$43
South East Montana - Custer National Forest
- Thread starter The Hedgehog
- Start date
$43
grandejuan
Active member
mtguy,
If the shoe fits, wear it. Are your toes feeling pinched? GJ
If the shoe fits, wear it. Are your toes feeling pinched? GJ
Hunts
Member
Tragedy of the commons. SW MT fishing isn't what it used to be either. And don't get me started about the bird hunting.
My friend Steve says it's all the Newbies who want to live "authentic" lives. i just keep my head down and keep shuffling my feet.
Good luck boys and girls...
My friend Steve says it's all the Newbies who want to live "authentic" lives. i just keep my head down and keep shuffling my feet.
Good luck boys and girls...
8andcounting
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2013
- Messages
- 3,299
I think hunting in Montana is great. I hunt mostly private. However I do venture off and hunt blm and bm for atleast a couple days of my trip an hardly run into another hunter. And this is in a pretty good breaks unit with easy to get to public land with good roads. Doesn't seem to be over crowded to me and finding a decent 4x4 muley is fairly easy . So to me atleast I think things are just fine. I do think the fwp should do away completely with b muley tags tho. Especially on public.
bobbydean
Well-known member
Do not think Randy would close a thread due to criticism of him unless it gets pretty vile. Not likely on this website. Man is a class act!
JoseCuervo
New member
JohnCushman
Well-known member
So let me get this straight. When Randy is advocating for public lands, keeping us informed about things that are important to us, and offereing us a forum and entertainment via HT, FB, Twitter, IG, and youtube...he's awesome and salt of the earth. When he gives ideas to people who want to come from out of state to hunt new areas and do things they didn't think were possible, he's some sort of pariah? Is he giving specifics and grid coordinates to hunting areas? No. Is he bringing in income to states and local economies in areas that people hunt? Yes. Randy does so much for us in the way of teaching us how to advocate for ourselves to the government, teaching tag drawings in various states, giving advice on hunting topics, showing us that hunting out of state is possible, and offering a forum for us all to come together and often times meet new people in person that share similar ideas and objectives. I think it's pretty damned dicheaded and unappreciative what's going on here. How big is region 7? How much public land is there? Is FWP the real problem and not NR hunters? What the f@ck is going on? Just about all of us were friendly on here and shared stories and pictures and congrats and whatnot. Why has that changed? All of this anger and hate over one little section of one region? That's pretty damned stupid and selfish. We are all hunters, and public land owners and we all have the right and ability to hunt public lands.
My only insight is I have hunted Custer three times in the last six years. Killed a nice mulie buck each time, no giants, but wasn't expecting one either. It is what it is, an opportunity hunt. Only saw one hunter out of a vehicle "working for it" all three years. Agree with Buzz that MT needs to manage their deer herd/seasons better. What is in place currently is comical. There are much better states/places to hunt with far better quality than eastern MT. I always said I would take a ND archery tag over a MT rifle tag for mule deer any day. Easy decision. Randy is not the problem with what is happening here, just an easy target IMO. Fix the real problem of an 11 week season, over the peak of the rut; go to limited tags for both residents and non-residents, and trophy mulies would be much easier to find (with much less hunting pressure).
mn taxidermist
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2010
- Messages
- 176
Its amazing how everywhere else Randy promotes nobody complains. Promote SE Montana and you'd think the sky is falling . All I know is I wish I would have hunted there years ago because if what I experienced last fall is poor hunting it must have been amazing.
I think part of the issue I'm seeing (and have myself) is that the wishes of a sponsor, in this case MT tourism (or whatever its called) are fairly opposite of what most hunters would do which is tell people where they are hunting and hot spot an area. I have very close family members I won't tell where I hunt, let alone people I've never met. Its not like this area was a secret, I had considered giving it a shot before this campaign, now I doubt I will ever consider it again due to what I'm sure will be increased pressure. It also sounds like the area could use some help with regards to deer numbers and herd comps, sending a pile of hunters and this winter to the area won't help that.
The work to advocate for public land is awesome and I'll always be a huge supporter of that.
The work to advocate for public land is awesome and I'll always be a huge supporter of that.
The only question I have is why is there so much negativity toward non resident hunters? We pay 40x more for a tag in MT and we have access to only like 10% of the total tags? I'm confused on how NR could possibly be the problem...
The Hedgehog
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2000
- Messages
- 11,793
It's clear to me that hardly any of the people responding to this topic, are aware of the subject, which is the oncoming SWARM of hunters descending on a specific region in MT next fall.. that's it really. Have fun with it.
Carnage2011
Well-known member
Don't start whining about Montana's fishing. It's absolutely phenomenal. If you can't get on the Mo, Maddy, Big Hole, Beaverhead and Ruby in a day and catch ample fish, the problem might be the fisherman. Montana's hunting can be great, and it can also be tough. This thread has definitely been derailed....
ida homer
Well-known member
I'll take our 3 week season that ends on Oct 31st, with as much or more public land and double the quality all day long.
Get rid of the 11 week season and watch quality ^^^^
Get rid of the 11 week season and watch quality ^^^^
Bambistew
Well-known member
We're not talking region 7 (~1/5 of the state), we're talking about South East Montana. IMO "the" destination in SE MT is the Custer NF. No one thinks of the BLM wasteland north of Alzada when they mention SE MT. Maybe they do, but I've yet to meet that person...
Just for comparison. The Custer NF in this area is about 800 square miles surrounded by mostly all private, its the biggest block of public land in SE MT. For reference to CO, hunting area 55 is about the same size, and mostly all public land.
MiStickSlinger
Member
Exactly, Region 7 of Montana has as much land open to the public as the entire state of Michigan does. Michigan also has over 3 times the number of total hunters Montana does, and Montana is a MUCH bigger state by landmass. All the whining is hilarious to me
The Hedgehog
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2000
- Messages
- 11,793
Bambistew, hush on the details - they don't matter. If there weren't better things to do next fall, it might be worth riding down some of those USFS roads with a go-pro tied your head, counting vehicles and throwing eggs. 
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