Hunters had better year than last year

Hungry Horse News

Whitetail deer harvest finished ahead of last year’s totals as the general hunting season wrapped up on Sunday in northwest Montana. At the six northwest Montana check stations a total of 18,411 hunters checked  1,294 white-tailed deer ( 1,067 of these were bucks), 125 mule deer, and 86 elk for an  8.2 percent rate of hunters with game. This is slightly higher than the 7.9 percent of hunters with game last year. The number of hunters passing through check stations in northwest Montana was the highest it’s been since 2011.

In North Fork of the Flathead, 61 whitetails were reported, compared to 38 last year. The check stations are only an indication of how the season went. FWP does further surveys of hunters afterwards.

Region One Wildlife Manager Neil Anderson notes that FWP has been tracking four years of good fawn survival in northwest Montana and the check station sample this year confirms that hunters were able to see and take good numbers of deer, despite some challenging hunting conditions. Elk harvest was also higher this year with 86 elk coming through check stations compared to 50 last year.