MNHunter
Joined: 07 Feb 2004
Posts: 90
Location: St. Paul, MN
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| Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:15 am Post subject: Montana Unlimited Areas |
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Anybody know anything about the so-called unlimited areas in Montana? I read about it in their 2004 regs and also on a few web articles. Info is pretty scarce about them though I would like to know more about them. Number of rams? Quality? Difficulty of hunt? Just curious.
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alsatian
Joined: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 64
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| Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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There was an article in Sports Afield a couple years back that mentioned this area. The magazine featured a nice picture of a bighorn sheep on the cover. As I recall, the unit is unlimited because the terrain there is VERY DIFFICULT and this in itself limits many hunters. Furthermore, once a determined number of animals are taken from the unit, hunting is immediately closed. So, for example, if the quota is 10 animals and on day 3 of the season the tenth animal is taken, the season is then closed. I don't know how you are supposed to inform yourself that the season is closed if you are up in this high country. Are you obligated to carry a satallite phone so you can be contacted? The article made it sound like that camps up in this high country would be dry camps due to a lack of water sources.
All this notwithstanding, I confess to having had my interest piqued by these two units (the article said there were two unlimited units). I would like to hunt the big horn, but am constrained to a do-it-yourself hunt by limited finances. My plan would be to backpack in to hunt, but I don't know how to deal with no water sources: can't carry in enough water -- water is very heavy -- to hunt long. I have thought about doing a trip into the area out of season just to scope out the terrain and see if there is a way to backpack in on one's own.
Let me know what you find out about these unlimited sheep areas in a private message, please. |
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