looking to plan my mule deer hunt next year, looks like montana is my best bet for a DIY hunt. The odds of drawing might take a year or two but the block land management makes it easy to hunt on private land. i will roll the dice and apply for other states hunting access will be a bear from what i can see.

it truely is big-sky-country.thats a fact.
Beautiful state.
good luck and regards

poulsbo -

lots of good Block Management land in montana. if you draw in the central or north central montana region, drop me a PM and i might be able to assist.

also check out some posts at BSB dealing on this very subject!

IMO block managment is not really any better than public land, and in some cases gets more pressure because people automatically think private gound=less pressure. You might not have to compete with as many hunters on a daily basis, but I'd bet that there are as many 'hunter' days per acre on block managment as on public.

There is plenty of out of the way public land that you can get away from the crowds if you do a little reserch.

Good luck drawing your tag.

You have a 20% chance of drawing a tag in Montana.They do have preference points,but it is not a preference like other States.You just get another ticket in the barrel for the next Drawing.If you are luck ,maybe you will draw the first year.If you are not so lucky ,you may never draw.If you want a tag everyother year,spring for the Elk Combo.Cost twice as much ,but you will draw every other year.Wyoming offers almost garrantied draws if you put in for the right area.It is harder to find a place to hunt in Wyoming,but if you spend some time on the phone with Fish & Game Biologists,they can usually steer you to Rancher to hunt.South dakota is often overlooked but tags can be drawn there fairly easy and ranchers allow hunters for a small tresspass fee and they also have walk in areas.I apply for 4 to 5 differnt States in hope that I will draw in one or two.Good luck!!!

DEER tag only draws aren't as tough as a deer/elk tag. I know a few out of staters who draw 8 out of 10 years. Put in!

Try to find a Block Managment area that either has no roads, or doesn't allow any wheeled access. Probably 70% of MT hunters hunt from vehicles,with the rest actually walking to hunt. We used to hunt area 700 for antelope and when we finally found land that didn't allow vehicles we hit the jackpot.

Good Luck

FN in MT

You're either confussed or your friends are extreamly lucky. Are you sure your friends weren't drawing outfitter sponcored tags, or LO only tags?

Deer/elk combo tags run about 50% with 0 points, deer combo tags run about 15% with 0 points.

quote:

IMO block managment is not really any better than public land, and in some cases gets more pressure because people automatically think private gound=less pressure. You might not have to compete with as many hunters on a daily basis, but I'd bet that there are as many 'hunter' days per acre on block managment as on public.

There is plenty of out of the way public land that you can get away from the crowds if you do a little reserch.

ivan - you do have a point here. i will say that this hasn't been my experience, but i have noticed on BMA lands that pressure has been a little higher than i am used to (which is none at all). for the most part, it didn't affect our hunting or opportunities, but the couple of times it did, it was frustrating.

i think that BMA in conjunction with public land works very well. also, it never hurts to stop and ask a landowner.

quote:

Probably 70% of MT hunters hunt from vehicles,with the rest actually walking to hunt. We used to hunt area 700 for antelope and when we finally found land that didn't allow vehicles we hit the jackpot.

this is especially true during antelope season.

FN - there is some excellent land up here for deer and antelope, walk-in only. if you find yourself in this neck of the woods during the seaosn, let me know!

I think Block Managment is great and we've killed some animals on them, more land to spread hunters out on is worth every dime paid into the system. I think some people get the preconcieved notion that its going to be a "private land" low pressure type hunt, but I havn't noticed them really being any better or worse than public land. I guess its easier to get away from the crowds on BM. Just saying I wouldn't plan a trip around getting or not gaining access to Block Mangment land. There is pleny of places to hunt in MT.

We've done ok on BM, but usualy hunt them the first few days of the season before they get hammered. I know a rancher that has his in BM and there are easliy 5x as many hunters that hunt it now than before he was in the program and he used to let anyone that wanted to hunt go. Its still great hunting, but the deer are much smarter now.

There is a couple ranches I used to hunt in E MT, that had 4-8 hunters on them every day, most instances it was diffrent hunters every other day or so. IMO there is more pressure during the week on them as opposed to public land, due to the way that most of the ranchers 'book' the time on them. People are willing to go hunt private land during the week if they can.

Definatly a great program.

thanks for all the input, i will probably do the hunting fool tag program and roll the dice in 4 or 5 states, i figure it'll take some years under my belt to be productive at this mule deer game, it took me 6 years of whitetail hunting to shoot a 155 buck on public land lots of 130 bucks too, i'm not getting any younger so i figure i better get started on mulies. what aboutbuying a landowner tag for colorado seems like most big bucks are coming from there.

there's a lot of big mulies and more then enough public land where I hunt...but the draw can be a pain. 4 years and no tags for me so far, #5 is supposed to be the lucky point.