Montana deer populations

[mburrows]

This article is specific to region 7 but likely the same can be said for the rest of the state. I imagine the early snow Montana got didn’t help the deer herd either.

https://blog.eastmans.com/montana-region-7-deer-populations-cut-in-half/

Tough times for mule deer across the west.

[300rum]

That's what I saw last year, poor hunting compared to past years.  Yeah, you still see bucks and lots of deer but it nothing like it was say 5-10 years ago.  I don't think I will go back next year, hate to do it but it needs a few years to rebound.  The doe shooting that is going on should stop for a few years too.   

[kramman]

This is exactly what I saw in 2021. No feed, low deer #s compared to other yrs. People shooting does. Will need a few yrs to get back. 1st thing montana should do for the area is get rid of either sex and anterless tags for a few yrs.

[Mulie87]

Yep, I agree. This is exactly what I saw in 2021. Had to hunt hard for three days for my wife and I to shoot a 2pt and a 3pt. In past years you wouldn’t even consider anything less that a 4pt and you would see many of them. It will tale several years for them to recover. I’ll just build points until then.

[bustedoldman]

I ate my doe tag this year, all the guys I chatted with thought I was crazy to do so. Came home with an ok buck, all the respectable ones I saw were all on Private ground or land locked state/blm and not alot of them either. Would Montana even consider going with a APR or even reducing doe tags, it brings in a ton of revenue??

[mburrows]

I’m not sure what the answer is but I’d like to at least see them implement a mandatory online reporting system and issue tags to a specific district or region.

[vandeman17]

This is one of those scenarios where,  MUCH EASIER SAID THAN DONE, it would be nice if the game department could put some kind of short term harvest limits on areas where the populations are down. It always feels like it takes all these studies, years and years of discussions and proposals before anything can be changed and by that time, its too late.

[gee_unit360]

Saw lots of 4 points last year. Deer all over. It was ridiculous. It was like big buck hunter. Kind of ruins you for Washington…

[Stein]

MT absolutely shoots the tar out of their deer and elk, crazy seasons when you compare it to elsewhere.  It would be incredibly difficult to change that, the notion is there are more than enough for all the hunting anyone wants to do.

I do think there is a distinct possibility of there becoming two parts of MT, private land with an overabundance and public with an underabundance.  It seems in many places over objective that the game is getting more scarce anywhere you can get at it without paying $10k.

[Karl Blanchard]

Yep, I agree. This is exactly what I saw in 2021. Had to hunt hard for three days for my wife and I to shoot a 2pt and a 3pt. In past years you wouldn’t even consider anything less that a 4pt and you would see many of them. It will tale several years for them to recover. I’ll just build points until then.

You can't point build anymore. You can't go consecutive years without applying.

[go4steelhd]

Mule deer hunting is my passion. I feel the deer numbers here in Montana have gone done by 70% in the last four years. I will go out for a few days this fall deer hunting, but I'm shifting to hunting elk. It's gotten to the point something needs to be done before the resource is lost.

[bearpaw]

Region 7 is where we do our Montana hunts. We had a great season last fall but we have some good properties and we don't over hunt them. The local biologist says the herd is still struggling so we are continuing to plan for lower hunter numbers again this year. I would hate to be hunting the BLM and State right now in Region 7, it gets hammered and there's far less deer than a few years ago, so glad we've got good properties.

[Fidelk]

Read that Wyoming might lose half of it's pronghorn population due to the current harsh winter. And similar depredations of other wild game species. Apply that throughout the West.

[bearpaw]

Read that Wyoming might lose half of it's pronghorn population due to the current harsh winter. And similar depredations of other wild game species. Apply that throughout the West.

  Lots of harsh weather in Wyoming. I haven't heard much about Colorado, CO is often hammered in the winter, maybe all the snow is dropping in Utah before it gets to CO? 

[baldopepper]

This thread sure reminds me of the late 50's in Utah. Two hard winters in a row devastated the herds.  Hunters certainly noticed and complained about the lack of animals, but fish and game (as they were called then) was way to slow to react. Rural towns were reluctant to see any changes as the deer season was a major revenue generator for local business, and license revenue from the deer hunt was huge for the fish and game department. Either sex hunting, late special hunts and unlimited oc permits continued into the mid 60s. Many herds were nearly wiped out and the era of draconian restrictions started.  The good old days were over. The herds have obviously rebounted somewhat, but deer hunting is certainly a different game now. I hope the western states don't make the mistake of waiting too long to react to this year's winter losses. No guarantee we won't see another extreme winter next year. 

 

[3nails]

 Who cares about ugly mulies in the east. Lots of great whitetails in the west!  Not as beautiful as blacktails but at least not as nasty as mulies. 

[3nails]

 Westside whitetail are in great shape. Mild winter there.

[vandeman17]

Westside whitetail are in great shape. Mild winter there.

Shhhh. There are no good whitetails in western Montana either! 

[3nails]

Westside whitetail are in great shape. Mild winter there.

Shhhh. There are no good whitetails in western Montana either! 

[Tball77]

It was a way different hunt this last year vs 2020,  wyoming cancellled all of the doe/fawn pronghorn, elk and mule deer hunts this year.  Going to need a few mild winters to bring the herds back. 

[444Marlin]

I had a good time reading the comments below the story.  It's nice to know that OR and WA are not the only states where residents blame F&W (and non-residents) for everything wrong in the world. 

[big wood]

Last year I talked to a game warden over there. He told me a group of hunters fron north Carolina shot whatever buck tags they had plus 76 does. Ridicules.

[Twispriver]

Where my son lives he could buy up to nine doe tags OTC but they are only valid for whitetail.

[jstone]

That’s the way to kill a population. To many doe tags given out. Keep them limited

[huntandjeep]

Last year I talked to a game warden over there. He told me a group of hunters fron north Carolina shot whatever buck tags they had plus 76 does. Ridicules.

Alot of Western Montana residents head east and fill trucks with does . There's usually a group from Western Montana that's in town around the same time as us . Usually stay at the same hotel  . One year I was BSing them and they had 16 at the Butcher , and were looking to fill 4 more tags . Of course they had to bad mouth the " Washington " hunters that roll into town and shoot whatever they see 

[dagon]

Montana is a huge state that very different snow falls this year. The F&G guys I talked with all said their area's had about the normal or maybe a little more winter kill. For sure not like the big hit southern WY saw.

[Stein]

Montana is a huge state that very different snow falls this year. The F&G guys I talked with all said their area's had about the normal or maybe a little more winter kill. For sure not like the big hit southern WY saw.

The area I hunt was about 115% or 120% of normal (snow amount) and looking through the snow maps its highly variable from drainage to drainage.  Of course timing is also an issue but it didn't look bad either, so I expect a normal year hunting this year.

[idaho guy]

We hunt Eastern Montana but switched to shooting whitetail about 5-6 years ago. The mule deer are struggling. When I was younger and lived in Kalispell I had some freinds that took horse trailers over east and would load them full with deer and antelope. You could buy 6 mulie doe tags and 2-3 doe antelope tags plus a few whitetail . Antelope buck tags were 100 percent draw in our area. More tag’s than applicants. That was in the 80’s and the deer numbers justified all those b-tags. Montana has just been slow to adjust the tags to match the herd. Not sure why. I think mule deer season should close a couple weeks before whitetail and have draw tags for the last 2-3 weeks. Obviously limited doe tags should help. but I have seen 20-30 doe groups with one 2 point buck in the whole bunch at the peak of the rut. Does zero doe harvest make sense in that area? It’s complicated you can’t just say no doe tags either. I agree they need to manage smaller area’s different. Right now they manage the majority of the state the same and regions like 7 are huge. I still love hunting Montana though