Does permits in some units cause more pressure than a OTC unit?

HUNTNNW · Feb 14, 2012

As I have been doing research this year on where I want to hunt Mule deer in MT. I have been looking into permit hunts to put in for and I have noticed a few hunts that the units directly adjacent to a permit unit has less pressure than the permit unit itself. 1 example is 210-50 the 216 unit has considerably less pressure by about 500 hunters. The terrain is identical other than the rock creek drainage. Most states I have hunted that have permit hunt units the units surrounding is packed!

MTSHEDHEDZ · Feb 15, 2012

Did you check to see how much of that area is PRIVATE?

HUNTNNW · Feb 15, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Feb-15-12 AT 11:35PM (MST)[p]210 has a lot of public land and the land that is public is where I would want to be anyways chasing muleys.... 216 looks to be almost all public 90%.. roadless areas..trailheads etc.

MTSHEDHEDZ · Feb 16, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Feb-16-12 AT 09:15AM (MST)[p]Sounds like its perfect.There are many factors for this kind of thing,private land that holds bigger deer and attracts more hunters to the surrounding public land,outfitters in the area that bring in more pressure,ACCESS,you said its roadless?That alone negates about 80% of the so called hunters that wont get more than a mile away from their truck and want to drive all day.It may just be that the first area holds the deer and they are hard to locate in the one next to it.

My bone is no stranger to
great envy!

Randy11 · Feb 16, 2012

216 doesn't have much for mule deer in it. None of the areas in region 2 that are still general do. There's pockets, but the permit areas definitely hold most the deer.

I wouldn't put much stock in to FWP's numbers on something like this. There's no check station in either unit, so everything's based off of phone surveys.

I'm also pretty sure they don't distinguish between whitetail and mule deer on their hunter numbers. 210 gets a ton of pressure being on the interstate, lots of guys hunting elk. Those guys also have deer tags in their pockets, therefore they're technically deer hunting (whitetail).

If you could somehow figure out a way to get a ratio of hunter's targeting mule deer to mule deer bucks, I'm guessing the units next to the permit areas would look a lot less appealing.

HUNTNNW · Feb 20, 2012

210 is a mule deer only with permit..so u know only a max of 100 mule deer are shot.

There are high country hunts in 100's and 200's that hold muleys and some hawgs at that...most just dont want to go hike and climb