Hunters see success on opening weekend

Opening-weekend hunters filled tags at nearly twice the rate they did last year, and the general rifle season kicked off with the highest number of hunters in the woods since 2010.

Data released Monday by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks show the fourth straight bump in opening weekend hunters, with 3,361 stopping at the region’s six game check stations on Saturday and Sunday. That represents about a 5 percent increase over the 2015 season’s opening weekend, which was previously the highest number since 2010, when the state began the general rifle season on Saturday rather than on Sunday.

“Overall it was a great opening weekend,” regional wildlife manager Neil Anderson said in a press release. “We had a lot of hunters in the field and a high percentage of them were filling tags. Whitetail numbers are up across the region and hunters are taking advantage of the option to harvest an antlerless deer.”

Hunters were also far more successful than last year: 12.1 percent of hunters filled a tag, compared with 6.2 percent in 2015. That translated to higher levels of overall success at each of Region One’s six game checks.

White-tail deer harvest more than doubled from last year, with 350 bagged during this year’s opening weekend, compared with 158 last year.

Part of that increase is likely due to new regulations meant to bring down the ballooning population of whitetail does in Region One.

Beginning this year, hunters can use a general whitetail license to harvest either-sex deer during the first week of the season. The rule applies to all Northwest Montana hunting districts, except 140, 141, 150, 151 and 170.

The last week of the season will provide a similar opportunity to hunt antlerless deer. However, those harvests are restricted to private land and exclude Weyerhaeuser, F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. and Stimpson lands.

Previously a bucks-only public hunting ground, the Kuhns Wildlife Management Area north of Kalispell currently allows antlerless harvest during the general season.

While female deer hunting skyrocketed during the first weekend, buck harvest was also up. Hunters killed a record 159 bucks last weekend, compared with 102 in 2015. The numbers for both sexes were up at all six of the region’s check stations — particularly on U.S. 2 and Canoe Gulch, both of which nearly tripled the overall whitetail harvest from the previous year.

Region-wide, harvest numbers also increased significantly for mule deer and elk. A total of 27 mule deer brought through game checks represented a 50 percent increase from 2015, and was the second most-successful opening weekend for the species since 2010.

The 31 elk harvested tied the 2010 record for opening weekend, and was a substantial bump from the 23 elk killed last year.

Half of the overall mulies were brought through the U.S. 2 check station, along with 13 elk. Thompson Falls posted a dramatic increase in both of the species compared with 2015, and the 14 elk brought through that check station was more than double the previous year.