Howdy,

I've been waiting to send out this update until I learned the results of a critical decision by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks game commission with regards to the proposed mountain lion regulations for next season.  They've made their decision so now I'll pass that along to you.  As you may or may not know, Montana's lion season has been on a quota system which results in a bit of a rat-race and a short 1-2 week season in the better areas.  But because they do manage for a relatively high lion population we were always able to maintain high success.  But now in all of northwestern Montana they've eliminated the quota and gone to a drawing for tags, which will eliminate the rat-race and make for a long 3+ month long season.  Furthermore, they've restricted nonresidents to no more than 10% of the lion tags for any one district.  That's going to make it very difficult for a nonresident to get a lion tag in northwestern Montana.  But if a person can get a tag it will make for a fantastic hunt.  What I intend to do is create an e-mail list of interested applicants and I'll e-mail details on when, where and how to apply for the tags to anyone interested.  This is a very unpopular decision in Montana as it devastates the lion hunting portion of the outfitters' businesses and the vast majority of local houndsmen were opposed to it as well.  For these reasons I think it's fairly likely that the decision will be reversed in a year or two.  So I would strongly recommend anyone interested in a mountain lion hunt to apply for these tags while it's an option, because it may be a very limited opportunity for the highest quality lion hunt you'd ever be able to find anywhere.  Just drop me an e-mail if you'd like me to add you to the lion list and I'll be in touch with more details.

The lion hunt in Idaho this year was abysmal.  There seemed to be fewer lions and we were fighting poor snow conditions throughout almost the entire winter.  Plentiful bobcats were our consolation and we did well on them despite the poor snow.  There are large portions of my territory that are lake aspect and consequently get much less snow, The last 2 years have been such light winters that I've basically been unable to hunt them and they've gone untouched.  I'm looking forward to getting a half-way normal winter again so that I can utilize those areas!

This winter we had a photographic mountain lion hunter from Sweden that my dad guided on a 4-day trip in Montana.  He got some excellent photos and I've added a few of them to the photographic lion hunts page of my website.  I also updated the main photo gallery of the website with photos from this year's lion and bobcat hunts.  The new pictures are all on pages 9 and 10 of the photo gallery.

The light winter we received was a curse for the lion hunting but it was a blessing for the deer.  Winter mortality should have been virtually nil and I'm looking forward to seeing some big bucks on the game pole this fall.  I still have some openings there for 2006.

Spring bear season is right around the corner and I still have a week available for a baited hunt and a week available for a spot and stalk hunt. 

For those of you on my moose applicant list, I'll be in touch in about a month with the details for applying for a moose tag.  If you're not on the list and you want to be just drop me a line and I'll take care of it.

The family is all doing well and I hope the same is true for you and yours.  Thanks for reading, and as always, just let me know if you'd prefer not to receive this newsletter and I'll remove your name from the list.  Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,

Clint Gray
Buckshot Outfitting
208-267-3885
www.buckshotoutfitting.com