Hunting regs are getting more complex

Many hunters like fall as their favorite time of the year because of the hunting season.  

But for me, spring is not far behind as my favorite time of the year. In the early spring, when day temperatures sneak into the 50s, I like to sit on my front steps to soak up some late afternoon sunshine and heat. Sometimes the best things in life are free. 

For the hunters reading this column, don’t forget to apply for the many special big game hunts this fall. The deadline for submitting applications for some special elk and deer tags is already past. Those applications had to be in by April first. Other B tags for special elk, mule deer and whitetail deer hunts, mostly antlerless tags, must be in by June 1 or June 15. But don’t take my word for it, Montana hunting regulations are complex. Read the regulations and make your own decisions. If you have questions, call the Fish, Wildlife and Parks headquarters on Meridian in Kalispell. The employees at the front desk are always very helpful. 

The older I get, my sense is that hunting regulations get more complex. Here is an example. 

For a deer buck to be legal, in the old days, it had to have at least one antler 4 inches long. That is kind of straight forward. A few years ago, I was hunting deer in the Thompson Lakes area. After rattling a set of antlers all morning without any luck, I set up in a new spot by a narrow neck of timber between two swamps. I found a comfortable log to sit on and a nice tree for a back rest. I pictured a buck coming to my rattle across the narrow neck of trees between the two wetlands. 

To my absolute surprise, a small buck came in from behind me and stopped just 6 feet off to my left. He was so close I could almost reach out and touch him. The buck never saw me or winded me. He stopped, looking straight ahead. A small tree off to the right side of his face blocked his eye from seeing me. I could see that one antler was at least 5 inches long, so I assumed he was a legal buck. I couldn’t see his other antler. I slowly raised my rifle and shot. The deer dropped to the ground, jumped back up, ran 50 feet and collapsed, dead. 

The deer collapsed on an old logging skid trail. It was about a mile or more back to my truck. I had hunted this area before, so I felt I could drive a lot closer to this dead deer if I came in from another direction. After field dressing my deer, I dragged it off the trail and stored it under a pine tree.  

After walking back to my truck, I drove to my cabin, had lunch, took a nap and headed back to my deer, coming in from another direction. I was right. I parked my truck and it was just a quarter of a mile to my deer. When I arrived back at the kill site, I was amazed to see that the big gut pile was gone. Yep, 100% gone. I could see the blood stain in the skid trail where the gut pile had been, but no guts. None, zero! 

My field dressed deer, laying just 40 feet away, was untouched. I could only imagine that perhaps a bear had come along and stuffed himself with a pre-hibernation feast of my gut pile.  

After hauling the deer back to my cabin, I re-read the rules for a legal buck. Instead of just saying one antler had to be 4 inches long, the new regulations said that you, the hunter, needed to draw an imaginary line between the two antler tips and where that imaginary line crosses the top of the skull, that clearance must be at least 4 inches. The imaginary line on my buck ran from the tip of a 5-inch antler down to the tip of a 1-inch antler on the other side. The clearance on the top of the skull was only about 3 inches or less.  Was this deer legal? I really don’t know. Anyway, the deer was dead, so I butchered it and ate it.  

This is only one example of many confusing game regulations. 

So, get out into the great outdoors and enjoy our wonderful spring weather. If you are hiking in some winter deer or elk habitat, it’s a fun spring activity to look for shed antlers.