I hunted the Castle Mountain Ranch December 18-19. What a joke that outfit is, never again. You reserve the entire place for the weekend and then they tell you that you have to hunt that a particular spot only. Even though your buddy has killed elk in another. We found 200 head about 3 miles in on the Bear ranch I think? Just on the other side of the fence. Without horses we wouldnt have even seen those. Then there's 30 head on the north side of hwy 12 outside 452. Those elk were only a few hundred yards off the road. So the rancher goes and hazes them deeper into wrong side of the hwy. I'm with you, if there's an elk problem I didn't see it. Or FWP needs to put pressure on the ranchers to enable us to kill em. They need all the ranchers to come together and have one spokesperson for those ranchers. So a hunter can call that person and get permission for all the surrounding ranches.
Got an email Sunday to head to the Bear Paws for a damage hunt. Well Chris Faber and Boyce's are friends of mine but of course their not on the list of ranches. It's all on the east side of the Paws. Mainly the Sand Creek Ranch. This guy seems a lot better to deal with than the idiots at Castle Mountain. The other day he gave me permission to hunt a particular "pasture". But this thing is huge. This big drainage that could and did hold elk. But they were just no longer there. Hopefully he'll call me back with some info. I don't understand these damage hunts. My uncle farms South of Havre and every winter all the deer herd up and attack his stacks. But he can't get a damage hunt. But when a rancher has a few elk running around they get a damage hunt and not even the rancher knows where they are... Riffle me that. I don't mind hunting, but that's for the regular season lol! I'd like to hike a mile, fill my two tags and spend time with the family. You'd think fwp could pay them or encourage them to leave a round bale or two out accidently to attract a few elk... Not much on baiting but as a management tool you can't argue with results.
