Montana Outdoors: "Big Game Hunting"...On the Fast Track to...

...oblivion...at least in the traditional sense. Traditional in that "to hunt well meant to stalk up close and personal, put the pill where it belonged; anything less than a one shot quick kill was deemed a failure and...And being labeled a good hunter meant the same thing as being labeled a woodsman which used be about as high an accolade as one could aspire to...No more; today's hunting heroes are measured mostly in how far off did you shoot that "shooter" buck, bull, you name it...

The above 1000 yard tack driver (first test fire put 10 shots inside 7 inches at 1000 yards, 9 shots well inside 6 inches) was put together by a Pennsylvania pal to kill paper targets; but such super accurate long-range rifle/scope combos would fit right in with the latest rage in so-called big game "hunting" crowd.

Ever since the last March Madness bucket dropped my Saturday evening (you know, cocktail time) channel surfing has hit rock bottom; like if you can't cuff stuff like the In-Fisherman what the hell next...Jack and Jill Romancing the Whitetail Deer Ad Nauseum or, perish the thought, Best of the West How the Hell Far Off Can You Whack Em starring Smilin Jack and sponsored in part by the The Best Little Dildo Shoppin Mart for Far Out Shoot Em Ups...or whatever the handle.

Long ago, in a rare moment of enlightenment, I concluded enough already. Like how many ways can you stick a whitetail , while settin a tree surrounded by Booners leased to the hilt by Mathews Awesome Cams or whatever the latest whiz bang widget is labeled these days? Sorry gang, just ain't doin it for me no more...Thus I all but gave up the so-called "sportsman channel" and their kind as well...

But as I say, no b-ball to watch, yet another lousy hockey game and well hell, ya gotta watch somethin to slow down the booze consumption so...We come to last nights...ah-h, show...Sorry,  don't know what else to call it so...Back to my rant...

The "show" starts off okay with Smilin' Jack bragging on a well-worn guide (about to help dude 100 punch a bighorn sheep tag). Guide and hunters ride off into the sunset; cut to youngster's first antelope hunt...kid whacks a nice antelope...way to go so far except now amid all the whoop-ups and high-fives we learn the range 497 yards...helluva shot, you bet, but to call it a hunt or label the kid a "good hunter"? Sorry, ain't buyin' that one....Back to the sheep after a couple days hard going in rugged mountains and passing up a couple "shooters" the guide finds the "one" and you guessed it...another crack shot this one 897 yards, I think...could have been 997 but hell, when you whack a "shooter ram" damn near or slightly over a half mile off who am I quibble a mere hundred yards or so...

To the dynamic duo's credit did appear to at least be horsing and tramping around in real sheep country, steep, rocky, a real bitch, is in no way stooping as low as whacking a "Booner ram" out the truck window while grazing grass at the road berm as one hero I know did recently but c'mon a half mile shot and call it hunting...no way. I rest my case...

Montana Non-Resident Hunting License Sales Drop...

 

From the Billings Gazette:
A voter-approved price increase for some Montana nonresident hunting licenses is being blamed for about 1,200 big game combination licenses remaining for sale after the March 15 application deadline.
Yet 7,500 nonresidents applied for licenses to hunt deer. Only 4,600 such licenses are available.
“Obviously the price is an issue,” said Ron Aasheim, Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ bureau chief. “Last year we had about 8,000 people who didn’t draw. This year we’re under by about 1,200.”
About 15,800 nonresidents applied for the 17,000 big game or elk combination licenses for the upcoming season. That means that every hunter who applied for either the $912 nonresident big game combination license, or the $812 elk combo license will receive one. Last year, more than 19,000 nonresidents applied for similar tags.
The remaining 1,200 nonresident big game combination licenses will be sold online only on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning April 18. The big-game combo includes licenses to hunt elk, deer and upland game birds and a season fishing license. The elk combo includes all of the same licenses except for deer.
“We’re confident that we’ll sell out again this year,” said Hank Worsech, license bureau chief for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, in a statement. “People are already sending in applications trying to get a jump on things, but in the interest of fairness, we’ll return them and ask those folks to reapply because they essentially missed the original deadline.” Click below for more.
 Billings Gazette

Fly Fishing: Highlights...Part 5 and a Brief Unrelated Rant

Penn's Creek taught me a valuable, though painful lesson: A world of difference exists between fooling naive, half-starved hatchery wannabees and the real deal.

 

Penn's Creek kicked our butts. Though we pounded the project water above Weikert for three days hook-ups were...well, I'm just not going there. Overrun with disappointed fishermen hoping to hit the big hatch, which even on the best of the three days fizzled badly, finding the open spot was small potatoes compared to the beating we took at the hands of the creek's persnickety wild browns. Each day a heavy caddis hatch came off mid-day, at times littering the water bank to bank. The term "boiled" is in no way a stretch.

During those blitzes we literally pitched everything in our arsenal and except for a few lucky hook-ups as when our flies were trailing downstream as we scratched clue-less noggins we basically ate skunk.

Then in the evening, deja vue all over again--those the bugs were sulfurs. First a blanket hatch, the creek wall-to-wall duns and trout up everywhere gorging the moveable feast. But that was just the matinee to the big event at dusk when clouds of spinners appeared and...damn we just could not get it done.

Clearly we lacked two things: the right ammo and the skills to get 'er done. As I say we got our hats handed to us big time...

Now for the rant:

Am I nuts or what? As ranted previously ad nauseum, I know, our illustrious politicians debated just how the hell they might get there crooked feet in the door and make adjustments to the Montana Stream Access Law more to their individual and collective benefit. A unique law that not only works damn well as is but arguably brings more dollars to Montana businesses than any other law on the books.

Then, even more ridiculous, more pathetic actually, a bill which would allow spear chucking for big game...I recall thinking at the time "man oh man, what next?"

But I had neglected to include Dillon's very own preposterous, arrogant senator Ms. Debbie Barrett's latest stab to denigrate TU; actually a back-door approach to her real agenda to oust the only conservation voice currently allowed at the table during water rights adjudication proceedings, from the process. Very neat, should it happen, since then the only votes counted would be those of the special interest thugs trying to steal the water in the first beginning.

And last but not least, while Kansas isn't Montana how about the bill currently on the gov's desk to allow SILENCERs for big game hunting...don't it just take your breath away?

To me all this proves yet again the two requisites to gaining elected office are "dumber than a stump and crookeder than the crooks attempting to put you there."

End of rant...

Montana's Wildlife Legacy:A great, informative read.

Whether you hunt or just enjoy watching or photographing Big Sky Country's incredible wildlife you need to get a copy of Montana's Wildlife Legacy, Decimation to Restoration, by Harold Picton and Terry Lonner, published in 2008 by Media Works Publishing, Bozeman, MT.

I found it difficult to put down. Page after page told the fascinating tale of how this species or that was literally pulled from the ashes and in most cases returned to viable, huntable populations in just a few years. With beginnings way back in the early 1900s all the way to the present we owe a helluva lot to a relative handful, dedicated, hard working folks. Thanks to them and their relentless drive despite being faced with what must have seemed at times daunting, nearly impossible hurdles just about every critter Lewis and Clark stumbled onto remains today--and in decent numbers.

Of all the big game species many of which are so common they've become almost ho-hum only moose and woodland caribou were not physically trapped and widely transplanted; wise, sound wildlife management painted the finishing touches. Elk and antelope are good examples. From the brink of extinction both now occupy nearly every suitable piece of habitat east to west, north to south. As late as the 1940s mule deer were found only in isolated pockets east of the western mountains; today the long-ears are found in huntable numbers in every one of our 56 counties.

Big game, furbearers, predators, upland game birds all with a unique story to tell and the authors have done a thorough job of digging them up and telling in fine fashion.

Get this book, you won't be sorry, guarandamnteed.

Moron Slaughters 8 Bighorn Sheep

I am saddened and more than a little enraged by the recent report of 8 Montana bighorn sheep senselessly slaughtered on the highway between Anaconda and Georgetown Lake. A rant not only for the loss but for the idiocy allows such obviously brain-dead individuals to continue terrorizing our highways. To have not been aware sheep might indeed be on the roadway he would have had to miss two large flashing signs. OK, either he had his head so far up his you know what or he was distracted NOT tending to driving after all but dare I say it? perhaps jabbering on the GD cell phone or worse TEXTING or hell, maybe instead he was merely reading the morning paper or brushing his friggin' teeth or any of the other zillion so-called distractions you see and hear of supposed drivers DOING...One thing sure the moron was NOT doing paying ATTENTION...To make matters worse he offered the lame-brain excuse the "sun was in my eyes sorry man, didn't see 'em...yeah right! At 11:45 in the a.m. even in Montana the sun is way too high in the sky to blind...But he did get a ticket for disobeying a traffic signal...big whoopeeee! That'll teach him...you betcha.

According to FWP two of the sheep were trophy rams and "might be mounted for display locally." As a sort of added byline to the tragic story FWP also muttered something about the possibiity of hunters losing the opportunity at 8 ram tags next season and in the foreseeable future until the herd recovers...Now where have I heard that one, all of us losing for the pathetic actions of a single moron...nah, can't happen, right? WRONG

Mule Deer Buck_Robbins

Well yet another Montana big game season is history. Alas, once again, I have managed to add nothing to the larder. Failed miserably fulfilling my preseason promise "to fill all my tags this season come hell or high water." For shame...but what can I say other than I hardly tried...I think I hunted deer all of about 9 hours and elk a big fat zero...even my self-professed first love, decoying antelope during the September rut, turned out mostly a farce. As I might have mentioned in a previous rant the why of this is something of mystery but the grim result sure ain't...Perhaps it's high time to just admit the truth...Chuck my man you just ain't got it in your sorry ass anymore...Best let it go, stick to chasin' ugly dogs...now there's a pleasant thought.