buffybr
WKR
I started hunting in 1965 when I lived and was going to college in Colorado. Back then we had one concurrent deer and elk season and tags were OTC and sold through the season.
I moved from Colorado to Montana in the mid '70s and in my first 13 years here I was lucky enough to have drawn 1 bighorn ram tag, 2 moose and 2 goat tags. Since then, and since 2000 with maximum "bonus" points, I've aplied and not drawn 37 years for another moose tag, 42 years for another ram tag, and 46 years for another goat tag. Up until 10 to 15 years ago I drew a Montana antelope tag almost every year. I drew my last antelope tag 3 years ago.
I grew up with Outdoor Life and Field and Stream as the major hunting magazines and only 1 or 2 hunting and fishing TV shows. Now there are dozens of hunting magazines, at least 3 major hunting and fishing TV channels, who know how many social media hunting forums (like Rokslide) on the internet, and major hunting clubs like SCI, DSC, and others that promote hunting.
These have sparked the interest of tens of thousands of hunters to the world of hunting beyond just whitetail deer.
When I drew my first mountain goat tag, I had a 25% chance of drawing a tag in that unit. Now that unit is no longer open and in other units you can have only a fraction of 1% chance of drawing a tag.
The problem is that more people are hunting, and more people want to hunt more than just a whitetail deer. Game departments have an increasing problem of a limited number of animals and an almost unlimited demand to hunt them. The more exotic species in the Western states are being overwhelmed with non-resident hunters. One way that these game departments are mitigating this problem is by raising the costs and especially for the non-residents. I don't see hunting opportunities getting any better.
I moved from Colorado to Montana in the mid '70s and in my first 13 years here I was lucky enough to have drawn 1 bighorn ram tag, 2 moose and 2 goat tags. Since then, and since 2000 with maximum "bonus" points, I've aplied and not drawn 37 years for another moose tag, 42 years for another ram tag, and 46 years for another goat tag. Up until 10 to 15 years ago I drew a Montana antelope tag almost every year. I drew my last antelope tag 3 years ago.
I grew up with Outdoor Life and Field and Stream as the major hunting magazines and only 1 or 2 hunting and fishing TV shows. Now there are dozens of hunting magazines, at least 3 major hunting and fishing TV channels, who know how many social media hunting forums (like Rokslide) on the internet, and major hunting clubs like SCI, DSC, and others that promote hunting.
These have sparked the interest of tens of thousands of hunters to the world of hunting beyond just whitetail deer.
When I drew my first mountain goat tag, I had a 25% chance of drawing a tag in that unit. Now that unit is no longer open and in other units you can have only a fraction of 1% chance of drawing a tag.
The problem is that more people are hunting, and more people want to hunt more than just a whitetail deer. Game departments have an increasing problem of a limited number of animals and an almost unlimited demand to hunt them. The more exotic species in the Western states are being overwhelmed with non-resident hunters. One way that these game departments are mitigating this problem is by raising the costs and especially for the non-residents. I don't see hunting opportunities getting any better.
