Anyone hunted Montana?

[triggertrav]

Me and the guys i hunt with are throwing around the idea of a MT hunt in the future. I am curious if many guys have been out there and had any input/knowledge to share. Not sure if we will be after deer or elk or whether we will have bows or rifles. All depends on who ends up going. How long should we expect to wait before we get drawn? Do you apply to specific areas or is it all state wide tags?

Thanks much and any or all info is appreciated.

[hockeybc69]

If you are one of those that thinks MN has some complex regs, wait till you get a load of the Montana regs.... Yikes.

We have gone twice in the past 4 years. We applied through a landowner sponsor tag 2 times and both times we have been drawn for bucks tags.

Downside of the landowner sponsor tag is that you have to hunt on just that persons land. So it limits options to explore other areas.

Its done be regions, species, etc. You can buy over the counter doe tags for certain areas. There are combo licenses.

I simply dont know how to answer the question with ease. We had enough on our hands to figure out what to do in the area we hunted. We hunted by Birney, MT.

But we arent going back there. Gonna try for Wyoming by the looks of it, or possibly Nebraska.

[PFUNK]

tigger... I'm from Minnesota and am out in Montana now attending pharmacy school. Lucky for me it's pretty easy to become a resident for purposes of hunting out here so I get to go the cheap option... about 100 bucks for everything... deer, elk, small game, etc. I was checking out montana's FWP HSOforum and it looks like your chances of drawing should be pretty decent. From what I can gather from their success statistics, over the past several seasons there have been around 17,000-19,000 applicants for a total of 11,500 combination elk/deer licenses. So your chances are around 60% or better. This is assuming you are doing a self guided hunt. If you pay more to go through an outfitter your chances of getting drawn are even better. If you are going to try to get a deer only license your chances are worse. About 11,600 applicants last year for a total of 2,300 licenses. I go to school at University of Montana in Missoula so I hunted mostly this area (Lolo National Forest) and the Bitteroot National Forest to our south. Absolutely love it out here. Are you planning an archery hunt or do you hunt rifle? I know I don't live in the best part of the state for hunting deer or elk, but had no trouble getting onto either. If I were you and were planning to hunt deer I would probably focus further east in the Broadus area (SE corner). If you're after elk I think straight south of Missoula (Beaverhead county) is a good place to find very nice bulls (far SW corner of state). If you get drawn, dedicate a lot of time to planning it out and being prepared. A lot of work goes into it, and the better prepared you are the more successful you will be. If you have any more specific questions shoot me an e-mail... [email protected]. I won't have every answer but I know some people out here that likely will. Best of luck to you.

[harvey lee]

I have hunted the Milk river area by Glascow. Great whitetail area with Mule deer and a few goats. One can also hunt elk not to far away by the Missouri breaks along the river.

The landowner tags are about the fastest way to get the tags. Seemed like there was plenty of land to hunt and we always hunt the same ranch.

If you need a place to check out, please e-mail me and I can give you the name of a very large rancher that is very helpful and friendly. They run about 100,000 acres.

[JeffB]

Went deer hunting near Ekalaka the last 2 years. Last year we got 1 buck tag for 5 guys, this year we all got buck tags. For next year the licences are going up by over $200. It will be over $500 for a buck tag. Even though we all got licences this year I would say the odds are less than 50/50 you get drawn for a buck, but its still a great trip with a doe tag.

[DHost21]

Ive hunted out there 5 times now in the Helena National Forest, we stay in white sulfur springs its a half hour to the forest from there but its pretty good hunting. I havent been out there for the bow hunt but i heard that was awesome out there unfortunately the gun hunt because its national forest and there are ranchers that run cows all summer up there go "herd there cows" and the elk to there land for their outfitters during the gun hunt... have seen it happen a few times on scouting trips... I have shot a couple good elk out there tho and a couple good mule deer and right outside of town there are some open farms to deer hunt or antelope hunt with some awesome whitetails and antelope. Would you mind if i emailed you as well harvey lee? I am hoping to get drawn next year and would love to try something new.

[harvey lee]

Thats fine Dhost