Montana Bear with hounds SB 397

[iinvno1]

Good god what a cluster......... If we cant get our poop in a groop why would they pass a bill like that we're not even united. Not to call anyone out..... really not but would like to see the evidence about MSH. I just want to read it for myself. If someone could provide that I would sure appreciate it. If that is the case I hope my fellow houndsmen and women really think about before they join. I for one will not. I had been lax about sending in my dues and was going to remedy that this year. If I cannot count on our hound groups doing what we want instead of what a handful of members want we cannot depend on them to do our bidding..... This is a joke fellas it shows no unity at all. It really infuriates me to say the least that we couldnt even get together on one bill. WTF..........If we cant join on this one bill what the hell is going to happen when they come full force to try to take our rights away. On any one thing we'll blow it fellas. WE WILL LOSE OUR PRIVLAGES!!

[dhostetler]

Monday morning we had a fresh snow so me and friend hunted together and we treed 3 lions on three seperate races and my friend's buddy shot the tom out of our last tree. We had a lot of fun that day. We have a good lion population where I hunt and if I go hunting when we have decent snow I am almost guarenteed to find a lion to run and frequently several to run. If this bill passes this won't be possible as our lion population will drop drastically.

I support the bill as I like bear hunting better than lion hunting. We currently have 4.5 months of good lion hunting and no bear hunting, if this passes there will be a trade off of 2.5 months of good bear hunting and 4.5 months of terrible lion hunting.

Many hound hunters in Montana including some that I hunt with don't give a shit about bear hunting and live to cat hunt. So for me I have no problem with people who strongly oppose this bill as I can see there point.

Regarding the fact that hound guys can't get there shit together is just a by product of who we are. A good hound guy spends more free time in the woods by himself than socializing. To be a good hound guy you can't be a quitter and have to a strong personality to put up with trash races etc. All those qualities aren't good qualities to get along with people. If we as a group would agree on everything we probably wouldn't be hound hunters.

Regarding MSHA all desicions are made by the 7 board members and the board members are elected every other year at the field trial in White Sulpher Springs by members that show up at the meeting. If you don't show up at the meeting you will have no voice in any descions. MSHA is made up of hound hunters so rather than drop out we need to get more pro bear members. I believe it is essential to have organizations support our quest for bear hunting. Rather than just a bunch of individuals pushing this.

There is also a strong sentiment in Montana among many hound guys against going to field trials. To be able to win trophies you need to have excersise your dogs etc. The only exercise my dogs ever get are if they are turned loose on game and I never train my dogs on drags or coons, so I never win anything. So if you show up at a field trial and your dogs don't look very good that is fine as it bears no relation to how they do in the woods. There are field trial people that train a lot for these field trials and they win trophies. These field trials are important as that is how Hound Associations get there funding and it is a way to bring hound guys together to discuss issues.

We bear hunters are greatly out numbered by cat hunters in Montana so if MSHA came out in support of a bill that would reduce our lion populations it could actually piss off a lot more hound hunters than it would please.

[Dale T]

Why doesn't the Montana State Houndsman Ass. get the bill amended to leave the Lion quota alone and get the full support of all the houndsmen?

[Terry L. Zink]

One more thing I'd like to add is that, I would love to be able to chase black bears here montana with my hounds, and have testified in Helena for hb 144 and was a fan of that bill. The biggest supporters of this bill were SFW. They destroyed the lion hunting in Utah, ask all the houndsmen down there. Look at their track record, look at the video and see who were the three pro-ponets for sb397, memebers of SFW.

http://montanalegislature.granicus.com/ ... ip_id=2879

[Dale T]

http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/FWP-comm ... index.html

[iinvno1]

Ok feelin a bit ignorant here who or what the heck is sfw?. MOGA? Montana outfitters ? There always seems to be a point or another view that I fail to see dhostetler. Thanks for another one. However given the discription that you gave of how decisions are made for us it seems to be lacking somewhat like our present government. Ok x amount of people are elected right? So x amount of people represent a given group right? Not sure how affective that can be. When x group goes before fwp the idea that fwp has is that group represents many people! Can you honestly tell me that the reps from these groups did our bidding accurately? I doubt it. Another way to look at things other than we would have x amount of months of good bear hunting and x months terrible lion hunting is that we have terrible hunting period. I really believe that if something is not done with the wolf we wont have to worry about owning dogs at all. Just not sure how some folks can leave their dogs on the chain for 8 months out of the year. This bill wasnt only about the bears and lions folks. It was a perfect way to help with the stringent wolf hunting rules. Maybe I am more ignorant than I think I am, do you folks really think were going to get the perfect bill?

[larry]

I was at the hearing, was pretty disguted with the lack of support for the bill and the people that were there to oppose it. Montana houndsmen ass, bitterroot houndsmen ass and one other houndsmen. Far as I'm concerned the lions can take a hit to get some bear hunting, they have and always will survive, maybe not in the numbers we all might like, but they are survivors as history has shown, they were never able to wipe them out completely to the extent of the griz and wolf. Who wouldn't want to run game that there is a ton of and do it in a t-shirt? I hope it passes, and then all the opposed houndsmen that were against it can just stay home while I run bears, but they'll be right out there too trying to get someone to help em catch a bear.

[black and tans boy]

Got to say would be funny to watch allof these "top notch dogs" commin up empty. Takes a another sort to do both. Guys have forgot, labs get used to tree lions. Treein bears consistantly is a whole different game. You said it just right larry thats what would be happening. It's an eye opening thing to have the dogs you've treed cats with for years comming up short day after day. It would definately deflate some puffed up chests. lol

[dhostetler]

Thursday night SB 397 was tabled by the House Fish & Game Committee by a 17 to 4 vote. Which means the bill was killed.

[iinvno1]

Go figure....

[Dale T]

[dhostetler]

[Doogie]

Ttt