After three weeks of Montana’s rifle big game season, deer and elk harvest are beginning to pick up in west-central Montana. The number of deer and elk passing through the three Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Region 2 check stations during the week helped bring harvest totals for elk and mule deer to about 10 percent below the five-year average—up from 20 percent below average after week two. White-tailed harvest is well behind last season’s week three totals, but the 2006 season was a strong year for whitetails in west-central Montana with harvest totals at 57 percent above the five-year average. This year’s harvest, 34 percent shy of last year, is only eight percent below the five-year average. Through Nov. 11, the three west-central Montana check stations reported 16,462 hunters that checked 474 elk, 322 mule deer, 583 white-tailed deer, two moose, 10 bighorn sheep and one mountain goat for 8.4 percent of hunters with game. Last year at this time, 16,755 hunters had checked 526 elk, 339 mule deer and 888 whitetails for 10.6 percent of hunters with game. Elk harvest remains the farthest below average in the Bitterroot where the Darby station has checked 293 elk this year, 13 percent behind last year and the 14 percent below the five-year average. Warm, dry weather conditions predominated the first three weeks of the season, but most of the region saw colder temperatures and more moisture towards the end of week three. During the last few days of the week, snow began to accumulate at the high elevation SNOTEL weather information sites around the region. -fwp-
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