I stole this quote from the other thread...
"I spoke with them again and they said that since FWP required drawing (choosing) an area to hunt mule deer in SE Montana, the number of big muley bucks they get in every year has greatly increased."
Do you mean SW Montana? I don't think there was ever a 'pick your unit in SE MT was there???
If you're talking SW MT then, I would agree with you 100% especially in the late 90's but IMO its not the case anymore. I think it was probably the best thing they ever did to help out the deer, unfortunately the dropped it for the most part. There are a few unlimited LE units which is basically what they had before.
I'm all for anything to help the deer make it to maturity. If closing areas early will help then so be it, but I don't think that's the main culprit. There are many areas that close early and have for years. IMO it doesn't help any because it seems like more people want to hunt there, thinking that since it closes early there MUST be big deer in there. I'll bet if we knew the real numbers for the CMR, you'd see that there are probably just as many hunters killing just as many deer in the 3 week season vs the 5 weeks before, or maybe even more hunters! It would be interesting to see the stats if they have any.
I think a lot of you guys are missing the big picture here. Some of you say that you have the best deer hunting you've had since the 70's? Do you guys hunt the 'Root or what? I'm sure it is great there, since its basically all on a draw of some sort. The vast majority of he big deer we see in the glossy pictures are from the LE units or from private ground IMO. The OTC units on public land are not producing up to their potential, I think its getting better but I think one of the main factors for it is due to limited hunting on private ground.
I grew up in MT as well. There are no where near as many mature deer on the hill as there was 30-40 years ago from what I've been told. I do think there are more now than there was in the 90's after the big die off, but seeing those big bucks in the high country is a pretty rare thing anymore. I'm not old enough to have seen it first hand, but my old man and grandpa spent many many days in the mountains and will contest to it, not to mention lots of friends that hunted the same time frame. They all say that they would see half a dozen wall hangers/or big mature deer every season, not B&C bucks, but big boxy heavy beamed mature bucks. In the last 15 years of hunting the same area, I can only think of two bucks that we've seen in the exact same area that I would have considered 'wall hangers'.
The area I hunt in the SW part of the state gets hammered by elk hunters, most of which will shoot any 20-24" 4pt they run across as well. This goes for the majority of hunters both NR and Res... To each their own, and I don't think that killing a few immature deer will crush the population, but IMO its nearly impossible to manage deer heard when anyone with an OTC tag can shoot any deer in any unit they choose. Personally I think the best thing they could do is go back to the 'pick your unit' program. It was amazing to see how fast the buck populations rebounded in those short 4-5 years when they had the program. As a mater of fact two of the more 'premier' units in the state as far as LE units go started off in the 'pick your unit' program.
Another problem with the current OTC program is you can hunt virtually any unit in the state sans, the LE units of course. The problem I see with that is that it's very easy to 'high grade' units so to speak and also very easy to hammer selective areas in those units. As a result the winter range areas get pounded because the vast majority of them are easily accessible! A lot of the deer come off the mountain to the face hills about the middle of the season to rut, sometimes earlier some times later depending on weather, etc. Think about all the other states around. Most make you pick a unit or at least a region.
I will agree that MT doesn't really have the genes to grow big deer, but they have the cover and vast area to grow far more mature deer than we have right now.
Maybe I'm just jaded, and 'my area' just hasn't come full circle yet. I don't know... I got a glimpse of what it could be at the end of the pick your unit program... All I know is I spent the week of Thanksgiving behind a spotting scope last season looked at probably 250 mule deer in 4 different areas and didn't see a mature buck. I ended up shooting the biggest whitetail of my career so far and came home happy, but disappointed at the same time.
The last few years I've been hunting deer in CO. The areas I hunt are what I would consider comparable to MT as far as pressure and draws go. Its a left over draw area, and plenty of good access. All I know is in the 7-10 days that I spend in CO chasing deer, I'll easily see 2-3 times as many 3.5+ yo bucks. Colorado's season is dang near as long as MT's when you add it all together, they have basically the same amount of deer, and probably 2-3 times as many hunters as well. The one thing that they now have is a LE draw for all deer! From what I understand the deer hunting in CO wasn't all that great when they had the OTC any unit tags. Maybe MT could take a look at what CO has done?