take him rifle hunting cause of the people! 



In my area 5 years ago thair was 3 outfitter now thair is 27 

 thats two many-5 years in spring bear hunting my wife and I 

 counted 93 bear (killed one) 1987 I seen only one same amount of 

 firme (two much pressure) 



I love to hunt. I spend a great deal of time and money on the 

 sport I love. I have had many guided hunts in Alaska and Canada 

 for sheep, caribou, moose, and grizzly. But I live in Montana to 

 hunt elk! The two most important things to me are, 1. There is a 

 lot of elk in Montana, and good trophy potential. 2. I like to 

 hunt with both bow and rifle. I prefer to hunt with a rifle, but 

 I love to bugle elk, it is a great challenge. 



There are two things that bother me about archery elk hunting in 

 Montana now. 



1. There is begining to be way to many archery in the field at 

 one time. I would support measure to reduce those numbers by 1. 

 Increase license fees, or 2. allow hunting only for branch 

 antlered bulls, or 3. instead of 16 week season, have 23-week 

 seasons and make archers choose early or late, or 4 . go to a 

 drawing in some or all areas for archery hunting. 



2, The other thing that bothers me is I feel there is till to 

 much access by vehicles. Especially during archeyr season. 

 Motorcycles and ATV ' s rumbling along trails make it very hard to 

 bugle elk. 



The reason I began archery hunting is because 1) rifle season 

 became too easy for all species 2) I have listened for the last 

 time to the sound of a bullet zinging over my head due to 

 overcrowding of areas during rifle season. 



The only time there is a pressure problem is during the first 

 week, the same as in the rifle season. That is natural. The 

 rest of the season there is no problem at all . Even during the 

 first week, the riverbottoms are the only area that receive a lot 

 of pressure. You can go out into the Breaks, hunt all day, and 

 you'll see very few people. 



The one suggestion that I ahve is to do away with the permit 

 system wherever it may be in effect. At this point there just 

 isn't a need for it. The only reason it was put into effect on 

 the north side fo the river was to satisfy the locals. By doing 

 this the pressure was increased on the south side. Do away with 

 it and the pressure will balance out!!! 



I could not beleive how many "extra" bodies I saw in area 631 

 lots a pressure and few permits . I was disheartanad and probably 

 never will go back to my "dream" hunt 



