White-tailed buck harvest improving
The Daily Inter Lake
The harvest of white-tailed deer and elk in Northwest Montana has pulled roughly even with last year's numbers, despite weather conditions unfavorable to hunters.
At the end of the third week of the season, 15,650 hunters have stopped at the region's six check stations with 814 white-tailed deer, 135 mule deer and 109 elk. That's a 6.8 percent success rate for hunters.
Through the same period of the 2007 season, there were 15,702 hunters with 873 whitetails, 188 mule deer and 107 elk, with 7.4 percent of hunters with game.
"We've seen the harvest of older bucks pick up, indicating that the rut is now well under way," said Jim Williams, regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
However, Williams added that colder weather and snow would greatly assist hunters going into the fourth week of the five-week big-game hunting season.
The check-station total for white-tailed bucks this year is 396 compared to 388 last year. For mule deer, it's 135 compared to 188 last year.
Some check stations have had better numbers than others. Here's a rundown on the results so far:
U.S. 2 west of Kalispell, there have been 227 whitetails (276 last year); 58 mule deer (72 last year); 35 elk (35 last year).
At the Swan station near Ferndale, there have been 202 whitetails (195 last year), seven mule deer (eight last year) and 14 elk (nine last year).
The North Fork station reports 35 whitetails (31 last year), 13 mule deer (12 last year), five elk (seven last year).
At Thompson Falls, there have been 90 whitetails (102 last year), 23 mule deer (34 last year) and 35 elk (24 last year).
The Olney station had 203 whitetails (214 last year), 12 mule deer (21 last year) and 11 elk (12 last year).
The Canoe Gulch station near Libby recorded 57 whitetail (55 last year), 22 mule deer (41 last year) and nine elk (20 last year).
Check stations measure only a percentage of the overall harvest, but state officials say they accurately reflect overall harvest trends.