not here illegally from some lawless country with "anything you can get away with is ok" values, who mostly don't speak English and expect their host state to pay for all of their needs; food, housing, medical, educational, cel phones, etc. (While they stash away or send home the cash they make from local jobs.)

They shouldn't be if they're bringing their politics with them. We're use to a certain way of life and when that gets disrupted is when we have the problem with people coming in.

 

[nksmfamjp]

They shouldn't be if they're bringing their politics with them. We're use to a certain way of life and when that gets disrupted is when we have the problem with people coming in.

This is an interesting roundabout. I'm not sure where I get off. Montana is a relatively poor and beautiful area of the United States. On the other hand it is sooo harsh from a weather, isolation and social integration viewpoint. This drives most who won't make it out.

That said, the biggest pollution problem has is the acceptance of out of state money buying up lands to close them to locals and move away after the first hard winter. That money also buys political seats, which in turn change the state's direction of making native Montanans successful. Montanans, like I was once, have failed to manage this. Now the Governor is from New Jersey and much of the land is owned by out of staters.

The state owns the animals. They don't have to sell rich folks the work around the rules supertags. They could make it harder for guides to lock up land they don't hunt. They could make out of staters have to partner on these land deals or show the benefit to the state or people.

All this sounds ridiculous, but right now, people are buying beauty at any price. They are buying up prime agg and hunting land to lock up as a monument to beauty, monument to "i get my way because I pay for it!", or buying it to mine with no viewpoint to cleaning up after mining. There are many superfund sites there.

The average Montanan struggles to buy a $500000+ house on little more than a McDonalds manager budget in LA. Farmin* and ranching are nearly impossible to enter into without $20 million to get going. Payback is measured in generations.

i pray often that Montanans figure out how to control their destiney.