Trip Characteristics 



The trips which the hunters in the four classifications 

 (resident/nonresident and guided/nonguided) took also show many 

 differences. Table 4 shows that while the average number of 

 round trip miles traveled by all hunters was 508, residents 

 averaged 148 miles and nonresidents averaged 2252 miles. Table 

 4 also shows how the average number of deer seen, hunters seen, 

 and days the trip lasted varied across the hunter subgroups. 

 Nonresidents and guided hunters tended to see more deer on their 

 trips than resident and nonguided hunters. However, those 

 nonresidents also took longer trips which increased the 

 probability of seeing more deer. Therefore, the average number 

 of deer seen per day was relatively stable across groups. It 

 also appears that the degree of perceived hunter congestion was 

 stable across hunter groups with around 20% of each reporting 

 seeing more hunters than they expected. 



Table 5 is presented in order to compare hunter and trip 

 characteristics across Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and 

 Parks Administrative Regions. There are significant differences 

 in many of these characteristics. 



Table 4 



Montana Deer Hunting 

 Trip Characteristics 



Characteristic Residents Nonresidents Guided Nonguided 



Average Number of 

 Miles Traveled 



148 



2252 



2992 



508 



% Who Killed Other 

 Big Game 



15.9 



28.3 



40.7 



16.9 



Average Number of 

 Deer Seen 



44.6 



78.9 



79.9 



49.0 



Average Number of 

 Days Per Trip 



4.49 



6.8! 



6.56 



4.81 



Ave. Number of 



Other Hunters seen 8.9 



11.1 



7.6 



9.38 



% Saying Number of 

 Hunters was More 

 than Expected 



17.9 



20.1 



19.9 



18.2 



