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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
 
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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The last 5 years I have seen a gazillion out of state hunters in Montana.
 
I live in western MT and everybody I know doesn’t go hunt the prairie birds until pheasant opens. They say to go to central/eastern MT in September it’s too hot and too many snakes. A lot of guys are getting into mountain grouse hunting till it cools off.

I went in early September for Huns and sharpies last year and talked to several hunters all were out of staters. Tons of guys from Pennsylvania. They all said the new law was no big deal as they hunt a lot of private. They said they would give up the public. They also said very few Montana residents hunt those public spots. They also had been coming to Montana for 25 years and stay a couple of months.

I do think it is BS to train dogs on wild birds and get them all jumping and worked up. That goes for residents and nonresidents.
 
2point said:
I live in western MT and everybody I know doesn’t go hunt the prairie birds until pheasant opens. They say to go to central/eastern MT in September it’s too hot and too many snakes. A lot of guys are getting into mountain grouse hunting till it cools off.

I went in early September for Huns and sharpies last year and talked to several hunters all were out of staters. Tons of guys from Pennsylvania. They all said the new law was no big deal as they hunt a lot of private. They said they would give up the public. They also said very few Montana residents hunt those public spots. They also had been coming to Montana for 25 years and stay a couple of months.

I do think it is BS to train dogs on wild birds and get them all jumping and worked up. That goes for residents and nonresidents.
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Those guys and all those big dog trailers, that's a big thumbs down.Those guys are low brow.Bird hunting has changed in the last 10 years in my opinion. This on x,cyber scouting. I've seen out of state hunters way way out in the boonies in Montana, places that they wouldn't even be able to find 10 years ago, so thumbs down on that.
 
Goosemaster said:
Those guys and all those big dog trailers, that's a big thumbs down.Those guys are low brow.Bird hunting has changed in the last 10 years in my opinion. This on x,cyber scouting. I've seen out of state hunters way way out in the boonies in Montana, places that they wouldn't even be able to find 10 years ago, so thumbs down on that.
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My favorite is when you saw two guys from California in a suburban who were clueless. Then you told them about a really good spot so they could have success. Then later you second guessed yourself and thought you shouldn't have showed them that place.
 
Bob Peters said:
My favorite is when you saw two guys from California in a suburban who were clueless. Then you told them about a really good spot so they could have success. Then later you second guessed yourself and thought you shouldn't have showed them that place.
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Yeh Goose I’ve only been going to MT since the mid nineties. I could use some help too. I’d buy beer but I only drink craft beer not mass market swill.
 
The world has been upside down for a few years now. The guys with the dough dont give a hoot about Montana, they will just go someplace else who welcomes them. I have never hunted in Montana and likely never will, most of the hunting world is going to pheasant ranches anyway. For the cost involved, they are the ticket. Any time you let a politician do you a favor, you will end up with less and this is a prime example of just that, wait and listen for the words, I told you so.
 
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?
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Yep. And these are the guys they were trying to eliminate. Big strings of dogs sitting out there in the heat for weeks on end. And if you look closely, some of those dogs don't look very healthy.

CR5_0939.jpgCR5_0885.jpgCR5_0942-Edit.jpg
 
Bob Peters said:
My favorite is when you saw two guys from California in a suburban who were clueless. Then you told them about a really good spot so they could have success. Then later you second guessed yourself and thought you shouldn't have showed them that place.
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Yeah I felt sorry for those two guys and I showed them a place, and then I hunted it the next day and there was wounded pheasants all over the place and shells and all kinds of junk. I should not have told those guys about that place.
 
Goosemaster said:
Yeah I felt sorry for those two guys and I showed them a place, and then I hunted it the next day and there was wounded pheasants all over the place and shells and all kinds of junk. I should not have told those guys about that place.
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Wow, try to help someone and it bites you in the ass. That sucks for you, but unfortunately also for the decent people you may have had the opportunity to help going forward, since most prudent people would lean towards not making that mistake again.
 
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