Proposal in Montana hound bear hunting

[BIGBLUES]

I private messaged you with my name and number, give me a call when you have time and we can chat about a field trial over here. My friend that owns the land was more than willing to allow it a couple years ago but after talking to MSHA members at that time they wouldn't give me the time of day.

[rfeen]

well we will give you the time of day we have already talked about it last night and i promise i will do my best to make it work we could do an open coon an open lion and maybe a bear blow out its hard to get all the ukc stuff together on the first time. But yeah all we need is a place and we can make it work, I will pull the trailer down and set it up. It would be great to meet some new people.

[Doogie]

The grizzly bear statement is BS. The Idaho panhandle has grizzlies and you can still hunt black bears with dogs in Idaho. What ever happened to the assemblyman who introduced this this last spring? Was interested in buying horse meat from him and poof hes gone
The sprig field trial in Potomac was a blast. Guys would come from UT for the bear blowout race. Never really did understand that one either, a bear blowout race in a state where its illegal to hunt bears with hounds lol no wonder the boys from UT cleaned up on that every year.

[406hound]

I am going to do everything I can to get a field trial lined out for this spring in the western part of MT for this spring. Location is huge. I may have a ranch lined up near Lincoln but can't count it as a sure thing yet. Does anyone have a line on a good private property that would allow such an event? I am serious about getting this going and anyone who contacts me and helps follow through on this will be given the time of day. I am also wondering how many people would be into an all open field trial in western part of the state to get an idea of potential turnout. This would be a big thing for pro bear chase houndsman to join MSHA and get the ball rolling form the next legislative session with a large pro bear membership behind us!

[Doogie]

2015 is here

[406hound]

I don't think MSHA will be putting up a bear chase bill this year. If a quality bill was put up that wasn't piggybacked with some other BS agenda, we'd back it all the way. We have been shot down on our recent attempts though, and don't want to become habitual failures at bear chase legislation attempts. We have been doing a good bit of work on the topic still, talking with some FWP biologists and such, and I really think it's going to be a big uphill battle until we get the G bears delisted. That is a resounding fear of FWP biologists.

I have recently started working with Yellowstone Country Bear Hunters Association (which I urge all pro bear houndsman to join, they are a good pro hound group) on this and we are going to sit down with the Montana Bow Hunters Association this spring and work on some common ground. Bow hunters have been against former attempts to pass bear chase legislation and them having our back will go a long way.

In reality, this is never going to happen unless sportsman, let alone houndsman, help each other out and have each others backs on keeping the rights they have and gaining new ones. Some houndsman don't even want a legal bear chase season in MT which is completely impossible for me to understand, but why would they stifle their fellow houndsman on it? I'm not a big coon hunter, but I would raise hell if anyone tried to take that right from my fellow houndsman who are big cooners.

[Doogie]

I don't see how the grizzly bear excuse is even valid. Idaho has grizzly bears too, and they can hunt black bears with hounds in the areas without grizzly bears.



The Federation and the MSHA will never support anything that doesn't have to do with coon hunting. They are to busy holding their handfull of yUKC night hunts and 3 "field trials" every year to do anything else to represent Houndsmen in this state.

Like I said in another post, I have someone from the board of the MTA that may be willing to speak to his organization on this.

[406hound]

Doogie,
I guess I don't know you. My name is Justin Duffy. I am a board member for MSHA. I have only been on the board for about 3 yrs now so I can't speak to the mindset of others before me, but you could not be more mistaken or misinformed about the membership of MSHA and/or its members. I and the majority of MSHA board members are big game hunters and way pro bear. I and some of my fellow board members have been working behind the scenes on this for a few years now and believe me, want to LEGALLY run bears in MT as bad as anyone. That being said, all talks I have had with FWP bear biologists and my district FWP Commissioner have run into the G Bear wall. They are not "against" it but do not in any way want to cause anything the "other side" can use against the delisting of grizzly bears. Bottom line. That's not from me or all of us "coon hunters" at MSHA, that's from people in FWP with clout. Ask them yourself and start in on all of the leg work I and others have done and hopefully you will get further than we have been able to and as I said before, we'd testify 100% in favor of any quality bear chase bill that is put up.

Furthermore, this type of infighting and bitching amongst houndsman is our biggest downfall. I'd be happy, as would my fellow MSHA members and board members, to have you join up and help us. I am 100% committed to seeing a bear chase season in my home state! Also, as to the UKC field trial stuff, the MSHA board members I hunt with and myself don't even have a registered dog amongst us. Please PM me and maybe we can talk over the phone and grease some wheels because I believe people as passionate about big game hounding as you sound are what I have been pushing to have make up MSHA. To me it is a houndsman club not a UKC club

[rfeen]

Well said my friend. And if anyone has come to our events they would tell you that we are a club trying to promote hound hunting, family, and trying to keep the hound hunting tradition alive. Which will be a battle forever. So if we don't all get together on the same page, we will fail no matter what we do.

[dhostetler]

Doogie,
On one of these several topics that you bumped up there are links to videos to the Legislative hearing in 2013, you should watch them and let us know what we did wrong in our presentation and why you think we failed. One major issue is the FWP is opposed to it and in Executive action the Grizzly Bear issue was the deciding factor in killing the bill. This was in a conservative dominated Committee and we had over 20 supporters their with two of the main speakers was the current and past President of MSHA. I to am a board member of MSHA and I can count on one hand how many coon hunts I have been on. I take bear hunting over any other hound hunting out there and I spend thousands a year to hunt out of state for bear.

Attached is a picture of Bear I got in Idaho last fall, I don't believe there is anybody in the state of Montana that is wanting it legalized more than me.

[Doogie]

I'm trying to get in touch with some biologists in Idaho so we can get passed this silly grizzly bear nonsense.

Where was the MSHA and the Federation when they were pushing for permits in Region 1 and 2, which they eventually got, you guessed it, to busy worrying about their 3 "field trials" and yUKC night hunts to bother with trying to help the big game guys. No thanks. How in the heck can you have a "state championship" field trial a month after the first one lol

[406hound]

I know that there will always be a faction of houndsman who by nature only want to piss and moan about what others aren't doing for them, but I think that if there is to legally be big game hound hunting for the next generation we need people with ideas and drive to help with what they can or at least not add to the reputation that us houndsman only want to critique each other and let the anti hunters stand back and watch us be our own cancer.

I know that the permit issue in reg. 1 n 2 was and still is a source of contention between the MSHA and reg. 1 n 2 houndsman, but we have a lot of new members and board members who want involvement from our fellow houndsman in the western part of the state. Field trials are only a source of fundraising and camaraderie for the club and not a proving ground for big game dogs. Call them what you will, they are just a get together and a fun time "lol".

MSHA is not run by a group of people, "coon hunters", or UKC fans. It is a group of houndsman run by the majority say of the houndsman who comprise it. All we are trying to do is devote some of our time and effort to maintaining and hopefully expanding our hound hunting rights in the state. Obviously egos stifle some people from contributing in a positive way but for anyone who wants to help or has ideas or venues to expand our hound hunting into a bear chase season or in any other way, we are all ears and will even back someone else's play. I don't care who wants to stamp their name on the achievement, but I want a bear chase season end of story so let's get to it and quit passing in the wind and bitching about whatever we can think to bitch about.

[dhostetler]

Doogie, I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish with slamming MSHA and the Federation. They were both there testifying in support of the bill in 2011. MSHA was against the lion permits when they came out. The lion permits are Jim Williams baby that he had been trying to get through for years, so long as he is at Region 1 headquarters we will have permits in Region 1.

[jbc67]

I'll just add my voice to Justin's and Duane's. I am not currently on the board of MSHA, but I was when we pushed hard for the bear bill last go-around. MSHA members and other houndsmen around the state couldn't have made a better case for the previous bill. As far as negativity, there was only one bitter old fart that made one confusing statement against the bill and a couple of random opposition statements from tiny groups. In support of the bill, large numbers of organized houndsmen and ranchers showed up, many of whom were called and invited by MSHA officers and members. The houndsmen gave a great presentation, avoided repetition, and they did an excellent job at the committee hearing. The politicians simply could not agree to the bill for the reasons that were pointed out. I say load up for the next battle, but don't run out there premature. Maybe once the grizzly is delisted it would be worth taking another run, but if houndsmen lose all credibility between now and then by making weaker and weaker attempts at accomplishing the same thing, it will be hard for politicians to take us seriously down the road. Most all of us want to hunt bears with hounds, but we have to go about it the right way.