Montana

B

Brooksville

New member
Not to complain but Montana has been hammered. Every stop, well almost every stop I made Tuesday, had feathers on ground or 1/2 the sign in coupons missing. Very discouraging. I was way off highway too. From Malta east to ND.

Good luck. Birds are there just have to contend with people.
 
Goosemaster said:
Montana has been hit very hard by out of state hunters the last 2 years.I'm not sure why?
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Well duh. MT offers a license for the whole season for one price. Your neighbors make nonresidents buy a few days at a time. Then MT has a lot, a really lot of land in block management plus a lot of state and federal also. The pros bring truckloads of dogs to train there and then give them back to clients telling them where they trained on wild birds. What do you expect.
 
I’m in a neighboring state, 2 week non resident license and reduced bag limit. We’re seeing 4-1 maybe 5-1 birds vs MT. We had one 1/4 acre that had 50+ sharpies and usually we find multiple coveys of Huns. Needless to say, the hunting is a lot better.
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
The pros bring truckloads of dogs to train there and then give them back to clients telling them where they trained on wild birds. What do you expect.
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It's pretty shocking to me they allow this practice to continue. Maybe it doesn't have a deleterious effect, but it's hard to imagine how it wouldn't. I assume this is mostly done on sharptails? Cause it doesn't seem like there's enough pheasants in Montana to sustain it.
 
This is my observation after 20+ trips to MT. You need to plan when to go out there. I'm not going to say when I go out there, but hunting pressure is not an issue. Brookville, you stated "Every stop, well almost every stop I made Tuesday, had feathers on ground". If those feathers were from cleaning birds, to me that is pig hunters. If you are going to clean your birds in the field, walk a couple 100 yards in the bush to clean them. My experience with pro trainers(there have been many). They are rude, arrogant, do not follow the MT game laws, do not spend money in towns other than gas and locals hate them. We had a sick dog one trip and asked a trainer for advise. He just stuck his nose in air and walked away. He had a Vet in his group that helped us out. Another AKC lab trainer proceeded tell me my dog was worthless cause I had a British Lab. We stopped to ask permission once on some land that we were able to hunt on a previous trip. There was a pro trainer staying on the property. He told us we could not hunt and to never ask again. Landowner came out and gave us permission. Trainer no longer stays there. Place we stay has a cleaning room. Pro guys will fillet their birds, throw legs away and package them with no info on packages. When we've tried to tell them they were asking for trouble if MT Game came and checked freezers, they just laughed and said " We're Professionals" They weren't even staying there. They had a key made to cleaning room from when they stayed there years back. There a many other encounters with Pro trainers. I am not a fan of them. I make 2 trips a year. It would not bother me at all if MT went to a 14 day license having to split into 7 day periods.
 
BritLabRunner said:
This is my observation after 20+ trips to MT. You need to plan when to go out there. I'm not going to say when I go out there, but hunting pressure is not an issue. Brookville, you stated "Every stop, well almost every stop I made Tuesday, had feathers on ground". If those feathers were from cleaning birds, to me that is pig hunters. If you are going to clean your birds in the field, walk a couple 100 yards in the bush to clean them. My experience with pro trainers(there have been many). They are rude, arrogant, do not follow the MT game laws, do not spend money in towns other than gas and locals hate them. We had a sick dog one trip and asked a trainer for advise. He just stuck his nose in air and walked away. He had a Vet in his group that helped us out. Another AKC lab trainer proceeded tell me my dog was worthless cause I had a British Lab. We stopped to ask permission once on some land that we were able to hunt on a previous trip. There was a pro trainer staying on the property. He told us we could not hunt and to never ask again. Landowner came out and gave us permission. Trainer no longer stays there. Place we stay has a cleaning room. Pro guys will fillet their birds, throw legs away and package them with no info on packages. When we've tried to tell them they were asking for trouble if MT Game came and checked freezers, they just laughed and said " We're Professionals" They weren't even staying there. They had a key made to cleaning room from when they stayed there years back. There a many other encounters with Pro trainers. I am not a fan of them. I make 2 trips a year. It would not bother me at all if MT went to a 14 day license having to split into 7 day periods.
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I've never run into pro trainers, but I'm putting a thumbs down on them. I have run into lots of out of state hunters in the Lewistown area especially. I put these 2 guys from Idaho onto a public place I knew of.I knew I would have to show them where it was. They were good guys.Met two young guys from Port orchard Washington, said they drove straight through.
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
Well duh. MT offers a license for the whole season for one price. Your neighbors make nonresidents buy a few days at a time. Then MT has a lot, a really lot of land in block management plus a lot of state and federal also. The pros bring truckloads of dogs to train there and then give them back to clients telling them where they trained on wild birds. What do you expect.
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Thumbs down
 
BritLabRunner said:
This is my observation after 20+ trips to MT. You need to plan when to go out there. I'm not going to say when I go out there, but hunting pressure is not an issue. Brookville, you stated "Every stop, well almost every stop I made Tuesday, had feathers on ground". If those feathers were from cleaning birds, to me that is pig hunters. If you are going to clean your birds in the field, walk a couple 100 yards in the bush to clean them. My experience with pro trainers(there have been many). They are rude, arrogant, do not follow the MT game laws, do not spend money in towns other than gas and locals hate them. We had a sick dog one trip and asked a trainer for advise. He just stuck his nose in air and walked away. He had a Vet in his group that helped us out. Another AKC lab trainer proceeded tell me my dog was worthless cause I had a British Lab. We stopped to ask permission once on some land that we were able to hunt on a previous trip. There was a pro trainer staying on the property. He told us we could not hunt and to never ask again. Landowner came out and gave us permission. Trainer no longer stays there. Place we stay has a cleaning room. Pro guys will fillet their birds, throw legs away and package them with no info on packages. When we've tried to tell them they were asking for trouble if MT Game came and checked freezers, they just laughed and said " We're Professionals" They weren't even staying there. They had a key made to cleaning room from when they stayed there years back. There a many other encounters with Pro trainers. I am not a fan of them. I make 2 trips a year. It would not bother me at all if MT went to a 14 day license having to split into 7 day periods.
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No, the feathers more than likely came off when they posed for pics or took birds out of packs. It wasn’t obnoxious, just noticeable to me.
 
Wind River said:
Where I hunt prairie birds, we often see signs "Hunting on foot only"
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True. I don't know any public places that let you drive in.They get hunted hard the whole season,and getting a rooster is not that easy imo.Also,sign in boxes get hunted hard all season. Out of state hunters will always hunt these. I'm going to try south Dakota this fall.Im not going to pay anybody, I may knock on a few doors and hunt public.I may bring my cousin if he has gas money.
 
BritLabRunner said:
This is my observation after 20+ trips to MT. You need to plan when to go out there. I'm not going to say when I go out there, but hunting pressure is not an issue. Brookville, you stated "Every stop, well almost every stop I made Tuesday, had feathers on ground". If those feathers were from cleaning birds, to me that is pig hunters. If you are going to clean your birds in the field, walk a couple 100 yards in the bush to clean them. My experience with pro trainers(there have been many). They are rude, arrogant, do not follow the MT game laws, do not spend money in towns other than gas and locals hate them. We had a sick dog one trip and asked a trainer for advise. He just stuck his nose in air and walked away. He had a Vet in his group that helped us out. Another AKC lab trainer proceeded tell me my dog was worthless cause I had a British Lab. We stopped to ask permission once on some land that we were able to hunt on a previous trip. There was a pro trainer staying on the property. He told us we could not hunt and to never ask again. Landowner came out and gave us permission. Trainer no longer stays there. Place we stay has a cleaning room. Pro guys will fillet their birds, throw legs away and package them with no info on packages. When we've tried to tell them they were asking for trouble if MT Game came and checked freezers, they just laughed and said " We're Professionals" They weren't even staying there. They had a key made to cleaning room from when they stayed there years back. There a many other encounters with Pro trainers. I am not a fan of them. I make 2 trips a year. It would not bother me at all if MT went to a 14 day license having to split into 7 day periods.
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Big time hunting pressure in the Lewistown area!
 
BritLabRunner said:
This is my observation after 20+ trips to MT. You need to plan when to go out there. I'm not going to say when I go out there, but hunting pressure is not an issue. Brookville, you stated "Every stop, well almost every stop I made Tuesday, had feathers on ground". If those feathers were from cleaning birds, to me that is pig hunters. If you are going to clean your birds in the field, walk a couple 100 yards in the bush to clean them. My experience with pro trainers(there have been many). They are rude, arrogant, do not follow the MT game laws, do not spend money in towns other than gas and locals hate them. We had a sick dog one trip and asked a trainer for advise. He just stuck his nose in air and walked away. He had a Vet in his group that helped us out. Another AKC lab trainer proceeded tell me my dog was worthless cause I had a British Lab. We stopped to ask permission once on some land that we were able to hunt on a previous trip. There was a pro trainer staying on the property. He told us we could not hunt and to never ask again. Landowner came out and gave us permission. Trainer no longer stays there. Place we stay has a cleaning room. Pro guys will fillet their birds, throw legs away and package them with no info on packages. When we've tried to tell them they were asking for trouble if MT Game came and checked freezers, they just laughed and said " We're Professionals" They weren't even staying there. They had a key made to cleaning room from when they stayed there years back. There a many other encounters with Pro trainers. I am not a fan of them. I make 2 trips a year. It would not bother me at all if MT went to a 14 day license having to split into 7 day periods.
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I agree.Thumbs down on those dog trainers, and yes go to a 7 day license.
 
I have not run into pro trainers.
However after hunting eastern MT for 30+ years, this year was the worst in terms of hunting pressure,
some private hunters with dog trailers (not pros).

Go to plan A spot before sunrise, pickup already parked there, on to plan B spot, pickup parked there,
on to plan C spot and hunt. Another party pulling in to hunt as we were leaving.
Every day was like that for 7 straight days in mid-November.

Ironically the total number of upland game hunters has declined statewide,
but eastern MT that is not the case.
 
AKSkeeter said:
I have not run into pro trainers.
However after hunting eastern MT for 30+ years, this year was the worst in terms of hunting pressure,
some private hunters with dog trailers (not pros).

Go to plan A spot before sunrise, pickup already parked there, on to plan B spot, pickup parked there,
on to plan C spot and hunt. Another party pulling in to hunt as we were leaving.
Every day was like that for 7 straight days in mid-November.

Ironically the total number of upland game hunters has declined statewide,
but eastern MT that is not the case.
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True. Eastern Montana has been hunted hard this fall for birds. I've seen guts from all over the country this fall.Im not sure why, but the last 3 years,there has been a s load of bird hunters!
 
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