Swan Valley hunters find best success

Big-game hunting season continued at a moderate pace through the first eight days of the general deer and elk season.

At the six Northwest Montana check stations, a total of 7,335 hunters have checked 501 white-tailed deer, 87 mule deer and 78 elk, for a 9.1 percent rate of hunters with game.

The number of hunters was down compared to last year through the first part of the season.

The number of whitetails harvested was up while the mule deer and elk harvests were down slightly.

Several check stations closed early Sunday afternoon because of traffic safety concerns during a severe storm, which probably reduced the number of hunters and animals checked.

The Swan Valley check station had the highest percentage of hunters with game (15.1 percent).

According to Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Tom Litchfield, many hunters focused on antlerless whitetails, which are fair game through Sunday. "More than half of the whitetails checked were antlerless deer," Litchfield said.

He noted that nine bull elk have been checked through the first eight days.

After Sunday, 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. 23-26.

The regulation for mule deer is buck-only for the entire season; for elk, hunters may take only brow-tined bull elk. Spike elk are not legal game anywhere in Northwest Montana.