How many MT Non-Resident Licenses did MTFWP actually sell in 2021?

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Other than the additional pressure aspect, what are the other issues that residents have with NR tags? I can tell you from experience that going with an outfitter does not guarantee success, especially on public ground. On our hunt from 9/15-9/21, out of 6 hunters I was the only guy that had an opportunity at any animal. That was 1 out of 18 (elk, deer, bear (3) x 6 hunters) total tags filled, not even including the wolf tags.

 

[bsnedeker]

It's entirely about hunting pressure. You hunted the Bob with an outfitter. The rest of Montana is not comparable to your experience. Go deer hunting in Eastern Montana in November, you'll understand quickly.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

 

[dreamingbig]

You were denied a general tag, if you'd wanted to hunt Montana you could have easily bought a B tag in the surplus draw or OTC. We have no limit on NRs in those things. As Mtkid pointed out earlier, there is also no limit on a bunch of other tags (nr native, college kids, etc.) that are the same as a combo license. I believe we need caps on all of those things.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

Yes the general tag.

Make the native and college kids draw or put a cap on them. I don’t have an issue with that.

I do have a problem with the outfitter subsidy.

And I worry about youth hunter abuse (parents using the tag; have heard stories) so would lean toward cap but also want to get them interested.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

It's entirely about hunting pressure. You hunted the Bob with an outfitter. The rest of Montana is not comparable to your experience. Go deer hunting in Eastern Montana in November, you'll understand quickly.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

Understand, and I know that there will always be some level of resentment towards NR hunters. In Iowa the problem is actually much worse. Take a look at the numbers.

Percentage of state open to public hunting in MT vs. IA- 32% / .7%
Public hunting acres per person to hunt in MT vs. IA- 30.4 / .1

*In 2021 Iowa awarded the following number of NR tags and there were 0 remaining in any zone.
Bow- 2,099
Gun- 3,901

That's 6,000 non residents all competing with residents for .1 acres of public land each on average. If you are a NR deer hunting in Iowa you better have family or friends that allow you to hunt private or sign up with an outfitter.

 

[bsnedeker]

I don't resent NR's at all. I'm glad they come here and I hope they have a good experience. That said, this is my state. The residents of this state have voted time and time again to limit the number of NR's coming into the state in order to ensure that everyone has a quality experience. We limit big game general hunters to 17,000. We limit any LE permits given out to NR's at 10%. All I'm saying is we should place the same types of limitations on all NR tags.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Erict]

It is certainly up to the people and legislature and FWP to manage hunting license sales as it sees fit. It may increase hunter satisfaction/game "quality" but there is no free lunch. Reduce NRs licenses and you will have to come up with the lost $$$ somewhere.

I said the article is misleading because the author is trying to apply the statutory limits that apply to SOME licenses to the totals for ALL licenses. Makes it sound like originally there were only 17000 but now there are almost 60000. Apples and oranges...

The article states "According to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, 59,395 were issued for the 2021 hunting season. Those included 22,818 elk and 36,577 deer licenses.", yet data from MT FWP gave me a total of 49,031 (see table below). Maybe I'm missing something, but I think the author had a math error somewhere.

I'll be honest - FWP numbers don't make sense to me. By LAW, ELK is restricted to 17,000 (this is BG + ELK combo licenses added together). By LAW, DEER is restricted to 4,600 "unreserved" licenses (these are separate from deer licenses issued as part of a BG COMBO license). Yet their own numbers show 9868 deer licenses????

TYPE (2021 STATS)	RESIDENT	NON-RESIDENT
COMBO - BG (Elk portion)	?	12284
COMBO - BG (Deer portion)	?	12284
COMBO - ELK	?	4112
COMBO - DEER	?	9868
COMBO - LANDOWNER	?	940
COMBO - HTH	?	122
ELK PERMIT	16288	1872
ELK PERMIT - LANDOWNER	400	61
ELK B	18413	2246
ELK B - LANDOWNER	130	35
DEER B	13095	3794
DEER B - LANDOWNER	96	17
DEER PERMIT	6398	492
DEER PERMIT - LANDOWNER	70	6
TOTALS------------------------>		49031