Montana Proposed bill to raise Non resident base hunting fees over 500%

IdahoBeav

WKR
Joined
Jan 29, 2017
Messages
957
And how much public hunting does Texas have? Their entire wildlife management is privatized. You don't have to pay people to hunt here.

Jay
Not to mention an overabundance of deer. Some whitetail states kill more deer in one weekend than a western state will (whitetail and mule combined) in an entire year.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
2,989
You have public land elk hunting in Texas? How much does it cost to hunt and kill an elk in Texas?

Jay
Yelp. And you can come down tomorrow buy a NR license and travel the state and kill 5 WT’s and 1 mule deer essentially OTC public land. It’s also only a Small fee of $315 license and $40 annual public land permit fee.
 
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
2,989
What is "essentially OTC?"
The equivalent of public OTC in west. Texas you buy a license that comes with all your tags and the take is determined by county(private or public). So unless it’s a special draw area or special private land program you use those tags… so max you can kill is 5 whitetails, two mule deer, 4 turkeys, two javi’s, off your licenses, you can kill more if you draw special public hunts or hunt special private land programs

Texas has otc public land(no draw needed opportunity) where you can use all those tags exempt the mule deer doe tag, can only use mule deer buck tag.

Like else where draw hunts have higher success then OTC though, but if you draw you can still do both
 
Last edited:

The Guide

WKR
Joined
Aug 20, 2023
Messages
1,229
Location
Montana
Yelp. And you can come down tomorrow buy a NR license and travel the state and kill 5 WT’s and 1 mule deer essentially OTC public land. It’s also only a Small fee of $315 license and $40 annual public land permit fee.
You asked about an elk tag and you don't have that in Texas on public land. A cheap Texas elk hunt would get you a Montana big game combination tag for deer and elk 4x and an elk combination tag 5x. Plus those ranches in Texas want you to pay $300 to $700 a day for lodging and meals on top of your trophy fee. Tell me again how cheap elk hunting is in Texas.

Jay
 

ThunderJack49

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Nov 2, 2021
Messages
138
Location
Montana
I’ll be the first to admit that my 382$ proposed tag is probably near-sighted and selfish, and that is only bailing out a government agency that is probably not doing the best at managing its deer and elk herds, but it would temporarily provide quite a bit of relief to those herds and the average Montana hunter. I absolutely don’t have all the answers, I do however think that the state should reduce NR tags and allow more predator management and reign in the shoulder seasons.
Just talked to a neighbor on the road today who was on his way up to his summer cabin (where I live year round) to try and shoot a cow elk, that is probably pregnant. I feel that is problematic.
As far as hunting dying in the west if NR don’t get as much opportunities, I don’t see that as true. Sitka, first lite and MTN Tough will probably all be pissed but hunting won’t die.
 
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
2,989
You asked about an elk tag and you don't have that in Texas on public land. A cheap Texas elk hunt would get you a Montana big game combination tag for deer and elk 4x and an elk combination tag 5x. Plus those ranches in Texas want you to pay $300 to $700 a day for lodging and meals on top of your trophy fee. Tell me again how cheap elk hunting is in Texas.

Jay
Texas has elk on public land so try again. I can name 4 different public areas but they are draw areas. There is one OTC area that has elk but not many and must move off to private quick with pressure. Kicker is you don’t need a 1500 tag in Texas for elk.

Draw hunts include- DBHS, Mule deer/elk, Whitetails, Nilgi, Sambar, Aoudad, Axis, Alligator, Oryx sim & gems, hogs, etc.
 
Last edited:

wyosam

WKR
Joined
Aug 5, 2019
Messages
1,422
Yep... the $85 increase isn't even going to be noticed... The multi-state hunting craze is so popular that If Montana added $800 to the NR Combo, they would still sell out every year.. and have people upset they didn't draw every year.

Spot on. I think western states could go double or triple Wyoming’s latest increase and still sell every last one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

alexnelon

FNG
Joined
Feb 24, 2024
Messages
77
Location
Texas
We can let that argument go, right? Let’s concede that Montana has better elk opportunity but Texas has better Nilgi opportunity. We all good with that?

Technically true that there's better Nilgai opportunity but honestly in real life they're about the same. Texas drawn hunts are a huge scam.

You have better odds to draw sheep tags in Idaho and Nevada in the same year than to draw a Nilgai hunt in 5 years in Texas.

There are less than 600 total draw opportunities in Texas and 1.3 million hunters. Then they cube points on top of that.
 
Top