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If you wanna protect our hunting heritage then join Montana SFW. Thanks

Ask the cat hunters in Utah how it worked out for them

I was the VP of the SFW for Montana for a couple years when it got started and I am still active. I would reccomend as many folks as possible, (especially us cat hunters) be involved. I can tell you the direction and attitude toward mountain lions is vastly different then then the folks that are involved in Utah and what they are trying to accomplish. Casey

Doogie wrote:Ask the cat hunters in Utah how it worked out for them

I can tell you for a fact that, at least in Utah, you are just as well served joining the HSUS. I've been to the meetings where hound hunters representing the SFW beg the DWR to up the lion quotas "especially in the sheep areas". The same guys who have a bunch of land illegally posted. Everyone knows but no one seems to care. These guys would kill the last lion on the face of the earth for a dollar................

SFW-Sportsman For the Wealthy!

Have you looked at their website? They take a real friendly stance towards lions, and other predators
I thought it was a $50 trophy fee not a $50 "penalty"

Have not heard 1 good thing about SFW yet. They seem to have a little trouble with the law most of the time.
I for one have not heard of them in MT, I was hoping they would not show up here. They must be based in Jefferson County seeing they want to have a bounty on lions and wolves.

If you want tags taken away from the general public.
Then sold to the rich in the name of habit there for you.
I'm suprised they haven't had a discrimination lawsuit over it.
I don't know how a public resource can be used in that manner.

There in Idaho & I would never support them!

Mark

WOlf in sheeps clothing Montana.............What we have here in Utah is not a houndsmen friendly group!!!!!

Here in western Montana its a lot different than Utah. We have TOO MANY PREDATORS plain and simple. If we don't join together in efforts to lower the predator populations (such as lions,bears, and especially wolves) than its only going to get worse. I myself don't wanna start applying for deer and elk tags. I know some of the founding fathers of Montana SFW and they are going the same direction that I wanna go. They are not politicians, they are regular guys that grew up in Montana that see a bad thing happening and are willing to have a set of nuts and fight for our hunting/trapping heritage and help save what little game we have left by being our voice as a group. If you have questions for Montana SFW there is a contact number on the website. Ask them what they stand for and what the $35.00 annual fee goes towards.

BIGBLUES wrote:We have TOO MANY PREDATORS plain and simple.

They'll help you take care of that for sure. Pretty soon you'll be able to go all winter and see a couple tracks. Oh yeah, like was stated already, they'll take some of your precious tags you're worried about not getting them and sell them at auctions for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which I guess if you're rich, is a good deal. That way you don't have to play by the rules everyone else does.

SFW first got started in utah about twenty years ago give or take .I went to a field trial in spanish fork canyon that was set up by a friend of mine and Don Peay .He was the founder of the SFW.We had a meeting around a campfire that night and Don got up and gave us his spill on why we needed to get behind this group he was trying to get started. He was gonna be the voice of the houndsmen,protect our rights and go to bat for us if only we would get behind him.He had already been to the deer and elk guys and hadn"t had a whole lotta sucsess.Everything sounded pretty good because all us houndsmen had been going to the RAC meetings for years and we were slowley losing our seasons and we were constantly facing the enviromental groups opposing houndsmen. We didn"t here much about SFW for a year or two then in our next election there was bill called "proposision 5" that was being backed by the SFW.It would give the division of wildlife resources the right to make decisions regarding wildlife unless something was voted into affect by super majority of 66% instead of 51% by the people of the state.It passed . Since that time i"ve never seen an enviromental group back trying to get their agenda back in our state. Some of the other groups had teamed up with Don by this time and they had become a very powerfull group in our state .We had a lot of lions back then, you could catch 30 to 40 every year just hunting weekends. Well we had a couple bad snow years and we lost about 85% of our deer.There was enough lions and coyotes that they held the deer down and they couldn"t recover .By now the SFW was the most powerful group in our state and with all the other groups joining and being behind them , they were getting far more money from them than the 3 to 5 hundred houndsmen in the state.There was a call to reduce predetor numbers to help the deer and rightly so .Well , lions are easy to manage ,just sell over the counter tags and every kid with a dog and a snowmobile becomes a guide .Within 3 years we went from having tons of lions to hunting all winter and being lucky to catch half a dozen and maybe going for a month to see a track . We still don"t have many deer and now we don"t have many lions either . We do have lots of coyotes , but they are expensive to manage so i"m sure they"ll keep pounding the lions . A lot of people complain about the SFW but they have done a very good job with some of our animals . We have sheep , goats and elk to rival any state .We do have some deer units that produce lots of huge bucks every year . We have probably gained a bit more pursuit opportunities but at too high a price in my opinion. If you want to increase your elk ,goat and sheep hunting opportunities,i would certainly get behind them but their track record in utah has not been to the benefit of the houndsmen .If i do draw a tag to hunt one of the animals they have helped , great, but i may draw only once every ten years or so and then i"ll have about a ten day season.We can chase lions 6 months in some units and year round in others so i would sooner have lots of lions.The SFW is a group that has helped some animals but has definatley hurt some others.They do have their place but as any organization that plays to the broader spectrum of the hunting community they are going to try to keep the majority of their members happy. Unfortunatly it has been at the expense of the houndsmen here in utah. i

It is interesting to read this thread. Some don't like the group because they are too liberal at lobbying for more lion tags. Others want to see more tags for sale.

I won't argue what has happened in Utah and I have personally argue with Don Paey and others. My feeling is if I want an organization in the state of Montana to go a certain direction I had better be there to try to steer it to some extent. I am the biggest "kitty hugger" out there and I personally feel that a female lion should next to never be killed and if a tom isn't at least 4 years old then why the hell is someone shooting it, gonna make a toilet seat cover out of the hide?
Simple fact is wolves are destroying the elk in Montana and a bunch of us banded together to try to fight. There are going to be people involved with any organization that have ideas that are contrary to yours, that I why I am fighting for what I beleive in. I encourage you to get in the fight with whatever organization you think you can work with. Casey
PS Don Paey and the leadership in Utah doesn't have any say in what we are trying to accomplish here in Montana, our main focus is to work together to control wolf numbers her in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming and maybe save some other states from being destroyed like western Montana has and the Idaho panhandle.

The SFW seems to be trying all it can to keep wolves out of utah and any other state it is established in.They certainly seem to be able to get organized and a ground game in place to try to push their views and the views of the majority of it"s members into the public spotlight ,and have a good track record of getting things passed.I personally think they have done a great job with some speicies here in utah ,but if your looking to a group to be a "save all" for the houndsmen you will probably have to look a little farther . Both of my kids have killed mt. goats before age 16, the oldest a 340 class bull ,wife a 406 bull and me a 355 bull . And i should be hunting rocky mt. bighorn sheep this fall .If you told me this was possible when i was growing up i"d a laughed in your face.They have definatly taken some of our hunting opportunities to a new level but our lionhunting has deteriorated to the worst in my 25 years of running hounds.If the general public read this post ,99% of them would give their support to the SFW if they thought they would have the chance to kill half the stuff me and my family have,but like i said lion hunting has declined and i"m not really sure it had to.Lions are pretty hard on sheep and deer and i"m sure if there are no deer they would hammer the elk more than they do so i guess it"s more about what you prefer to hunt .As far as an" anti wolf "group ,you probably couldnt go wrong .