elk hunting montana

[sasquatch]

Can someone help me understand how to read the Montana regulations? How do you know what units don't require a special draw that you could hunt with just a general elk license? Also the district codes on the permit statistics report, such as for instance, I read district 212-45, I know how to find district 212 but what is the "-45" mean? Thanks, a lot of these western sights are like reading Chinese to a Louisiana newbie to the west.

[Ridge Ghost]

You have an elk tag, which allows you to hunt any general unit that doesn't require a special permit. Permits are not an additional tag. Rather, they allow you to use your tag in a special permit area, in addition to any general area. A special permit area can be either an entire unit, or in cases like this, a smaller segment of a general unit.

212 is the unit. "212-45" is a permit valid within unit 212. Next to the permit number, it describes that the permit is valid for the portion of the unit north of Boulder Ck and West of Gold Creek.

This means you need the "212-45" permit to hunt in the area described. The rest of the unit is fair game to hunt with your general tag. Application for special permits was due March 15.

Hope this helps to clear things up.

[sasquatch]

It does a little. I was wondering if there was a map or list of some sort of all the units that would be hunt able with the general tag. Kinda like colorado has, a map of all the otc units.

[Indian Summer]

Go into the regulations. Make sure you are in the elk and deer regs. They list every unit in order. They do that twice. One is a list of written legal descriptions of the exact border of the units. The other lists each license in the units and season dates for each weapon and the type of animal hunted such as any elk, brow tined bull, or antlerless elk.

The details will begin with the hunting on a General license if any is available in that unit. If so it will give seaon dates for each type of weapon and the animal you can hunt during those dates with that tag.

Then it will list permits. It tells the number of permits issued and the hunting dates and type of animal legal on that permit .

Here's what all that looks like. This is page 38 of the 2014 Deer, Elk, Antelope Regulations booklet.

[sasquatch]

Thanks alot. Im starting to understand it now. Seems you can hunt most anywhere with the general tag. Tons of open areas

[CurlyTail]

I agree that the regulations are complex and confusing. It took me about 4 years to fully understand the Colorado regulations. I am now working on understanding the Wyoming regulations. I have read the information, at least 8 times and am just beginning to comprehend the crazy system. Once I have Wyoming figured out in a couple more years, I plan to tackle Montana next. It takes a highly motivated person to figure out how to hunt this day and age.

[sasquatch]

Thats good though i suppose. Only the dedicated will get it. Eliminating the non dedicated "hopers"

Im new to elk, but i hunt many many other species, and if theres one thing I've learned, its that theres "hunters" and "hopers"

[MTLongdraw]

Sasquatch, if you'd like pm me your units and I can tell you if they're otc or not