I'm getting my stuff together to go hunting and fishing again in MT. I looked through my past hunt's descriptions and found a good indicator of how quickly things have changed in the NE corner of the state.
In 2013 I hunted very small and relatively remote BMAs near the NoDak border. One was only about 900 acres total with limited pheasant cover. Because very few people hunted it I found pheasants and had it pretty much to myself in 2013 even though I only hunted it a couple of times to spread my impact out over a number of BMAs.
In 2014 I was able to see how many people hunted that BMA and by the 5th day of the season 120 hunters had hunted that one 900 acre BMA. I passed numbers of caravans of vehicles with dog trailers in tow out in that part of the state that had as many as 16 dogs per trailer going 60 mph on the dirt roads. SLOW DOWN when you pass people you come across out there so you don't break their windshields with flying rocks!
Last year I didn't hunt that BMA because when I got there a group of 4 hunters was just leaving with 4 dogs and another group of 6 had just arrived with a trailer full of dogs and were signing in. Actually, although I signed in at every BMA box where I used to hunt so the owner can get paid for his generosity, I didn't hunt a single BMA in that part of the state. It's become too much like hunting the wildlife areas here in California for my taste. Fishing is the new hunting for me back there.
In 2013 I hunted very small and relatively remote BMAs near the NoDak border. One was only about 900 acres total with limited pheasant cover. Because very few people hunted it I found pheasants and had it pretty much to myself in 2013 even though I only hunted it a couple of times to spread my impact out over a number of BMAs.
In 2014 I was able to see how many people hunted that BMA and by the 5th day of the season 120 hunters had hunted that one 900 acre BMA. I passed numbers of caravans of vehicles with dog trailers in tow out in that part of the state that had as many as 16 dogs per trailer going 60 mph on the dirt roads. SLOW DOWN when you pass people you come across out there so you don't break their windshields with flying rocks!
Last year I didn't hunt that BMA because when I got there a group of 4 hunters was just leaving with 4 dogs and another group of 6 had just arrived with a trailer full of dogs and were signing in. Actually, although I signed in at every BMA box where I used to hunt so the owner can get paid for his generosity, I didn't hunt a single BMA in that part of the state. It's become too much like hunting the wildlife areas here in California for my taste. Fishing is the new hunting for me back there.