Northwest Montana hunters challenged by low snowfall

Scant snowfall presented Northwest Montana hunters with challenging conditions during the general rifle season, with harvest totals finishing slightly lower compared to last fall.

Montana’s general big game season ended Sunday, Nov. 26. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1 check stations tallied 9.1% of hunters with game, down from the 9.7% in 2022. Just over 10,000 hunters were counted, a modest uptick from the 9,239 counted in 2022.

Dillon Tabish, regional communication and education program manager for Region 1, said low snowfall made it more difficult for hunters to track animals, while the snow that did accumulate became crunchy and challenging to stealthy maneuver across.

“The mild start to winter certainly had an impact,” Tabish said about the harvest results.

The success rate finally ramped up as the rut kicked in for the last two weekends of the season, he said.

“We still saw a lot of nice deer and elk coming through the check stations,” Tabish said.

Hunters checked 761 white-tailed deer, 567 white-tailed bucks, 97 mule deer and 44 elk. 

The Thompson Falls check station tallied 17 elk, with 21 coming from the U.S. 2 station west of Kalispell. 

The Olney and U.S. 2 stations showed upticks in white-tailed deer harvests, with all four Region 1 stations showing an increase in the number of mule deer taken.

State wildlife officials had anticipated this year’s harvest to be about the same as last year following a long and cold 2022-23 winter. Snow covered food sources through March, while multiple cold snaps took its toll on vulnerable deer.

“Hard winters are the biggest driving force in the deer population,” Tabish said, adding that predators also are typically more successful when animals are weak due to difficult conditions.

Hunters in West-central Montana faced similar challenges.

The elk harvest reported at Region 2 check stations trailed 2022’s tally, and was slightly down from the five-year average.

Region 2 officials said the low harvest could be largely attributed to the lack of snow and mild temperatures that extended through the first half of the season. In 2022, cold and snowy hunting conditions persisted all season, prompting more and earlier elk movement and better tracking conditions.

The Region 2 elk harvest finished at 225 this year, compared to 296 in 2022. The five-year average is 237. Traffic through all of the region’s hunter check stations was up, except for at the station in the Fish Creek drainage west of Missoula.

Deer harvest totals were almost exactly the same as last season for mule deer at 102, compared to 105 in 2022, and identical for white-tailed deer at 492.  Both were up from the five-year average.

IN REGION 1, deer infected with Chronic Wasting Disease were not found in any new locations this season. District 100 in the far northwest corner of Lincoln County accounted for four positive samples, according to the state’s CWD sampling map. District 104 had three positive cases, and District 103 reported one.

In West-Central Montana’s Region 2, CWD was detected for the first time in District 213 during the last week of the season.

Statewide, there have been 128 positive cases since July.

With the season over, hunters are encouraged to take part in Fish, Wildlife and Park’s annual phone survey that wildlife officials use to capture more accurate data that is used for game population modeling.

“That provides a much more clear picture than the check stations do,” Tabish said.

Even with the general rifle season over, hunters still have opportunities into winter. Certain areas have continued elk hunting opportunities, and there is also Montana’s muzzleloader heritage hunting season for deer and elk, Dec. 9-17.

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will vote on hunting regulations for the 2024-2025 hunting season during its Dec. 14 meeting, which will also include the opportunity for the public to comment. 

To view proposed regulations and to comment, go to fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/commission/december-2023-meeting.