November 25, good morning Montana

[Double D]

Good morning Montanan, good morning dpe.  good morning lurkers!  Nice pleasant 45 degreess this morning.  The forcast calls for snow over night, but its just to warm to mean anything.   AlGore can pack up his global warming and take it home as far as I am concerned.

Somebody mentioned getting a 4 wheeler for hunting...nope no way. Had one.  I have watched the 4 wheelers at work out here and the game either runs from them or just lays down and lets them drive by. They are also colder than the devil to ride in the winter.  They were awkward hunting gophers on and you had park them a long way from where you were going to hunt coyotes, if you hoped to get a shot.

Gophers well, well shooting gophers is a group activities and unless everyone has one, you can't do much gopher shooting on a 4 wheeler.

 Now I will admit.  They are great for getting the game out after it's down.  But most land owners don't want us driving in the field even to pick up game. 

I use a kids plastic toboggan to drag game out.  Works fine.  I have also used the plastic sleds used by farmers to pull behind tractors and lighter similar devices for 4 wheelers. Works great.

4 wheeler got its place. The one I had got worked hard around our little ranch.  It was a 500cc mini tractor and earned it's keep.   

Right now I am looking to buy a 4 WD golf cart and set it up for Gophers. 

[dpe.ahoy]

Yah, I have to use my Polarus 6 wheeler on the road or on my own land.  BLM closes down most of their roads during hunting season.  It carried 4 deer for us this year.  Kinda slow for the road, but I think it will earn it's keep on the land, want to find a disk to pull behind it and seed the land in something that will grow there and attract the deer and elk.   Seem to like the alfalfa fields alot this time of year and it will help keep the weeds down.  Got a flock of 50+ turkeys that roost there and don't want to just feed them all the seed.  One more day of handing out Holiday boxes and then 4 days off!  Any more word of extending Elk season?  DP

[Cottonwood]

Extended elk season to Region 3 and Region 6:

See FWP Map http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/default.html

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- There's an early Christmas present for elk hunters in a few parts of Montana.

State Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioners decided Tuesday to extend elk season in parts of Regions 3 and 6. The season will be extended in 18 hunting districts around Dillon and Bozeman, and two districts in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

For the rest of the state, the general big-game season ends Sunday.

The extended season will run Dec. 1-21 in FWP Region 3 and Dec. 1-14 in FWP Region 6.

However the state commission can close any extended season in any hunting district on 24 hours' notice. That could happen if the total elk harvest goal in a district is achieved, or if the bull harvest gets to a level where a closure on bulls would be necessary.