2026 Upland is out for us.

C

capt4fish

New member
So….
I just got a notice from Montana.
Seems that nonresident upland hunters cannot hunt until 10 days after resident season opens on public ground.
I called and talked to a couple folks for some clarification about: 1) Does it apply to Federal refuges? It Does.
Are they going to “move opening dates” to accommodate residents or nonresidents? They are not.

So that effectively excludes my group from hunting upland birds in Montana this year. 10 days after the season for resident opening, we will be in SD. Unfortunately, We won’t make it back to MT.

Bummer.
 
That’s too bad.

Lots of money in Montana, I imagine they want the hunting to themselves.

Seems like the tourism industry dropped the ball there.
 
Last year they were telling nonresidents to voluntarily not shoot pheasants the first week. I ran into hunters in the campground who thought that law was already in effect. This is in response to nonresidents coming out for the grouse hunting in September and staying through the pheasant opener. Last year the grouse and hun hunting was spotty at best and downright crappy many places. Pheasant hunting was also spotty down significantly from other years. I expect a lot less bird hunters not because of the law change but because of better hunting farther east,
 
Maybe they did this cause it was getting over-run with out of state hunters? It did seem there was a lot of chatter online and everyone was always "gotta get to Montana on the first of September to hunt!" It sounds like things got way more crowded out there after the surge in popularity of prairie grouse and partridge hunting. I never liked hearing the stories of field trial guys from down south bringing up a trailer loaded with dogs to run them on wild birds for extended periods of time. To be clear I'm not taking a position and feel bad your hunt isn't gonna work out. North Dakota has a similar rule for pheasants. Unfortunately the world is shrinking, and hunting opportunities along with it.
 
Bob Peters said:
Maybe they did this cause it was getting over-run with out of state hunters? It did seem there was a lot of chatter online and everyone was always "gotta get to Montana on the first of September to hunt!" It sounds like things got way more crowded out there after the surge in popularity of prairie grouse and partridge hunting. I never liked hearing the stories of field trial guys from down south bringing up a trailer loaded with dogs to run them on wild birds for extended periods of time. To be clear I'm not taking a position and feel bad your hunt isn't gonna work out. North Dakota has a similar rule for pheasants. Unfortunately the world is shrinking, and hunting opportunities along with it.
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I agree with the out of staters training pre season on the birds. They get enough pressure already, if they let residents so be it.
And if you do charge them more it’s dirt cheap to do it
 
Bob Peters said:
Maybe they did this cause it was getting over-run with out of state hunters? It did seem there was a lot of chatter online and everyone was always "gotta get to Montana on the first of September to hunt!" It sounds like things got way more crowded out there after the surge in popularity of prairie grouse and partridge hunting. I never liked hearing the stories of field trial guys from down south bringing up a trailer loaded with dogs to run them on wild birds for extended periods of time. To be clear I'm not taking a position and feel bad your hunt isn't gonna work out. North Dakota has a similar rule for pheasants. Unfortunately the world is shrinking, and hunting opportunities along with it.
Click to expand...
The issue came to a head with the locals over the trailers with dozens of dogs. One campground I stayed at had an outfit with 43 dogs. They would take a few out to train and leave the rest on chains to bark all day long. That campground now has a 3 dog limit. MT has one license good for all year, a really good deal compared to other places. Unfortunately some people abused it, yes legally, but ethically? I don’t blame MT they had to do something because it was out of hand. And yes this means less hunting time for me also.
 
I applaud them. Take care of the ones who live and pay taxes there first. The way it should be. SD made a weekend for residents a week early so we can get to an untouched piece of public before the masses move through.
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
The issue came to a head with the locals over the trailers with dozens of dogs. One campground I stayed at had an outfit with 43 dogs. They would take a few out to train and leave the rest on chains to bark all day long. That campground now has a 3 dog limit. MT has one license good for all year, a really good deal compared to other places. Unfortunately some people abused it, yes legally, but ethically? I don’t blame MT they had to do something because it was out of hand. And yes this means less hunting time for me also.
Click to expand...
So did they make rules to prevent the out of state guys bringing up a boat-load of dogs for pre-season training?
 
2024 was a pretty good year for upland where we hunted.
2025 was horrible, did not see 5% of the birds we saw the year before.

It’s easy to blame nonresidents for bird shortages, that just don’t wash in my opinion.
More likely ,in my opinion running dogs for two full months before the season opens educates them and makes them vastly harder to hunt.

Where we hunted, we saw way more deer hunters, antelope hunters than upland bird hunters. I was very happily surprised both seasons at the lack of pressure.

It will be interesting to see if out of state revenue drops and by how much.
This could put negative pressure on Montana being able to fund the vast public areas it has.

Just my .02.
 
Bob Peters said:
So did they make rules to prevent the out of state guys bringing up a boat-load of dogs for pre-season training?
Click to expand...
To my knowledge no. I hate to say it but Goose would be more knowledgeable. From my understanding the “pro trainers” pretty much got a bye. Again I don’t blame MT something needed to be done.
There will not be much money lost by the state for these new rules. They were dirt cheap for years which led to the problem. Again this will be a hard year to tell the real effects of the change since the hunting was some of the worst in years last year. Even with great conditions it will take a few years to rebound. Some mom and pop motels and grocery stores will suffer but I believe it will be more from the poor hunting last year than the rule changes. Me I’ll still go late to visit favorite places and friends,only won’t feel the need to stock up on shells.
 
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