Waterfowl season will open with a bang this Saturday. And, you can go along whether you choose to head to a duck or goose blind yourself or not.
For the seventh year in a row, the Montana Outdoor Radio Show crew will do a live radio broadcast from a goose blind in the Mission Valley. It’s as close as you can get to being there yourself.
The shows host for the annual broadcast is Jaye Johnson, from Charlo. He has the dubious job of finding a place for all of us to hunt. The job is a tough one because you not only have to find land to hunt, but also hopefully a spot that will have geese coming into the blind.
As goose hunters know, there are many factors that come into play when planning a successful goose hunt. Luck is a main ingredient of course, but when throw in a live radio broadcast, it also makes it that much more difficult.
Last year was one of our better times in the blind on the air. The broadcast begins at 6 a.m., well before legal shooting time. We sign off our statewide broadcast at 8 a.m.
Sunrise is at 7:35 a.m. in Zone 1 and when you hunt on the Flathead Indian Reservation, that only leaves us less than an half- hour for the geese to come into our blind so we can claim that we shot and bagged some geese live on the air.
Some years have not been so good.
To check our luck this year, you can listen from 6am-8am in Missoula on KGVO 1290am, Hamilton KLYQ 1240am, Polson KERR 750am, and Kalispell on KJJR 880am.
If you are one of the lucky ones who are also going to be out goose and duck hunting Saturday morning, feel free to call in a live report during the show. The toll free number for your cell phone is 800-568-5309. We would love to hear from you.
Next Saturday, Oct. 8, is the opening of the Montana pheasant season.
Pheasant numbers all across Montana appear to be up. However hunters will have to travel east to get the best hunting.
We have a lot more pheasants than we had last year after the rough winter a couple of years ago? reported Ted Toavs, a rancher from Wolf Point. The pheasant numbers won’t be as high as they were a couple of years ago when both the sharptail and pheasants seemed to be everywhere but they will definitely be better.
In Western Montana, hunters can expect about the same hunting as last year.
Opening day is always good but because of the limited amount of land for pheasants in this part of state. The hunting gets a lot tougher after that for the rest of the season.
A week from Sunday October 9th will kick off Antelope season in Montana. It might be a good idea for hunters to try and combine a pheasant trip along with hunting antelope hunting trip. It is always a lot of fun to shoot birds one day and the next you are after antelope with you rifle.
Make sure you wash the undercarriage of your vehicle before heading east. The license plates have knapweed written all over them and some ranchers will insist that you take care of that maintenance on your vehicle before they let you out on their land.
While you are at it, make sure you let the spare tire down and wash that and the undercarriage of your pick-up as well.
The Hellgate Civilian Shooters Association is hosting a free Sight-In day at the Deep Creek Shooting Range Sunday October 2 from 9-4pm. The range is located approximately 12 miles west of Reserve St off Mullan Road. Just follow the signs.
