Establish either archery or rifle only non resident tags in Montana?

[idaho guy]

With Montana's increasing population, some tough decisions are going to be needed in the near future. We have well over a million people now in our state, up from 800,000 not all that long ago. Asking non residents to choose one season or the other, seems quite do able to me. Folks can not get to greedy when they are guest after all. They still have their home states hunting for species that reside there.

I agree with what you’re saying Idaho has an even bigger problem with the rate of new resident hunters each year. I just don’t think picking a season AND issuing even more tags is the answer. I think it will actually increase crowding. I’m not saying that for selfish reasons as most years I only hunt rifle in Montana and haven’t done archery there in over a decade. It would actually help me get a tag if you made nr choose a weapon but I think it would potentially increase pressure. Unfortunately the solution will be to keep raising prices and or actually eventually decrease tags. I can get a come home to hunt tag but have been buying the full price to have flexibility in where and when I hunt so I don’t always have to hunt with a relative and there scheduling.  I wonder what they will do with those in the future? I think there’s pretty strong resident support for them because it keeps family hunting camps together.

[greenhead_killer]

Sounds like they’re gonna have to go to quotas per unit like Idaho did with nr. Keep tag numbers the same but keep them all spread out and reduce pressure. Sucks to see, but times are changing. Gonna have to start thinking on hunting every few years

[huntnnw]

all of the western states.. lotta changes coming down the line in next 5 years. I believe ID residents are in for major changes in the next 3 years

[bearpaw]

States like Idaho and Montana created new rules during the previous 15-20 years to entice more hunters to buy licenses, the economy was much slower wolves were impacting herds, license sales were slow, and many agencies had budget shortfalls. Over the last 5 years wolves have been hunted, the economy has strengthened, more non-resident hunters want licenses, those states have seen tremendous population growth, and a lot of the people moving into those states are hunters. It's not a surprise that sales need slowed to scale back pressure, the first and most popular way to do that is to reduce non-resident pressure or at least make it appear that non-residents have greater restrictions, that keeps the resident's content, but the real gorilla in the room is the increasing resident hunting pressure, eventually residents will likely see greater restrictions. The one potential issue that very well may prevent or at least slow what seems inevitable is the economy, if and when Biden administration policies slow our economy and if people have less extra money to spend, non-resident license sales and non-resident hunting pressure may decrease. Fish and game agencies have budgets, when those budgets aren't supported by non-resident license sales the cost is likely going to go up for resident hunters and fishers! It seems to me the reason Washington hunters and fishers have higher license fees is due to a lower ratio of non-resident license sales compared to the many resident license sales. It's all a matter of supply and demand and agency budgets!

[idaho guy]

all of the western states.. lotta changes coming down the line in next 5 years. I believe ID residents are in for major changes in the next 3 years

 

 

[Hot Lunch]

Montana is over objective in many of there elk units. This doesn't even make sense.

[wpgx2]

Any proposal to increase NR tag numbers is going to be dead on arrival.  All the political effort to do that is spent on increasing outfitter tags.  No politician is going to introduce a bill to increase the quota for DIY guys.  That is the reality of politics in MT.