Part 1 - Reader hunter photos
Bailey Bartlett, 12 of Seeley Lake, harvested her first elk Saturday, Oct. 26 northwest of Libby with a Sako 30-06 rifle. She glassed a bull with four cows at about 650 yards away. Thanks to ideal wind conditions, she made a perfect 100-yard shot on a 5x5 bull. Seven miles of hiking in steep rocky country paid off!
After three years of hunting, Liz Wayne of Seeley Lake got her first big game kill Nov. 23 after her nine-year-old daughter Bekah spotted it. She shot the 4x4 white tail buck in the Morrell Creek Drainage with a .257 Roberts. Her two-and-a-half year old dog Bella tracked it for 150 yards after Wayne shot it in the lungs. Also pictured is Wayne's daughter Brittney, 8, and her niece Laurel in the pink hat.
Above: Dominick Wink, 10 of Seeley Lake, got his first taste of hunting success after completing hunters education this year. He got his tags under the hunter apprentice with his father Nicholas Wink as his mentor. The morning of Nov. 3 while hunting in the Seeley Lake area, Wink dropped this 3x3 white tail at about 100 yards with his a 223 rifle. Right:
Nicholas Wink harvested this 4x4 mule deer buck Nov. 16 in the Seeley Lake area. He shot it with a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle.
Left & Right: Ryan Pitman of Seeley Lake enjoyed hunting success for the first time Nov. 23 in the Thompson Falls area while hunting with her father David. She shot the turkey with a 410. The 4x4 white tail buck was shot with a .243.
Mandy Miller of Ovando harvested this 4x4 white tail buck while hunting in the McCabe area with her mother Marcy Nov. 18. She shot it with her Savage 243 at 300 yards. Marcy Miller (right) shot her 4x4 white tail the same day with Mandy at 300 yards with her .257 Roberts. These are the largest bucks both of the Millers have ever shot.
Chantel Lynch of Seeley Lake (left) was excited to drop this 4x4 white tail with a heart shot from her 308 rifle at 50 yards in the Seeley Lake area Nov. 10. This was her first buck. She credits Brandon Simon (right) for being the best hunting partner. Simon got his 22-inch wide, 4x5 white tail buck Nov. 4 with a 7mm short mag in the Seeley Lake area. He shot it at 100 yards and then had about a two-mile pack out. He was thankful to his family, especially his father, for helping him bring it out.
Ava Thornsberry of Seeley Lake (left) was hunting with her mom Chantel and brother Kaden (right) during the early youth opener when they came across this 5x4 white tail buck. One well-placed shot from her .243 did the job. Kaden Thornsberry was hunting with his dad Justin and sister Ava (left) when they rattled in this 4x3 white tail buck. One shot from his 6.5 Creedmoor rifle did the trick.
Right: With only a few hours to hunt on the morning of Nov. 24 Emily Maughan of Seeley Lake made good use of her time. The high winds worked in her favor and she was able to sneak up on a group of deer in the Seeley Lake area. She spotted the buck and took a perfect shot with her old Marlin 30-30, dropping this 4x4 white tail straight to the ground without it taking a step.
The general big game hunting season that opened Oct. 26 concluded Sunday, Dec. 1 across Montana.
Despite fewer hunters than in years past in northwest Montana, the overall number of harvested deer was up over last year. In west-central Montana, the season started off with unusually early winter conditions, contributing to stronger than normal deer and elk harvests in the first few weeks but wrapped up with average to below-average totals in some spots.
Check stations only sample a small portion of hunter participation and harvests across the region, but they are an important part of monitoring trends and recording information on wildlife age, health and other observations from the field. Hunter harvest telephone surveys, conducted over the upcoming winter months, will provide more harvest data and trends.
"The statewide hunter harvest survey gives more comprehensive results and we'll look to that in addition to our check station harvest numbers to see if we need to make adjustments to hunting regulations down the road," said Mike Thompson, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 2 wildlife manager. "The lower elk and whitetail harvest numbers at the Bonner station are telling us that's one spot where we'll want to take an extra close look."
Region 1 – Northwest Montana
FWP tallied 14,058 hunters at its five check stations across Region 1 this season. This is the lowest number of hunters recorded in the past 10 years.
Hunters reported 1,022 white-tailed deer, including 816 white-tailed bucks, 105 mule deer and 56 elk.
Hunting season structures and hunting district boundaries are adopted for most game species every other year between December and final adoptions in February. The biennial season setting process is underway this year. The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will review tentative proposals and vote whether to open those proposals for public comment at its Dec. 5 meeting in Helena.
In Region 1, FWP is proposing hunting district boundary changes in the Flathead and Swan Valleys (Hunting Districts 130, 132, 140 and 170) and the Bob Marshall (combine Hunting Districts 150 and 151), adding an over-the-counter 199-00 either-sex whitetail B license for the Libby Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone (portions of Hunting Districts 100, 103, and 104) to reduce deer densities, and changing the mountain lion special licenses.
With Commission approval, FWP Region 1 will hold public meetings to seek input on the proposed changes in January. The meetings are scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 3 in Kalispell (FWP Region 1 Headquarters), 6 p.m., Jan. 8 in Trout Creek (Lakeside Resort), 6 p.m. Jan. 10 in Libby (K.W. Maki Theater), and 7 p.m., Jan. 16 in Eureka (Lincoln Electric Cooperative).
Region 2 – West-central Montana
FWP reported checking 10,225 hunters this season. The three hunter check stations in Region 2 saw 245 elk, 99 mule deer, 483 white-tailed deer, four black bears, three bighorn sheep, two wolves and one moose harvested this season.
At the hunter check station near Darby, which primarily sees harvests from the southern Bitterroot and Big Hole, FWP Biologist Rebecca Mowry and students from the University of Montana checked 4,012 hunters, 165 elk, 37 mule deer and 82 white-tailed deer for the season, numbers that were all on par or slightly up from last year and in line with the five-year average.
Blackfoot harvest statistics, however, lagged. Just outside of Bonner, FWP biologist Scott Eggeman and students checked 5,232 hunters, largely from Blackfoot hunting districts, with 49 elk, 38 mule deer and 365 white-tailed deer, numbers that were all below last season and the five-year average.
Elk harvest totals at Bonner finished 34 percent below the 2018 season and 25 percent below the five-year average. FWP attributes part of the decline to reduced hunter opportunity and elk numbers in some spots in the Blackfoot, combined with seasonal variability in weather and tracking conditions.
In the Upper Clark Fork, Biologist Julie Golla and students checked 981 hunters at the hunter check station near Anaconda with 31 elk, 24 mule deer and 36 white-tailed deer, which were all in line with typical numbers.
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