First time for Montana

[Kurts86]

I just got back from a Montana general deer tag and I can’t say I’d recommend traveling for that hunt. The deer numbers are in bad shape especially on the mule deer side. I hunted hard and bounced around a lot of different areas, badlands, prairies, national forest, blm, etc and the situation was pretty bad across the board from both numbers and quality perspective. I talked to locals, forest service employees, biologists and the feelings around the deer population were universally bad.

The idea you can walk your way away from people in eastern MT isn’t really a thing. It’s heavily roaded and the remaining deer are in the good habitat which has roads. It’s more a find a high spot 1/2 mile or less from the road and burn down the glass finding deer. It is not a Colorado wilderness elk hunt where there is a definite element of brute force miles to success thing. The reality is a lot of those tag holders are just driving around or walking around at random hoping to bump into a buck so you are covering a lot more ground with good glass from a strategic spot.

I hope Montana seriously revises its management strategy for deer but I’m not hopefully either.

 

[muledeerchaser]

I am currently hunting out of Glascow….. The last 3 days I have seen only 5 deer. I have hunted this area before and to be honest it is in bad shape as far as deer populations go. Two hard winters, CWD, Blue Tongue and over harvest has essentially destroyed the hunting. At this point Montana Fish and Game needs to place the whole area under permit only and try to restore the deer population as soon as possible…. I have decided to end my hunt early as I just can not justify taking a deer with the population as low as it appears…

 

[The Guide]

Spend your money how you want to but as an Eastern Montana resident, I couldn't recommend for you to plan a hunt East of Billings. It used to be that every drainage coming off an ag field had a group of 5 to 10 does that called that drainage home. Every night there would be 50+ does feeding in every ag field that sat between a river and the foothills. Now, you are lucky to see 5 does in a field and many fields are just empty. For years you had your choice of 5 or more bucks in a 3 or 4 mile hike through the public lands above ag fields. Now, if you see 1 buck that might be the only one you see for the season. We are in a rebuilding phase and need to be patient while the deer rebuild their populations. That said, the bird hunting has been great the last couple of years due to the amount of grasshoppers that have hatched. I see 50x more pheasant, partridge, grouse, and turkey than I do deer.

Jay

 

[406huntermt]

I am currently hunting out of Glascow….. The last 3 days I have seen only 5 deer. I have hunted this area before and to be honest it is in bad shape as far as deer populations go. Two hard winters, CWD, Blue Tongue and over harvest has essentially destroyed the hunting. At this point Montana Fish and Game needs to place the whole area under permit only and try to restore the deer population as soon as possible…. I have decided to end my hunt early as I just can not justify taking a deer with the population as low as it appears…

Say it louder for the Washington clowns that’s are still here by the hundreds shooting everything they can put a tag on!

 

[Mt Al]

At this point Montana Fish and Game needs to place the whole area under permit only and try to restore the deer population as soon as possible….

SPOT ON!!!! I wish they would do this, no clue why they didn't years ago. It's insane but has to be about the money for hotels, etc..

OP, hope you do what you want to do, everything's a tradeoff. I would guess Montana's as good as anywhere out West to hunt for a deer.

"Getting away from people" on public land used to be a thing, and it was easy just a few years ago! W/OnX and social media encouraging people to walk a few miles, it's amazing to see so many people at the very back of the back of the back of public land, even the 1/4 mile wide slivers. I'm happy for people doing that, taking their chance and I still do it myself: the alternative is to stay home, not happening. Just a different game.

 

[Lawnboi]

SPOT ON!!!! I wish they would do this, no clue why they didn't years ago. It's insane but has to be about the money for hotels, etc..

OP, hope you do what you want to do, everything's a tradeoff. I would guess Montana's as good as anywhere out West to hunt for a deer.

"Getting away from people" on public land used to be a thing, and it was easy just a few years ago! W/OnX and social media encouraging people to walk a few miles, it's amazing to see so many people at the very back of the back of the back of public land, even the 1/4 mile wide slivers. I'm happy for people doing that, taking their chance and I still do it myself: the alternative is to stay home, not happening. Just a different game.

For years they never sold all the tags available. Then Covid hit and they sold every tag, along with every antlerless tag. To say they highly underestimated the impact that the tag quotas had is an understatement. On top of that you have a boom in resident population. Combined with drought, and blue tongue, and the area is in rough shape.

They did eliminate doe tags, so that’s good. It’s going to take more than no hunting for the deer to bounce back. They need moisture and predator control. Areas out there that used to be professionally hunted for fur are now untouched. Predators shot by us and seen out there have exploded. I can’t imagine it helping when every group of deer has are coyotes in tow.

It’s actually sad to see how it is, knowing how it was.

 

[Mt Al]

For years they never sold all the tags available. Then Covid hit and they sold every tag, along with every antlerless tag. To say they highly underestimated the impact that the tag quotas had is an understatement. On top of that you have a boom in resident population. Combined with drought, and blue tongue, and the area is in rough shape.

They did eliminate doe tags, so that’s good. It’s going to take more than no hunting for the deer to bounce back. They need moisture and predator control. Areas out there that used to be professionally hunted for fur are now untouched. Predators shot by us and seen out there have exploded. I can’t imagine it helping when every group of deer has are coyotes in tow.

It’s actually sad to see how it is, knowing how it was.

Lawnboi! I've never read a better summary of the entire situation and thank you for reminding me/us that they did cut back on the doe tags, at least there's that. Thank you, great post.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

For years they never sold all the tags available. Then Covid hit and they sold every tag, along with every antlerless tag. To say they highly underestimated the impact that the tag quotas had is an understatement. On top of that you have a boom in resident population. Combined with drought, and blue tongue, and the area is in rough shape.

They did eliminate doe tags, so that’s good. It’s going to take more than no hunting for the deer to bounce back. They need moisture and predator control. Areas out there that used to be professionally hunted for fur are now untouched. Predators shot by us and seen out there have exploded. I can’t imagine it helping when every group of deer has are coyotes in tow.

It’s actually sad to see how it is, knowing how it was.

They were selling all of the general deer and elk tags long before Covid hit. Maybe not all of the antlerless tags but you definitely couldn’t get a general tag without going through the draw process


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[Lawnboi]

They were selling all of the general deer and elk tags long before Covid hit. Maybe not all of the antlerless tags but you definitely couldn’t get a general tag without going through the draw process


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I should have specified. 2017/2018 was the last you had an easy draw, and possible leftover deer combo.

2020 they started selling every doe tag available, which was a shit load. Does determine population. That’s where Montana went wrong.

We are just seeing the aftermath of that now

Eastern Montana right now is beyond the little buck big buck talk. There’s not even a population of does over there to sustain the level of predation and hunting.

 

[muledeerchaser]

Eastern Montana was like the Saringeti plains of Africa. It was a region overflowing with wild game. Herds of Bison that took the better part of a day to pass by you. Grizzly bears in the river valleys, elk,deer, and antelope in huge numbers. This part of America was the Native American Indians most prized possession, their sacred hunting ground.
Today it stands at a crossroad, because the game populations have drastically declined. It is time for Mt Fish and Game to place severe limits on the take from the land so the populations can recover.
Everyone one of us has a burning desire to hunt, but common sense must prevail. Perhaps a no doe and a 3point or greater buck limit should be placed over the 600 and 700 units so they can recover. We simply have no control over the severe weather, CWD, Blue Tongue and the like.
We still can hunt, practice our traditions, hold our rifles and hope in the early light that a big buck will avail himself to us so we will at least have a chance.

 

[Lawnboi]

Eastern Montana was like the Saringeti plains of Africa. It was a region overflowing with wild game. Herds of Bison that took the better part of a day to pass by you. Grizzly bears in the river valleys, elk,deer, and antelope in huge numbers. This part of America was the Native American Indians most prized possession, their sacred hunting ground.
Today it stands at a crossroad, because the game populations have drastically declined. It is time for Mt Fish and Game to place severe limits on the take from the land so the populations can recover.
Everyone one of us has a burning desire to hunt, but common sense must prevail. Perhaps a no doe and a 3point or greater buck limit should be placed over the 600 and 700 units so they can recover. We simply have no control over the severe weather, CWD, Blue Tongue and the like.
We still can hunt, practice our traditions, hold our rifles and hope in the early light that a big buck will avail himself to us so we will at least have a chance.

Make a trip and crack some coyotes. That’s what I plan to do.

 

[Rich M]

Thats a lot of walking. Good luck w that.

15 minute mile is still 3-5 hrs day just walking. Gotta hunt sometime.

 

[Huntandjeep]

Say it louder for the Washington clowns that’s are still here by the hundreds shooting everything they can put a tag on!

The Montana license plates far outnumber the Washington plates at the hotel I'm staying at this week .

 

[406Huntrr]

The Montana license plates far outnumber the Washington plates at the hotel I'm staying at this week .

Lol complete opposite of what ive witnessed on public in eastern MT. 2x the NR plates as Resident with the WA/MN boys leading the Way! Guess thats why NR kill more MD bucks in Region 6&7 than Residents...

 

[Huntandjeep]

Lol complete opposite of what ive witnessed on public in eastern MT. 2x the NR plates as Resident with the WA/MN boys leading the Way! Guess thats why NR kill more MD bucks in Region 6&7 than Residents...

Im not trying to argue , just find it funny that Washington guys are always the problem. Are there alot of Washington plates when we are over hear , absolutely. But don't put ALL the blame on Washington guys . Tonight in the parking lot there are 10 trucks . 1 Washington ( us ) 2 Oregon, 1 Kentucky, 1 Utah , 1 idaho and 4 with Montana plates .
Talked with 3 of the guys from ( Red lodge or something like that ) tonight. They were pretty proud of the 2 tiny 2x2 bucks they got today . We saw a decent 3x4 and a pretty good 4x4 today . Didn't even think about pulling the trigger . Probably wind up eating 3 NR tags again . And it's not the 1st time for us in Montana eating our tags .

 

[406Huntrr]

Im not trying to argue , just find it funny that Washington guys are always the problem. Are there alot of Washington plates when we are over hear , absolutely. But don't put ALL the blame on Washington guys . Tonight in the parking lot there are 10 trucks . 1 Washington ( us ) 2 Oregon, 1 Kentucky, 1 Utah , 1 idaho and 4 with Montana plates .
Talked with 3 of the guys from ( Red lodge or something like that ) tonight. They were pretty proud of the 2 tiny 2x2 bucks they got today . We saw a decent 3x4 and a pretty good 4x4 today . Didn't even think about pulling the trigger . Probably wind up eating 3 NR tags again . And it's not the 1st time for us in Montana eating our tags

I’m not interested in arguing Either, not sure if it’s just closer/easier for WA/MN hunters or what but it’s just the way it is that they outnumber all other NR’s by far. I applaud you for willing to eat your tag. Sadly, I’d almost bet 99% of NR do not have that same mindset.

 

[100percent]

Big Private is just marginally better than public, here described. What a shit show! It’s not so much MWFP to blame as much as it is political game mgt. Started with ballot box biology a few years back. Public and politicians know better than the biologists.
I just returned from a week in MT on private and the deer situation is extremely dismal. 2022 drought followed by tough winter and predator abundance in 2023 put the nail in the coffin. No shortage of road hunters either in the last 5-6 years. Western MT numbers were down so everybody flocked East!
A decade of record high fur prices, zero doe harvest along with favorable weather might get it back to a fraction of what is has been in just the last two decades.

OP you will have a hunt for sure!

 

[Huntandjeep]

I’m not interested in arguing Either, not sure if it’s just closer/easier for WA/MN hunters or what but it’s just the way it is that they outnumber all other NR’s by far. I applaud you for willing to eat your tag. Sadly, I’d almost bet 99% of NR do not have that same mindset.

I think the main draw for Washington guys to come over hear is ( or was) the abundance of deer . When we first came over in 2015 we were blown away with the amount of bucks and deer in general we would see in a day . And the amount of bucks we would pass up in a day . An average 3x3 from here would be dead in Washington no second guessing ( although i have also ate alot of Washington mule deer tags ) . Over here we were passing up decent / nice 4x4s daily. Sadly I know you are right that 99% of the Washington guys don't have the same mindset as us . We knew coming this year that we would more then likely not fill our tags , and we were all okay with that and still came .

 

[skeptic]

I find it easier to just blame the degradation of the hunting in MT on two things, in no particular order:

1. The internet
2. Randy Newberg

 

[AHayes111]

Those of us that have been hunting Eastern Montana for more than 10 years know that the degradation of Eastern Montana started long before Newberg or the internet. Did they contribute, sure but he biggest issue is too much lead poisoning.