Northwest Montana whitetail harvest up

The hunter harvest of whitetail deer in Northwest Montana is up substantially from last year through the second weekend of the general hunting season.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Chris Hammond said the number of whitetail deer brought through Northwest Montana check stations is up 40 percent from last year, the number of mule deer is about the same, and the number of elk is down.

The hunter success rate is just above 6 percent.

At the six Northwest Montana check stations through Sunday, a total of 5,589 hunters checked 281 whitetail deer (235 of these were bucks), 54 mule deer and 19 elk for a 6.3 percent rate of hunters with game.

This compares to 4.7 percent last year. Check-station counts represent a sampling of the harvest and do not represent the complete number of animals taken.

Hunters are reminded that it is buck-only hunting for whitetails in Northwest Montana. Antlerless whitetails remain legal game for youths ages 12-15 (and some qualifying 11-year- olds). Mule deer are buck-only for the entire season. Elk are brow-tine bull only. Spike bull elk are not legal game for any hunter in Northwest Montana.

Wolf harvest: Hunters are required to report a wolf harvest to Fish, Wildlife and Parks within 24 hours.  As of Sunday, a total of 13 wolves have been taken by hunters in Northwest Montana Region One, compared to 18 at this time last year. A total of 48 wolves have been taken statewide compared to 57 a year ago.