Hunting Results for W Central Montana

The latest figures for FW&P Region 2 are out; Mule deer harvest reported at the three hunter check stations is up 24 percent from last season and white-tailed deer tallies are 20 percent ahead.  Elk totals are 20 percent behind the first two weeks of the 2011 season.

At the hunter check station near Darby the total number of animals checked in the first two weeks of the big game hunting season was identical to last season’s first two weeks.  But a larger percentage of the 2012 harvest at Darby is deer. A 10 percent bump above the five-year average in white-tailed deer harvest at Darby offset a 16% drop in elk harvest in the total tally.

The Bonner check station also reported a white-tailed deer harvest ahead of last year and on par with the past three seasons.

Nearly eight percent of hunters that travelled through one of the region’s three hunter check stations during the first two weeks of the season harvested game.  Check stations tallied 6,839 hunter trips and a harvest of 248 elk, 84 mule deer, 191 white-tailed deer, four black bears, one moose and one bighorn sheep.

In Montana’s third wolf season, hunters have marked a statewide harvest of 45 wolves so far. Thirteen of those wolves came from west-central Montana’s Region 2.