Hunting season enters final week

The whitetail deer harvest in Northwest Montana is down 25 percent compared to last year, but the elk harvest has been slightly higher going into the final week of the five-week big game season.

Statistics collected at six game check stations over the weekend indicate the percentage of hunters with game was at 6.2 percent compared to 7.2 percent at this point in the 2008 season.

After four weeks, 852 whitetail have been checked compared to 1,135 last year; 152 mule deer compared to 181 last year; and 132 elk compared to 123 last year.

The number of whitetail bucks checked is at 549, the lowest since 478 were checked after four weeks in 1997.

The U.S. 2 check station west of Kalispell has been the busiest with 5,976 hunters checking 228 whitetail, 41 mule deer and 30 elk. So far 2,266 hunters have stopped at the Thompson Falls station with 94 whitetail, 17 mule deer and 40 elk.

The North Fork check station has been the slowest, with 1,234 hunters stopping with 51 whitetail, 11 mule deer and nine elk.

Wildlife biologist John Vore noted that whitetail bucks are now fully in rut, and it would be a good time for hunters to try antler rattling or grunt calls to draw in a buck. 

The harvest is expected to pick up during the last week, especially if hunting areas receive precipitation.

Northwest Montana game wardens remind hunters that whitetail deer hunting is buck-only in most Region One hunting districts through the end of the big-game hunting season. 

The season ends Sunday, Nov. 29, at half-hour after sunset.