Despite weather, hunter success rate up

Despite less than ideal hunting weather, the 2014 general big game season ended on an overall positive note locally with hunter success rates continuing an upward trend.

A total of 2,146 hunters passed through the Canoe Gulch check station along Highway 37 north of Libby this year, bringing with them 64 whitetails, 39 mule deer and 12 elk for a success rate of 5.4 percent. While those numbers are down markedly from the 2,900 hunters and nearly 7 percent success rate recorded in 2004, they are in line with a steady improvement seen over the past three years, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks wildlife biologist Tonya Chilton-Radandt. The number of elk brought into the station is twice the number recorded last year, she added.

In 2008, numbers recorded at the check station took a nose dive, with only 3.3 percent of hunters bringing in game. Doe tags were widely available that year, and in 2009, but have not been issued for the past five years.

Over that time hunter success rates have risen, getting close to the 5 percent mark the past two years and exceeding it this year, Chilton-Radandt noted. Overall hunter numbers have also shown an increase, indicating that hunters may be responding to rising game populations, she said.

When a hunter brings an animal into the check station, biologists examine the teeth for wear, which provides an accurate estimate of the animal’s age. Looking at the wear on molars is a much more reliable method of aging an animal than antler growth, which is impacted by factors such as genetics, nutrition and injury, Chilton-Radandt said.

“You can kind of gauge what kind of impact you’re having on population levels by looking at the age classes of game that’s being harvested,” she said.

A high percentage of older animals could indicate a decline in the overall population because younger animals are more vulnerable to hunters and tend to be taken more readily. While older bucks may have larger antlers and might be expected to be taken at a higher rate by hunters looking for a trophy, the age classes of animals brought to the check station doesn’t vary much by sex.

“You would expect that, but we have a lot of meat hunters in this area,” Chilton-Radandt said.

Since FWP started keeping statistics in 1987, the numbers have been pretty consistent with most of the deer taken falling into the 1.5- to 2.5-year-old categories. The numbers fall off quickly after that and are usually in single-digit percentages by 4.5 years old.

The Canoe Gulch check station is open Saturdays and Sundays throughout the hunting season. All hunters returning from the field are required to stop at the station as they pass, but it’s important to recognize that the numbers recorded are just a sample and don’t provide a complete picture of the hunting season, Chilton-Radandt said.

“That is not our goal, to count every deer that comes out of the woods,” she said. “Our goal is to get a statistically valid sample of hunters with and without game.”

While whitetail populations seem to be on the rebound across the region, mule deer herds are not showing the same increase – except in the Fisher River area, Chilton-Radandt said. There, muley numbers have shown “darn near exponential growth in the last three years,” she said.

“We are lucky because we have Fisher River country,” Chilton-Radandt said. “That is pure mule deer country.”

Libby father and son Brock and Nick Jones can attest to the rebounding mule deer population. Both capped a busy hunting season by bringing in 3½-year-old muley bucks late Sunday afternoon. Nick, 15, tagged his buck in the morning about three miles from the road. Brock spotted his buck later in the day on the return trip, about a half-mile from the truck.

They weren’t the first bucks the Joneses had seen during the season.

“I’ve seen a lot of big bucks this year, just too far away to shoot,” Brock Jones said. “But I figured, last day, last two hours, might as well shoot.”

Overall, one of the most positive trends this year may have been in the subjective area of hunter attitudes, Chilton-Radandt said, with those passing through the check station seeming more upbeat and optimistic than in recent years.

“This year reminds me so much of the way it was in the ’90s,” she said. “People are coming in, even if they don’t have game in the back of their truck, and they’re excited about what they saw.”