Hunting season on par with previous years

SANDERS COUNTY – With only a week and a half left of hunting season, those who have yet to do so are headed into the mountains in search of their prized bull. Although the season started out slow, numbers are now comparable to last year and the year before it.

According to Bruce Sterling, wildlife biologist, this year the Thompson Falls check station has seen a 40 percent increase in whitetail buck harvest while the numbers of mule deer and elk are approximately the same as last year.

Sterling explained the increase in whitetail harvest is most likely related to the back-to-back mild winters the area has experienced. Because of this, the overall winter survival rate of bucks has been good.

“We’ve had two really good recruitment years and a lot of those bucks are now yearlings or 2 ? year olds,” Sterling explained.

In the 2 ? age range, bucks are typically three points to a small four points.

In the next week or so hunters should expect to see more activity because of the rut.

“The whitetail rut has just recently started so that will increase the deer harvest when bucks start spending more time on the go,” Sterling said.

The rut started last weekend and also contributed to the elevated harvest of whitetail bucks. Sterling also expects to see some bigger bucks come through the check station as mature bucks will be more visible because of their increased movement.

The rut should continue until the first week of December.

As for elk, Sterling said the numbers compared to the last two years. In both 2011 and 2012 at this point in the season, 18 elk were checked in at the station. And this year that number remains to be the same.

“We are on pace for the previous two years,” Sterling said.

Tom Chianelli, game warden for Region One, also said the season was moving steadily forward. Although he did say it may not be the greatest season, he said numbers have been reasonable.

“I wouldn’t say it’s great, I wouldn’t say it’s awful – I would say it’s fair,” Chianelli said.

Chianelli pointed out that he has seen a lot of smaller game come through and as of yet, he has not seen any real big elk or deer.

He also explained deer numbers may have been down, however, the last ten days is when it really starts to pick up due to the rut.

“The other day at the check station, I checked nine deer that came through so that’s not horrible. Like I said nothing big but that could change here within the next few weeks,” Chianelli said.

He said the weather has not been ideal for elk hunting thus far and many of the elk have moved to private land, making it difficult to impossible for hunters to gain access.

Statistical data on the overall hunting season will not be available till May of next year after a phone survey is conducted. The survey tries to reach 75 percent of the hunters and those calls go out between December and February.

“That’s what we really base our harvest numbers and our trend numbers on for the next year and future years,” Sterling said.