Big game harvest trends ahead of last season
The Chronic Wasting Diease (CWD) sampling station at Clearwater Crossing in the Blackfoot Valley is open Sat, Sun and Mon from 10 a.m.-dark during the hunting season. The region also has other sampling locations. Sampling is voluntary, but hunter samples help FWP manage the disease.
MISSOULA – After the first two weekends of big game season, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hunter check stations near Anaconda, Bonner and Darby in west-central Montana are collectively reporting elk and deer harvest totals and hunter numbers slightly ahead of last year.
Collectively, west-central Montana’s three wildlife check stations saw 4,008 hunter stops during the first two weekends of the season, compared to 3,530 during the same period last year. Those hunters checked 154 elk, compared to 134 last year. They also reported 45 mule deer, compared to 31 in 2023 and 134 white-tailed deer, compared to 113.
Weather shifted towards the end of the first week of the season, moving from an extra warm opening weekend to colder temperatures and snow accumulations in some areas. FWP uses data from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Snotel Sites to track high elevation snow depth trends during hunting season. On opening weekend those sites had one inch of snow or less, but by the close of the second weekend of the season, all sites reported more snow, with the most accumulation in the Upper Clark Fork Valley. Snow totals were similar to 2023, except in the Blackfoot Valley, which is trailing behind last year.
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