Fifth Weekend Busiest at Columbus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    DATE   November 20, 2007

Contact:   Carillon Steorts – Information Desk – 247-2940

COLUMBUS SEES THE BUSIEST WEEKEND AS THE BIG GAME SEASON HEADS INTO THE FINAL WEEK

Despite rain on Saturday, the   5 th weekend of the season was one of the busiest 5 th weekends ever experienced at the Columbus check station, and hunter numbers are up 41% over last year. "We checked 287 big game hunters this weekend," said biologist Shawn Stewart. "So far this season, hunter numbers are the highest we have seen since 2004."

The news is not as good at the other check stations. Hunter numbers were down at Big Timber from last season, about 18% below the same weekend last year. And at Lavina, cumulative hunter numbers were the lowest they’ve been during the 14-year period 1993-2007.

Harvest statistics continue to be all over the place with high numbers of both adult mule deer and whitetail bucks over 2.5 years old still claiming the biggest tallies at Big Timber and Columbus. At Columbus, the harvest of adult whitetail bucks (the oldest being a 6 year old) continues to occur at a record pace, comprising 81% of the harvest, and causing Stewart to comment: "This is truly the year of the whitetail in the southern portion of Region 5."

Lavina saw their mule deer harvest down 20.3%, and whitetail 12.1%, with whitetail buck harvest 26.4% below average. "Even though mule deer buck harvest really rebounded the last two weekends, it was still 18.7% below the long-term average," biologist Jay Newell reported. The total elk harvest so far is 25.3% below the 14-year long-term average.

Big Timber boasted the highest harvest success rate (73%) for that check station so far this season and the highest rate observed during week five since 2003. "With the rut in full swing, most hunters seemed to be targeting mule deer bucks," said Justin Paugh, Big Timber biologist. Most of the buck harvest was, once again, older deer, with 98% of the mule deer bucks and 76% of the whitetail bucks 2.5 years old or older.

One bighorn ram was killed by an archery hunter in the Pryor Mountains with a 15 yard shot on the ram after more than 20 days of hunting.

Big Timber reported numerous game violations and many complaints about ATV’s in areas where they were not supposed to be.

Harvest statistics for the week ending November 18, 2007 are attached.

Harvest Statistics for Week 5
Check Station Summary Week 5.doc