Deer, Elk Season Ends Slightly up from Last Year in West-Central Montana

By Vanessa Torres

Montana -(Ammoland.com)- The big game general hunting season closed on Sunday evening with higher numbers than last season of hunter trips, harvested animals and percentages of hunters with game in west-central Montana.

Elk and mule deer harvests were higher than last year, but white-tailed deer harvest tapered off in the last weekend to dip slightly below last year’s tally through the three hunter check stations in west-central Montana.

Season totals at Bonner were slightly higher than last year’s final numbers, with 6,628 hunter-trips, 53 elk, 63 mule deer and 391 white-tailed deer checked at the station. The white-tailed deer harvest was the highest at Bonner since 2010, when harvest surged in the last two weekends of the hunting season, outpacing the last two weeks of this season. The mule deer harvest at Bonner was three percent below the five year average while the elk harvest was 35 percent below the five year average.

At the Anaconda check station, FWP biologist, Ray Vinkey, and student volunteers sampled 1,359 hunter-trips, 60 elk, 24 mule deer, and …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand