Got my antelope, elk B and mule deer B tag

Sounds like you'll have a nice fall; good luck on those hunts.

I'll be out there somewhere trying to fill my statewide elk and deer A tags. Somehow I screwed up and forgot to put in for an archery elk zone permit.....so I'll be stuck scrambling for an area prolly in the SW corner for rifle elk if one of my buds comes through. If not, it'll be strictly deer up near Malta with a side of elk tag stew.

I've had the maximum number of "bonus points" for moose, sheep, and goats since Montana started using that system.

This year makes the 26th straight year without drawing a moose tag, 31st straight year without drawing a sheep tag, and 36th straight year for no goat tag.

And yesterday I got my Unit 700 antelope refund check.

Dang buffy, that's a bummer to have that many points and still be in line for those tags. Next year man, next year!!!

quote:

Originally posted by buffybr:
And yesterday I got my Unit 700 antelope refund check.

That sucks. My uncle and his whole family struck out on antelope this year too. He heard there was some kind of a big kill-off in the antelope herd due to some kind of disease last year. Heard that way why they didn't hand out too many tags this year. Did you hear anything about that?

There was a lot of EHD along the rivers, especially the Milk, in Montana last year that killed a lot of deer, but I think the antelope situation was caused by the severe winter two years ago that decimated the herds on the east side of the state. In one instance there was well over 1000 antelope that went south for the winter across the ice on the reservoir and when it thawed they were still there and couldn't get back to their normal grounds. They perished because the decision was made that it would be too expensive to do anything to help them. Trains also killed hundreds that were up on the tracks to get out of the deep snow and there was no way they could get off to avoid getting hit. It will probably take several good moisture years with easy winters to even come close to getting the numbers back up to what they were from what I've read about the situation out there.

Thanks for the reply, TG. Good information.

No problem! We're cool and I won't respond to your PM as you requested! Sorry we got off on the wrong foot, so let's start anew and forget that other thread!

quote:

Originally posted by Hoggkiller:

quote:

Originally posted by buffybr:
And yesterday I got my Unit 700 antelope refund check.

That sucks. My uncle and his whole family struck out on antelope this year too. He heard there was some kind of a big kill-off in the antelope herd due to some kind of disease last year. Heard that way why they didn't hand out too many tags this year. Did you hear anything about that?

Topgun was right about the antelope winter die off two years ago, including the trains.

Unit 700 went from 13,000 antelope licenses down to 3,000 last year, and 3,000 again this year. I guess I was lucky to draw last year, and I did see more antelope in the area that I hunted than I had there when I previously hunted it.

I hope they continue to rebound, they're fun to hunt and I like eating them.

Good luck. I have a tag for Wyoming. Makes great sausage.