Muley Hunter

Exactly. I can't believe guys who say they have 15 points, and want to know where to hunt, because they only have one week until the hunt starts. Stupid!

Bullcamp82834

Indeed.
If a guy waits years for a dream tag and then comes up to opening day unprepared he should fail to score, and probably will. Good luck alone rarely does it.

In that case the local motel owner, the gas station owner, restaurant owners, etc. , as well as the G&F department all make a buck and the doofus goes home with nothing.
As it should be.

jpbowhunter

Muley Hunter and Flags I was just joking with you guys!
Muley Hunter you have already been more than helpful with me on a number of issues I've had, I couldn't ask anymore of you!
Help is handy but I've already been trying to help myself, I spoke to the Montana fish, wildlife and parks people and had hunting information sent to me from them. Mind you I'm still as confused as I was to begin with but it's a start!

I agree though, we get it heaps here in Australia. People here in Aus just asking on forums "where can I go to shoot a good stag" and expecting people to just give up their best spots. I personally love to help hunters and if they seem like genuine people I'm happy to forward them on to some decent public land but I'd never give out my best stuff or my private to anyone but my brother, myself and a very select couple of other people.
The biggest issue we have is there is no bag limit so we get idiots wanting land, then they'll go there and shoot everything they see day and night. Two incidents come to mind, the first was a bunch of Melbourne wankers (city slickers from about 4 hrs away) that we ran into a few years back. They were shocked they hadn't seen any deer because the year before they'd shot 25 (20 of which were hinds). What they were doing was male or female they'd shoot them (legally or illegally) and just cut the head of, tie it to the bullbar and leave the corpse where it lay.
The second bloke this year posted up a trip hunting fallow where he'd shot 6 forkhorns (2 year olds) and was whining that he couldn't find bigger ones! I said well if you let them grow they will grow and I was shocked at the amount of people who cut me down and it made me realise the kind of hunting culture that is building here with those city idiots.

Because deer laws for all our species (bar one) are so lax, management comes down to personal ethics and unfortunately there are too many people that don't care at all about that. Hound hunting crews are a good example here also. They put blood hounds, harriers and beagles on to deer trails, watch them through GPS trackers and move in to cut off the deer, the more they can shoot the better regardless of whether its a recently cast stag or a two day old fawn - and believe me I've seen pictures of plenty of both.

My philosophy with trophy hunting has been that I'd rather one big guy on my wall than 10 young ones gathering cobwebs in the shed. Meat animals, I won't shoot velvet stags or hinds/does that have young fawns at foot. Having said that, in the US I'd happily shoot, eat and mount a 6 point buck if I was fortunate enough to find one because for me hunting is far more important than killing and the trophy at the end is great but time in the bush is the best part of it. People laugh at me for saying it but as much as I love deer hunting and there's no way I could ever stop I do not enjoy the act of physically killing a deer, I just have so much respect for them, regardless of species they are just the best creature god invented.

Anyway that's just my personal rant

Murdy

I'm certainly not pointing fingers, because my home state leads the nation in gouging nonresident whitetail hunters. And, I fully expect to pay more than a resident would pay, just like going to college out of state. But some of the fees I see just seem excessive. Aren't we all Americans? I consider myself an American first and an Illinoisan second.

Muley Hunter

Montana sure is gouging, and they're paying the price with lost tag sales.

Blackelk

Looking at the Parks and Wildlife 5 year structure coming up looks like Colorado will go up to $600.00 for a bull elk tag. That's getting pricey. Residents should go to $100.00 for elk. That would put some of the non serious hunters on the couch. Plus you gain 60% monetary value per tag. You could afford to lose 50% of the resident hunters and still make money. Less pressure more money. Could be a new trend. I like it.

flags

I'm a lifelong Colorado resident and a 5th generation native. I've always said I'd gladly pay 5x what they ask for a tag if I could be ensured there would be less people in the woods during the season. I have no issue with an elk tag going for $100 if the crowds were thinned out accordingly.

But, it ain't gonna happen. Can you imagine how the Texans would scream if we cut them off? LOL

Champlain Islander

I started to hunt Colorado as a NR about 8 years ago and the OTC bull tags were around 500. They will be around 600 next year and I don't think that is too excessive considering the small steps they have gone up every year. I have hunted in several states and a few Canadian Provinces and rising NR tag fees are common. IMO Colorado has done it right but have to be aware of some of the other western states who went too far too fast. There is a point where the average person will not go out of state hunting if the fees get too high. Most Fish and Wildlife Departments rely on license sales to keep even with expenses and maintain habitat. The NR sales are important.

Muley Hunter

I've paid Colorado NR fees for 50 years, and 10 years as a resident. At 70 years old. I deserve a senior automatic tag now. Even if it's just a doe tag.

I've paid my dues. Give me something back now. I'm not looking for a free gift. Just guarantee me that I can hunt every year until i'm too old to hunt.

Champlain Islander

I turned 65 this summer Muley and our state Vermont gives 65 yr old and older permanent licenses. Since I usually go out of state to hunt and in January often don't know where or when I get a resident combination hunting and fishing license along with a turkey tag. If I need to get tags for the fall then I get them as needed. I was looking to get an archery tag and figured I would get the ML tag too and then decided to apply for the 65 and older license on line. The 2 tags I was looking for were 40 bucks and for 50 I paid a 1 time fee to get the permanent license. I got an early bear tag, a late bear tag, a buck tag, 3 turkey tags, a ml tag, and an archery tag all included along with a fishing license. On January 1 I just go on line and submit my hunter number and then click update permanent license and it all prints out once again along with all the tags and for free. A nice thing for a person who has paid into the system for 50+ years. It will save me about 100 bucks a year.