There Aren't As Many Hunters

Even in Montana where we like to think of hunting as part of our heritage, there aren’t nearly as many hunters as there once were.

That doesn’t bode well.

Hunting license sales account for about two-thirds of the funding for Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Montana is third in the nation in percentage of hunters at 21.1 percent behind South Dakota at 24.1 and Wyoming at 22.7.

Montana, however, does top the nation in firearm ownership. According to a 2020 report by the Rand Corporation, 66.3 percent of Montana households own firearms.

That’s good news even if three times more p...