Meat Hunters 



Hunters in this group seemed most interested in "getting in the meat," and doing this as 

 inexpensively and easily as possible. 



Generalists-Meat Hunters 



This group seems to be opportunistic in their reasons for hunting. The two highest rated 

 reasons given by this group were good road access to the area and because they had a special 

 permit to hunt the area. 



Trophy Hunters 



These hunters were most interested in bagging a trophy buck and testing their skills along the 

 way. Access, hunting close to home, and having an antlerless permit were all relatively 

 unimportant to this group. 



ACCESS 



The future of Montana's deer populations and hunter use of those populations depends 

 largely on the private landowner, because over 62% of the land occupied by deer is privately 

 owned (Brown, 1978). Access to hunt deer on private land is paramount to controlling 

 population levels and distribution, as well as providing hunting recreation. Although it is 

 assimied that access for deer hunting is becoming more difficuU, little definitive information 

 is available to document that fact. 



In 1975, a statewide analysis estimated that 40% of the private land with mule deer was 

 closed or severely restricted to public deer hunting (Brown, 1978). This estimate was based 

 upon the judgement of FWP personnel that lived and worked throughout the state at that 

 time. 



In 1993, a Montana Farm and Ranch survey was mailed to a random sample of 2,200 of the 

 14,067 commercial farms and ranches in Montana included in the Montana Agricultural 

 Statistics Service data base (Irby, et al. 1995). The survey covered the 1992 growing season 

 and the 1992-93 winter. Some of the highlights of the survey which relate to hunting access 

 were: 



1) White-tailed deer were noted as present by 81% of the respondents, mule deer by 

 76%. 



2) More than 60% of the respondents were satisfied with current numbers. 



3) When asked about damage levels over the time they had operated their farm or 

 ranch, 68% felt that the financial damage to their operation due to big game was 



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