Northwest Montana deer harvest remains strong
<p>Ten-year-old Maura Miller with her first buck.</p>
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials released hunting check station reports from the first week of the state’s annual hunting season, with strong results reported from the six check stations in northwest Montana.
Through Nov. 1, 5,599 hunters checked in at the stations on U.S. Highway 2, Swan, North Fork, Thompson Falls, Olney and Canoe Gulch. They checked 328 white-tailed deer, 38 mule deer and 35 elk for a success rate of 7.2 percent of hunters with game. The number reported for the 2014 hunt was nearly a full percentage point lower at 6.3 percent. Officials cautioned that the number is a representative sampling of the big game harvest and should not be taken as a complete view of the season’s hunt to date.
The elk harvest has been especially strong compared to last year. To date, hunters have checked 35 elk at the six stations in northwest Montana, compared to just 19 last year. The majority of those, 20 elk, were checked at the station on U.S. Highway 2. Seven more were checked at Canoe Gulch.
The white-tailed deer harvest has also increased significantly from last year’s numbers, with 328 animals harvested including 243 bucks. Last year hunters checked 281 white-tailed deer, 235 of which were bucks.
“The number of white-tail deer brought through the check stations is up about 42 percent from last year,” noted FWP Wildlife Manager Neal Anderson in a Nov. 2 press release. “The number of elk is almost double, but the number of mule deer is down about 30 percent.”
During the first week of the 2014 season hunters checked 54 mule deer. Only 38 have been checked so far this season.
Officials cautioned hunters to be aware of and follow all hunting regulations.
“Hunters are reminded that it is buck only for white-tails in northwest Montana,” the release read. “Antlerless white-tails remain legal game for youth 12 to 15 years of age (and some qualifying 10- and 11-year-olds, see regulations). Mule deer are buck-only for the entire season. Elk are brow-tine bull only, unless you have an anterless elk license. Spike bull elk are not legal game for any hunter in Region One.”
Region One trends
• 2010: 5,789 hunters checked 205 white-tail (153 bucks), 37 mule deer and 48 elk.
• 2011: 5,783 hunters checked 207 white-tail (155 bucks), 32 mule deer and 37 elk.
• 2012: 5,377 hunters checked 255 white-tail (221 bucks), 19 mule deer and 35 elk.
• 2013: 5,775 hunters checked 197 white-tail (162 bucks), 48 mule deer and 28 elk.
• 2014: 5,589 checked 281 white-tail (235 bucks), 54 mule deer and 19 elk.
• 2015: 5,589 hunters checked 328 white-tail (243 bucks), 38 mule deer and 35 elk.