be known. We can only hope that our wild ungulate populations will not continue to be the victims of the “political” wildlife/predator management practices that have been shoved down our throats for several years. The ballot/citizens initiative process is nearing completion as I write this, with final signature counts trickling in daily to the Secretary of State’s office. The anti public lands trapping initiative (which the MBA strongly opposed and provided financial support to the opposition efforts of) and the elimination of outfitter guaranteed nonresident license initiative (I-161) were both quite close (as of the morning of 7-17) to making the November ballot; both in term of meeting the numbers of signatures and legislative districts required for inclusion on the ballot. As soon as we/the MBA knows if Initiative-161 is going to make the November ballot, we will let members and the public know of any official MBA position. Have a fun, ethical and fruitful hunting season but watch out for those fairies….or at least try and steal a little “lucky” dust for me. Cheers,
Billy Lewis
Region 4 T
CLIFF GARNESS
he 2010 archery season is soon to be upon us, summer is almost over and another year I’ve received my refund checks from FWP for the Big 3. I have heard of a few folks drawing successfully from around this area but not many. Good luck to all of you who were successful this year and please send in your photos for all of us around the state to enjoy. Hopefully, by the time you read many will have been successful filling their elk, deer and antelope tags. Over Fathers Day weekend, the Five Valley’s Archery Club put on the Bear Shoot/ MBA State Championship Shoot. It was the first time I have attended the MBA Shoot and it was a fantastic turnout and a success for the MBA. Hats off to the Five Valley Archers for putting on a fantastic event for all and I hope you can all attend the event next year. The rest of the region is in full swing with an archery shoot being held almost every weekend. Please get out and support
Hard to believe another summer is nearly over and antelope season is right around the corner. From what I have seen so far it looks like we are in for some exceptional horn and antler growth this year. FWP is seeking comment on a new elk management plan for the Gravelly range. The proposal is to re-establish pre-2005 elk objective of 8000 observed elk +/- 15% (current objective is 7000 observed elk +/15%). This includes hunting districts 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327 and 330: Comments are due by 5pm on August 16th 2010. In the past there has been some confusion in the regulations regarding bow length. Prior to 2010 the regs read: The bow shall be no shorter than 28 inches. That caused a lot of confusion as to whether that meant overall length or axel to axel length. So in 2010 FWP changed the wording to: The bow shall be no shorter than 28 inches measured axle to axle. However after talking with a law enforcement officer I was informed that FWP will accept the bow as long as the overall length is at least 28 inches. Meaning measurements will be taken from either the top of the limb or the top of the cam, whichever is longer. Recurves and long bows will be measured from tip to tip.
the local clubs and tune in for the upcoming seasons. By judge’s orders, the Little Belts Mountains had some road and trail bans or restrictions lifted or lightened and a new travel map is being made to accommodate the changes. MT FWP also decided on July 8th to set the new wolf quota at 186 wolves and tags are planning to be on sale on August 23rd. Very soon we will all be in Kalispell for the 2011 MBA convention and banquet in March. It will be a good time as always and if anyone has any donations for the banquet, please get in touch with Paul Martin or myself and I will get them to Paul. If any of you have anything to bring up region or statewide, as always please let me know by sending an email to obsession_ archery@yahoo.com . We will be having a Region 4 meeting on November 2nd @ 8pm after the Archery club Meeting at the Black Eagle Community Center and I look forward
to seeing most of you there.
Cliff Garness
Lucas Zemlicka
As always feel free to give me a call or shoot me an e-mail with any questions or concerns you may have. Good luck this fall and remember to send the MBA your hunting pictures and/or stories! We are always looking for hunting articles for the magazine so send them in.
Lucas Zemlicka
Region 5 A
ERNIE MCKENZIE KRIS O’BLENESS
s I write this there are 32 days until the antelope season opens! Then, another 3 weeks and all the other good stuff opens up. No “special” tags for me this year but it doesn’t matter. Montana has enough general season opportunity to keep me busy. I couldn’t be happier with our bow seasons. But lets keep it that way. We need to be heard, we need more members in the MBA, we need to be more active and vocal with our commissioners and representatives. They need to know we care, that we love the bowhunting opportunities we have and we are not interested in giving them up. In region 5, Billings and surrounding areas, we probably have more bowhunters than any other region, However, we only have about 80 MBA members!!! Come on guys, sign up your buddies and bring them
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