Hunting season picks up with two weeks remaining

Montana’s general hunting season is down to the final two weeks, and activity has picked up in Northwest Montana.

Hunters typically see increased chances of success with the arrival of the deer breeding season, known as the “rut,” which typically begins in early-to-mid November.

So far this season, more hunters have reported harvesting more deer and elk at regional game check stations compared to last season. Overall through four weekends of the season, more than 7,400 hunters have been checked at the stations and the percentage of hunters with game has been 9.8% compared to 7.5% a year ago. A total of 625 white-tailed deer have been reported at the check stations compared to 382 a year ago.

Twenty elk have been checked through the U.S. 2 station, five more than were reported this time last season.

The Olney check station reports a success rate of 12.1% for the highest in Region 1.

The general deer and elk hunting season concludes Dec 1, 2024.

Hunters must stop at any check station they encounter whether they harvested an animal or not. The counts at the stations represent a sampling of the harvest and do not represent the complete number of animals taken.