Any Montana hunters?
11-27-2017, 10:35 AM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Up on the Milk River
Posts: 459
Any Montana hunters?
Just curious how folks did this fall as far as elk and deer hunting in Montana. In the area I hunt elk numbers seemed very good, mule deer were also good numbers which I was very happy to see. Whitetail were of course numerous. I filled both my elk general license and the B tag for a cow. I also filled my mule deer doe tag and filled my general deer with a whitetail doe. I saw a few mule deer that were decent bucks, but decided to let them try and go a year or two and harvest does instead, which made rancher very happy. I am thinking of asking friends and family I hunt with, to shoot a doe if they come down elk hunting. I feel it would be a good way to keep in balance. I look forward to reading your Montana reports.
12-04-2017, 12:52 PM
#2
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Up on the Milk River
Posts: 459
Well, guess not to many.....just concluded a cow elk hunt for service members in the December shoulder season for cow's, went fantastic, in 3 day's of hunting, all 6 men bagged a cow. Only had to quarter 1 animal out and pack out. Was a great group of guy's, second year I was able to put something like this together, hopefully it will be a annual event as long as Montana has a shoulder season in the area I hunt.
12-05-2017, 10:15 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: VA
Posts: 1,921
Had a buddy that went to SW MT (not exactly sure where but west of Bozeman) this year & said that w/ 12 hunters in camp that week, not 1 elk nor deer was shot. He's been w/ the same outfitter twice before & they have always come back w/ elk. He said between the harsh winter & the wolves, it was tough to say the least...
12-05-2017, 02:23 PM
#4
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Up on the Milk River
Posts: 459
I know of a guide in SC Montana that hunts forest service area, he also had a bad year, with early and big snow, plus wolves, game was just not around. Maybe instead of shoulder season for elk, fwp should put a bounty on those critters. Oh, but that's not politically correct....
01-19-2018, 11:37 AM
#5
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Montana
Posts: 309
We (my son and I) did well... We both killed a nice whitetail buck and we each killed a whitetail doe and my son killed a cow elk (late season tag in the Breaks). I'm not sure if we saw more critters or more hunters. We have been getting absolutely swamped with non-resident hunters as well as hunters from other parts of Montana (I'm in region 6).
Block mgt. is a catch 22 deal... It's nice to have places to hunt without knocking on doors, but they draw hunters from out of state and other parts of Montana like flies. In Blaine County alone I believe we have 38 block mgt units and they get hammered to death. Consequently, the hunting pressure is unreal. Yes, we have good numbers of animals, but trying to find a mature buck, etc. is very, very difficult. Most are shot before they ever come close to being mature. It's common to go out and see 100 deer or more and 90% of them are does and fawns and the remainder are mostly young 2 and 3 point bucks.
Pheasant numbers were the worst I've seen in the 38 years I've lived here.
Block mgt. is a catch 22 deal... It's nice to have places to hunt without knocking on doors, but they draw hunters from out of state and other parts of Montana like flies. In Blaine County alone I believe we have 38 block mgt units and they get hammered to death. Consequently, the hunting pressure is unreal. Yes, we have good numbers of animals, but trying to find a mature buck, etc. is very, very difficult. Most are shot before they ever come close to being mature. It's common to go out and see 100 deer or more and 90% of them are does and fawns and the remainder are mostly young 2 and 3 point bucks.
Pheasant numbers were the worst I've seen in the 38 years I've lived here.
01-19-2018, 06:03 PM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: VA
Posts: 1,921
We (my son and I) did well... We both killed a nice whitetail buck and we each killed a whitetail doe and my son killed a cow elk (late season tag in the Breaks). I'm not sure if we saw more critters or more hunters. We have been getting absolutely swamped with non-resident hunters as well as hunters from other parts of Montana (I'm in region 6).
Block mgt. is a catch 22 deal... It's nice to have places to hunt without knocking on doors, but they draw hunters from out of state and other parts of Montana like flies. In Blaine County alone I believe we have 38 block mgt units and they get hammered to death. Consequently, the hunting pressure is unreal. Yes, we have good numbers of animals, but trying to find a mature buck, etc. is very, very difficult. Most are shot before they ever come close to being mature. It's common to go out and see 100 deer or more and 90% of them are does and fawns and the remainder are mostly young 2 and 3 point bucks.
Pheasant numbers were the worst I've seen in the 38 years I've lived here.
Block mgt. is a catch 22 deal... It's nice to have places to hunt without knocking on doors, but they draw hunters from out of state and other parts of Montana like flies. In Blaine County alone I believe we have 38 block mgt units and they get hammered to death. Consequently, the hunting pressure is unreal. Yes, we have good numbers of animals, but trying to find a mature buck, etc. is very, very difficult. Most are shot before they ever come close to being mature. It's common to go out and see 100 deer or more and 90% of them are does and fawns and the remainder are mostly young 2 and 3 point bucks.
Pheasant numbers were the worst I've seen in the 38 years I've lived here.
01-27-2018, 05:48 PM
#7
Spike
Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 11
Elk were easy and we filled 6 tags and ran out of freezer space. I haven't seen a shootable buck in 6 years. The deep snow made horses a critical component in the search. It was a little spooky while the dead lodgepoles were falling as we road through them. This elk hunting isn't for sissies anymore. Let alone those with bad luck.
02-01-2018, 04:44 PM
#8
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Arkansas Ozarks
Posts: 325
We (my son and I) did well... We both killed a nice whitetail buck and we each killed a whitetail doe and my son killed a cow elk (late season tag in the Breaks). I'm not sure if we saw more critters or more hunters. We have been getting absolutely swamped with non-resident hunters as well as hunters from other parts of Montana (I'm in region 6).
Block mgt. is a catch 22 deal... It's nice to have places to hunt without knocking on doors, but they draw hunters from out of state and other parts of Montana like flies. In Blaine County alone I believe we have 38 block mgt units and they get hammered to death. Consequently, the hunting pressure is unreal. Yes, we have good numbers of animals, but trying to find a mature buck, etc. is very, very difficult. Most are shot before they ever come close to being mature. It's common to go out and see 100 deer or more and 90% of them are does and fawns and the remainder are mostly young 2 and 3 point bucks.
Pheasant numbers were the worst I've seen in the 38 years I've lived here.
Block mgt. is a catch 22 deal... It's nice to have places to hunt without knocking on doors, but they draw hunters from out of state and other parts of Montana like flies. In Blaine County alone I believe we have 38 block mgt units and they get hammered to death. Consequently, the hunting pressure is unreal. Yes, we have good numbers of animals, but trying to find a mature buck, etc. is very, very difficult. Most are shot before they ever come close to being mature. It's common to go out and see 100 deer or more and 90% of them are does and fawns and the remainder are mostly young 2 and 3 point bucks.
Pheasant numbers were the worst I've seen in the 38 years I've lived here.
05-02-2018, 06:24 PM
#9
Spike
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Montana- Big Sky Country
Posts: 17
Hunting last year seemed to be hit and miss... I have a friend who hadn't been skunked in his 30+ years of hunting and last fall he got nada. I didn't even get a tag as I was busy between kids sports and getting work done before winter. The smokey summer really put a lot of things behind schedule.
05-25-2018, 01:28 AM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: NW Montana / SW Alberta Rockies
Posts: 3,258
Hunting last year seemed to be hit and miss... I have a friend who hadn't been skunked in his 30+ years of hunting and last fall he got nada. I didn't even get a tag as I was busy between kids sports and getting work done before winter. The smokey summer really put a lot of things behind schedule.
Bobby