Lots of hunters

Goosemaster said:
I just hope it doesn't become a cash cow like south Dakota, where farmers charge people 300 dollars a day to hunt. Those Guchie pheasant hunting ranches are starting to pop up.One of the ranches I used to hunt north of Lewistown turned into one.😐😐😐
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Pay to hunt on private land is all over eastern montana now. That's if you can even get on a place. Most tell you no hunting, unless your family or friends. Private land that is available, many times is pay to hunt, and yes $300.00 per gun per day is common (or more). There is plenty of public land, and some of it is planted by the FWP with pheasants for the opener. But as you might expect, those areas get pounded, and the birds run or fly onto the neighbors place who doesn't allow hunters.

The other problem here in Montana is that ONX will tell you who owns the land, but there is no way to find their phone number since everyone has cell phones these days which are unlisted. Much of the large ranches are owned by out of state parties and this makes it impossible to contact them. It is what it is.

I have lived in Montana since 1965 and have seen the changes happen. When I was a teenager in the 1970's we had phone books to look up and call landowners. Most the ranches were 2nd and 3rd generation farmers/ranches, and they lived in the old farm houses that you see when you drive the remote areas of Montana. So you could stop and ask permission. Hunters fanned out all over the state on private land so no areas were overhunted. It was good for the herds to keep them scattered and in small bunches so that desease was kept in check.

Game had no monitary value back then and the farmers and ranchers welcomed you. Back in those days there was a "tradition" where hunters from the cities would pour into the back country and the ranchers expected it and participated in this tradition. It was very respectful and enjoyable to be a part of. I also understand how the landowners need to make income however they can. I am just glad that I was able to experience Montana back in the day, when I was in my prime and could hike for miles.
 
jaeger said:
Pay to hunt on private land is all over eastern montana now. That's if you can even get on a place. Most tell you no hunting, unless your family or friends. Private land that is available, many times is pay to hunt, and yes $300.00 per gun per day is common (or more). There is plenty of public land, and some of it is planted by the FWP with pheasants for the opener. But as you might expect, those areas get pounded, and the birds run or fly onto the neighbors place who doesn't allow hunters.

The other problem here in Montana is that ONX will tell you who owns the land, but there is no way to find their phone number since everyone has cell phones these days which are unlisted. Much of the large ranches are owned by out of state parties and this makes it impossible to contact them. It is what it is.

I have lived in Montana since 1965 and have seen the changes happen. When I was a teenager in the 1970's we had phone books to look up and call landowners. Most the ranches were 2nd and 3rd generation farmers/ranches, and they lived in the old farm houses that you see when you drive the remote areas of Montana. So you could stop and ask permission. Hunters fanned out all over the state on private land so no areas were overhunted. It was good for the herds to keep them scattered and in small bunches so that desease was kept in check.

Game had no monitary value back then and the farmers and ranchers welcomed you. Back in those days there was a "tradition" where hunters from the cities would pour into the back country and the ranchers expected it and participated in this tradition. It was very respectful and enjoyable to be a part of. I also understand how the landowners need to make income however they can. I am just glad that I was able to experience Montana back in the day, when I was in my prime and could hike for miles.
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Well maybe someone will figure out a legal way to put an end to that practice,however, its their land. Could be time to cut farm subsidies.
 
Bob Peters said:
Somebody catches a 10 pound bass, posts a picture, and the lake gets pounded. I wonder how many guys headed out to Pierre after that guy just caught the state record 17 pound walleye. It's not exclusive to montana. It's anywhere in the US where there's a hunting or fishing hot spot. The internet has made the country a lot smaller.
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Montana is not nearly as good as South Dakota.
 
jaeger said:
Pay to hunt on private land is all over eastern montana now. That's if you can even get on a place. Most tell you no hunting, unless your family or friends. Private land that is available, many times is pay to hunt, and yes $300.00 per gun per day is common (or more). There is plenty of public land, and some of it is planted by the FWP with pheasants for the opener. But as you might expect, those areas get pounded, and the birds run or fly onto the neighbors place who doesn't allow hunters.

The other problem here in Montana is that ONX will tell you who owns the land, but there is no way to find their phone number since everyone has cell phones these days which are unlisted. Much of the large ranches are owned by out of state parties and this makes it impossible to contact them. It is what it is.

I have lived in Montana since 1965 and have seen the changes happen. When I was a teenager in the 1970's we had phone books to look up and call landowners. Most the ranches were 2nd and 3rd generation farmers/ranches, and they lived in the old farm houses that you see when you drive the remote areas of Montana. So you could stop and ask permission. Hunters fanned out all over the state on private land so no areas were overhunted. It was good for the herds to keep them scattered and in small bunches so that desease was kept in check.

Game had no monitary value back then and the farmers and ranchers welcomed you. Back in those days there was a "tradition" where hunters from the cities would pour into the back country and the ranchers expected it and participated in this tradition. It was very respectful and enjoyable to be a part of. I also understand how the landowners need to make income however they can. I am just glad that I was able to experience Montana back in the day, when I was in my prime and could hike for miles.
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I remember in the '60s and '70s, my dad and his friend would pheasant hunt in the Bozeman area and they would do okay.In 2025, very few pheasants left around Bozeman.Houses are everywhere,even out around Belgrade and Manhattan.Im glad I grew up in a time where free hunting was good.
 
Goosemaster said:
Montana is not nearly as good as South Dakota.
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Gosh once again I have to agree. Twenty or thirty years ago MT was as good if not better than SD. Their winters are a bit tougher so that played a factor, but they had an immense amount of CRP. That has disappeared. People still come like it was 95 and they are disappointed. The land is still there but it is cropped or grazed now. South Dakota has done a decent job of having huntable lands. MT is still fun to hunt, but the pressure is almost like SD with less birds. The state is playing catchup with bird enhancement lands, but it has fallen behind. Now with a decent winter and spring MT has birds but still behind SD.
 
What does America look like with 400 million people in it? How bout 500 million? Think your great grandkids will have more or less hunting opportunities? How many people can the land support while not changing the landscape immensely? I’ve been asking this for years. One insane answer I get is we could all fit in the state of Delaware…right. Cities balloon, countryside shrinks, wilderness disappears. Let’s get a handle on this now before we are forced to. Either way, this question will have to be answered at some point. For a sneak peek into the future look at India and China…straight hunting ban.
 
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Nothing kills an unnamed Dakota (ND or SD) prairie lake (once a pothole now a fishery) than word of mouth ... I suppose especially those that just have to share where they caught all those perch or 'eyes. Forums usually moderate, edit, and/or refrain from actual locations ... but not FB.

Turkey hunting has especially been turned upside down because of "covid" and public land FB posters. The NR pressure has become so extreme that states have started to limit NR hunter numbers and the number of birds harvested ...

There was a time when people posted on forums or FB that the GPS coordinates were buried by retrievable on the photo post. With a little ingenuity and skill you could pull those coordinates where someone else did well.
 
Tomahawker said:
Bigger picture of Montana hunting
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I don't big game hunt, so I don't know anything about big game hunting numbers, but I do know that there are getting to be a lot of out-of-state bird hunters in Montana, And that's not going to change, so I have to put a thumbs down on it.
 
BRITTMAN said:
Nothing kills an unnamed Dakota (ND or SD) prairie lake (once a pothole now a fishery) than word of mouth ... I suppose especially those that just have to share where they caught all those perch or 'eyes. Forums usually moderate, edit, and/or refrain from actual locations ... but not FB.

Turkey hunting has especially been turned upside down because of "covid" and public land FB posters. The NR pressure has become so extreme that states have started to limit NR hunter numbers and the number of birds harvested ...

There was a time when people posted on forums or FB that the GPS coordinates were buried by retrievable on the photo post. With a little ingenuity and skill you could pull those coordinates where someone else did well.
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I've always wondered about posting on the internet with pics. I suppose somebody with skills could figure out where they were taken. I'm sure a lot of people are paranoid about posting pics on this site.
 
Goosemaster said:
I've always wondered about posting on the internet with pics. I suppose somebody with skills could figure out where they were taken. I'm sure a lot of people are paranoid about posting pics on this site.
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Some websites (like Facebook) modify the images and strip off metadata, like the GPS coordinates.

Best option for those people who don't need to have that information stored in their photos is to disable storage of the GPS metadata in their photos. It is very easy to disable this in the settings in the camera apps. It is one of the first things I do when setting up a new phone.
 
Limitless said:
Some websites (like Facebook) modify the images and strip off metadata, like the GPS coordinates.

Best option for those people who don't need to have that information stored in their photos is to disable storage of the GPS metadata in their photos. It is very easy to disable this in the settings in the camera apps. It is one of the first things I do when setting up a new phone.
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Yeah I tried to do that as well. Let me know if I post a pic in the location is identifiable. Thanks!
 
Goosemaster said:
Yeah I tried to do that as well. Let me know if I post a pic in the location is identifiable. Thanks!
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I thought you wanted people to know where you got your birds. I've just been logging them for future hunts, and to share with friends in Montana, after you post.
 
Limitless said:
I thought you wanted people to know where you got your birds. I've just been logging them for future hunts, and to share with friends in Montana, after you post.
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Having some fun, of course.

Your pixel 9 pro doesn't appear to be saving GPS coordinates in your photos. I checked this one and it didn't have GPS info in it:

Post your pictures

2024 SD
forum.ultimatepheasanthunting.com forum.ultimatepheasanthunting.com

And this site (UPH) does maintain GPS data in photos if people upload photos containing that information. I verified that a few minutes ago.
 
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