General Hunting Season Hits Half-Way Point with Mixed Hunter Participation and Success

Montana’s general hunting season reached the half-way point this week, with seasonably mild weather and mixed participation and success among hunters.

Wildlife biologists with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks use check stations to collect data on hunter participation and success, as well as the species, sex and age class of the animals harvested. This supplements data collected through hunter harvest phone surveys each year.

Over the third weekend of the general season, Nov. 9 and 10, FWP biologists operated five check stations in southwestern Montana. This includes Alder, Cameron, Divide, Hwy. 324 and Toston. Collectively, they met with 1,109 hunters, who harvested five white-tailed deer, 55 mule deer and 61 elk.

The Alder check station saw 206 hunters over the weekend, about 12 percent below average. However, about 19 percent of them had harvested at least one game animal, compared to an average success rate of 14 percent.

The Cameron check station saw 437 hunters over the weekend, compared to an average of 346, with a near-average hunter success rate of about 9 percent. Thirteen mule deer were checked, more than twice the average. This comes after the check station saw a record number of hunters over the previous weekend, Nov. 2 and 3, with 504 hunters and a below-average success rate of 6.5 percent.

At Divide, biologists met with 171 hunters, compared to an average of 210. The weekend’s success rate was more than 13 percent, compared with an average success rate of 7 percent. The previous weekend brought 228 hunters through the Divide check station, about 10 percent above average, with a hunter success rate of nearly 11 percent, compared with an average of about 8 percent.

An FWP biologist also operated a check station near Toston on Nov. 9, meeting with 73 hunters, more than 8 percent of whom had harvested a game animal. FWP staff also operated a station over the weekend along Hwy. 324 near Grant, where they met with 222 hunters, 6 percent of whom were successful. Long-term averages haven’t been established at these locations.

CWD sampling: FWP staff are interested in collecting samples from hunter-harvested animals in all districts for chronic wasting disease testing.

CWD is a contagious neurological disease that infects mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and moose. It’s always fatal, and there is no known cure. It was first detected in Montana’s wild herds in 2017.

This fall, CWD was detected in two white-tailed deer found along the Gallatin River near Bozeman. These detections came from an area where CWD is known to exist, but samples are limited. Because of this, FWP staff are asking hunters who harvest a white-tailed deer within two miles of the Gallatin River in the Gallatin Valley to consider getting it tested for CWD. This will help wildlife managers better understand the prevalence of the disease in this area.

Hunters play a critical role in monitoring for CWD, and testing is free. Online resources are available to help hunters collect CWD samples themselves or get assistance from FWP staff at a sampling station.