Area hunters find higher success rate than they did in 2003
A fern grows on the blackened soil created by from last year's Robert Fire in the North Fork of the Flathead. Dave Reese/Daily Inter Lake
The Daily Inter Lake
With the help of snow and cooler weather, hunters in Northwest Montana harvested good numbers of elk and deer over the past week.
With the help of snow and cooler weather, hunters in Northwest Montana harvested good numbers of elk and deer over the past week.
At the seven check stations, a total of 8,873 hunters checked 628 white-tailed deer, 124 mule deer and 98 elk.
Some 9.6 percent of hunters had game, up from the 8.6 percent success rate in 2003.
The number of hunters through the first eight days of the season was almost identical to the last two years. The 628 whitetail bucks harvested was higher than the last two years.
According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Biologist Gael Bissell, hunters at the U.S. 2 check station said whitetails were active this weekend; hunters have taken 217 whitetails so far this season.
At the Swan Valley Check Station, biologist Tom Litchfield reported the highest percentage (14.9 percent) of hunters with game.
Wildlife Manager Jim Williams said the elk and mule deer harvest has been encouraging.
"At this point in the season, we've checked more elk and mule deer at our seven check stations than we have since 1996," Williams said.
The whitetail harvest is higher than in most of the previous 10 years, he said.
The either-sex whitetail season runs through Sunday. After that, most hunting districts are buck-only for whitetails.
The either-sex whitetail regulation comes back into effect during the last four days of the season, Nov. 25-28. The regulation for mule deer is buck-only for the entire season and for elk, brow-tined bull elk only.