Montana deer 2024

[vandeman17]

I am in for $1400 and change for deer/elk and point. I didnt apply last year and just bought a point so hoping 2 points gets me drawn. Archery elk in September then late whitetail over thanksgiving.

[cem3434]

I'm out on Montana, the juice just ain't worth the squeeze anymore at that price. Good luck to the rest of you on drawing!

[go4steelhd]

SE numbers and quality are way down…I ate my tag last season.

It’s like that across the majority of eastern Montana. It’s truly sad to see. I know guys are wanting to come over here and deer hunt, but I feel they will be real disappointed. It will take 4 or 5 wet years to bring it back. And if that doesn’t happen I feel non resident draw odds will get real good for deer in the next few years.

My son will be old enough to hunt this fall, so we will put some time in for deer. With it being his first deer I think we will find something to chase after. Finding a nice buck, that would be pretty tough.

I guess it’s an opportunity to be outdoors.

[Duckslayer89]

SE numbers and quality are way down…I ate my tag last season.

It’s like that across the majority of eastern Montana. It’s truly sad to see. I know guys are wanting to come over here and deer hunt, but I feel they will be real disappointed. It will take 4 or 5 wet years to bring it back. And if that doesn’t happen I feel non resident draw odds will get real good for deer in the next few years.

My son will be old enough to hunt this fall, so we will put some time in for deer. With it being his first deer I think we will find something to chase after. Finding a nice buck, that would be pretty tough.

I guess it’s an opportunity to be outdoors.

I still see a lot of doe tags offer and an either sex general season. Pretty crazy considering the numbers are so low. Do you think it can still build back with the harvest/hunter numbers?

[go4steelhd]

SE numbers and quality are way down…I ate my tag last season.

It’s like that across the majority of eastern Montana. It’s truly sad to see. I know guys are wanting to come over here and deer hunt, but I feel they will be real disappointed. It will take 4 or 5 wet years to bring it back. And if that doesn’t happen I feel non resident draw odds will get real good for deer in the next few years.

My son will be old enough to hunt this fall, so we will put some time in for deer. With it being his first deer I think we will find something to chase after. Finding a nice buck, that would be pretty tough.

I guess it’s an opportunity to be outdoors.

I still see a lot of doe tags offer and an either sex general season. Pretty crazy considering the numbers are so low. Do you think it can still build back with the harvest/hunter numbers?

They need to stop all mule deer doe tags.

The biology says that if we have favorable weather creating suitable habitat they come back fairly fast.

I feel age class will lag behind that a bit, and would need a reduction of harvest.


Sadly the few pockets of deer I found last year had lots of pressure, I’m assuming we all were only seeing deer in a few places and that’s where we hunted. Which in turn could create over harvest in those areas.

I feel the areas I hunt have dropped by 20-30% from the previous year since 2019. There has always been ups and downs. This is the first downward spiral I have seen that is this extreme.

I seen the fish and game changed a few units to draw, which will push more people on to the other already struggling units. I am very curious what made them change two or three units to draw but left other units that are equally as bad or worse shape.

Pray for spring, summer, and fall rain!

[Buck Rub Jr]

My buddy tried to apply with our group last night (he always likes to do his apps at the end of the application window) and he got an error saying our party already had 5 members and couldn’t apply with us. I sent an email to MT FWP and it turns out there is some random guy that joined our party. I thought the whole point of us having to declare who is apart of the party when you first create the group application is so that only the names you put down can join into the party? Anyone ever had a random person pop up in their group?

[vandeman17]

My buddy tried to apply with our group last night (he always likes to do his apps at the end of the application window) and he got an error saying our party already had 5 members and couldn’t apply with us. I sent an email to MT FWP and it turns out there is some random guy that joined our party. I thought the whole point of us having to declare who is apart of the party when you first create the group application is so that only the names you put down can join into the party? Anyone ever had a random person pop up in their group?

Yikes. Did you go in with zero points? Be crazy if he was just piggy backing off you guys and pulling your point average down

[Buck Rub Jr]

My buddy tried to apply with our group last night (he always likes to do his apps at the end of the application window) and he got an error saying our party already had 5 members and couldn’t apply with us. I sent an email to MT FWP and it turns out there is some random guy that joined our party. I thought the whole point of us having to declare who is apart of the party when you first create the group application is so that only the names you put down can join into the party? Anyone ever had a random person pop up in their group?

Yikes. Did you go in with zero points? Be crazy if he was just piggy backing off you guys and pulling your point average down

All but one of us are in with 2pts. Even if he just has 1 pt we should still draw but still seems weird, wonder if he punched in the wrong party app number? Would hate for him not to get taken off our app and draw and then his group not draw and screw up his plans if that’s the case lol

[Karl Blanchard]

My buddy tried to apply with our group last night (he always likes to do his apps at the end of the application window) and he got an error saying our party already had 5 members and couldn’t apply with us. I sent an email to MT FWP and it turns out there is some random guy that joined our party. I thought the whole point of us having to declare who is apart of the party when you first create the group application is so that only the names you put down can join into the party? Anyone ever had a random person pop up in their group?

Yikes. Did you go in with zero points? Be crazy if he was just piggy backing off you guys and pulling your point average down

All but one of us are in with 2pts. Even if he just has 1 pt we should still draw but still seems weird, wonder if he punched in the wrong party app number? Would hate for him not to get taken off our app and draw and then his group not draw and screw up his plans if that’s the case lol

this is kinda wild to me. I know they say no app modifications once submitted but this seems like an acceptable reason for them to get in there and move some stuff. Can they not boot him off the app?

[Buck Rub Jr]

My buddy tried to apply with our group last night (he always likes to do his apps at the end of the application window) and he got an error saying our party already had 5 members and couldn’t apply with us. I sent an email to MT FWP and it turns out there is some random guy that joined our party. I thought the whole point of us having to declare who is apart of the party when you first create the group application is so that only the names you put down can join into the party? Anyone ever had a random person pop up in their group?

Yikes. Did you go in with zero points? Be crazy if he was just piggy backing off you guys and pulling your point average down

All but one of us are in with 2pts. Even if he just has 1 pt we should still draw but still seems weird, wonder if he punched in the wrong party app number? Would hate for him not to get taken off our app and draw and then his group not draw and screw up his plans if that’s the case lol

this is kinda wild to me. I know they say no app modifications once submitted but this seems like an acceptable reason for them to get in there and move some stuff. Can they not boot him off the app?

I emailed them back and asked a few hours ago but no response yet. My buddy that was supposed to be in our group already just submitted his app as an individual with 0 pts because of the mess, didn’t want to miss out on the app because the deadlines today. Seems like it’s be a stretch for us to get it all worked out but who knows! In the screen shot of our party members that the lady sent me it looked like they have the ability to pull people from the party, so hopefully something can happen.

[Karl Blanchard]

Fingers crossed you can get him booted. Should probably see if he has 2 or 3 points first though 

[Tbar]

Fingers crossed you can get him booted. Should probably see if he has 2 or 3 points first though 

Two points is no mans land in the general draw.

[Karl Blanchard]

Fingers crossed you can get him booted. Should probably see if he has 2 or 3 points first though 

Two points is no mans land in the general draw.

opposite. 2pts is guaranteed draw so if the random guy has 2 or more points I say leave him on the app 

[Buck Rub Jr]

Fingers crossed you can get him booted. Should probably see if he has 2 or 3 points first though 

Two points is no mans land in the general draw.

opposite. 2pts is guaranteed draw so if the random guy has 2 or more points I say leave him on the app 

Yeah according to mt FWP 2023 1.2-3 preference points was 100% draw odds

[elkrack]

Thinking this year I’m going to try and hit the 0 point pool and buy the preference point after the draw for next year. 🤷🏻‍♂️