Looks like MT might get easier to hunt!

[threejones]

Check out HB31. Ted Washburn(R) from Bozeman just introduced HB31. It would allow multiple tags for both hunters and trappers, allow e-callers, remove wearing hunter orange outside deer/elk season, lower the cost for non-resident tag fee from $350 to $50, and best of all, cap the state mutt population at 250. If it doesn't pass, they still might change the existing laws (HB71, I think) to add basicly the same stuff, minus the 250 population cap and 15 breeding pairs part. Either way, it looks like they might actually take some effective steps to control the **** things.

I also just read that Idaho is "mulling the idea of hiring independant trappers to cut down numbers in 3 (and possibly 6 total) areas where the elk herds are really suffering.

It's time for all of us to get vocal and get these proposals passed! And you out-of-state boys... Start planning your hunts now!

 

[cowboy]

I hope this gets some serious consideration but my fear is now that all the inmates have assembled in the asylum in Helena that common sense and reason sometimes doesn't quite fit the circumstances.

With the way things are going with the number of wolves taken we could extend the season for another couple months and still not reach the quota. The dumb wolves are gone, it's going to get tougher as time goes on i'm afraid to keep them in balance.

This bill sure would help in that regard. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[royinidaho]

Hopin' w/ya.

MT could use some tourist $ from SE Id.

 

[ShooterMedic]

Roy just let me know when and we can car pool!!

 

[threejones]

Roy just let me know when and we can car pool!!

If you fellas take a couple from my neck of the woods, dinner and beers are on me!

 

[Broz]

Well, I remember the same stuff from a year ago and most didn't become a reality. That said last night at our gun club we got a report. It seems most options do include electronic calls, lower price for non res tags and increased tag numbers for hunters. But a little studying shows since the end of big game season the trapping has been most productive and most taken in the western part of the state. We have them where I live, I see the tracks and kills. But I have put forth a pretty good effort and not had one shot yet. They are going to be hard to control even if we shoot them 365 days a year.

Jeff

 

[Mike 338]

Well, I remember the same stuff from a year ago and most didn't become a reality. That said last night at our gun club we got a report. It seems most options do include electronic calls, lower price for non res tags and increased tag numbers for hunters. But a little studying shows since the end of big game season the trapping has been most productive and most taken in the western part of the state. We have them where I live, I see the tracks and kills. But I have put forth a pretty good effort and not had one shot yet. They are going to be hard to control even if we shoot them 365 days a year.

Jeff

IMO, that is the reality. Wolves for now are a novelty to hunt. Eventually, people will mostly designate a certain number of days to hunt and allocate that to big game. Trapping is of course the way to go for the average guy but trappers gotta work too and that keeps them close to home. Aerial gunning is good if you have a airplane, a pilot and gunner and bottomless tax dollars but that's most productive in winter and in non-mountainous terrain. You could probably sell wolf tags for $1 to every man woman and child and not appreciably affect the annual take. Culling the wolf population through hunting and trapping also insures high reproductive rates and cuts down on disease mortality. Since poisoning is off the table, I think we'll be dealing with wolf problems for a long, long time.

 

[threejones]

While these new proposals might not be the ultimate solutions, I think they are big steps in the right direction, or at least bigger steps than we've seen so far. It took a little time, but even FWP is feeling the hit in their pocket book, and thus the results we're seeing now. I hope that MT will follow IDs lead, and start thinking about hiring independant trappers. Hopefully we'll have a shoot-on-site order soon, before we run out of elk and deer completely. Guess all we can do is hope.

 

[Broz]

It took a little time, but even FWP is feeling the hit in their pocket book, and thus the results we're seeing now. I hope that MT will follow IDs lead, and start thinking about hiring independant trappers. Hopefully we'll have a shoot-on-site order soon, before we run out of elk and deer completely. Guess all we can do is hope.

In the meeting last night it was discussed that the FWP is low ...very low on funds. So low they are having to guess the number of Big Horn sheep in the recovering elk horn mountain herd. They have no money to fly and count or track the herd. Guess the big I161 bill and it's taking tags from outfitters and raising the prices for non-res hunters was not the big great deal some thought it would be.lightbulb

So funding trappers may be hard till they get their act together and make a non-res Montana tag a little more appealing and sell them. That will take quite a while. Meanwhile the wolf population will grow and the elk population will decrease.

Jeff

 

[royinidaho]

Heck, I'd pay something just to have the freedom to hunt woofs and not worry about the border between Id and Mt.

In fact if the MT deal was a little less expensive I'd buy only an ID license and woof tags and do the big game thing in MT.

 

[500mag_guy]

If you fellas take a couple from my neck of the woods, dinner and beers are on me!

Lol where do you live i still have an uncut tag and if i get one first round is on me

Seriously though if you have them frequently running an area let me know id love try to start on the population management. I know they are super smart being i was out smarted twice this year so far but i am patient and consistent. For the first time in 15 years i didnt cut out my elk tag and i hunted my *** off as usual just a little more depressing this year due to the lack of game.

 

[Broz]

Lol where do you live i still have an uncut tag and if i get one first round is on me .

I will get in on this too. If someone puts me on one I will get their tab for the entire "Victory Lap". Heck bring your wife and a buddy or two as well.

Jeff

 

[dgarrett]

I have Zero, Notta.. No, faith in the Montana Fish and Wildlife Service doing anything meaningful to control Wolf Populations. They are a very big part of why the Wolves were reintroduced and happily went along with the whole process. The only benefit the Montana Fish and Wildlife got from this was the Federal $ for some extra employees to hire to study the Wolves. They were all ordered to down play the huge predation on the herds of our big game animals. I have personally heard the lies told to groups of the public at Lion Quota meetings The Wolf Trapping Class, TV News, ect.
10/80 was the only solution that ever worked to control Wolves in any meaningful way.
That will never ever be allowed again. They are doing the same thing now with the Grizzlies. Taking bears out of the park areas and spreading them through the state. NO public meetings, No 10 year Impact studies, No public statements at all. When a Grizzly shows up somewhere they have not been recorded in 80 years they tell the TV news that they migrated from the park areas all by themselves. This was the same thing that happened with the first 9 mile pack by Missoula. They were pen raised Wolves that were turned loose. They had no fear of people or cars. They did'nt know how to hunt and were supplimented with roadkill by the F and G. In my opinion the reintroduction of wolves was the nastiest ainti hunting action that has ever been done to hunters ever. Our Fish and Game Managers cut our own throats and went along with this. dgarrett

 

[threejones]

I will get in on this too. If someone puts me on one I will get their tab for the entire "Victory Lap". Heck bring your wife and a buddy or two as well.

Jeff

Follow hwy 2 west of Kalispell till you reach the Thompson River Rd (45 minutes ish). Hang a left, follow it till you reach mile marker 25 (the marker is painted plywood on a tree) Just past it on your left you'll see a logging road with a couple old concrete sisterns... I doubt you'll get 50 ft from the truck before you cross a track... I like Corona and Moose's pizza.

Jokes aside, I've been up the logging road 4 times this year, all 4 were following tracks, 3 of them in tracks that were not more than a few hours old. The problem is that the clearcuts have grown in enough that they aren't "clear" anymore, and the timber is so **** thick you can't see even 50yds into it. I think it might be possible to push em out from below and catch crossing the logging road ambush style, but it'd take a bunch of guys to do it. The other problem is that people have been in there calling em quite a bit, so they're very well educated. I've had em howl back at me a few times, but they only do it from thick cover (while they send a scout down wind... SOBs)

The Lost Prairie area is full of em too, but they seem alot more spread out. I haven't crossed tracks in the same place yet, but I've seen tracks almost every time I've been in there. I got a tip from a forester friend this morning about an area south of here that I haven't hunted yet. I'll give it a try on Saturday. Hopefully I'll be posting glamour shots of ventilated pooches by Saturday evening!