Hunters close out season: Strong weekend pushes numbers for big game to record levels

Montana's 2005 big-game hunting season closed Sunday with lots of bangs,

particularly in Northwest Montana, where hunting statistics exceeded last year's in all

categories.

Montana's 2005 big-game hunting season closed Sunday with lots of bangs, particularly in Northwest Montana, where hunting statistics exceeded last year's in all categories.

"We had a very, very strong weekend at the check stations in terms of hunters' numbers and at all the check stations," said Jim Williams, the Region One wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

"Hunter numbers came up and we surpassed last year in everything," said John Fraley, the agency's regional public affairs officer. "It basically came on like gangbusters in the last weekend."

Hunter numbers totaled 24,843, the highest on record for the five-week season. They checked in a total of 1,932 whitetail deer, 372 mule deer and 224 elk - numbers that all exceed last year's marks.

About 4,600 hunters stopped at the check stations Saturday and Sunday, helping to push the statistics over last year's numbers. At some check stations the percentage of hunters with game this weekend was the highest of the season, Fraley said.

At the Olney check station, for instance, about one-in-five hunters stopped with game, he said.

Averaged over the entire five-week season at all check stations, the percentage of hunters with game was 10 percent. The Swan Valley check station again had the highest amount, 12 percent. The Canoe Gulch station outside Libby had the lowest, 8.2 percent.

Hunters were mostly focused on deer during the last weekend of the season, when the total whitetail harvest increased by 668 over the 1,264 count from just one week before.

Working at the Olney check station over the weekend, Fraley said he encountered many hunters who had waited until the very last day of the season to fill their "B" tags for does. Hunters could also use their "A" tags for either-sex whitetail in most districts during the last four days of the season.

Even with that option, the number of whitetail bucks taken this year came to 1,107, just over last year's total of 1,086. And most were sizable bucks.

"Around 70 percent of whitetail bucks taken were four-point or greater over the five-week season as a whole," Fraley said.

The season's elk harvest was bolstered mostly by hunter success in the Thompson Falls area, where 85 elk were counted at the local check station for the season compared to 45 last year.

Bruce Sterling, a wildlife biologist based at Thompson Falls, described it as an "outstanding" elk season.

Tim Thier, a Eureka-based wildlife biologist, said he encountered "a lot of satisfied hunters that came through with some real nice, older-aged bucks," despite crunchy conditions in the forest.

Fraley said he talked with a Flathead Valley couple that set out looking for a Christmas tree, but ended up coming across a large buck.

"There were a lot of happy hunters out there," he said.

Williams said the days around Thanksgiving are traditionally set aside for family hunts.

"A lot of people like to hunt with their families around Thanksgiving … to create lifelong memories from the field," he said. "That's pretty important to a lot of Montanans."

Check station statistics amount to a sample of each year's overall game harvest. A total estimate of the harvest, by hunting district, will be available in June based on a detailed phone survey of licensed hunters.

Historically, check station statistics represent about 10-20 percent of the total harvest across the region.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com